Wagelyft

Specific designs and product details cannot be shared due to NDA restrictions.

Overview

Wagelyft is a financial wellness platform based in Kenya that allows employees to access a portion of their earned wages before payday. While the employer side of the platform already included modules like Leave Management, Attendance, Interview Management, and Onboarding, a dedicated Payroll Module was missing.

The goal was to design a robust and compliant payroll experience tailored to Kenyan employers, supporting processes like payroll settings, payslips, statutory deductions, allowances, and final salary calculations.

The Problem

Payroll in Kenya is governed by complex and detailed tax laws. Employers are required to follow strict rules around statutory contributions like NSSF, NHIF, and PAYE, as well as various allowances, tax reliefs, and monthly reporting obligations.

The main challenge was to deeply understand this system and design a module that simplifies compliance without overwhelming users. Unlike many regions, Kenya has specific employer obligations tied to tiered pension contributions, housing levies, and insurance reliefs. These needed to be reflected in the product logic, settings, and UI flow.

Research & Insights 

To understand the landscape, I conducted one-on-one interviews with Kenyan HR professionals and finance teams. Alongside this, I explored official resources such as the Kenya Revenue Authority website, Finance Act 2023, and the iTax system to gain clarity on legal compliance. I also analyzed competitor platforms like Workpay and Wingubox to identify patterns, strengths, and usability gaps in existing payroll solutions.

Key Insights that Shaped the Product

Through this research, several key insights emerged. Employers required default system logic for statutory contributions like NSSF, PAYE, and NHIF, but also needed the flexibility to manually override values when necessary. There was significant confusion around PAYE tax brackets—especially when multiple reliefs such as personal, insurance, and housing were involved. Pre-tax versus post-tax deductions were often misunderstood, making this distinction a critical point of clarity in the design.

Another important finding was the wide variation in allowances and additional earnings, such as education benefits or commissions, which meant the platform had to support customizable configurations. Finally, many employers expressed the need for real-time payslip previews and summaries to ensure accuracy before finalizing payroll runs.

Interview Themes & Sample Questions 

To guide the research, I focused on open-ended and situational questions around statutory processes in payroll. I asked HR and finance professionals how they currently calculate NSSF deductions across Tier I and Tier II, and what reliefs they commonly apply when working with PAYE. I explored their confidence in identifying pre-tax versus post-tax deductions, and whether they rely on any external tools or documentation during payroll preparation. I also asked about the most error-prone steps in their process and which sections of the payslip tend to raise the most questions from employees.

These conversations revealed critical gaps between legal expectations and everyday workflows. They helped identify areas where the product needed to guide, clarify, and simplify the payroll experience.

Design Approach

Based on the research findings, I focused on designing a payroll system that could handle Kenya’s specific rules while staying simple for employers to use. The module allowed employers to manage default and custom allowances, define deductions, and apply reliefs where needed. NSSF contributions followed the required tier structure, while PAYE was calculated using official income brackets, incorporating personal, housing, and insurance reliefs automatically.

Payslip views were structured to clearly show gross salary, taxable income, deductions, and net pay. Each part of the payroll process from settings to running payroll was organized into clear steps, with supportive explanations built into the interface to guide users where confusion was most likely. Flexibility was added throughout, allowing employers to adjust calculations where needed without breaking compliance.

The Impact

The payroll module made it easier for employers to manage complex salary structures while staying compliant with Kenyan tax regulations. It reduced confusion around statutory deductions, automated key calculations like PAYE and NSSF, and allowed flexibility where needed. By simplifying the process and improving clarity, the module helped HR teams save time, avoid errors, and trust the system to do the heavy lifting accurately. 

Reflections 

This project highlighted the importance of understanding both the user and the legal environment they work within. Designing for payroll is not just about clean interfaces, but about clarity, accuracy, and trust. It reminded me how valuable deep research is when working with complex systems and how the right design choices can remove uncertainty from critical workflows.