Odoo Community has no Payroll app, so salaries often live in spreadsheets. Here is what you can run on Odoo 19 Community with SBS HR Payroll, how UAE gratuity fits in, and when Odoo Enterprise Payroll is the better route.
Key takeaways
Odoo Community payroll is a common question from HR and finance teams, and the short answer is that Odoo Community ships without a Payroll app. Odoo's own editions comparison lists Payroll as an Enterprise app, alongside Accounting, Documents and Approvals. So salaries end up in a spreadsheet, and someone retypes the totals into a journal entry every month.
That works until a formula breaks, or an auditor asks how a figure was reached. This guide explains what Community already gives HR teams and what our free SBS HR Payroll module adds on Odoo 19.
Community includes the Employees, Time Off and Recruitment apps, so the people side of HR is covered: employee records, departments, leave requests and allocations. What is missing is the money side: salary rules, payslips and the accounting entries that put payroll into the ledger.
Odoo Enterprise fills that gap with its Payroll app, which carries country localizations, including one for the United Arab Emirates. On Community, a module has to do the job, and SBS HR Payroll is the one we built for it.
SBS HR Payroll puts the calculation inside Odoo. Salary rules hold the arithmetic, salary structures group the rules that apply to a person, and a payslip runs them in order to produce the basic, the allowances, the gross and the net.
Access comes in three groups. SBS Payroll User works with payslips for their own and their subordinates' employee records. SBS Payroll Manager can also override and reset computed amounts, and SBS Payroll Administrator maintains the rules, structures, categories and contribution registers.
Every payroll has the month where a figure must change by hand. In a spreadsheet the calculation is simply overwritten. SBS HR Payroll keeps the rule's own figure in a Computed Amount column beside the value you typed, flags the line as Manual and shows it in bold.
For example, if the basic salary rule computes 6,000 and a manager enters 6,500, the payslip shows both figures, and Gross and Net recalculate from the manual one: 8,300 instead of 7,800. Pressing Compute Sheet again keeps the override, and Reset to Computed Amounts discards every override after a confirmation.
Only an SBS Payroll Manager can override, and the restriction is enforced on the server, not just hidden on screen. Once a payslip is confirmed, canceling it posts a reversing entry and keeps the original. Reopening or deleting an accounted payslip is refused, so the fix is a new, corrected payslip and the history stays intact.
Tip: Each salary rule needs both a debit and a credit account, or neither, and confirmation is refused if a rule has only one. A common arrangement is to leave the earning rules informational and let the Net rule carry the posting.
SBS HR Payroll is a general payroll engine rather than a UAE localization, so the UAE-specific parts are rules you configure. Two matter most: the end-of-service gratuity and the Wage Protection System (WPS).
The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) summarizes the federal rules in its guidance for workers. A full-time foreign worker who completes at least a year of continuous service earns a gratuity on the last basic wage: 21 days' wage for each of the first five years and 30 days' wage for each year after that, capped at two years' wage in total. UAE nationals receive end-of-service benefits under the pensions and social security legislation instead. Our article on how payroll software should handle UAE gratuity covers the calculation in more depth.
The gratuity is paid at exit, but it accrues every month, so finance teams usually book a monthly provision. In SBS HR Payroll you can set that up as a salary rule in its own category, with a Python amount and two accounts: debit an end-of-service expense account and credit an end-of-service provision liability. Make sure the Net rule does not include that category, so the provision never reduces the employee's pay, and give the rule a condition that leaves out UAE nationals. Staff in the voluntary Savings Scheme also need different treatment, as our gratuity article explains.
Here is the arithmetic for an employee on a basic salary of AED 6,000 a month:
| Length of service | Daily basic wage | Gratuity days a year | Monthly provision |
|---|---|---|---|
| First five years | 6,000 / 30 = 200 | 21 | 200 × 21 / 12 = 350 |
| After five years | 200 | 30 | 200 × 30 / 12 = 500 |
This is the same formula Odoo documents for the end-of-service provision in its UAE payroll localization. Set the rule up so the rate moves from 21 to 30 days once an employee passes five years, and test it on an employee in each band. The provision is an estimate. At exit, calculate the actual entitlement on the final basic wage and service, including parts of a year and excluding unpaid absence, and agree the provision balance to it. This article is general guidance, not tax or legal advice; check the latest MoHRE guidance or a qualified adviser for your own cases.
UAE labor legislation requires private-sector establishments to pay wages monthly through WPS, an electronic system that transfers wages through approved banks, financial institutions and exchange houses, as MoHRE's WPS guidance explains. SBS HR Payroll computes, posts and documents payroll, but a WPS salary file is not among its features, so plan how that file will be produced and checked outside Odoo.
For UAE payroll, Odoo Enterprise Payroll with the UAE localization is the more complete route, and it is the one we implement for clients on Enterprise. Odoo's UAE payroll documentation describes ready-made rules for end of service and its monthly provision, annual leave provisions, sick leave, unpaid leave and social insurance contributions for UAE nationals, plus a WPS salary information file (.sif) export.
| Area | SBS HR Payroll on Community | Odoo Enterprise Payroll |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free module | Part of the Enterprise subscription |
| UAE rules | Salary rules you configure | UAE localization with ready-made rules |
| Gratuity provision | A rule you define and test | Built-in end-of-service provision |
| WPS salary file | Not included | Export in .sif format |
| Journal entries | Posted when a payslip is confirmed | Generated from payslips and batches |
| Hosting | Your own server or a private cloud | Odoo Online, Odoo.sh or on-premise |
Choose Enterprise Payroll when you pay many employees through WPS and want the salary file from Odoo, when you employ UAE nationals with social insurance contributions, or when you want Odoo to maintain the localization as the rules change. SBS HR Payroll suits a Community database with straightforward salary structures, where your team is comfortable owning the rules.
The two cannot run together: SBS HR Payroll excludes hr_payroll, so neither can be installed alongside the other. Moving from one to the other later is a planned project, not a switch.
Payroll is only as good as the employee data behind it. SBS Employee Master Extension adds an Extras tab to the employee form with personal and family details, nationality and identity document numbers, present and permanent addresses, emergency contact and nominee, bank details with a separate bank nominee, references, qualifications and employment history.
It separates access into three tiers. Own Data Only gives staff a read-only My Profile view of what is held about them, HR User sees the extended details generally, and only Sensitive HR Manager sees bank and nominee information. This is personal data, so grant the top tier sparingly and keep a note of who holds it.
Our OdooStar team implements both routes. On Enterprise, we configure Payroll with the UAE localization, map the salary rules to your chart of accounts and test the WPS output on your own data, as part of an Odoo Enterprise implementation. On Community, we install SBS HR Payroll, build your salary structures and provisions, and run the parallel month with you.
Weighing up the other gaps in Community? Our tour of free Odoo 19 Community modules covers the rest. Or tell us about your payroll, including how many people you pay and how, call +971 55 973 4524 or message us on WhatsApp for a straight recommendation.
Star Bit Solutions is a software company in Ajman, UAE, founded in 2014. We implement and customize Odoo Enterprise and Odoo Community, and build StarBiz (AI-driven ERP), StarHub (life super app), StarBot (conversational AI), StarLearn (adaptive learning) and StarSense (AI and IoT platform). About us
Free payroll for Odoo 19 Community, posted to the ledger, with overrides you can audit.
Learn MoreIdentity, family, nominee and bank details on the employee record, behind three access tiers.
Learn MorePayroll with the UAE localization, Accounting and the other Enterprise apps, configured for your teams.
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No. Odoo's editions comparison lists Payroll as an Enterprise app, so Odoo 19 Community has no payroll out of the box, although the Employees, Time Off and Recruitment apps are included. SBS HR Payroll, our free module, adds salary rules, structures, payslips and batches to Community, and posts journal entries to accounting when payslips are confirmed.
No. SBS HR Payroll declares that it excludes hr_payroll, so it cannot be installed alongside the Enterprise Payroll app, and Enterprise Payroll cannot be installed alongside it. That is deliberate. On Enterprise we implement the standard Payroll app with the UAE localization, and the module exists to give Community users a payroll app.
With SBS HR Payroll installed, create a salary rule in its own category that works out the monthly provision, for example the basic wage divided by 30, times 21, divided by 12 for the first five years of service. Give it a debit gratuity expense account and a credit provision account, keep it out of the Net rule so it never reduces pay, and use the rule's condition to leave out UAE nationals.
A WPS salary file is not among its features. It computes payslips, posts the journal entries and prints payslips and contribution register reports. Odoo Enterprise Payroll with the UAE localization includes a WPS export in the .sif salary information file format, which is one reason to choose Enterprise if you pay many employees through WPS.
It is built for Odoo 19 Community Edition and listed for Odoo.sh and on-premise installations, not Odoo Online. Odoo.sh hosts Enterprise databases, so a Community payroll normally runs on your own server or a private cloud. It depends on the Invoicing, Time Off, Discuss, Calendar and Employees apps, and needs a chart of accounts and at least one general journal before payslips are confirmed.
Tell us how many people you pay and how. We will recommend Enterprise Payroll or SBS HR Payroll, build the rules and run a parallel month with you.