The sheet itself is in Arabic and runs right-to-left; this page explains every column in English.
Plenty of companies in Syria still prepare payroll in Excel, and that makes sense: everyone knows it, it is flexible and there is nothing to sign up for. We built a clean template that is enough for a small company, and here we explain how to use it and where it falls short.
1. What is in the template
The “كشف الرواتب” (payroll sheet) tab shows monthly amounts in new Syrian pounds, in these columns:
- Employee and department.
- Basic salary, allowances and overtime: you enter them, and together they make taxable gross pay. The template treats fixed allowances (transport, food, housing, phone) as taxable and as part of the insured wage, because no exemption for them is confirmed.
- Reimbursement of actual expenses against receipts: neither taxed nor insured, so it is only added to net pay and to the cost.
- Insured wage: basic salary plus allowances, kept between the floor of 12,560 and the ceiling of 211,400. If the wage registered with social insurance is different, type it in the manual override column.
- Employee social insurance: 7% of the insured wage.
- Salary tax: 15% of the amount above the 12,560 exempt threshold, after deducting the employee’s insurance, by formula.
- Advances and other deductions: you enter them.
- Net pay: taxable gross minus insurance, tax and deductions, plus any expense reimbursement.
- Employer social insurance (17.1%) and total employer cost.
- A totals row at the bottom.
Every rate and limit sits on the “الإعدادات” (settings) tab, each in its own editable cell with its legal source, so if the law changes you update one cell and the whole sheet recalculates. The template follows the same rules as the net salary calculator: a gross of 20,000 gives a net of 17,694 in both.
There are three rows for made-up employees with illustrative amounts. Delete them and add your own staff.
2. How to use it
- Write the month at the top of the sheet.
- For each employee, enter their name, department, basic salary, allowances and this month’s overtime, plus any actual expenses reimbursed against receipts.
- Check the insured wage. The template assumes it is basic salary plus allowances. If someone’s wage registered with social insurance is different, type it in the manual insured wage column.
- Review the tax. The template works it out under Legislative Decree No. 30 of 2023: because the exempt threshold (12,560) is above every bracket limit, everything above it, after the employee’s insurance, is taxed at 15%. See the salary tax guide.
- Enter advances and deductions, then review net pay and the totals.
For the employee share and the employer share (17.1%), see the social insurance guide.
3. Its limits, honestly
- Fully manual: every number is typed by hand each month, from overtime to advances.
- Error-prone: copying a row or typing over a formula is enough to break net pay, and nothing warns you.
- Knows nothing about attendance: you work out lateness, absence and overtime from the fingerprint report and carry them over by hand.
- Does not update itself: if the rates or limits change, you have to change them on the settings tab yourself.
- No payslips: every employee has to ask how their pay was worked out.
When you need more than a spreadsheet
That is where Diwan comes in. Sign your company up for free and bring your staff in at once from an Excel file (Diwan has its own import template, separate from this payroll sheet). From then on:
- Lateness, absence and overtime flow from attendance into payroll automatically.
- Insurance and tax are calculated from the law in force, and the Diwan team updates the rules when the law changes.
- Advances are deducted in instalments from pay each month, automatically.
- Employees see their payslip on their phone, in Arabic and English.
The free plan (up to 8 employees) gives you a payroll preview. Closing the run and payslips come with the full 30-day trial and the paid plans. Our advice: run the first month in this template and in Diwan side by side, and compare employee by employee before you close your first payroll.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Amounts in the template are illustrative. For your company’s specific case, check with your accountant or the competent official body.