TUESDAY August 2, 2022
It took us good five years of thorough experiments, sheer hard working and considerable private funding to develop PayTan and AccTan,” Mr Erik Rowberg, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer with Habari Node.
By Adam Ihucha
Tranquility News Correspondent, Tanzania
Better days for East African corporates are in the offing, thanks to the rollout of two ambitious software products for offering solutions for payroll and human resource management.
PayTan and AccTan are streamlined software for processing salary and easing compliance with statutory remittances, among other key human resource and accounting functions.
Habari Node Plc, one of the Tanzania’s efficient internet providers and the brain behind both software, has invested about Tsh1 billion (about $434,700) in developing them.
PayTan and AccTan offer homegrown human resource management, payroll and accounting solutions that respond to SMEs as well as agricultural and manufacturing sectors’ needs.
Mr Erik Rowberg, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer with Habari Node, confirmed that the low-cost software were ready for public consumption.
“It took us good five years of thorough experiments, sheer hard working and considerable private funding to develop PayTan and AccTan,” Mr Rowberg said in an interview with TheTranquility News.
Habari Node conceived the idea of developing the home-grown software after having assessed needs of the East African region and the Tanzanian market, in particular, where many firms could not afford high cost of acquiring, maintaining and supporting software from developed economies.
An accounting package, for instance, requires changes in respective tax laws, which compel the user to pay massive fees to the developer abroad to adjust.
“We saw the importance for designing the low-cost software suitable for developing countries like Tanzania to address local needs and to contribute towards building robust economies by providing jobs,” Mr Rowberg explained.
As you read the piece, PayTan, the Habari Node Software Division’s flagship product, is already being adopted throughout Tanzania Mainland, Zanzibar and other East African countries, including Kenya and Uganda.
The Habari Node Plc Software Engineering Manager, Mr Lotaanywaki Mollel, said the payroll module assists in salary processing; taking account of taxes, social security funds, health insurance funds, additional incomes, loans, overtime, commissions and more.
“With a click of a button you can process complicated payroll runs and generate reports submitted into bulk bank payment services,” he said, explaining that the software supported major banks in the region.
PayTan helps a corporate to become compliant, as it generates statutory reports for submission to relevant authorities, including Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Skills Development Levy (SDL), Worker Compensation Fund (WCF) and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in Tanzania’s case.
It carries out automatic updates for changes in taxes for cloud clients; notification of employees’ contracts about to expire and it integrates with popular accounting packages such as QuickBooks, SunSystems, Tally and more.
“PayTan has multi-company and multi-currency support and is a single source of truth for various human resource department needs,” Mr Mollel explained.
It integrates with biometric devices to enable viewing of employee’s time and attendance, manages the process of leave approval and notifications, enabling an employee to apply for leave accordingly and reducing the human resource administration burden.
The software also monitors and evaluates employees’ performance, disciplinary actions and it updates bulk details of employees, including changes to their salary and national identification – NIDA.
An employee can view his payslips, payroll history and status of his social security and insurance contributions. He or she can also apply for a leave, a salary advance, and request for a sick sheet.
“A non-governmental organisation can use it for paying employees per project or donor, and an industry in agricultural or manufacturing sector can use it for pay run for casual workers based on worked units or employees per shift,” chipped in the Habari Node Plc General Manager, Ms Runyeta Kabaza.
While small to medium-sized businesses can afford prices of the PayTan software, the AccTan is an accounting and inventory system for enterprise companies, the firm’s Business Manager, Mr Kilusu Mattasia, added.
AccTan comprises features ranging from accounts payable to accounts receivable, fixed asset register, cash book, bank reconciliation, financial statements, inventory and budgeting.
The system is equipped with unlimited user accounts and has a multi-company and multi-currency support. It integrates mobile money network operators with credit notifications from the operators.
AccTan also integrates short text messages (SMS), as it can send SMSs to clients. And in the near future, AccTan will support credit notification from banks when payments are received from clientsΩ
