ERP for startup. Books, payroll and compliance from day one, without hiring a back office.
A startup does not need a back office; it needs the books, payroll and filings to run without a founder awake at midnight. From December 2026, Kinnow has no ready-made startup setup, so we set up the right applications and controls with you in the first two weeks.
From December 2026How does Kinnow help a startup in the UAE or Saudi Arabia? You start with the finance core and add what you need: invoices, bills and expenses, bank reconciliation, payroll, VAT return groundwork, and statements an investor or auditor can read. There is no ready-made startup setup (industry pack) in the product, so approval limits, sign-off routes and reports are set up with you rather than switched on from a template. Nothing is filed, paid or posted without a person. The edition opens from December 2026, so nothing here is running in the region today.
Your company, in one paragraph.
There are a handful of people and no finance team, in a Dubai free-zone office (a business area with its own licensing rules), an Abu Dhabi mainland licence or a Riyadh co-working floor. The founder raises invoices, matches the bank statement on a weekend, chases a customer who has not paid and asks the accountant what is due this quarter. Salaries go out from a spreadsheet and a bank file, and every investor update means stitching a profit and loss from three tools. Buying an ERP feels premature, so the books live in something you will outgrow in a year.
Three things keep the founder awake: a filing date nobody owns, cash that looks fine until payroll week, and a first audit or due diligence that finds the books were never closed properly.
What is configured with you, and what is not a template
We say this plainly because the other industry pages describe a ready-made setup and this one has none.
| Area | What we set up with you | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Applications | Which of the 49 you switch on, per company: typically Masters, Sell, Buy (bills and expenses), Account, People, Comply, Know and Vault | Applications are switched on per company |
| Country set-up | Tax registration number on invoices, VAT rates and registers for the UAE (5 per cent) or Saudi Arabia (15 per cent), AED or SAR as the books currency | The UAE and Saudi country setups and tax rules |
| Starter data | A General item group and six payment terms (advance, due on receipt, 7, 15, 30 and 45 days) come with every company | Common starter data |
| Approval limits | Who approves a journal, an invoice, a purchase order or a payroll run, and from what amount. The country setup gives starting points; you decide the figures | Limit templates and the approvals designer |
| Industry setup | If you build software, the Tech Product Development setup fits; services firms can start from IT Services or Professional Services. Otherwise none is applied | 15 industry setups exist; none is called Startup |
| Opening position | Masters and opening balances imported in the first week; you can run alongside your current books until a month ties | Moving your data across, with a trial balance that must agree |
Tell us your stage, emirate or city, and team size; we will propose the first three applications to switch on.
How your month runs on Kinnow
This is set up with you, not switched on from a template: you choose which steps you need.
| Step | Who | What Kinnow does | Where a person approves |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Invoice and collect | Founder | Invoices carry your tax registration number and VAT at the country rate. Overdue reminders are drafted by days overdue. The customer sees and can dispute an invoice in the customer portal. | Invoices over the limit you set wait for approval. |
| 2. Capture bills and expenses | Founder, ops | The AI Invoice Extractor reads a vendor PDF into bill fields with an amount-integrity check. Expense claims are approved by someone other than the claimant. | The approver signs; the claimant cannot. |
| 3. Reconcile the bank | Founder | Bank Reconciler pre-matches statement lines to receipts and shows its reasons. A line it cannot match gets a drafted journal from your own history, which waits in the approval queue. | An accountant or the founder approves the draft. |
| 4. Run payroll | Founder, HR | UAE: the run is calculated, with end-of-service gratuity (the payout owed when staff leave) accrued for expatriate staff and pension contributions for UAE and GCC nationals, and the WPS salary file (the wage-protection file) is generated for your bank. Saudi Arabia: payroll is not in the first release. | The run is approved by someone other than the person who prepared it. |
| 5. Watch the filings | Founder, accountant | The compliance calendar sweeps deadlines and alerts 15, 7 and 1 day before each. The groundwork for a VAT return draft and export is completed before launch. | A person reviews and submits. |
| 6. Close the month | Founder, accountant | Double-entry validation checks every journal. The close runs twelve checks and seven must pass; the Close Checklist pre-fills the list and drafts variance notes. | A person confirms the close. |
| 7. Read the numbers | Founder, investors | Trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and cash-flow statement come straight from the books. A weekly digest summarises revenue, collections and alerts. | The founder reviews before anything is shared. |
| 8. Face the audit | Founder, auditor | An audit pack gathers the period status, debtor and creditor confirmation lists, the fixed-asset schedule and bank accounts with their reconciled-to date. | The accountant reviews and signs off. |
A quarter of VAT, sample view
Each quarter the sales and purchase books roll into one VAT position. Illustration · sample data
| Line | UAE company (AED, 5%) | Saudi company (SAR, 15%) |
|---|---|---|
| Sales for the quarter, before VAT | 184,000 | 120,000 |
| Output VAT | 9,200 | 18,000 |
| Purchases with recoverable VAT | 62,000 | 40,000 |
| Input VAT | 3,100 | 6,000 |
| Net VAT payable | 6,100 | 12,000 |
Examples only. Your team or accountant prepares the return and submits it.
Agents a startup would start with
Bank Reconciler
Matches bank lines to receipts ahead of time and shows why it matched each one. Lines it is unsure about come up as suggestions only and are never committed on their own.
AccountClose Checklist
Runs the twelve period-close checks, helps clear the ones holding up the close and drafts the commentary on variances. A person confirms the close.
Account / KnowCash-flow Forecaster
Builds a rolling cash forecast for the next 30, 60 and 90 days from post-dated cheques, bills due and how customers have paid in the past, with a range around each figure to show how sure it is.
Sell + AccountCollections
Drafts overdue reminders and steps them up according to how many days a payment is actually late. A person approves each reminder before it goes out.
ComplyFiling Prep
Builds the sales-tax return file from your books and lists every document it left out, with the reason, for a person to clear before filing.
AccountAI Invoice Extractor
Reads the text of a supplier invoice and fills in the bill for you, checking that the amounts add up before anything is saved.
AccountDouble-entry Validator
Stops any journal entry that does not balance, or that uses a ledger that is not valid, before it can be posted.
VaultAsk Kinnow
Answers questions from your documents and from the records of the applications you use, and only shows what the person asking is allowed to see.
Every agent is validated with each client before it works on their books, and every output waits for a person.
Ask us to run the bank reconciler on one of your own statements.
What the edition prepares for a startup
Alerts go out 15, 7 and 1 day before each deadline Kinnow knows about. Kinnow keeps the dates and sends the alerts; your team reviews and submits it on the authority's portal or through your bank. Dates change by notification, so your accountant checks the notified date.
| Obligation | When it falls | What Kinnow prepares |
|---|---|---|
| UAE VAT registration | Mandatory above AED 375,000 of taxable supplies, voluntary from AED 187,500, as set in the UAE country setup | The tax registration number on invoices and a flag for parties with no number on file. Registration itself is done by you or your adviser. |
| UAE VAT return (VAT-201) | Quarterly; the industry setup uses 28 days after each calendar quarter | Sales and purchase books split by emirate into a VAT-201-shaped file you download and submit. No live filing. |
| UAE salary file (WPS) | Each pay month | The salary information file for your bank, from an approved payroll run. Your bank confirms the format before first use. |
| End-of-service gratuity and pension | Each pay month and at exit | Gratuity accrual for expatriate staff and pension contributions for UAE and GCC nationals. There is no income tax on salary in the UAE, so the run has no deduction for it. |
| Saudi VAT return | Monthly or quarterly, by taxable turnover | Groundwork for return figures prepared from the books for review, completed before launch. Kinnow does not submit; the row layout is checked with your tax adviser before the first filing. |
What the founder sees
| Ask Kinnow | Answer built from |
|---|---|
| Give me the trial balance as of today | Trial balance |
| How did we do this year? | Profit and loss |
| What is our cash forecast for the next 90 days? | Cash-flow forecast |
| Which customers owe us the most and for how long? | Receivables ageing |
| What is my net VAT position this quarter? | VAT sales and purchase registers |
| Which supplier invoices are missing a TRN? | VAT purchase register |
| What is due this week? | Compliance calendar |
Each answer shows its source and cost before it runs. Veil, our privacy layer, holds back bank, tax and ID numbers and swaps names for placeholders before an AI call. It covers Ask Kinnow and most agents today; the rest are being added.
See your own first month-end close on Kinnow.
Questions
Is Kinnow overkill for a ten-person startup?
No, if you start small. There is no licence fee for the ERP or any application, and nothing per user. Every business gets one fixed price, set with a Kinnow partner, and you switch on only the applications you need.
Is there a ready-made startup setup?
No. Fifteen ready-made industry setups (we call them industry packs) exist and none is for startups. A software company can use Tech Product Development, a services startup can start from IT Services or Professional Services, and we configure the rest with you. The UAE and Saudi country setups add VAT registers, approval starting points and starter questions for Ask Kinnow.
Is the edition available now?
No. The UAE and Saudi Arabia edition starts from December 2026. UAE VAT returns and WPS salary files come first. For Saudi Arabia, VAT comes first; ZATCA e-invoicing is planned after launch and Saudi payroll is not part of the first release.
Can I start with accounting and add the rest later?
Yes. Applications switch on per company when you need them. Sales, bills, payroll and compliance share one ledger from the first day, so nothing is migrated twice.
Will it handle our first audit?
It prepares for one. Journals are validated as balanced, the close runs checks before a period locks, and the audit pack gathers confirmation lists, the fixed-asset schedule and bank reconciliation status. Your auditor still decides what they need.
Who files our VAT return?
Your team or your accountant. The groundwork to prepare a VAT-201-shaped file from the books for the UAE, and the return figures for Saudi Arabia, is completed before launch. Someone reviews and submits on the authority's portal. Kinnow does not file.
How long does set-up take?
About two weeks to first results for one company: masters and opening balances in the first week, agents switched on and a first close in the second.
Show me Kinnow for startup.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.