Zoho People Consultant in Iraq

Federal Iraq and Kurdistan Region holiday calendars

Holiday planning in Iraq has an extra layer. The federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government each announce public holidays, some days are observed in one and not the other, and closures are sometimes declared close to the date for religious occasions, extreme heat or other reasons. A company with staff in Baghdad, Basra and Erbil cannot run on one calendar.

In Zoho People I set this up by location:

• A federal calendar for staff working in federal Iraq and a Kurdistan Region calendar for staff in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok and other locations in the region.
• Assignment by work location, not by entity, so someone seconded to another site follows the right holidays for that period.
• Provisional entries for lunar holidays, confirmed or moved once dates are announced.
• An HR owner per calendar who adds sudden closures and notifies managers through the system.

Rotational staff need a further rule: whether a holiday falling during time off is compensated, and how. That is a policy and contract question, so your HR advisor sets the rule and I configure it. I then test a full year of sample leave, rotation and holiday overlaps for each calendar before staff see their balances, because errors here surface as disputes at the end of a rotation, not on the day.

Dinar and dollar contracts in one HR record

Iraqi organizations commonly pay national staff in dinars and international or senior staff in dollars, and some contracts mix both, for example a dinar salary with dollar allowances. Exchange rate movements turn that into a recurring HR conversation rather than a one-time setup decision.

Pay calculation sits outside Zoho People, yet the agreed terms still need a clear home there:

• Each pay element as its own dated entry with a currency field, so the history shows what applied in any month
• The employing entity, which matters when a federal company and a Kurdistan Region company employ staff under separate registrations
• A reference to the signed contract or amendment, stored with restricted access
• A staff category field that drives which leave and document rules apply

Which rate converts a dollar element for local reporting, and how each element is treated for tax and social security, are questions for your accountant and advisors, and the answers may differ between federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. I record the decision they give and leave the conversion itself to payroll and finance. The accounting side of the same structure is covered on the Zoho Books in Iraq page, and the wider app choice on Zoho in Iraq.

Rotations, camps and attendance on weak connections

Oil and gas service companies, construction contractors and logistics operators in Iraq often run field crews on rotation, with staff on site for a block of weeks and then off for a matching or shorter period. Sites may be remote camps with limited connectivity, and international clients may want to see who was on site on a given day.

I design attendance for those conditions:

1. Rotation schedules with on-site days, travel days and time off defined as patterns, so balances and payroll inputs follow the rotation automatically.
2. Capture method by site: the mobile app where phones work, a camp administrator entering a daily roster where they do not, and office check-in for head office teams.
3. Offline routine: I check what the Zoho People mobile app records without a signal on your edition, and agree a fallback such as a signed daily roster uploaded once the camp reconnects.
4. Client timesheet link: where a client approves manpower hours, the approved roster is the source, and Zoho People keeps the employee view in step.

Connectivity interruptions can affect head offices too, so the month-end cut-off includes a buffer for late corrections. Overtime, rest periods and remote-site allowances are defined by law and contract, so your HR advisor confirms the rules before I build them.

Personnel files for NGOs, contractors and their funders

International NGOs, implementing partners and contractors serving international clients face personnel file requirements that go beyond Iraqi law. Donors, parent organizations or operators may ask for evidence of contracts, background checks, code of conduct or safeguarding acknowledgements, training records and the funding source of each position.

I build these into the employee record:

• A document checklist per staff category, with owners, due dates and expiry alerts for permits, residency documents of foreign staff and mandatory training
• Onboarding and offboarding sequences covering acknowledgements, equipment, system access and handover, tracked as tasks rather than emails
• A position funding field showing which grant or contract a role is charged to, maintained by finance and visible to HR
• Audit-ready exports of personnel file status for a donor or client review, without exposing unrelated personal data

Time charged to grants or contracts needs care. Zoho People timesheets can record hours, but allocating salary cost across grants belongs in finance or a grants system; Zoho Projects in Iraq covers time against project budgets. Native speakers on your team check Arabic or Kurdish versions of policies and acknowledgements, and I test how they display in self-service before launch.

Payroll, data protection and where Zoho People stops

Zoho Payroll is sold in only some countries. Before assuming it for Iraq, ask Zoho or the partner to confirm availability; until they do, pay calculation, social security contributions and end-of-service amounts stay with your payroll provider or the payroll system you already run, and Zoho People sends it a monthly package of joiners, leavers, rotation days, unpaid leave and allowances by currency.

On personal data, ask your legal advisor which Iraqi and Kurdistan Region rules apply; for many NGOs and contractors, the stricter standard comes from a donor, an international client or a foreign parent company. In the design, passport copies, medical records and pay terms are visible only to roles that need them, managers see a reduced profile, and we get written confirmation from Zoho of the account's hosting location for your advisor to review.

Zoho People may not be the right choice when:

• You need manpower supply billing, camp allocation and client timesheets in one system; a purpose-built tool or a Zoho Creator app may fit better.
• HR and payroll must sit in one local product with Iraqi outputs built in.
• Staff self-service must be Arabic-first or Kurdish-first and the screens fail that test.

I compare these options independently, without a commission. See the Iraq ERP consultant page and the Iraq hub for the rest of my remote work there.