Hire an Accountant in Dubai

A junior accountant in Dubai earns roughly AED 5,000 to 8,000 a month; a senior with VAT and corporate tax experience lands between AED 10,000 and 15,000. On top of salary, budget roughly AED 5,000 to 7,000 every two years for government fees, medical, Emirates ID and PRO/typing (premium processing and agency markups can push it higher), and gratuity that accrues at 21 days of basic pay per year for the first five years and 30 days a year after that. Add recruitment fees, typically around one month's salary, and a single hire often costs 1.3 to 1.5 times the advertised salary. Our outsourced accounting packages start below a junior accountant's salary and fold books, VAT and payroll journals into one fixed monthly fee.

The day job is less glamorous than the title: posting invoices and bills, reconciling bank and card accounts, chasing missing receipts, and keeping the chart of accounts tidy. Then come the UAE-specific duties: computing 5% VAT workings, filing returns under your TRN, posting monthly payroll journals, accruing gratuity under the 21/30-day rule, and keeping corporate tax workings ready for the FTA. A good accountant also flags problems early: a client who keeps paying late, a margin that is slipping, or a VAT quarter that looks wrong before it is filed.

It comes down to volume and variety. If you process hundreds of transactions a day, run complex inventory, or need someone physically at the desk, a full-time hire can make sense. For most SMEs, outsourcing wins on three counts: cost (no salary, visa, insurance or gratuity), continuity (no gap when someone resigns or takes leave), and range (you get VAT, payroll and management reporting from one team instead of one person's skill set). You can also start outsourced and hire later when the volume justifies it.

The salary is the headline; the fine print adds up. The two-year work visa runs roughly AED 5,000 to 7,000 for government fees, medical, Emirates ID and PRO/typing (premium processing and agency markups can push it higher). Medical insurance is mandatory and renews every year. Gratuity accrues silently and lands as a lump sum when someone exits. Then there is the cost nobody budgets: the weeks you spend interviewing, the 1 to 3 months before a new hire is fully productive, and the reset if they leave within a year and you start over. An outsourced arrangement replaces all of that with one predictable monthly invoice.

Yes, and that is where most of our clients get the biggest value. We compute VAT workings at 5%, track input and output VAT, and file returns under your TRN on the FTA portal. For corporate tax, we keep the workings and supporting documents the FTA expects, aligned to your accounting periods. Everything ties back to monthly reconciled books, which is why our bookkeeping sits at the centre: clean books mean filings that reconcile on the first try instead of painful corrections later.

Most clients are live within two weeks. We start with a free review of your current books (or build them from your bank statements if there are none), set up your chart of accounts in your accounting software, and agree on a monthly rhythm for invoices, receipts and payroll data. VAT and payroll calendars are set up from the first month, and your Founder Finance Brief arrives with the first month-end close, so you see profit, cash and receivables in plain English from day one.