Accounting Saudization 50%: What Finance Teams Do Now

Accounting Saudization is about to tighten. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD) began raising the share of Saudis in private-sector accounting roles on 27 October 2025, and law-firm briefings say the next step, to 50%, starts on 27 October 2026. This guide is written for owners and finance managers in Dammam, Khobar, Riyadh and Jeddah who want to know whether the rule applies to them, what is still unclear, and what to check in the next two weeks. It is a business briefing, not legal advice.

Accounting Saudization: what HRSD has confirmed

In an announcement dated 6 November 2025, HRSD said it had started the first phase of raising the localization rate for accounting professions in the private sector to 40%, in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce. The first phase applies to establishments employing five or more accountants in accounting positions and took effect on 27 October 2025. The decision is numbered 103108 and was issued on 26 January 2025.

HRSD says the rate rises in five phases over five years and reaches 70% once fully implemented. It also sets minimum wages for the profession: SAR 6,000 for a bachelor’s degree holder or equivalent and SAR 4,500 for a diploma holder or equivalent. The Ministry of Commerce oversees implementation, and HRSD urges establishments to comply to avoid the statutory penalties.

The 27 October 2026 step to 50%

HRSD’s public pages describe the first phase and the 70% end point. The date and rate of the second phase come from secondary sources. DLA Piper, in a briefing dated 27 August 2026, lists a 50% accounting requirement from 27 October 2026. Noqta, a technology and business news site, reports the same step and says it draws on HRSD’s procedural guide. We could not open that guide, so confirm the schedule against it before you act.

The same DLA Piper briefing lists other upcoming changes: 100% Saudization of administrative support roles from 4 October 2026 and 70% for project management roles from 14 February 2027 in establishments with three or more such workers. If your company has those roles, check them too.

Who is covered, and who counts

The rule is not limited to finance directors. DLA Piper notes that the programme covers 44 accounting and finance professions, including clerical and support roles inside accounting functions, so employers should not assume it applies only to senior positions. HRSD’s examples include financial manager, certified public accountant and financial controller.

Several details come only from Noqta’s summary of the guide, so treat them as points to verify:

• The rate is measured across the whole entity, not branch by branch.
• A Saudi employee counts only if the job title is a listed occupation, the wage meets the minimum, and the person holds an active professional accreditation from SOCPA, the Saudi accountants’ body.
• Your Nitaqat colour band does not exempt you, and giving a covered person’s duties a different job title is treated as a breach.
• Licensed accounting offices are excluded and follow the profession’s own regulations.

Where AI fits, and where it does not

Software cannot make a Saudization rate go away. The rule counts people in covered roles, and a tool that drafts entries or reads invoices does not change the count. What AI can do is change the work your team spends its hours on. Document processing can read supplier invoices and bank statements and prepare entries for review, so accountants spend more time on checking, reconciliations and reporting. Our post on AI invoice processing and ZATCA e-invoicing shows what that looks like in practice.

A simple dashboard also helps with compliance. If your payroll and contract data sit in different files, a live report can show covered roles, Saudi share, wage level and accreditation status in one place, so a gap is visible before 27 October and not after.

A six-step accounting Saudization check for this week

• List every employee whose duties fall in accounting, including clerks and assistants, whatever their job title says.
• Count them for the whole company, across all branches, to see whether you have five or more.
• Mark which Saudi employees meet the wage minimum and, per the guide, hold an active SOCPA accreditation.
• Calculate the new target at 50% and round as the guide directs. Do not rely on a spreadsheet that mixes covered and uncovered staff.
• If you are short, start hiring or accreditation now. HRSD says establishments get priority access to its localization support programmes, including Hadaf programmes.
• Write down the plan for the 60% and 70% steps, so each new hire or promotion fits the next phase.

Where to start

Compliance comes first, and automation second. Once your headcount is settled, our document processing automation solution can take routine data entry off the team’s desks, and our AI Integration service connects it to the accounting system you already use. To talk through your own finance workflow, book a free discovery call with Scalor Systems at scalorsystems.com/contact.

Sources

1. Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Localization of 44 new accounting professions in the private sector (6 November 2025)
2. Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Procedural Guide to the Accounting Professions Localization Decision (page for Decision 103108)
3. DLA Piper: Saudi Arabia announces further Saudisation increases for key professions (27 August 2026)
4. DLA Piper: Saudisation of accounting and finance roles (1 July 2026)
5. Noqta: Saudi accounting Saudization, phase two at 50% (30 August 2026)