Overview

Force HRM is Vapor Technologies' managed payroll and HR platform, built for the realities of running a Kenyan business. It is not a self-serve tool that hands an owner another dashboard to learn. It is a done-for-you service: the business sends through its people and their hours, and Force HRM runs the payroll, calculates every statutory deduction, and produces bank-ready payment files and compliant payslips every cycle.

Plans start at KES 5,500 per month, with onboarding in three business days and the first month free, positioning it as managed payroll and compliance that costs far less than a dedicated in-house payroll hire.

The Challenge

For most Kenyan SMEs, payroll is a recurring source of risk rather than a solved problem.

Shifting statutory rules. PAYE bands, NSSF tiers, the move from NHIF to SHIF, and the Housing Levy all changed the numbers businesses must withhold and remit. Spreadsheets built last year quietly go wrong this year.
Penalty exposure. Late or incorrect filing of statutory deductions carries fines and interest, so every manual error has a direct cash cost.
Manual, fragile process. Payroll often lives in one person's spreadsheet, with attendance, leave, advances, and loans tracked separately and reconciled by hand at month end.
No clean handoff. Owners stay personally in the loop on payroll because there is no system reliable enough to delegate it to.

What We Built

Managed Payroll Engine

A full payroll run for every active employee in a single cycle: gross to net calculation, allowances, overtime, payroll adjustments such as bonuses, fines, and advances, plus loan repayment schedules deducted automatically. Payroll can be recalculated when late adjustments arrive, so a single correction does not mean rebuilding the month by hand.

Statutory Compliance Automation

The engine computes PAYE, NSSF, SHIF, and the Housing Levy to current Kenyan rules and generates the corresponding statutory files for filing. Compliance moves from a manual monthly scramble to a generated output.

Bank-Ready Disbursement

Force HRM produces a bank bulk payment file for RTGS or EFT alongside the statutory files, so the business can pay every employee in one upload rather than processing salaries individually. A payment readiness check flags any employee with a problem before files go out.

Attendance, Leave, Loans, and Allowances

Attendance logging, leave types and balances, recurring allowances, and employee loans with full repayment schedules are managed in one place and feed directly into the payroll calculation, removing the separate reconciliation step.

Employee Mobile App

Force HRM ships with an employee mobile application on iOS and Android, giving staff self-service access to their payslips, leave balances, and P9 forms without routing every request through the office.

AI and Programmatic Access

Force HRM exposes its operations through a native Model Context Protocol server, built in Laravel, with tools spanning payroll, attendance, leave, loans, performance, and reporting. Payroll cycles can be run and managed conversationally through an AI assistant, which is how Vapor itself operates client payroll at scale.

The Technology

Backend: Laravel 13 on PHP 8.3.
Interactivity: Livewire and Volt with Alpine.js.
Admin layer: Filament v3.
Data: MySQL 8.
Integration: A native Laravel MCP server exposing the platform to AI clients.
Clients: Web back office plus a dedicated iOS and Android employee app.

The Outcome

Force HRM lets a Kenyan business hand payroll and statutory compliance off entirely. Monthly runs are calculated, statutory deductions are computed to current rules, bank files and payslips are generated, and the owner's personal involvement drops toward zero. It replaces a fragile spreadsheet and a recurring compliance risk with a managed, repeatable system.