Frequently asked questions
The questions UAE construction, security, healthcare, and corporate teams actually ask. Can’t see yours? Ask us.
Pricing & plans
Is AiyaHR really free?+
Yes. AiyaHR Start is free for up to 10 active employees, with GPS check-in, AI face matching, leave, shifts and payroll-ready exports across one branch and two attendance locations. Paid plans start at AED 3 per Managed Employee/month, billed annually with a minimum of 10 combined employees.
What does it cost beyond the free plan?+
Pricing is per active employee per month, in AED. Each employee is licensed as a Managed Employee (records, attendance and payroll, handled by HR) or a Connected Employee (full self-service on their own phone), so the rate depends on your access mix as well as the plan. Book a 20-minute demo for a tailored quote.
Are there setup fees or multi-year lock-ins?+
No setup fee. No multi-year contract. Month-to-month billing by default. Annual prepay is available with a discount if you prefer.
Is hosting included?+
Yes — every tier includes hosting, backups, security patches, and ongoing updates.
Hardware & devices
Do we need fingerprint scanners or kiosks?+
No. Staff use their own phones. No hardware to install, share, sanitise, or replace. This removes a queue at the gate, a hygiene risk in clinical settings, and a recurring spend.
What phones does it work on?+
Any modern Android or iPhone. Face matching runs server-side so older, cheaper devices work fine. Offline check-ins cache locally and sync when connectivity returns.
How does it work on a remote site with poor signal?+
Check-ins cache on the worker's phone if connectivity drops and sync when back online. Face matching runs server-side so the verification still completes once connectivity returns.
AI & verification
How accurate is the face match?+
Approximately 98% in good conditions. Match confidence is surfaced to the supervisor on every check-in, so borderline cases are confirmed by a human rather than silently rejected.
Can someone fool it with a printed photo or video?+
Liveness checks reject obvious spoofing attempts. Combined with the GPS zone check and device-binding signals, the system is harder to fool than a fingerprint scanner that accepts any finger pressed against it.
Does the AI make decisions on its own?+
No. The AI verifies identity, drafts rosters, and flags anomalies, but every consequential decision — approving a correction, accepting a flagged check-in, confirming a shift swap — requires a human click. No black-box automation.
UAE compliance
Is AiyaHR PDPL-compliant?+
AiyaHR is built around the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021). Biometric data requires explicit consent on first use, is encrypted, processed on enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure, configurable retention applies, and data-subject rights are supported through the staff app.
Does it handle UAE Labour Law working-hour rules?+
Yes. Daily limits, mandatory rest, overtime caps, prayer break, and lunch handling are configurable per site, aligned with Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021. The audit trail is retained for the legal period.
Can it produce WPS exports?+
AiyaHR produces WPS-ready exports of working hours, overtime, and absences in a format your payroll system or bank WPS gateway accepts cleanly. AiyaHR does not dispatch WPS itself.
Multi-site, multi-shift
Can we run multiple sites on one account?+
Yes — this is the core design. Each site has its own geofence, shift pattern, and supervisor. Strict data isolation: a site supervisor cannot see other sites' staff.
Does it handle rotating shifts and 24×7 rotations?+
Yes. Day/evening/night rotations, 12-hour posts, and split shifts are all handled. AI drafts the rotation; handover windows, mandatory rest, and overtime caps are applied automatically.
Can teams in different countries use the same account?+
Yes. Each tenant can have sites in multiple countries (UAE + KSA + Bahrain, for example) with per-country rules (weekly off, prayer break, public holidays, labour-law specifics). Reporting rolls up or down across regions.
Consent & staff experience
Can a member of staff decline face verification?+
Yes. Consent to biometric processing is separable, and attendance can still be recorded without it. A deployment that only functions if every employee consents has not obtained consent — it has obtained compliance.
Does AiyaHR track staff location during the day?+
No. Location is checked at the moment of check-in against a geofence, and there is no continuous tracking through the working day. That is a design decision rather than a feature we have not built yet.
What happens if someone forgets their phone?+
A supervisor records the check-in on their behalf, flagged as a manual entry rather than presented as a verified one. Keeping that distinction visible is what stops the record becoming a mixture of verified and asserted attendance.
What if there is no signal on site?+
Check-ins cache on the device and sync when connectivity returns. The recorded time is the check-in time, not the sync time — which matters on remote sites where the two can be hours apart.
How long does a check-in take?+
Seconds. Open, confirm location, take the selfie. Anything slower than that at a shift change with forty people waiting is a system that will be worked around.