Do you work fractional, interim or on a project?

All three. Fractional is a few days a month on an ongoing basis, interim is full-time for a fixed term, and a project is a fixed-scope build or raise. We pick whatever fits the problem.

Fractional work is a fixed monthly fee for an agreed number of days, so you can budget it. Interim is a market day rate for a fixed term. Builds and raises are a fixed quote once I've scoped the problem. Every engagement starts with a scoped proposal, so you see the number and exactly what it covers before you commit to anything. No open-ended retainers.

I'm already in Riyadh, so there's no relocation or visa wait. I can usually start a new engagement within about 30 days.

Do you work remotely or on-site?

Both. I'm in the Kingdom for on-site work across the GCC, and happy to deliver remotely. Whatever the engagement needs.

Who owns the systems you build?

You do. I scope, architect and govern, engineers build, and the IP and the running system are yours, documented and handed over.

Do you handle Zakat, VAT and withholding tax?

Yes. Tax sits inside the core work, not beside it: registrations and filings, provisions in the accounts, ZATCA e-invoicing readiness, and planning ahead of deadlines rather than reacting to them. My background covers tax compliance ownership for multi-site groups and tax planning across large project portfolios.

Do you work with family groups and private equity portfolio companies?

Yes. Family groups and family offices are a large part of my work, and private-equity-backed companies bring me in as a part-time CFO between raises or through transitions. Board packs, lender reporting and diligence-ready numbers are the usual asks.

Which sectors do you know?

Media and entertainment, real estate, manufacturing, FMCG and logistics. I also work with family groups preparing for institutional capital.

Accounting Saudization 2026: what finance leaders must do

The 2026 Nitaqat cycle set accounting Saudization at 40% for establishments with five or more people in qualifying roles, rising to 70%. Two traps make it harder than the headline, and both land on the finance leader's desk.

Most Saudization coverage is written for HR and treats every profession the same. This one is different, because the profession being localized is yours. Under the 2026 Nitaqat cycle, accounting became a targeted profession: establishments with five or more people in qualifying accounting roles must run 40 percent Saudi nationals in those roles, phasing to 70 percent over five years. If you run finance, this is your team, your hiring, and your problem to own.

I run finance, HR and IT as one function, so I read a rule like this from both seats at once: the compliance obligation, and the reality of building a finance team in Riyadh. Here is what the rule says, the two traps that make it worse than the headline, and what to do about your own roster before the classification catches you.

What the rule says

The Ministry of Human Resources set a profession-level target for accounting, not only a company-wide one. For an establishment with five or more employees in qualifying accounting and finance roles, the Saudization rate starts at 40 percent and steps up toward 70 percent over five years. It sits inside the broader 2026 to 2028 Nitaqat phase that took effect in April 2026, raised quotas across several professions, and localizes more than 340,000 private-sector jobs.

The headline number is the easy part. The two rules underneath it are where companies get caught.

Trap one: a low-paid Saudi does not count

You cannot meet the quota by hiring a Saudi national at a token salary. The threshold to count toward Nitaqat is now SAR 4,000 a month, raised from SAR 3,000. A Saudi employee paid below that does not count toward your percentage, whatever their contract says.

For a finance team this matters more than for most, because the roles you are localizing are qualified ones. A genuine accountant at market pay clears the threshold comfortably. The risk is the junior or part-time arrangement that looks like compliance on paper and counts for nothing when the ministry calculates your band.

Trap two: an undocumented contract does not count either

From 15 April 2026, a Saudi employee whose contract is not electronically documented and authenticated on Qiwa no longer counts toward your Saudization percentage. You can have the right person, at the right salary, in the right role, and still get zero credit because the contract was never authenticated on the platform.

This is the quiet one. Companies discover it when their band drops without a single person leaving, purely because the paperwork behind their Saudi hires was never finished on Qiwa. Every Saudi in your finance team needs an authenticated Qiwa contract, and someone needs to have checked that, not assumed it.

Why the band matters

Nitaqat sorts you into a band, and the Yellow tier is gone as of this cycle, so the middle ground shrank. Land in Red and the cost is not a fine you can budget for. It is operational: blocked and delayed work-visa issuance and renewals, restrictions on transferring employees in, and friction across the government services your company depends on every day. For a growing company that needs to hire and move people, a Red classification is a brake on the whole business, not only the finance team.

What a finance leader should do now

This is a roster problem before it is a policy problem, and it is yours to run.

Count your real position. List everyone in a qualifying accounting or finance role, mark who is Saudi, who clears SAR 4,000, and who has an authenticated Qiwa contract. Your true Saudization percentage is only the people who pass all three. It is usually lower than the HR dashboard suggests.

Fix the documentation first. Before you hire anyone, make sure every Saudi already on the team is authenticated on Qiwa. These are the cheapest points you will ever pick up, because the person is already employed and paid.

Plan hires against the step-up, not today's number. The quota rises each year. Build toward the trajectory, not the current line, so you are not scrambling every renewal. A finance function that plans its own headcount the way it plans everything else does not get surprised by a band change.

Build a bench, not a box-tick. The honest version of this rule is not a burden. It is a push toward something a serious finance leader should do anyway: develop Saudi finance talent. A qualified Saudi accountant you train and keep is worth more than a number on a compliance sheet, and the talent pool is deeper than it was five years ago.

The pattern, again

This is the same argument as ZATCA, as GOSI, as the interview-notification rule. A new obligation lands, and the companies that treat it as a fire drill stay one classification away from trouble. The companies that own it, one person watching the roster the way they watch the cash, stop noticing the rules at all. Accounting Saudization is now a standing number your finance function has to manage, like VAT or the month-end close. Manage it like one.

If your Saudization position lives in an HR spreadsheet nobody reconciles against Qiwa and salary, that gap is the risk, and it is the kind of thing I fix. Tell me where your finance team stands.

Reflects MHRSD rules as of September 2026. Nitaqat quotas, thresholds and timelines change, and profession-specific rules can differ; confirm your position against Qiwa and your own adviser before acting.

Accounting Saudization is at 40% and rising to 70%. Your finance team is the one being localized.