Business Budget 2027 Saudi Arabia: 7 Steps, VAT, Zakat and a Template

A business budget for 2027 in Saudi Arabia is two plans in one: a profit plan that shows what you expect to earn each month, and a cash plan that shows when money actually leaves the bank. Build only the first, and the months when VAT, zakat and Ramadan stock fall due together can catch you short.

2027 opens with one such cluster. As of November 2026, the last VAT return for 2026 is due by 31 January, Ramadan is expected from 8 February with Eid al-Fitr around 9 March, and the first-quarter VAT return and, for a company with a 31 December year-end, the 2026 zakat return are both due by 30 April.

The seven steps:

• Step 1: forecast sales by month, excluding VAT, with Ramadan, Eid and year-end seasonality.
• Step 2: treat VAT as cash you hold for ZATCA, not as revenue.
• Step 3: set aside zakat every month.
• Step 4: cost your people in full: salaries, GOSI, expat levy and Nitaqat.
• Step 5: add 2027's one-off projects, such as ZATCA Wave 25 integration.
• Step 6: turn the plan into a cash calendar with a buffer.
• Step 7: compare budget with actual every month and act on the gaps.

The template: put these rows in column A of a spreadsheet, add one column per month of 2027 and a Total, and later an Actual and a Variance column beside each month.

• Sales excluding VAT
• Cost of goods sold
• Gross profit
• Salaries, allowances and end-of-service accrual
• GOSI employer contributions
• Expat levy and work permits
• Rent, utilities and subscriptions
• Marketing and seasonal offers
• Operating profit
• Zakat provision
• Cash in: customer collections, VAT included
• Cash out: suppliers, payroll, GOSI and rent
• VAT and zakat paid to ZATCA
• One-off projects
• Closing cash balance

The first ten rows are your profit plan; the last five are your cash plan.

Start with sales, because every other line depends on them, and budget them excluding VAT. Divide last year by twelve and you will run short of stock and staff in the busy months, then sit on idle cash in the quiet ones.

Hijri seasons move 10 to 11 days earlier each Gregorian year, so last February is a poor guide to next February. Ramadan 1447 began on 18 February 2026, so only 11 days of it fell in February. In 2027, the Umm al-Qura calendar expects Ramadan from Monday 8 February to about 8 March: three weeks in February, with the last ten days and Eid al-Fitr, expected on Tuesday 9 March, in early March. Founding Day, 22 February, falls in mid-Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha comes in mid-May. Dates can shift by a day with the moon sighting.

A method that works in any spreadsheet:

• Pull 2025 and 2026 sales by week, not only by month, from your POS or accounting system.
• Tag each week: normal, Ramadan, last ten days, Eid week, after Eid, summer or year-end.
• Work out each season's weekly average, then lay those weeks onto the 2027 calendar.
• Add only growth you can explain, such as a new branch or a new sales channel.
• Budget business customers' payments in the month the cash arrives: on 60-day terms, December invoices are February cash.

A worked example: a perfume and gifts shop in Dammam sold about SAR 260,000 excluding VAT in February 2026. Last year plus 8% would put February 2027 at SAR 280,800. Its weekly averages say otherwise: one normal week at about SAR 52,000 and three Ramadan weeks at about SAR 85,000 each, plus 8% growth, give about SAR 330,000. That one line changes the stock order, the staff rota and the cash plan.

For the full pre-Ramadan countdown, see our Ramadan 2027 playbook for retail and restaurants.

VAT at the standard rate of 15% passes through your bank account but belongs to ZATCA. Budget sales and costs excluding VAT, and plan the net VAT as a cash payment in its due month.

The timing, as of November 2026, from ZATCA's VAT page and its filing notices:

• Businesses with annual taxable supplies up to SAR 40 million file quarterly; larger ones file monthly. Each return is due by the last day of the month after the period, so quarterly filers face 31 January (for Q4 2026), 30 April, 31 July and 31 October 2027.
• Late payment costs 5% of the unpaid tax for each month or part of a month; late filing, 5% to 25% of the tax that should have been declared.
• The same page lists cash-basis accounting for businesses whose annual supplies do not exceed SAR 5 million; ask your adviser if you qualify.

Watch the Ramadan quarter: December stock purchases carry input VAT you recover in the Q4 2026 return, while Ramadan sales land in Q1, so the 30 April payment grows. Example: Q1 sales of SAR 1,000,000 excluding VAT carry SAR 150,000 of output VAT; Q1 purchases of SAR 400,000 carry SAR 60,000 of input VAT; SAR 90,000 is due by 30 April.

Zakat, for a company subject to it, is filed and paid within 120 days of year-end under Article 102 of the Implementing Regulations for Zakat Collection (in Arabic): by 30 April 2027 for a 2026 calendar year, the same day as the Q1 VAT. 30 April 2027 is a Friday, so aim for Thursday 29 April. Article 15 sets 2.5% of the zakat base for a Hijri year, scaled by days for any other year: about 2.58% for 365 days. The base comes from your balance sheet, not profit alone; ask your adviser to estimate it. A SAR 2,000,000 base means about SAR 51,550, or SAR 4,300 a month to set aside. If April still looks tight, Article 118 lets you ask ZATCA to pay in instalments, with your reasons and supporting documents.

Gross salaries understate payroll, so budget every employee at full cost.

GOSI, as of November 2026, from GOSI's employer FAQ and its awareness platform (in Arabic):

• Contributions are charged on basic wage plus housing allowance, up to SAR 45,000 a month, and paid within the first 15 days of the next month.
• Saudi employees on the existing rates: annuities 9% from the employer and 9% from the employee, occupational hazards 2% from the employer, and unemployment insurance (SANED) 0.75% from each.
• Non-Saudi employees: occupational hazards only, 2% from the employer.
• New entrants under the Social Insurance Law in force since 3 July 2024, with no earlier contributions: the annuities rate rises 0.5 points for each side every 1 July from 2025 until it reaches 11%, so 10% each since July 2026 and 10.5% from 1 July 2027. Check each new hire's rate and add the step in July.

Example: a Saudi employee on the existing rates, with SAR 6,000 basic plus SAR 1,500 housing costs about SAR 881 a month in employer GOSI at 11.75%.

Expat levy. The Ministry of Human Resources' levy guide sets SAR 800 a month per expatriate worker where expatriates outnumber Saudis, and SAR 700 where they do not, plus SAR 100 a year for the work permit, payable for 3, 6, 9 or 12 months at a time. Confirm current amounts in Qiwa.

Nitaqat. Under the Ministry's Nitaqat wage decision of November 2020 (in Arabic), a Saudi counts as a full employee on a monthly wage of at least SAR 4,000, as half from SAR 3,000 up to SAR 4,000, and not at all below SAR 3,000. Budget Saudi hires at a wage that holds your band, and check Qiwa for later changes.

One-off projects. If your VAT-subject revenue exceeded SAR 187,500 in any year from 2022 to 2025, you fall in ZATCA's Wave 25, and the businesses ZATCA notifies must integrate with FATOORA by 1 February 2027. Put the system, setup, data cleanup and staff time in the November to January columns; our Wave 25 guide lists the cost drivers.

Step 6 turns the profit plan into a cash calendar. Enter the fixed dates first: GOSI by the 15th of each month, VAT at the end of January, April, July and October for quarterly filers, zakat by 30 April and each work permit renewal. Then add salaries, rent and the large stock orders before Ramadan.

Make the buffer a rule: say, three months of fixed costs plus the next VAT and zakat payments, in a separate account. A business spending SAR 120,000 a month on salaries, GOSI and rent would hold SAR 360,000, plus, before April, the SAR 90,000 of VAT and SAR 51,550 of zakat worked out above.

Step 7: by the 10th of each month, close the previous month and add three columns beside the budget: Actual, Variance in SAR and Variance in %. For every line more than 10% off:

• Write the reason in one line: price, volume, timing or a one-off.
• Decide the action: reorder, pause a cost, chase a customer or revise the forecast.
• Re-forecast the rest of the year; keep the original budget as the yardstick.

A spreadsheet works while you are small, but copy-pasting from the accounting system is where reviews slip. As Odoo's budget documentation explains, analytic budgets set amounts for analytic accounts such as a branch, project or department, and Generate creates one budget per month. Achieved fills from confirmed journal entries, Committed adds confirmed purchase orders not yet billed, and a purchase order line over budget turns red. A financial budget can also sit beside the Balance column of the Profit and Loss report, with a % column.

Odoo will not forecast for you, and it is only as accurate as the analytic tags on each bill. Odoo Standard on Odoo Online for 10 users costs about SAR 6,075 before tax in year one at Odoo's Saudi list prices of 17 October 2026, converted from US dollars at 3.75, as our Odoo price guide shows. METCH, an official Odoo partner in Saudi Arabia, can set up your analytic accounts and first 2027 budget with your accountant.