Run better
In short
A payroll system calculates each employee's pay from their salary, overtime, sick leave and deductions, applying Costa Rican rules: CCSS social security charges, the Banco Popular contribution, salary tax withholding, the aguinaldo (the mandatory 13th-month bonus) and vacation. It generates pay stubs and the data for institutional reporting, with no formulas that break.
Challenges
What's included
Regular salary, overtime at time and a half, employee deductions and employer charges calculated for each pay period.
Aguinaldo accrued from December to November, and severance settlements with notice pay, severance and prorated amounts, showing the full calculation.
Balance per employee, requests and approvals, so everyone knows how many days they have left.
Each person sees their pay stubs, requests vacation and checks their information from their phone.
Organized data to report to the CCSS through SICERE, to the INS and for salary tax withholding.
A detailed payment receipt sent to each employee when payroll is closed.
Key questions
What to know about Payroll
The aguinaldo equals one twelfth of everything the employee earned between December 1 of the previous year and November 30 of the current year, including overtime and commissions. It is paid within the first twenty days of December. A payroll system accrues it month by month, so the amount is ready without recalculating at year end.
Costa Rica's Labor Code sets a minimum of two weeks of paid vacation for every fifty weeks of continuous work. Tracking it in the system prevents disputes: the balance accrues automatically, each request is approved or rejected with a date, and a severance calculation includes any pending days.
The employer pays CCSS contributions for health and pensions, contributions to other institutions collected through the same payroll, such as Banco Popular, and the INS occupational risk insurance policy. The employee also has their own deduction. The percentages change by institutional decision, so the system stores them as updatable parameters.
Comparison
| Aspect | Custom | Off-the-shelf |
|---|---|---|
| Variable pay, shifts and commissions | Rules defined for your company | Standard schemes that don't always fit |
| Labor cost by project | Flows straight into each project | Payroll isolated from everything else |
| Getting started | In phases, validated against your current payroll | Fast if your structure is simple |
| Employee portal | With your own approval processes | Depends on the plan |
| Your data | In your own database | On the vendor's platform |
FAQ
Yes. Overtime is paid at time and a half, and public holidays are calculated using the rules we configure for your company.
Yes. It calculates notice pay, severance, and prorated vacation and aguinaldo based on the reason for leaving, and shows the detail of each item.
Percentages and amounts are system parameters. When they change, they are updated once and apply from the corresponding date, without touching any formulas.
Yes. From a portal they can see their payment receipts and vacation balance, and submit requests.
It depends on the number of employees, the types of pay and the integrations. After a free assessment we send you a fixed quote broken down by phases.
Add-ons
Tell us how you work today and we'll suggest where to start. The assessment is free.