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Aguinaldo (13th-month salary)

Aguinaldo is the mandatory annual bonus — also called 13th-month salary, décimo tercer mes, prima de servicios, gratificación and other local names. 4Geeks Payroll calculates it from the employee’s actual payslips and bonuses, applies court-ordered alimony, and produces a payment voucher.

Country names and benefit years

Country Name Benefit year
Costa Rica Aguinaldo Dec 1 → Nov 30
Mexico Aguinaldo Dec 1 → Nov 30
Panama Décimo Tercer Mes Dec 1 → Nov 30
Colombia Prima de Servicios Oct 1 → Sep 30
Ecuador Décimo Tercer Mes Dec 1 → Nov 30
Honduras Bonificación Decimotercera Dec 1 → Nov 30
El Salvador Aguinaldo Dec 1 → Nov 30
Guatemala Aguinaldo Dec 1 → Nov 30
Uruguay Aguinaldo Dec 1 → Nov 30
Paraguay Aguinaldo Dec 1 → Nov 30
Chile Gratificación Legal Dec 1 → Nov 30
Peru Gratificación Dec 1 → Nov 30

Calculate the aguinaldo

Open an employee profile → Overview → the Aguinaldo card, or use the aguinaldo report.

  1. Choose the benefit year.
  2. Click Calculate {name}.
  3. Review the result:
  4. Contract cards: hire date, contracted gross salary, country and benefit period.
  5. Calculation summary: months worked, total gross paid, commissions, wage bonuses, annual base and formula.
  6. Result cards: gross aguinaldo, alimony deduction (if any) and net aguinaldo.
  7. Monthly earnings breakdown: gross, commissions and bonuses per month with a cumulative total.
  8. Download the Payment Voucher (PDF) and/or click Approve & Notify Employee.

How it is calculated

  1. Collect the payslips whose period falls inside the benefit year. Months without a payslip use the employee’s monthly salary as a fallback.
  2. Add commissions and wage bonuses.
  3. Gross aguinaldo = annual base ÷ 12.
  4. Subtract only court-ordered alimony that overlaps the benefit year.
  5. Net aguinaldo = gross − alimony (never below zero).

No social security or income tax on aguinaldo

In the preset countries the aguinaldo is exempt from social-security and income-tax deductions. The only permitted deduction is court-ordered alimony (pensión alimentaria).

Leave and bonus treatment

  • Unpaid leave reduces the annual base proportionally; medical leave is excluded from the base.
  • Maternity leave is never excluded.
  • Only Applied bonuses inside the benefit year are merged: commission counts as commissions; the other categories count as wage bonuses.

Alimony orders

Court-ordered alimony is stored per employee and applied to the aguinaldo. The deduction equals the sum of active alimony orders overlapping the benefit year. If you need to stop an order, mark it inactive.

Voucher and audit

  • The PDF voucher is stored in the private aguinaldo-vouchers bucket.
  • Approve & Notify Employee sends an in-app notification and an email with a link to the voucher.
  • Every calculation stores a complete audit trail (monthly breakdown, formula and steps).

Still have questions? Ask on Discord or explore the tutorials.