How to make payroll in Mexico: complete guide 2026

The components of a Mexican payroll

All payroll starts from the agreed gross salary and ends with the net salary that the worker receives. Between one and the other there are perceptions, deductions and contributions from the employer that are not seen on the receipt but are seen in your flow.

• Perceptions: salary, overtime, commissions, bonuses, Sunday bonus, and legal benefits (minimum bonus 15 days, vacation bonus 25%).
• Deductions to the worker: ISR according to SAT rates (with subsidy for low-wage employment) and their IMSS quota (~2.4-2.7% of the base salary).
• Additional employer cost: employer's IMSS contributions (~25-30% extra on the base contribution salary), Infonavit 5%, and state payroll tax (2-4% depending on the state).
• Rule of thumb: each peso of gross salary costs you between $1.30 and $1.40 as an employer.

The calculation step by step

For each period (weekly, biweekly or monthly) the process is always the same:

• 1. Add up the earnings for the period: days worked × daily salary + extras, commissions and bonuses.
• 2. Discount absences and disabilities as appropriate.
• 3. Calculate the ISR for the period with the corresponding SAT rate (weekly, biweekly or monthly) and apply a subsidy if applicable.
• 4. Calculate the IMSS worker quota based on the base contribution salary.
• 5. Apply other deductions: Infonavit credit, alimony, loans.
• 6. Net payable = perceptions − deductions. You disperse the payment and stamp the payroll CFDI.

The payroll CFDI: your tax obligation for each payment

Each payroll payment must be stamped as payroll CFDI before the SAT, with the exact breakdown of perceptions and deductions, and delivered to the worker. Without that stamp, the expense is not deductible for your company — the error is very expensive.

The stamping has deadlines: no later than the payment date, with a tolerance of a few days depending on the number of workers. The healthy practice is to ring the same day you disperse.

Common mistakes that end in a fine or lawsuit

• Pay part of the salary "outside": the worker contributes less (they can claim it from you) and the expense is not deducted.
• Not registering the worker with the IMSS from day one — the fine comes even if the employee "is on probation."
• Calculate bonus or settlement with the base salary when there are commissions: they are calculated with integrated salary.
• Forget the state payroll tax, which is filed separately each month.
• Keeping incidents (absences, overtime, vacations) on slips of paper or memory — is the #1 source of calculation errors.

Automate payroll: from days to minutes

With more than 3-4 employees, manual payroll in Excel becomes a roulette: changing ISR rates, missed incidents and out-of-time ringing. A modern payroll system does the complete cycle: records incidents, calculates ISR and IMSS with updated tables, disperses, stamps the CFDI and files the receipts.

At Aura, payroll lives alongside the rest of the business: employees record attendance and vacations in their portal, HR approves, the calculation runs only per period and the CFDI is stamped from the same system that invoices your sales. You can try it for 14 days for $14 USD.