Provisioning for Prima and Aguinaldo: How to Reach December With Cash

Every December, a finance team running payroll in Colombia hits the same cash crunch: the second installment of the prima de servicios falls due on December 20, right when revenue often slows and year end operating costs climb. A company with staff in Mexico faces a similar squeeze with the aguinaldo, due on that same date. Neither payment is a legal surprise, but without monthly accrual both turn into a cash gap that shows up all at once in the last week of the year.

At Soulbit Academy we cover how to accrue Colombia's prima de servicios and Mexico's aguinaldo month by month, so a finance team running an SMB of 10 to 100 employees reaches December with the reserve already built instead of discovering the shortfall in the last week of the year.

What prima and aguinaldo accrual means, and why December squeezes cash

Accrual is the monthly accounting entry for a labor cost the company already owes, even though the cash payment happens months later. In Colombia, the prima de servicios and the cesantías severance fund are accrued this way; in Mexico, the aguinaldo follows the same logic, even though it is paid only once a year.

Without accrual, the cost of the prima or the aguinaldo hits the cash flow statement all at once in the payment month, instead of being spread across the months in which it was actually earned. December concentrates several commitments at the same time: the second prima installment in Colombia, the aguinaldo in Mexico, and in both countries a year end that brings higher operating costs and, in many sectors, slower sales through the first half of January.

Is accruing the prima and the aguinaldo a legal requirement?

No. Accrual is a financial management practice, not a legal obligation on its own; what the law requires is paying the prima and the aguinaldo by the deadlines set in Article 306 of Colombia's Labor Code and Article 87 of Mexico's Federal Labor Law. A company can skip accrual and still comply with the law, but it runs the risk of not having the cash ready when the payment comes due.

How Colombia calculates the prima de servicios: Article 306 and the two installments

Colombia's prima de servicios equals 30 days of salary a year, paid in two equal installments, under Article 306 of Colombia's Labor Code, amended by Law 1788 of 2016. The first installment, covering the first half of the year, is due by June 30; the second, covering the second half, is due by December 20.

The prima applies to every dependent worker, including domestic workers and family drivers, which Article 306 names explicitly, regardless of contract type or length of service. A worker who was only on payroll for part of the semester receives a prorated prima based on days worked, divided by 360.

The calculation base is the monthly salary plus the transportation allowance when the worker qualifies for it. Colombia's transportation allowance for 2026 is 249,095 pesos, under Decree 1470 of 2025, payable to anyone earning up to two monthly minimum wages. Colombia's legal monthly minimum wage for 2026 is 1,750,905 pesos, under Decree 1469 of 2025. The formula mirrors the one used for cesantías and for vacation paid out in cash, which we cover in more detail in Colombia vacation pay and payroll accruals.

How Mexico calculates the aguinaldo: Article 87 and the December 20 deadline

Mexico's aguinaldo equals at least 15 days of salary a year, paid in a single installment before December 20, under Article 87 of Mexico's Federal Labor Law. A worker who did not complete a full year receives the proportional share of the time actually worked, regardless of whether they are still with the company on the payment date.

Unlike Colombia's prima, Mexican law sets a floor of 15 days, not a fixed amount: many companies pay more as an added benefit, but the legal minimum is 15 days of salary and no company can pay less.

How is the aguinaldo prorated for a worker who joined partway through the year?

It is calculated on the days actually worked over the year, using the same 15 day minimum and paid by the same December 20 deadline, with no one year tenure requirement to earn the share that corresponds to their time on payroll. A worker who joined in July and is still active in December receives roughly half of the annual aguinaldo.

A worker earning Mexico's general minimum wage, 315.04 pesos a day since January 1, 2026 under Mexico's National Minimum Wage Commission, receives a minimum aguinaldo of 4,725.60 pesos after a full year of service.

Item	Prima de servicios (Colombia)	Aguinaldo (Mexico)
Rule	Article 306 of the Labor Code, Law 1788 of 2016	Article 87 of the Federal Labor Law
Legal amount	30 days of salary a year	At least 15 days of salary a year
Payment schedule	Two installments: June 30 and December 20	One installment, before December 20
Calculation base	Salary plus transportation allowance when it applies	Worker's ordinary salary
Proration	By days worked in the semester, over 360	By days worked in the year, no tenure requirement

Monthly accrual math: 8.33% in Colombia, 4.17% in Mexico, and the Q4 calendar

Accruing the prima or the aguinaldo monthly means setting aside a fraction of the annual cost every month, so the balance is complete by the payment date. In Colombia, that fraction is 8.33% of the salary plus the transportation allowance, since 30 days of prima a year divided by 12 months works out to 8.33%. In Mexico, the math is different: 15 minimum days a year divided by 12 months equals 1.25 days of salary a month, or 4.17% of monthly salary, higher if the company pays above the legal minimum.

A hypothetical company employing staff in Colombia through a local entity, with a 60,000,000 peso monthly payroll base, that accrues 8.33% every month sets aside close to 5,000,000 pesos monthly. Over six months that reserve adds up to about 30,000,000 pesos, roughly the amount needed to cover the December prima installment without dipping into operating cash. These figures are illustrative only and do not reflect an actual Soulbit client.

A hypothetical company employing staff in Mexico, with a 1,800,000 peso monthly payroll base, that accrues 4.17% every month sets aside about 75,000 pesos monthly. By year end that reserve covers the minimum aguinaldo for the whole team without December absorbing the cost all at once. This figure is also a hypothetical assumption, not data from a Soulbit client.

Milestone	Colombia	Mexico
October	Review the prima accrual built up during the second half of the year	Review the aguinaldo accrual built up over the year
First 20 days of November	Project December cash flow including the prima installment	Project December cash flow including the aguinaldo
First half of December	Confirm December payroll and set aside the prima cash separately	Confirm December payroll and set aside the aguinaldo cash separately
December 20	Legal deadline for the second prima installment	Legal deadline for the aguinaldo
Last week of December	Close the month with operating cash already separate from the prima paid out	Close the month with operating cash already separate from the aguinaldo paid out

December's cash impact and how to plan Q4 treasury

The December prima payment and the aguinaldo compete for the same cash that also has to cover regular payroll, discretionary year end bonuses and, in many sectors, slower sales through January. An SMB that did not project that overlap reaches the third week of December with less liquidity than normal operations require.

How much cash should a company set aside for the December payment?

The amount depends on two variables: payroll size and whether the company has been accruing monthly all along. A company that accrued 8.33% or 4.17% consistently through the year reaches December with the prima or aguinaldo cash already separated, and only needs to cover the rest of the month's normal operations. One that skipped accrual has to set aside the full amount at once, on top of regular payroll, which multiplies the pressure on December cash.

Q4 treasury planning follows three steps. The first is projecting cash flow from October through January, treating the prima or the aguinaldo as a certain outflow rather than a surprise. The second is separating the already accrued cash into its own account or cost center, so it does not blend into day to day operating cash. The third is reviewing December and January sales projections, since revenue slows in several Latin American sectors right when the year end payment concentrates. We cover this exercise in more depth in a treasury policy template for SMBs.

Common mistakes when accruing the prima and the aguinaldo

There are five common mistakes when accruing for the prima and the aguinaldo. The first is treating the prima or the aguinaldo as a surprise expense instead of an obligation that accrues month by month from the first day of the semester or the year.

The second is leaving the transportation allowance out of the prima calculation base when the worker qualifies for it, which understates the monthly accrual. The third is accruing on fixed salary alone, without adding commissions or other variable pay that the law counts toward the calculation. The fourth is confusing the prima accrual with the cesantías accrual, which pays into a separate fund on a separate date, as covered in cesantías: a severance guide for employers. The fifth is failing to separate prima or aguinaldo accrual from the final settlement owed when a worker leaves the company before December, a different calculation we cover in severance pay in Colombia: what employers owe at termination.

A company with staff in Mexico also has to accrue for next year's profit sharing, a separate payment from the aguinaldo that falls due between May and June, not in December, covered in profit sharing (PTU) in Mexico: calculation and deadlines. Mixing up the two calendars leads to over accruing or under accruing in the wrong months.

What Soulbit automates when paying the prima or the aguinaldo, and what it does not

Soulbit does not calculate the prima de servicios or the aguinaldo, does not set the salary base, and does not decide how much a company should accrue each month; that calculation and that treasury decision stay with the employer or its payroll provider.

What Soulbit automates is the step after the calculation: holding balances in stablecoins such as USDC and USDT and in fiat currencies including COP, USD, EUR and GBP, converting between them, and disbursing the already calculated net amount to a worker's bank account in Colombia, with KYB and anti-money-laundering processes in place. That local bank rail today only covers Colombia; for a worker in Mexico, the flow ends at converting into the currency the company needs, without a dedicated Mexican bank rail in the V1. December's prima disbursement can be scheduled the same way as the rest of the year's recurring payroll, as detailed in COP and USD payment disbursement in Colombia.