Employees

The employee record is the foundation of Payroll. Every Payroll run, vacation balance, termination, and décimo partida traces back to an employee — their hire date, active contract salary, and social security number.

Where to find it

Go to Payroll > Employees.

Employees list page in CifraHQ. — Employees list, the master record for everyone on Payroll.

Creating an employee

Option 1 — New Employee wizard

Click New Employee on the list page. The wizard collects all mandatory data in one form and creates the employee record with its first contract.

Fields collected by the wizard:

Field	Notes
Document Type	Cédula, Pasaporte, or RUC
ID Number	The cedula or passport number
Check Digit	Cedula check digit (auto-computed for Panamanian cedulas)
Social Security Number	CSS número de asegurado — required for Payroll deductions
First Name / Middle Name / Last Name / Second Last Name	Full legal name as it appears on CSS documents
Date of Birth	dd/MM/yyyy
Gender	M / F
Marital Status	Single, Married, Divorced, Widowed
Nationality	Free text
Region	Province/region for CSS classification
Hire Date	The date the employment relationship began
Base Salary	Monthly or bi-weekly gross salary per contract
Pay Frequency	Monthly, Bi-weekly, or Weekly
Contract Type	Indefinite, Fixed-term, Probationary
Workday Hours	Standard hours per day (typically 8)

Option 2 — Direct create on the list

Click New and fill in the detail form manually. The result is the same as the wizard.

Employee detail page

Navigate to Payroll > Employees and click any employee to open the detail view. The page is organized into four tabs.

Identity tab

Displays and edits the employee's personal information and employment metadata.

Personal Information section:

Field	Description
Document Type	Cédula, Pasaporte, or RUC
ID Number	Official document number
Check Digit	Cedula check digit
Social Security Number	CSS asegurado number — must match CSS records exactly
First Name	Legal first name
Middle Name	Optional middle name
Last Name	First (paternal) last name
Second Last Name	Maternal last name
Date of Birth	dd/MM/yyyy
Gender	M / F
Marital Status	Affects ISR personal exemption classification
Nationality	Country of citizenship
Region	Panama province/region
Hire Date	Start of employment relationship
Status	Active, Inactive, or Terminated

Contact Information section (sidebar):

Field	Description
Email	Employee's work or personal email
Phone	Landline
Mobile	Mobile phone
Address Line 1 / 2	Street address
Province / District / Township	Panama administrative divisions

Contracts tab

Lists all contracts associated with this employee. Only one contract can be Active at a time.

Column	Description
Contract Number	Auto-assigned sequential number
Contract Type	Indefinite, Fixed-term, or Probationary
Base Salary	Gross salary amount in Balboas (B/.)
Pay Frequency	Monthly, Bi-weekly, Weekly
Start Date	Date the contract took effect
Status	Active or Inactive
Workday Hours	Daily working hours for this contract

The active contract's Base Salary is the figure the Payroll engine uses as the cotizable salary base for CSS and ISR calculations.

Bank tab

Lists bank accounts for ACH Payroll disbursement.

Column	Description
Account Number	Full bank account number
Bank	Bank code (BAC, Banistmo, Banco Nacional, etc.)
Account Type	Savings or Checking
Primary Account	Checked if this is the primary disbursement account

If an employee has no bank accounts, the ACH export will omit them and flag the missing record.

Dependents tab

Tracks family members for insurance, emergency contacts, and CSS beneficiary designation.

Column	Description
Relationship	Spouse, Child, Parent, Sibling, etc.
First Name / Last Name	Dependent's legal name
Date of Birth	dd/MM/yyyy
Beneficiary	Marked as a CSS life insurance beneficiary
Emergency Contact	Marked as the person to call in an emergency

Employee status

Status	Meaning
Active	Currently employed; appears in Payroll runs
Inactive	Suspended or on leave; excluded from automatic Payroll runs
Terminated	Employment ended; record locked; excluded from all runs

Termination is handled through the dedicated Termination wizard — do not manually set status to Terminated. The wizard updates the status, computes the liquidación, and stamps the termination date automatically.

Work Letter (Constancia Laboral)

Click Work Letter on any employee's detail page to download a PDF constancia laboral. The document contains:

Full legal name and cedula
Hire date and years of service
Current position and department
Base salary (in words and digits)
Company letterhead and authorized signature area

The constancia is generated immediately; no additional data entry is required.

Tips

Social Security Number is required before the Payroll engine can calculate CSS deductions. An employee without an SSN will generate a validation error when the period is calculated.
The active contract salary drives everything. If you change an employee's salary mid-period, update the contract before running the calculation — the engine reads the contract at calculation time.
Hire Date affects décimo and vacation. Accrual of vacation rights (Art. 76 CT) begins after 11 months of service; the hire date is the reference point.

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