Colombia: How to submit overtime and surcharges

This guide provides a quick overview of how overtime and surcharges work in Colombia and outlines the mandatory steps to correctly submit these hours to our Operations team for payroll processing.

The Basics: Overtime vs. Surcharges

To report hours correctly, it is essential to understand the difference between these two concepts:

• Overtime (Horas Extras): Extra time worked beyond the employee's standard contracted shift or beyond the maximum legal limits (currently 8 hours/day and dropping to 42 hours/week in July 2026). Overtime is capped at 2 hours per day and requires prior authorization.
• Surcharges (Recargos): A mandatory financial premium paid when an employee works their ordinary, contracted hours, but does so during special legal windows (nights, Sundays, or holidays).

Time Windows:

• Daytime Window: 6:00 AM – 7:00 PM
• Nighttime Window: 7:00 PM – 6:00 AM

Quick Reference Rates (2026)

Note: Due to the ongoing labor reform (Law 2466), Sunday and Holiday rates will increase on July 1, 2026.

Use this table to identify the correct multiplier and the exact column where you must input the hours in the mass upload file. Do not modify or change the order of these Spanish headers in the final file.

How to Report Hours for Payroll

To ensure accurate payroll processing and avoid regulatory penalties, all additional hours must be formally reported to our team.

Crucial Submission Deadline

Once your information is ready, you must send it to our Operations team via our official chat or via email before your designated payroll cutoff date. What happens if you miss the deadline? Any files or hours submitted after the cutoff date will not be processed in the current cycle and will automatically be applied to the next payroll period.

Mass Template Upload (For Surcharges & High-Volume Overtime):

If you need to report surcharges (recargos), or if you are reporting overtime for a large number of employees, you must use the official flat-file template: Base Carga Extras. Before completing the template, please create a copy of the original file and work from the copied version. This helps preserve the original template structure and ensures you always have a clean version available for future submissions.

Because our payroll software strictly requires Spanish headers to process the data, we have designed a specific workflow to make this seamless for international teams:

1. Use the English Workspace: Open the template and go to Tab 2: English Working Sheet. All headers here are in English so you can comfortably map National IDs (documento) and fill out the hours.
2. Follow the One-Row Rule: Do not duplicate employee rows. Each employee gets exactly one row, mapped by their National ID (documento). Input all their different accumulated hours for the month across that single row.
3. Copy and Paste Data: Once your data is complete in Tab 2, copy all the filled rows and paste them into Tab 3: Official Spanish Upload. The column order is identical, so the data will align perfectly under the Spanish headers.
4. Delete Extra Tabs: Critical step to prevent system crash. Before submitting the file, you must delete Tab 1 (Translation Guide) and Tab 2 (English Sheet). Save and submit a file containing only the official Spanish sheet. If the system detects English headers or extra instruction tabs, the upload will fail.

• Base Carga Extras - Horas Extra y Recargos.xlsx20 KB