- Updated RTU for the company (the only mandatory document)
- Company NIT and active email
- IGSS employer number (if already enrolled)
- Worker roster with CUI, position, and salary (10+ permanent)
- Excel or CSV template with the month's payroll (MINTRAB format)
TL;DR: The Electronic Salary Book (Libro Electronico de Salarios) is the official record where employers with 10 or more permanent workers record monthly payroll. It’s free (Q0), MINTRAB authorization takes 3-5 business days, and the only mandatory document is an updated RTU. The system is 100% online at librosalarios.mintrabajo.gob.gt and replaces the old bound physical book. Failure to keep it is a labour infraction sanctioned under Article 272 — a fine measured in monthly minimum wages, not a per-day, per-worker amount. See the salary-book fine explained.
What Is the Electronic Salary Book
The Electronic Salary Book is the digital version of the salary book mandated by Article 102 of the Guatemalan Labor Code. Every employer permanently occupying 10 or more workers must keep it, have it authorized and sealed by MINTRAB, and keep it updated month by month. The article names the Ministry’s Administrative Department as the authorizing office and obliges it to supply the models and rules for the book; in practice the authorization is now issued through the electronic portal run by the General Directorate of Labor.
Article 102 has a second paragraph that is easy to miss: an employer permanently occupying 3 or more workers but fewer than 10 must keep planillas following the models adopted by IGSS. Below the ten-worker line you are not exempt from payroll recordkeeping — you are on a different instrument.
Before Ministerial Agreement 124-2019, the book was physical: a bound 200-500 page volume that the employer brought to MINTRAB in Zone 9 of the capital, where an officer stamped each page individually. Today everything is electronic — an Excel or CSV payroll file is uploaded to librosalarios.mintrabajo.gob.gt and recorded with a verifiable QR seal.
What the book is used for:
- Article 102 compliance of the Labor Code (legal obligation)
- Evidence in labor lawsuits about paid salaries, hours worked, and deductions applied
- IGSS, SAT, and MINTRAB audits (data is cross-checked against IGSS contributions and income tax filings)
- Labor clearance — required to obtain the Electronic Labor Clearance
- Banking compliance — banks require it for business loans and payroll financing
Requirements
The MINTRAB system is intentionally simple for this filing because the only formal requirement is:
- Updated RTU for the employer entity or individual
That’s all the system requires for initial authorization. However, to actually start uploading monthly payrolls, you also need:
Preparatory data (not formal requirements but you’ll need them)
- Company NIT and active email (for user account)
- IGSS employer number — if the company is already enrolled. If not, complete IGSS Employer Registration first
- Updated worker roster with: name, CUI/DPI, position, hire date, base salary, schedule (day/night/mixed)
- Excel or CSV template with the current month’s payroll, in MINTRAB format (downloadable from the portal)
Data entered for each monthly payroll
For each worker, each month:
- Full name
- CUI/DPI
- Position or title
- Hire date
- Monthly base salary
- Days worked in the month
- Regular hours
- Overtime (if applicable)
- Bonificacion incentivo (Q250 statutory monthly bonus)
- Commissions, gratifications, per diems
- Deductions: IGSS contribution (4.83% of salary), income tax withheld, loans
- Net pay
- Form of payment (cash, check, bank transfer)
- Payment date
Step-by-Step
Verify whether you’re obligated. If you have 10 or more permanent workers (not temporary, not project-based contractors), the obligation applies. With fewer, filing is voluntary.
Update the RTU. If your RTU hasn’t been updated in over 6 months, update it via SAT’s Agencia Virtual first (free, 24-48 hours). The MINTRAB system cross-checks with SAT and rejects employers with expired RTUs.
Complete IGSS employer registration (if not already enrolled). Without an employer number, the MINTRAB system won’t let you upload workers. See IGSS Employer Registration — free, 5-10 business days.
Create a user account at librosalarios.mintrabajo.gob.gt. Sign up with company NIT, email, and phone. You’ll receive an email verification code.
Request book authorization. From the menu, select “Solicitud de Autorizacion de Libro de Salarios.” Confirm your tax data (auto-loaded from RTU) and submit.
Wait 3-5 business days. The General Labor Directorate processes the request. If the RTU is current and the company meets requirements, authorization arrives by email as a PDF with electronic seal and QR code.
Download the MINTRAB template. Once authorized, download the official Excel template from the portal. Fill it with your worker data (one per row).
Upload the first month’s payroll. Upload the completed Excel file. The system validates it (verifies CUI against RENAP, salary against legal minimum, deductions against IGSS/tax caps). If validation passes, it’s recorded.
Repeat each month. The obligation is continuous — the book has to stay current. Neither Article 102 nor Ministerial Agreement 124-2019 fixes a calendar day for the upload; the common practice is to file within the first 15 days of the following month, aligned with the IGSS payroll cycle. See monthly filing deadlines.
Cost and Timing
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official cost | Free (Q0) |
| Initial authorization time | 3 to 5 business days |
| Authorization validity | Permanent |
| Monthly upload deadline | No fixed date in the regulation — common practice is within the first 15 days of the following month |
| Modality | 100% online |
Common Errors
My company has 9 employees and 1 service contractor — does that count as 10?
No. Independent service contracts are not employment relationships (no subordination, no fixed schedule, no IGSS contributions). Only workers with active employment relationships count toward Article 102’s threshold: individual contract, IGSS enrollment, defined schedule, subordination. With 9 employees + 1 service provider, you are NOT obligated, though formalizing is still wise.
I uploaded the payroll but the system rejected for ‘salary below minimum’
The system cross-checks your payroll against the current minimum wage (non-agricultural 2026: Q4,002.28/month in Economic Zone 1 / Guatemala department and Q3,816.90 in Zone 2 / rest of the country, plus Q250 bonificacion incentivo; Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025). If you report a base salary below your zone’s minimum, the system rejects it. Fix: review and correct before re-uploading. Paying below minimum is a separate offense and triggers additional fines.
I have seasonal workers (e.g., agriculture) — do I register them?
If they’re hired for more than 90 continuous days, they’re considered permanent and count. If shorter (coffee picking, sugar cane harvest), they go in the system as temporary, but they’re still registered in the payroll for the months they’re active. The Labor Code does not allow using “temporary” labels to evade the salary book obligation.
I’m an external accountant managing 5 companies — can I have 5 books under one user?
No. Each company (each NIT) has its own book, its own user account, and its own case file. As an accountant, you can be an authorized user across multiple companies, but each is managed separately. The portal has an “external assistant” role that links to the client’s RTU without sharing credentials.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
Article 272 of the Labor Code (Decreto 1441), as reformed by Decreto 7-2017, sets every labour fine in monthly minimum wages for non-agricultural activities. Nothing in the article is denominated in quetzales, calculated per day, or multiplied by headcount — and no literal of Article 272 names the salary book, so which range applies depends on how the inspector classifies the breach in the acta de infraccion.
The two ranges that plausibly frame a missing or unmaintained book:
| Art. 272 literal | Scope | Fine for an employer | At the Zone 1 minimum of Q4,002.28 |
|---|---|---|---|
| g) — catch-all | Any preceptive provision of the Code not covered by an earlier literal | 2 to 9 monthly minimum wages | Q8,005 – Q36,021 |
| a) | Breach of the rules obliging payment of salaries and other labour benefits | 8 to 18 monthly minimum wages | Q32,018 – Q72,041 |
Minimum wage figures: Q4,002.28 per month in Economic Zone 1 and Q3,816.90 in Zone 2, non-agricultural, per Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025. Two further rules from the same reform: recidivism adds 50% to the fine (Art. 271, and there is no recidivism after a year has passed), and correcting the fault and saying so when you pay exonerates 50% of it, within the 5-day payment window. Full breakdown: the salary-book fine explained.
An unpaid or uncorrected sanction also blocks the Labor Clearance — Article 272 itself bars a company with pending sanctions and uncorrected breaches from tax or tariff benefits, tenders, and State contracting.
What’s worth more than the fine:
In labor lawsuits, the salary book is the key evidence of salary, schedule, and deductions — and Article 353 gives that a hard consequence. When exhibition of salary books or planillas is offered in evidence, the judge orders it for the first hearing; a defendant who disobeys is fined Q50 to Q500 and, far more costly, the data alleged on the point by the party that offered the evidence is presumed true. Article 30 does the same for a missing written contract. There is no in dubio pro operario clause in the Codigo de Trabajo — the phrase appears nowhere in it — but Article 353 delivers the same practical result in the narrower case where the employer cannot produce the book.
Practical: Upload the payroll the day you pay. If you pay on the 30th of each month, that same day (or next business day) upload the Excel to the system. That way you never fall behind and the book always matches IGSS records and your accounting.
Related Pages
- MINTRAB Hub Guatemala — all Labor Ministry filings
- RECIT — Electronic Employment Contract Registration — required before uploading the book
- MINTRAB Electronic Labor Clearance — requires book to be current
- Work Permit for Foreigners — prior step if hiring expats
- Severance & Benefits Calculator — book is the calculation base
- IGSS Employer Registration — mandatory for any employer
- SAT Hub Guatemala — VAT, income tax, and payroll withholding filings
- SAT RTU — Tax ID Registration — must be current
- Guatemala Minimum Wage 2026 — base for payroll calculations