Payroll preparation based on employment terms, attendance, leave and bonuses, with calculations of net pay, employer costs and amounts due to the authorities.
A client had begun dealing with payroll, but the work lacked a clear sequence. ARG checked the supporting records and organised the monthly and year-end tasks within the wider accounting process.
With the sequence under one team's supervision, the client could understand how individual payroll tasks connected to the company's reporting. The work addressed the organisation of the records and responsibilities already involved.
ARG can help you
Provide signed contracts, effective dates, working hours and the legal basis for each person’s pay. Managers and working owners may need a different insurance assessment.
Approve attendance, leave, sickness, bonuses and employment changes before the payroll cut-off, with documents and the period each change concerns.
Disclose other employment, work abroad and any A1 certificate before calculation. Nationality and a Bulgarian company alone do not settle the applicable system.
Arrange the necessary NRA authorisation and an employer approver. Budget for net pay, withheld tax and both employee and employer contributions.
Bulgarian payroll connects the employment agreement, the work actually performed, the employee’s insurance record and the money paid. A salary transfer alone does not complete these obligations. Before the first payroll, identify who employs the person, where they work and the legal basis for their remuneration. An employee working under the employer’s direction, a company manager engaged under a management agreement and an owner performing personal work can require different treatment even when their monthly payments look similar.
For a foreign founder, three amounts matter. Gross salary is remuneration before the employee’s deductions. Net salary is the amount payable after the applicable personal contributions, income tax and other lawful deductions. Total employer cost also includes contributions borne by the company. If you have agreed a desired take-home amount, ask for a calculation of the corresponding gross remuneration and company cost before signing; a net promise is not a complete employment budget.
Supply the signed contract and amendments, the starting date, position, work location, working schedule, basic remuneration and applicable supplements. Personal identifiers must match the documents used for registration. A foreign passport number, a Bulgarian foreigner’s personal number and the identifier used in social insurance reporting are not interchangeable without checking the person’s registration. Also identify any other employment, existing insurance certificate or work outside Bulgaria that could change the calculation.
Bulgaria’s electronic employment record, known as ЕЕТЗ, records legally relevant employment information. It is maintained through the National Revenue Agency, or NRA, called НАП in Bulgarian. Under Article 62(3) of the Labour Code and the NRA’s employment-register guidance, contracts and reportable changes generally require registration within three days; termination requires registration within seven days. The starting-date information must be entered before the employee starts. A later payroll declaration does not repair an omitted employment entry.
Income tax and social insurance have separate calculation rules. The ordinary employment income-tax rate is 10% of the statutory taxable base, after the relevant adjustments; it is not simply 10% of every amount transferred to an employee. Social insurance depends on the person’s insurance category, the income included in the contribution base and the limits applicable to the particular month. The NRA’s personal income-tax guidance explains the tax framework. A single advertised percentage cannot reliably describe every employee’s total payroll cost.
For example, a bonus for an earlier period, a second employer or a month containing unpaid leave can alter the data needed for calculation. Tell the payroll team what the payment represents, which period it concerns and when it was approved and paid. Reimbursing a documented business expense is a different question from awarding extra remuneration. The transfer description should follow the substance and supporting documents, rather than determine the treatment by itself.
Provide approved attendance and leave information, sick-leave certificates, overtime and shift data where relevant, bonus decisions, deductions and details of joiners or leavers. Agree a monthly cut-off with the person responsible for supplying this information. If a change occurs after that date, report it immediately with its effective date; do not simply include it in the next month’s figures without reviewing the affected period.
ARG helps organise this information into a payroll cycle that a business owner can approve and fund. The agreed scope can cover calculation, the payroll register, individual payslip information, preparation and submission of statutory declarations, and payment instructions. Employment-contract work, historical corrections, international insurance analysis and other additional tasks should be identified at the outset. That gives you a usable payroll service and makes clear which decisions and payments remain with the employer.
Tell us where you live, how your business works and what you want to change. We will help you identify the questions to resolve and the next steps to consider.
A reliable payroll month ends with three matching records: the approved calculation, the accepted declarations and the payments actually made. Each answers a different question. The calculation explains what the employee and authorities are owed; the declarations report the statutory information; the bank records show whether the company paid. Review them together, particularly when salary payments and tax payments are authorised by different people.
Paid annual leave, unpaid leave and medically certified incapacity are distinct categories. Their treatment depends on the type of absence, the relevant entitlement and the employee’s insurance position. For sickness beginning after 31 December 2023, the employer generally bears the first two working days at 70% of the statutory daily remuneration base, subject to the eligibility conditions and exceptions in Article 40 of the Social Insurance Code. This is not a universal two-day payment for every absence.
The National Social Security Institute’s sickness-benefit guidance distinguishes employer remuneration from benefits funded by state social insurance. In an ordinary sickness case, the required insurance history is relevant; special rules apply, including for persons under 18 and occupational accidents. A continuation of uninterrupted incapacity does not automatically restart the employer’s first-two-day obligation. Send the complete certificate sequence and identify any overlapping or corrected document so the payroll team can treat one continuous absence consistently.
Leave and bonuses also affect the closing calculation when an employee leaves. Supply the termination document, actual last working day, leave balance and any agreed or statutory compensation. Review the legal basis of each payment separately. A single final bank transfer may contain ordinary salary, leave compensation and other amounts with different calculation or reporting consequences. Keep a breakdown that the employee can understand.
Form 1, called декларация образец 1, reports individual insurance information. Form 6 reports the corresponding aggregate contribution obligations and employment income tax under its applicable rules. Under Ordinance H-13 and the NRA’s filing instructions, an employer’s ordinary monthly Form 1 deadline is the 25th of the following month; the contribution part of Form 6 is submitted with Form 1. Late accruals, additional remuneration and tax-withholding events require their own timing analysis.
Submission is followed by processing. Save the NRA acceptance result, not only the initial receipt number. If records are rejected because identifiers, periods or totals do not match, establish the reason and correct the affected submission. A payroll file should also show what was corrected and why. This matters when an employee later needs an accurate insurance record for benefits or retirement.
No. The contractual salary date, contribution payment dates, tax-withholding deadlines and employment-register events form separate obligations. Prepare a calendar showing the relevant period, amount, recipient and authorised payer for each action. A return filed on time does not settle a contribution liability; a salary transfer does not prove that the withheld tax reached the NRA. Check the company’s tax account where a payment is missing, misallocated or unexpectedly shown as outstanding.
If payroll information arrives after a salary has already been paid, first reconcile the payment with the period and legal basis. Then determine whether the calculation, declarations, employment entry or employee balance needs adjustment. Do not disguise an earlier error as an unexplained deduction from a future salary. Any recovery from the employee must also respect the rules governing lawful deductions.
Tell us before the person begins working from another country, is posted to Bulgaria, has concurrent work abroad or supplies an A1 certificate. An A1 identifies the applicable social security legislation within the coordination rules; it does not itself determine income-tax residence or permission to work. A foreign nationality alone does not establish where contributions should be paid. The actual work pattern and supporting documents are essential to deciding which system applies.
For a transfer from another payroll provider, provide the current contracts, year-to-date payroll totals, leave balances, accepted declarations, unpaid obligations and relevant correspondence. Preserve historical files and agree who will complete outstanding corrections. At year end, identify whether the employer must make the annual employment income-tax reconciliation and what employee declarations or earlier-employer information are required.
Payroll records contain personal and salary information. Use an agreed secure channel, limit access to the responsible people and keep an identifiable final version for each month. To begin, send ARG the planned first payroll month, employee count, contract types and any international work arrangements. We can then define the regular deliverables, information deadlines and issues that must be resolved before the first calculation.
Compare the related procedures in this category, including their requirements and the stage at which you need them.
.svg)
.svg)
