A payroll gestoría handles everything to do with your employees: contracts, payslips, social security registrations and the quarterly filings that come with having staff.
You need one from your first employee. Not the fifth, not when things get complicated: the first, because the obligations start the day someone begins working for you.
Here is what it covers, what it costs, which titles are actually regulated, and what happens when something is filed late.
The work splits between what happens once and what repeats every month.
This is the part nobody explains, and in employment matters it counts for more than anywhere else.
Graduado social is a regulated profession with mandatory registration, requiring a specific degree in labour relations and human resources.
It also has something no other figure on this list shares: it is one of the three legal professions in Spain entitled to represent clients in court proceedings, alongside lawyers and procuradores, within employment and social security law.
Gestor administrativo is regulated too, with mandatory registration.
"Asesor laboral" is not. It is not a protected title and requires no registration.
Why this matters: if an employee takes you to the labour court, a registered graduado social can represent you. An adviser without that qualification cannot. It is the difference between having someone who sees it through and having to find a defence once the claim has already landed.
The employment side is almost always billed separately from the tax side.
The full breakdown of what a gestoría includes and what it bills separately is in gestoría prices for autónomos.
As everywhere in this sector, advertised prices usually exclude VAT. Add 21% before comparing.
From your first employee. There is no threshold at which the obligations begin: they start with the first contract.
Also when you hire a family member, even part-time, or take on an intern. Both situations have their own rules and both are frequently got wrong.
And when your sector's collective agreement has specifics: allowances, job categories or working hours that cannot be improvised.
What you do not need is a payroll gestoría if you work alone. A self-employed person with no staff has none of these obligations, however much they invoice.
They are bought together and confused constantly.
One firm can handle all three, but each is billed separately. Having tax advice does not mean payroll is included, and that is a common surprise when hiring a first employee.
Yes. The obligations start with the first contract: prior social security registration, contract reporting, monthly payslips, contribution filings and withholding returns. There is no minimum headcount that exempts you.
Between 5 and 20 euros per employee per month, usually plus a base fee. Advertised prices normally exclude VAT, and dismissals and disputes are almost always billed separately.
In practice the terms are used interchangeably, but the titles are not. "Gestor administrativo" and "graduado social" are regulated professions with mandatory registration. "Asesor laboral" is not a protected title, so anyone can use it.
Legally yes, with a digital certificate and access to the RED system. In practice the hard part is not calculating the payslip but applying the right collective agreement and meeting the deadlines, because errors carry surcharges.
Before they start working, not after. Prior registration with social security is one of the first things a labour inspection checks.
It is the regulated profession specialising in employment and social security law, with mandatory registration. It matters because it is one of three legal professions in Spain able to represent you in court, limited to employment matters.
Usually not. They are separate services billed separately, even when the same firm handles both. Confirm it before you hire your first employee.
