DIAN electronic payroll: everything you need to know in 2026

Just as electronic invoicing transformed the way you sell, electronic payroll transformed the way you pay your employees. If your company has employees on payroll and has not yet automated the generation of the electronic payroll payment support document, you are operating with an unnecessary tax risk. Here we explain what it is, who must comply and how to integrate it into your accounting operation.

What is the electronic payroll payment support document?

The electronic payroll payment support document is an XML file, electronically signed and transmitted to DIAN, that certifies the payments and compensation a company makes to its employees in a given period. It does not replace the employment contract or the payslip the employee receives, but it is the support that DIAN recognizes as valid so that the company can deduct those payments as a cost or expense in its income tax return.

In other words: if you pay payroll but do not generate the support document correctly, those payments —salaries, statutory benefits, bonuses— run the risk of not being tax deductible, which translates into higher income tax for your company at the end of the year.

Who is required?

All employers that make payments or account credits arising from an employment relationship or a legal and regulatory relationship, and from service contracts treated as payroll, are required to generate the electronic payroll support document, regardless of their tax regime or the number of employees they have. The obligation applies both to large companies and to SMBs with a single formal employee.

How is the electronic payroll XML generated?

In practice, the process follows these steps:

• The payroll for the period is calculated (salaries, overtime, commissions, sick leave, vacations, among other items).
• The payroll software translates that calculation into the technical schema defined by DIAN (an XML file with a specific field structure).
• The document is electronically signed and sent through an enabled technology provider.
• DIAN validates the document and responds with an acknowledgment of receipt; only then is the support document fully valid.
• If later adjustments are needed (for example, correcting incorrectly calculated overtime), an adjustment note is generated that references the original document.

Required fields: earnings, deductions and social security

The electronic payroll XML is not a simple summary: it requires an itemized breakdown of each item. Among the most relevant fields are:

• Earnings: base salary, daytime and nighttime overtime, surcharges, commissions, bonuses, transportation allowance, sick leave, leaves of absence, vacations taken or paid out.
• Deductions: health and pension contributions paid by the employee, withholding tax, loans, court-ordered garnishments, among others.
• Social security and payroll contributions: health, pension and occupational risk contributions paid by the employer, plus payroll contributions to family compensation funds, ICBF and SENA where applicable.
• Employee and contract information: type of contract, position, base salary, cost center if applicable.

A common mistake is to feed this document with summarized information instead of itemized information. DIAN expects the full detail, item by item, not just the net amount paid.

What is the CUNE?

The CUNE (Código Único de Nómina Electrónica, the Unique Electronic Payroll Code) plays a role equivalent to the CUFE on invoices: it is a one-of-a-kind digital fingerprint generated from the content of the support document, which makes it possible to verify its authenticity and integrity with DIAN at any time. Each payroll support document —and each associated adjustment note— has its own CUNE.

Electronic payroll vs. PILA: they are not the same

The two obligations are often confused, but they serve different purposes:

• PILA (Planilla Integrada de Liquidación de Aportes, the Integrated Contributions Form): is the mechanism for paying social security and payroll contributions (health, pension, ARL occupational risk insurance, family compensation funds) to the information operators and the corresponding administrators.
• Electronic payroll (support document): is the tax document that certifies to DIAN the labor payments made, for income tax deductibility purposes.

Both obligations must be consistent with each other: the social security amounts reported in the payroll support document must match what was actually paid in the PILA for the same period. When these two systems are not connected, it is common to find differences that are hard to explain later during a tax audit.

How to integrate electronic payroll with accounting

The biggest benefit of automating this process is not just complying with DIAN: it is eliminating double data entry between the payroll module and the accounting module. When both systems are integrated, each payroll run automatically generates its support document, its CUNE and the corresponding accrual journal entry —salaries, statutory benefits, employer contributions— without anyone having to transcribe figures from one system to another.

Electronic payroll, far from being just one more procedure, is an opportunity to put in order a process that in many SMBs still depends on scattered spreadsheets and manual calculations prone to error.