Implement the childcare ticket In a company there are six steps, and what most determines the outcome is not any of them: it is launching it at the right time of the school calendar.
This guide outlines the prerequisites for the benefit to be exempt from IRPF, the six steps in order, the division of tasks between HR, the workforce, and the provider, and the window of the year when it should be implemented.
If what you're looking for is what this benefit is and how it works, you have it in «Cheque Guardería: what it is, how it works and how to make the most of it». Here we go directly to the implementation.
Before planning anything, it is advisable to check three things. If any of them is not met, the benefit is not exempt from income tax and loses most of its value.
The children's center. They must provide early childhood education for children aged 0 to 3 years old and be authorized by the educational administration of their autonomous community. Public, private and contracted infant schools are authorized. Playrooms, camps and home care are not authorized.
The employee. It must be the parent, the mother or the legal guardian of the minor, and the place must be in the name of the child. There is no requirement for income or the type of contract.
The company. You must contract the service with the center, either directly or indirectly through a provider. Reimbursing the employee for a receipt that he has paid does not meet the requirement: the law requires contracting by the company. This is the most common mistake and the one that invalidates the exemption.
With those three points resolved, the rest is operational.
Before hiring anything, find out how many people would use it. An anonymous, three-question internal survey is enough:
The third is what matters. It measures real intent, not generic interest.
With that data, you can estimate the adoption rate, size your budget if you’re going to bear part of the cost, and decide whether it’s worth launching this course or the next one.
If you already offer other benefits in kind, onboarding is simpler: the payroll structure and the validation circuit already exist.
This decision precedes that of the provider, because it determines the budget and the payroll system. There are three options.
Flexible remuneration. The employee allocates part of their gross salary to the cost of childcare. They are exempt from income tax without a specific exemption limit for this service, provided that the above requirements are met. There is no additional payroll cost for the company. This is the usual way to get started.
Social benefit. The company assumes the cost of the service. For the employee, it is exempt from IRPF; for the company, it is a deductible expense on the Corporate Tax. It has a cost, and it also has the greatest impact on revenue collection.
Mixed model. The company and the employee share the cost. It allows setting a limited budget and the employee completes the rest with their own gross salary. How the savings are calculated in this case, in how does the mixed model work.
To compare the tax advantage of this benefit with that of others before deciding, the details in euros are as follows: Which social benefits are fiscally more advantageous.
Four criteria that make a difference in practice:
You can see how it works in practice in Edenred Guardería, and how the onboarding is managed from the platform Edenred Flex.
According to the II Study on Labor Welfare and Health in Spain 2026, prepared by Edenred together with Savia, the digital health arm of MAPFRE, 58% of workers are unaware of the social benefits their company offers them. This is where the most plans get lost: not in the design, but in the communication.
Four things the squad needs to understand, in this order:
And a channel that usually works better than email: a fifteen-minute session with the calculation done on screen for a real case.
The circuit has four fixed points:
What is worth defining in writing before starting: who validates, within what timeframe regarding payroll closure, and what happens with a late request. These are the three questions that cause issues in the first month.
Four indicators at six months:
If the adoption falls below 30% of the eligible workforce, review the communication before touching the benefit design. That's almost always the case.
To frame it within a complete plan of flexible remuneration, the entire journey is in the checklist for small businesses.
Interest in this benefit is not stable throughout the year. In the search data, April triples the average: 9,172 impressions compared to about 3,000 in a normal month, with March being the second peak.
It coincides with the school pre-registration period, when families decide on the center and price. This is when the benefit is valued more and when adoption is more common.
From there, two windows open:
The worst time is May and June: the decisions are already made and the profit doesn't change anything until September.
If you want to assess how it would fit into your company, our team can help you size it up and get it up and running.
Human Resources professional with a solid track record in talent management and a strong commitment to optimising the employee value proposition. Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to develop my expertise in international environments and consulting firms, specialising in talent attraction and retention through advanced strategies such as flexible remuneration. Currently, as Key Account Manager (KAM) at Edenred, I collaborate closely with major clients to design and implement strategic compensation and benefits solutions that enhance corporate well-being and organisational engagement.
