Create Document Templates – Placeholders – Personio

This article explains how to use placeholders in document templates. The placeholders covered here apply to employee data only.

Personio also uses placeholders in recruiting.

Create a text template with placeholders

First, create a text document in MS Workplace (DOCX/DOTX) or OpenOffice (ODT/OTT). Edit and format the document as usual. When you use placeholders, place them inside two sets of curly brackets.

You can use three different types of placeholders:

Predefined system placeholders, for system attributes
Custom placeholders, for attributes you have created
Free placeholders, that do not reference attributes

Predefined and custom placeholders are selected when the template is used to create a document, and automatically populate with the corresponding employee data. Free placeholders can be populated with free text.

Predefined system placeholders

Placeholders are linked to system attributes and must always be in English, regardless of the language the template uses.

For example: {{first_name}}

Predefined placeholders	Employee attribute
first_name	First name (legal)
last_name	Last name
preferred_name	Name (preferred)
email	Email address
position	Position
department	Department
team_id	Team
gender	Gender
status	Status
employment_type	Employment type
hire_date	Hire date
probation_period	Duration of the Probation Period
probation_period_custom	Probation period end
contract_end_date	Contract end date
termination_type	Termination type
termination_reason	Termination reason
termination_date	Termination date
last_working_day	Last working day
document_date	Document's creation date
full_time_weekly_working_hours	Weekly hours
children	Children
supervisor	Supervisor's full name
supervisor_position	Supervisor's position
office_id	Workplace
subcompany	Legal entity
fix_salary	Effective salary
hourly_salary	Hourly wages
FTE	FTE
last_login	Last login
cost_centers	Cost center
date_of_birth	Date of birth

You can find detailed information on the use of gender variables and date formatting in the linked articles.

In Personio, the placeholders are displayed as follows under Employee Profile > Documents:

Custom placeholders

These placeholders are linked to attributes that you create freely in Personio, and they must be named in the same language as your Personio account.

Make sure to use the exact name that you used for the attributes. For example: {{Name Bank}} {{IBAN}} {{BIC}}

In the Personio document management, this would look as follows:

Note:
The system cannot process the ampersand ("&") symbol. If used, the placeholder will appear empty.

Free placeholders

These placeholders are not linked to attributes and therefore have no naming requirements. You will have to manually fill in these placeholders with text.

For example: {{Task 1}}

List a fixed number of points

In a Word document, you could, for example, use the following individual text blocks to list a fixed number of points, like tasks or benefits (best practice templates):

||His|Her|| tasks included the following:
{{Task 1}}
{{Task 2}}
{{Task 3}}

In the Personio document management, this would look as follows:

Benefits included:
[[Benefits
[One Benefit: 
{{Benefit 1}}]

[Two Benefits:
{{Benefit 1}}
{{Benefit 2}}]

[Three Benefits:
{{Benefit 1}}
{{Benefit 2}}
{{Benefit 3}}]
]]

List an optional number of points

You can also create a flexible number of tasks. This is useful if, for example, you want to enter the tasks individually without being committed to a certain number. Use the following formatting for this:

|| His|Her|| area of responsibilities included the following tasks:
[[Tasks
[One task:
• {{Task 1}}]
[Two tasks:
• {{Task 1}}
• {{Task 2}}]
[Three tasks:
• {{Task 1}}
• {{Task 2}}
• {{Task 3}}]
[Four tasks:
• {{Task 1}}
• {{Task 2}}
• {{Task 3}}
•{{Task 4}}]
]]

In the Documents tab of the employee profile, select the required number of tasks under Options, and then fill out the corresponding free placeholders. The number of placeholders in the document will correspond to the number you selected.

Common template errors

Common reasons for errors when uploading a template include:

File format is not supported

Ensure the file has been saved in a supported format: DOCX/DOTX, or ODT/OTT.

Incorrect placeholders

If you do not include the correct amount of special characters for placeholders, you might receive an error message that references an odd number of variable delimiters.
- Check that each placeholder starts and ends with two brackets: {{ }}, [[ ]].
- Use the correct type of brackets (curly or square) based on the placeholder.
Ensure that pre-defined or custom attributes used in placeholders are spelled correctly.
Check for consistent spelling and capitalization across all signature placeholders in the document. For example, @@signer@@ is not the same as @@Signer@@.
If the placeholder starts with, or only contains a number, the template will not work.

Invalid signature placeholders

If you see an error message about invalid signature placeholders when uploading a document template:
- Make sure signature placeholders in the document do not include special characters like: "", ;, `, ', ä, ö, ü, …, or •.
- Document template uploads will fail if a placeholder contains any of these characters.

Additional elements causing errors

Headers, footers, images, or tables included in the file might cause errors. Remove them one by one and try uploading again.

Incompatible characters

If you notice errors while previewing a document, check for incompatible characters.
If there is a multi-line text field that autofills with info from an employee profile containing characters such as "", ;, `, ', ä, ö, ü, …, or •, you must download the template, remove the fields, and upload the template again.

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