This article explains how to configure your preliminary payroll settings. For answers to frequently asked questions on preliminary payroll, read our dedicated article.

Note:
Something seems different? Preliminary payroll settings are moving from the Settings area to the Manage tab. Eventually, they will be available only in the Manage tab.

Before you start

To set up preliminary payroll, you need to have administrator access to Personio.

Access the Manage tab

To access preliminary payroll settings:

1. Go to Payroll > Manage.
2. Choose a legal entity, if enabled.

The Manage tab is your central hub for efficiently setting up and managing preliminary payroll settings. Here, you can directly handle legal entity settings, such as payroll groups and salary proration.

Set up Payroll groups

You can use payroll groups to further segment employees within a legal entity. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to Payroll and select a legal entity, if enabled.
2. Click the Manage tab and go to General > Payroll processing.
3. Choose the attribute that you want to group by.
4. Click Save.

Configure reminders

To set up admin task reminders for preliminary payroll review, specify the day of the month on which admins should receive the task to review preliminary payroll. To do this:

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Payroll section, click Salary and payroll.
3. Under Reminders,  select the date you want admins to receive the reminder.
4. Your changes are saved automatically.

In order for reminders to be sent to Personio users, they have to be enabled in their personal profile, too. To do this, individual users need to:

1. Go to the Avatar > Personal Settings.
2. Select Notifications.
3. Under Payroll review, activate the notification for the Dashboard and, if enabled, via Email.
4. Save the entry.

Employees can only receive reminders set up in preliminary payroll if this is enabled in the employee's personal profile.

Define salary proration

To define the basis for prorate salary calculation on a legal entity level, you can choose from six calculation methods. For detailed information on and examples of these methods, read our article dedicated to proration methods.

To set the proration method, follow these steps:

1. Go to Payroll and select a legal entity, if enabled.
2. Open the Manage tab and go to Salary proration.
3. Decide the proration method you want to use. Read our article detailing proration methods for more information and calculation examples.
4. Save the entry.

Set up payroll periods

Payroll periods are used as the basis for proration calculations, and determine the time frame used for tracking hours and leave periods.

You can set one payroll period per payroll group. If you do not have set up payroll groups, payroll periods are set at the legal entity level. To set up payroll periods, follow these steps:

1. Go to Payroll and select a legal entity, if enabled.
2. Open the Manage tab and go to Payroll periods.
3. Click the edit button to manage payroll periods and set the payroll period dates for each payroll group.
4. Save your changes.

Once updated, payroll periods are set from the following month. To see past payroll periods per payroll group, click on History in the relevant group.

Configure payroll data

The columns in your payroll table and export depend on how you set them up here. You can customize them for each legal entity separately. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to Payroll and select a legal entity, if enabled.
2. Open the Manage tab and go to Payroll data.
3. Under Payroll data, Click Payroll identifiers. Select up to two attributes to identify employees across all tabs and exported sheets.
4. Click Personal information. Define the employee attributes you want to track in Payroll.
5. Add personal, salary, and absence attributes (for daily and hourly absences).
6. Under Time off, select all the absence types you wish to display in the absence tab and the export.
7. Click Export data. Select which attributes can be included in the export. Click Save.

Note:
The export doesn't include Time Off balance attributes (for example, accrual, balance, or carryover).

Next steps

• Learn more about preliminary payroll in our dedicated FAQ article.
• Read our article dedicated to proration methods for detailed information and examples.
• Read our article on the monthly payroll process with Preliminary payroll.