This article shows how to manage, review, and approve preliminary payroll data, and create an Excel export file.

How does monthly payroll with preliminary payroll work?

Personio's preliminary payroll process lets you consolidate, review, approve, and export payroll data. You can then send the Excel export to your payroll accountant to complete the monthly cycle.

Here are the steps for the monthly payroll cycle:

1. Review data: Check the payroll table for errors and correct them.
2. Approve preliminary payroll: After approval, the payroll table is finalized and changes are no longer marked.
3. Export data: Export the preliminary payroll in the form of an Excel file for next steps. 
4. Upload payslips: Upload payslips into your employee's documents (optional).

The monthly payroll process with preliminary payroll

1. Review data
   Go to Payroll and select a legal entity and payroll group (if set up). The payroll table is in the review status, and you can check changes for each employee in the Personal info, Salary and Time off tabs. Click on the relevant employee for more details on data changes.
   Read our article on the preliminary payroll section for further details.
2. Approve the preliminary payroll
   Click Approve payroll and confirm the approval in the pop-up window. The payroll table will be fixed, and its status will change to approved.
3. Download the Excel file and send it to your accountant
   Click on Documents and download the created Excel file Payroll_MM_YYYY_number.xlsx.
   Send this file to your payroll accountant to finalize the payroll cycle. 
   Tip
   If your accountant has access to Personio, they can pull this data themselves.
4. Create additional export files (optional)
   In case there is more data to be collected, for example, attendance for hourly wages or time off that were approved after you approved the payroll, you can create additional exports by clicking on Generate export.
5. Finalize the payroll and upload payslips
   Your payroll accountant finalizes the payroll and generates the payslips for the respective month. You can upload the payslips in the Documents tab of your employees' personal profiles. Learn how to do this via multi-upload.