This article explains how to create document categories where you can store your employee documents, how to create document templates and store them, and finally, how to assign a template so that your employee data is automatically populated in that template.

What are the benefits?

Organize your employee’s documents: use document categories, so each employee knows where to find documents relevant for them, such as payslips, contracts, or employee manuals.
Streamline your work: create document templates with placeholders. Personio automatically populates these templates with your employees’ data.
Customize documents: use different document templates to match your needs. No matter if it is job references or promotion letters, you can customize and automate your repetitive HR processes to increase efficiency.

Step 1: Create document categories

In Personio, you can configure document categories where you can then store your employee documents. For example, this may include categories such as “Payroll”, “Company Policies”, or “References”. Create and customize document categories before you start to create and store templates.

To create new document categories, follow these steps:

Go to Settings > People > Documents
Click the Categories tab.
In the new document category field, type the name of your new document category and click Add.

Tip
In this area, you can also edit and delete categories. System categories that have a lock function cannot be deleted or renamed since they are linked to Personio's internal processes.

Note
If you create new document categories, ensure that you grant access rights for these categories in your employee roles via Settings > People > Employee Roles. Learn more about Access Rights.

Step 2: Create document templates

You can use document templates as a basis to generate employee-specific documents by inserting placeholders, gender variables, and text blocks for selection. To create document templates, you need a word-processing application. Personio supports templates in Microsoft Office or OpenOffice formats.

You can add placeholders that are automatically populated with the corresponding employee data. Placeholders must always be placed inside two sets of curly brackets.

Personio supports the following three types of placeholders:

Predefined system placeholders: For system attributes that cannot be modified or deleted, such as First Name or Department. These must be named in English, for example {{first_name}} or {{department}}.
Custom placeholders: For attributes you have created. They must be named exactly as they are stored in your Personio account. For example, you may have created an attribute for Preferred Pronouns. As a placeholder, this would be {{Preferred Pronouns}}.
Free placeholders: These do not reference attributes and are manually populated with text when assigning the template to an employee. For example, in your document, you may wish to list the goals employees worked on during a recent performance cycle. This might be {{Goal 1}}.

Find a full list of placeholders and detailed information on how to create document templates in the article Create Document Templates - Placeholders. You can also View and download sample templates.

Step 3: Store a document template in Personio

Once you have created your document template in a word-processing application, you will store it in Personio.

Go to Settings > People > Documents.
Click the Templates tab.
At the bottom of the page, click Add template. Select a document category, name the template, and select the document language. Choose the document template in Microsoft Office or OpenOffice format that you created previously.
Click Upload.

Step 4: Assign a document template

To populate a document template with a specific employee's data, first navigate to the employee’s profile and select the Documents tab. Start configuring the document by clicking on the button New from template to select the desired document template.

On the left of the next screen, you will see a list of all available placeholders and your customized text blocks for selection. This is where the data can be reviewed and added to as required. A preview of the final document is displayed on the right of the screen. You can save the document either in the original format or as a PDF.

The document you have generated can now be accessed in Personio under the relevant employee’s documents, depending on the access rights.

Step 5: Upload documents

You can upload documents individually or in bulk. To learn more about these two options, refer to the following articles:

Next steps

Congratulations 🎉
You can now move on to the next module.

What can we help you with?

Create and manage document categories and templates (Implementation)