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This article explains the tasks that you can perform in the Compliance tab of the Payroll.

A1 certificate

What are A1 certificates?

An A1-Bescheinigung is confirmation of social security protection in Germany that employees in a European country must carry with them when working on a business trip to certain EU and EEA member states. For more information, read our Help Center article Foreign assignments.

If you have employees in your organization who are planning a business trip within Europe, you, as the employer, must apply for the A1 certificate. With Personio Payroll, you can submit an A1 application and receive an approved form from your authority through the Reporting tab. You can choose from three different types of A1 certificate for your employees: 

Request an A1 certificate

Step 1: Create A1 application

1. Go to Payroll > Compliance.
2. Click on New action and choose A1 certificate.
3. Choose the respective option and click Start application to request the A1 form.

Step 2: Complete and submit the A1 application.

1. Fill out all mandatory fields for the respective employee. Details marked in gray are automatically taken from the employee profile. You can make any changes to this information in your employee profile.
2. If the information is complete, give your agreement under Employer declaration and click A1 Send request.

Please note:
Information that violates the ITSG guidelines will result in warnings. Applications with this type of data may result in rejection. The warnings provided are intended to help you with this but won't prevent you from sending the application if the information is correct. 

Step 3: Received A1 certificate

Once you have sent the application and the authorities have received it, you can see whether it has been sent for the respective employee by going to Compliance > All communications. Go to View details to review the certificate and application status. This means that employees can travel with their document, even if their application has not yet been approved.

As soon as the application has been approved, you can view it in Compliance and send it to the respective employee profile. In the case of total or partial rejection, the details are displayed that have not been approved, and you can proceed based on this.

Electronically supported operational audit (euBP) 

What is euBP?

Through euBP, employers can electronically provide the pension insurance audit service with relevant company data before a company audit. The required personnel, payroll and reporting data are transmitted to the pension insurance institution in standardized data sets. 

Once you have received a letter from the pension insurance, you can use Personio Payroll to create an euBP application and send all relevant data directly to the pension insurance.

Create and submit an euBP application

Step 1: Create an euBP application

1. Go to Payroll > Compliance.
2. Click on New action and choose Social insurances audit.
3. Confirm the legal entity you need to audit and click Next.

Step 2: Fill in the euBP application

1. Answer all the questions shown.
2. If the information is complete, click on Next.

Step 3: Select business locations

From the communication with the pension insurance, you will be able to see which permanent establishments and time frames are checked. This involves the following steps:

1. Choose the relevant permanent establishments to be checked.
2. Select the checked time frame for each permanent establishment.
3. Click Retrieve data.

Step 4: Check and send data

1. Review the preview of the data.
2. Click Submit . 
3. After the final check, click Submit to submit your data.

Please note:
Only once all data has been entered can it be transmitted from Personio. Please note that if the time frame of the check starts before Personio Payroll is used, the requested data set is not fully available. In such cases, you can transmit all data from the period before you used Personio to the pension insurance separately via Cryptshare (a third-party provider).

Once the request is submitted, you can view the details by going to Compliance > All communications.

Electronic compensation for reduced income (EEL)

What is EEL?

Employers send electronic remuneration statements (EELs) to health insurers when employees request compensation for a longer absence. 

How to create an EEL notification and submit it to the relevant social security institution can be found in our article on the topic . 

Contribution Estimation

What is the Contribution Estimation?

Employers must send their contribution statement for social security contributions to the collection center by 12:00 AM on the fifth last bank working day of the month. If a monthly salary is calculated based on the hours worked, the exact amounts are not usually available at that time and have to be estimated.

Personio Payroll automatically calculates the expected contribution amount for the relevant payroll month. In the Compliance tab:

• A monthly contribution estimation is created for each subcompany and within the subcompany for each permanent establishment, health insurer and legal entity (East/West).
• You can review and adjust this contribution estimation.
• You can send contribution statements with contribution estimations to the respective collection center.

This contribution statement is sent automatically in the contribution statement when payroll is approved. Only the values that are already entered in the system are taken into account and an expected contribution liability is determined. The balance of the contribution is automatically transferred to the next month's contribution statement.

For further information about the contribution statement, its structure, due dates and the assessment process, please read our article on this topic.

Please note:
The contribution estimation function of Personio Payroll calculates only the expected amount of contributions for the respective billing month. The application of the simplification rule is not supported.

Review, adjust and submit the contribution estimation

A notice: 
As much data (e.g., recorded hours) as possible should be available in the system at the time of the estimate. Employers must ensure their estimated social insurance contributions are as close as possible to the actual amount.

Review the contribution estimation

To check the contribution estimation:

1. Go to Payroll > Compliance.
2. Filter for the Contribution estimation category and click on the subcompany and health insurer you want to check.
3. Open and review the contribution estimation for the relevant payroll month.

Adjust the contribution estimation

You can adjust the contributions calculated in the contribution estimation by clicking on the respective contribution field. For example, if you expect a certain number of hours to be worked by the end of the month, you can add them.

Tip:
If you are unsure about estimated contribution values, please contact your responsible Payroll Specialists.

Submit your contribution estimation

To submit your contribution estimation, click the relevant button. The contribution statement is automatically sent to the collection center. This also happens automatically when the payroll is approved.

Electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU)

What is the eAU?

The eAU is an electronic certificate of incapacity for work (formerly known as "gelber Zettel" (yellow note). It will be automatically requested from the health insurer if:

• When creating an absence type in Settings > Absences > Sickness category is specified.
• In the sick leave request, under the attendance tab, the option " I have been issued an electronic certificate of incapacity for work for this case of illness" is selected.

For more information on the eAU, read our article on the topic.

Please note:
Since our system has only been in operation since 2024, eAU requests that are older than four years are not possible.

Status of eAU retrieval

The status of the eAU retrieval can be viewed within the absence period in the employee profile or under Payroll > Reporting.

Status of the eAU (electronic sick note) during absence in the employee profile 

Compliance 

Different cases can appear in the Reporting system tab of Personio Payroll:

Delete absences and eAUs

Delete an absence after you have sent an eAU request to the health insurer only in the following cases:

• Incorrect information: If the absence or employee data contains errors and you need to correct the information sent to the health insurance company.
• Response pending: If you have not yet received a response from your health insurance company.

Once you have received a definite answer from the insurer (whether the eAU is covered or hasn't been found), you can only delete the absence if the information provided was incorrect.

Please make sure that all information is correct before submission in order to prevent unnecessary deletions.