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Set up offices and legal entities

This article explains how to map your company structure in Personio by adding both offices and legal entities, and assign employees to them. Adding offices in Personio helps organize employees by their physical locations and enables location-specific reporting and analytics. Additionally, adding legal entities allows for managing compliance with local laws and ensures accurate payroll and benefits administration.

Note
If you are using Personio Payroll, it is essential to set up your company structure correctly. Learn more about setting up your company structure for Personio Payroll.


Set up offices

Add an office

You need to set up each office location as a distinct office in Personio. This allows you to configure the address, currency, time zone, and, if necessary, a customized public holiday calendar for each office.

To set up an office, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings > Offices.
  2. In the New office... field, type a name and click the + button.
  3. After adding the new office, you can fill in the different fields:
  • (0): How many active employees are assigned. If there are none, you can delete the office.
  • Office name: The name you just entered.
  • Currency: The office's currency. This will show in employee profiles for salary and payroll.
  • Timezone: The office's timezone. This is important for import processes and email reminders.
  • Address: The office address is essential if you want to use job portals. 
  • Public holidays: The office's public holiday schedule. This is only relevant if it's different from the company's public holiday schedule, and it's essential for calculating absence balances.

Note:
The Office employee attribute is usually created automatically when you import employee data into Personio. However, it's a good idea to review and update this information manually afterward.


Set up legal entities 

Enable legal entities 

  1. First, assess if you should enable legal entities. The table below shows how legal entities affect feature functionality in Personio:

    Feature Legal entity impact
    Career page

    You can create a separate career page for each legal entity and assign jobs to specific legal entities. Learn more about legal entity branding in recruiting.
    DATEV

    You can set up the DATEV integration for different legal entities.

    However, when you activate legal entities, the DATEV employer settings are deleted, and the authorization is revoked. This ensures that the settings are correct for each legal entity and no data is sent to the wrong recipient.
    Filter by attribute

    You can select the Legal entity attribute for any filter available in Personio. For example, you can use it to give access rights to a specific legal entity. Employees with access rights to a specific legal entity can only access data for that legal entity. Learn more about employee roles and access rights (Implementation).
    Org Chart

    You can display each legal entity and its employees in the Org Chart by filtering by legal entity.
    Payroll

    You can create separate payroll exports for each legal entity. Legal entities are automatically separated in preparatory payroll processes. Learn more about the monthly payroll process in Personio.

    However, when you activate additional legal entities, previously approved payroll periods will no longer be approved, and previously generated exports will no longer be accessible.
    Reports

    You can generate separate reports by creating groups or adding filters for specific legal entities.
  2. Go to Settings > Organization > Company.
  3. Next to Company information, click Edit.
  4. Activate the checkbox for Legal entities functions enabled, and click Submit. 

Add legal entities

  1. Go to Settings > Organization > Legal entities (subcompanies).
  2. Click Add new.
  3. Select a country and, in Legal entity look-up, search for the legal entity's full name and select the right entity. The details are filled in automatically. Alternatively, you can also fill them in manually. 
  4. Click Add.
  5. Repeat the process for every legal entity you need to add. If you add multiple legal entities, select the legal entity you want as your main legal entity and click Set as main.

If you are experiencing errors while filling in the attributes for a legal entity, take a look at the following tables (and also to this payroll-related table, if your company is based in Germany):


General information

Attribute Validation rules ▶︎ error is triggered if...
Name
  • the value is < 3 characters long.
  • the first character is either of the following: space, underscore, minus sign, plus sign, comma, semicolon, colon, star, period, hashtag.
  • the value is the company registration number.

Note
The company type (GmbH, AG, etc.) must stand at the end by itself and is case-sensitive.
Examples:
▶︎ PERSONIO GROUP SE
▶︎ Personio SE & Co KG

Errors appear if:
▶︎ a word is missing: PERSONIO SE
▶︎ wrong order: PERSONIO SE GROUP
▶︎ spelling error: PERSONIO GRUOP SE
Registration number
  • value is not exactly 8 characters long.
  • the first three digits of the registration number begin with any of the following combinations: 000, 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 996, 997.

Note
Find out more about the company registration number for Germany-based legal entities.
Email
  • the value is > 70 characters long.
  • the @ character appears more than once.
  • the @, <, > characters or an apostrophe appear at the beginning or the end of the value.
  • the value contains anything apart from the following:
exclamation mark ! ampersand &
quotation mark " apostrophe '
number sign # round bracket open or closed ()
dollar $ asterisk *
percent % plus +
comma , hyphen -
period . slash /
digits 0-9 colon :
semicolon ; less than <
equal to = greater than >
question mark ? paragraph §
@ uppercase letters A-Z, Ä, Ö, Ü
accent circumflex ^ lowercase letters a–z, ä, ö, ü
accent grave ` underscore _ 
Phone
  • the value is > 20 characters or < 7 characters long.
  • the value contains anything apart from the following characters: digits, hyphens, slashes, parentheses, spaces, plus sign.
  • a plus sign is included anywhere apart from the first character.
  • the first character is anything apart from a plus sign, a zero, or an opening parenthesis.
  • the value contains a plus sign followed by a zero.
  • the value contains only zeros.

 

Address

Attribute Validation rules ▶︎ error is triggered if…
Street address name
  • the value is > 33 characters, < 2 characters
    ▶︎ Exception: Can be 1 capital letter long. ✅ ab | ✅ A | ❌ a
  • you use any other characters than the following: letters, numbers, spaces, periods, commas, hyphens, slashes, apostrophes, parentheses, ampersands, quotation marks.
  • any of the special characters (spaces, commas, apostrophes, hyphens, slashes, and periods) appear more than once in a row
    ▶︎ Example: Streetname,,
  • the value starts with three identical letters.
    ▶︎ Exception 1: it begins with "III." and has additional characters after that.
    ▶︎ Exception 2: it begins with “MMM-Str”.
  • the value starts with anything that is not letters, digits, apostrophes, or quotation marks.
  • the value starts with a series of digits that is not followed by a letter, a period, a space, or a hyphen.
  • value contains a series of digits that is not followed by a letter, a period, a space, a hyphen, a slash, or a comma.
  • the value contains a period that does not immediately follow a letter or digit.
  • the value ends in a space or a hyphen.
Street address number
  • the value is > 9 characters.
  • the value contains any other characters than the following: letters, digits, commas, spaces, hyphens, slashes, and periods.
  • the first and last characters are not letters or digits.
  • any of the special characters (spaces, commas, spaces, hyphens, slashes, and periods) appear more than once in a row.
    ▶︎ Example: Shaftesbury House 151*
City
  • the value has > 34 characters or < 2 characters.
  • the value contains anything that is not the following: letters, periods, commas, spaces, hyphens, slashes, parentheses.
  • any of the special characters (spaces, commas, hyphens, slashes, and periods) appear more than once in a row.
    ▶︎ Example: Munich,,
  • the value starts with three identical letters.
  • the value does not start with a capital letter.
  • a period appears after anything that is not a letter.
  • the last character is not a letter, a period, or a closing parenthesis.
Postcode
  • the value lies outside the range (example: outside 01000 to 99999 for Germany-based legal entities).
State

Note
This field only appears if you select Germany as the legal entity's country.

 

Mailing address

Attribute Validation rules ▶︎ error is triggered if…
Name
  • the value contains a space as the first character.
PO box number
  • the value is > 10 characters long.

Note
This field is only mandatory if you select PO box as address type. If you select International mailing address or Standard mailing address, it can be left empty.
Street address name
  • the value is > 33 characters, < 2 characters
    ▶︎ Exception: Can be 1 capital letter long. ✅ ab | ✅ A | ❌ a
  • you use any characters that are not the following: letters, numbers, spaces, periods, commas, hyphens, slashes, apostrophes, parentheses, ampersands, quotation marks.
  • any of the special characters (spaces, commas, apostrophes, hyphens, slashes, and periods) appear more than once in a row
    ▶︎ Example: Streetname,,
  • the value starts with three identical letters.
    ▶︎ Exception 1: it begins with "III." and has additional characters after that.
    ▶︎ Exception 2: it begins with “MMM-Str”.
  • the value starts with anything that is not letters, digits, apostrophes, or quotation marks.
  • the value starts with a series of digits that is not followed by a letter, a period, a space, or a hyphen.
  • value contains a series of digits that is not followed by a letter, a period, a space, a hyphen, a slash, or a comma.
  • the value contains a period that does not immediately follow a letter or digit.
  • the value ends in a space or a hyphen.

Note
This field is only mandatory if you select Standard mailing address as address type. If you select International mailing address or PO box, it can be left empty.
Street address number
  • the value is > 9 characters.
  • the value contains any characters that are not the following: letters, digits, commas, spaces, hyphens, slashes, and periods.
  • the first and last characters are not letters or digits.
  • any of the special characters (spaces, commas, spaces, hyphens, slashes, and periods) appear more than once in a row.
    ▶︎ Example: Shaftesbury House 151*
Postcode
  • the Country is set to Germany and the value lies outside of the range 01000 to 99999.
  • Country is set to any of the values from below, and the value does not match the corresponding structure on the list.
Country Digits Allowed characters 
N = number, A = capital letter
Austria 4 NNNN
Belgium 4 NNNN
Canada 7 ANA NAN
Switzerland 4 NNNN
Denmark 4 NNNN
France  5 NNNNN
Netherlands 7 NNNN AA
Poland 6 NN-NNN
Czech Republic 6 NNN NN
Luxembourg 4 NNNN
Bulgaria 4 NNNN
Estonia 5 NNNNN
Greece 6 NNN NN
Spain 5 NNNNN
Croatia 5 NNNNN
Italy 5 NNNNN
Cyprus 4 NNNN
Latvia 4 NNNN
Lithuania 5 NNNNN
Hungary 4 NNNN
Malta 8 AAA NNNN
Portugal 8 NNNN-NNN
Romania 6 NNNNNN
Slovenia 4 NNNN
Slovakia 6 NNN NN
Finland 5 NNNNN
Sweden 6 NNN NN
City
  • the value has > 34 characters or < 2 characters.
  • the value contains anything that is not the following: letters, periods, commas, spaces, hyphens, slashes, parentheses.
  • any of the special characters (spaces, commas, spaces, hyphens, slashes, and periods) appear more than once in a row.
    ▶︎ Example: Munich,,
  • the value starts with three identical letters.
  • the value does not start with a capital letter.
  • a period appears after anything that is not a letter.
  • the last character is not a letter, a period, or a closing parenthesis.
State

Note
This field only appears if you select Germany as the legal entity's country.
Country
  • the same country is selected as the country of the legal entity.

Note
This field only appears if you select International mailing address as address type.

 

Contact person

Attribute Validation rules ▶︎ error is triggered if...
Full name
  • the value has > 34 characters.
Phone
  • the value is > 20 characters or < 7 characters long.
  • the value contains anything that is not the following: digits, hyphens, slashes, parentheses, spaces, plus sign.
  • a plus sign is included anywhere apart from the first character.
  • the first character is anything other than a plus sign, a zero, or an opening parenthesis.
  • the value contains a plus sign followed by a zero.
  • the value contains only zeros.
Email
  • the value is > 70 characters long.
  • the @ character appears more than once.
  • the @, <, > characters or an apostrophe appear at the beginning or the end of the value.
  • the value contains anything apart from the following:
exclamation mark ! ampersand &
quotation mark " apostrophe '
number sign # round bracket open or closed ()
dollar $ asterisk *
percent % plus +
comma , hyphen -
period . slash /
digits 0-9 colon :
semicolon ; less than <
equal to = greater than >
question mark ? paragraph §
@ uppercase letters A-Z, Ä, Ö, Ü
accent circumflex ^ lowercase letters a–z, ä, ö, ü
accent ` underscore _ 

 

Assign employees to a legal entity

To assign new employees to a legal entity, follow these steps:

  1. Add a new employee to the Employee List.
  2. Select the legal entity for that employee in the new employee profile setup options.

To change an employee’s legal entity:

  1. Go to Employees > Employee List.
  2. Select the employees whose information you want to edit.
  3. Click Actions > Edit profile.
  4. Choose Legal Entity from the attribute list.
  5. Select a new legal entity.
  6. Optional: select when this will take effect.
  7. Click Save.

You can view the number of employees assigned to a legal entity by going to Settings > Organizations > Legal entities (subcompanies).

Delete a legal entity

To delete a legal entity, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings > Organization > Legal entities (subcompanies).
  2. Select the legal entity you want to delete. Make sure the legal entity doesn’t contain any active or inactive employees.
  3. Click the three-dots menu in the top right.
  4. Click Delete.
  5. A confirmation window will notify you that you're about to delete the legal entity. Click Delete to continue.
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