This article explains how to import employee data into Personio, either by using our import template or by uploading your own file. If you upload your own file, our AI helps ensure everything imports correctly.

Before you start

Access and permissions

To import employee data, you need:

• Edit permissions for Employee data import in Configurations > Imports. 
• Edit permissions for the relevant profile sections in Personal data for the employees you want to import data for (for example, the Public profile section). Learn more about import permissions.
• Edit permissions to add new employees if you want to create new employees.

Before reading on, consider these key points:

• You can't set a "valid from" date for your attributes when importing. Contact our Customer Support to enable this option for your account.
• Imports cannot be reverted. Make sure the data you're importing is correct, and try importing a small data set first to test the results.
• Make sure all items in your file, like departments or teams, already exist in Personio before importing. If your file includes a value that isn't in Personio yet and you have permission to create or edit that type of data, Personio warns you that the new value will be created.
• If your import includes supervisor values, the supervisors need to exist in Personio as employees for the import to succeed. If they don't exist yet, you can leave the Supervisor column blank and add supervisor values in a second import once all employees exist.
• If your file contains a Department or Team that doesn’t exist in Personio and you don’t have the required permissions, you’ll see a validation error. Learn how to fix this error.
• Format all dates in your import file as YYYY-MM-DD (for example, 2025-05-01). Other date formats cause import errors. If you're using our import templates, make sure to download and use the newest versions.

Import employee data by filling in our template

1. Set up sections and employee attributes

If you choose to import employee data using our template, some preparation is required.

Before you download and fill out the template, make sure you’ve set up the necessary custom sections and attributes in your Personio account. 

This ensures that all employee profiles contain the sections and fields needed for your data.

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the People section, click Personal information.
3. Click + Create > Create section or Add Attribute to create custom sections and attributes.
4. If needed, add translations for the custom attributes in all relevant languages.

Note:
You can create these custom sections and attributes in any language where you have translations set up. This includes your user language, the company's default language, or any other language with available translations.

2. Download the import template 

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Organization section, click Imports.
3. Select the file type Employees.
4. In View template, download the file.

3. Fill out the import template

1. You need to open the Excel template and read the Guideline worksheet.
2. Enter your employee data in the columns, following these guidelines:

• Language: You can fill attribute values in any language where you have translations set up. This includes your user language, the company's default language, or any other language with available translations. 
• Rows: Each row represents one employee, identified by their unique email address. You must provide an email for every employee, as Personio uses this for data import. Do not import multiple identifiers at once.
• Columns: Fill in the yellow-highlighted columns, as these are required for new employee profiles. If you can't fill in all columns initially, you can update the template later. Just provide a unique ID and the attributes you want to import. There's no need to include attributes or system attributes you've already filled out. To add custom employee attributes, add additional columns directly to the spreadsheet. You can add up to sixty columns.
• Attribute types:
  - For List of Options attributes, column names appear in italics. To import those, include the original names for each option (database values) in the import file.
  - To import Relationship attributes (for example, multiple supervisors), you need to add the email address of the related employee. If you want to import multiple related employees, use a semicolon to separate the emails.
  - To import multi-selection attributes, separate individual values with a comma, not a semicolon (example: "English, German, French").
• Supervisors: You cannot designate two employees as each other's supervisors. If an employee (like a CEO) has no supervisor, leave that column blank. If an employee has multiple supervisors, create a new relationship-type attribute in Personio and add a column to the spreadsheet with the same attribute name.
• Cost center: Only one cost center can be imported per employee. You can manually add multiple cost centers later in the employee's profile.
• Status: To import inactive employees, include the attributes: Status, Termination date, and Termination type. To prevent errors in step three, ensure you add both Termination date and Termination type.

4. Upload the import template

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Organization section, click Imports.
3. Choose the Employees import type.
4. In Upload file, keep the toggle off to upload manually.
5. Select the first row of your sheet to match the attributes with Personio. 
6. Match the columns in your Excel file to the corresponding attributes in Personio.
7. If there are errors, a pop-up will show on the right. Review and correct each error. Once resolved, a message will confirm that the file is ready for import. If you see Cell requires attention, click the field to highlight it, then double-click to edit the value.
8. Click Import to complete the process.

Tip:
If you get errors during the import, check our troubleshooting steps for importing employee data. 

Import employee data by uploading your own file

1. Go to Settings.
2. In the Organization section, click Imports.
3. Choose the Employees import type.
4. In Upload file, enable the toggle to use AI-assisted import.
5. Select the first row of your sheet to match the attributes with Personio. 
6. Match the columns in your Excel file to the corresponding attributes in Personio.
7. If there are errors, a pop-up will show on the right. Review and correct each error. Once resolved, a message will confirm that the file is ready for import.
8. Click Import to complete the process.