This is step 4 of 5 of the implementation module Attendances and Absences.

After you have configured your absences and set up your accrual policies, you can import any past and planned absences into Personio. To do this, you can import absence periods and absence balances.

What are the benefits?

Importing absence periods in bulk

Importing absence periods for employees ensures that:

• HR has a clear view of historic and upcoming planned absences for all employees. With trusted data on absences, reports can be analyzed to gather meaningful insights on absences across teams and departments.
• Employees have an overview of their historic and upcoming planned absences directly in their absence calendar.

Importing absence balances in bulk

After assigning your accrual policies to employees, you still might have the need to make some adjustments to ensure the results are 100% accurate. This adjustment allows you to:

• Ensure employees’ carryover days from the previous year are correct. (For example, we do the absence balance import on the 31.12.2022 to reflect the total number of carryover days from that year).
• Ensure your employees' absence balances are correct as of a certain key date. (This is required for holiday entitlements that do not begin on 1 January or on an employee's work anniversary.)

Import absence periods in bulk

Follow these steps if you want your employees' absences for the current year to appear in their personal absence calendars.

1. Download the Excel template EN Absence Periods Upload available in this article's Downloads section. Alternatively, you can create your own template (supported formats: .xlsx, .csv, .xls), which will need to include the same eight columns: 

   ▶︎ Employee's email address: exactly as stored in Personio
   ▶︎ Absence type: exactly as stored in Personio (incl. case-sensitive)
   ▶︎ Start date: in the format DD.MM.YYYY
   ▶︎ End date: in the format DD.MM.YYYY
   ▶︎ Start time: in the format HH:MM
   ▶︎ End time: in the format HH:MM 
   ▶︎ Half-day first day: if the first day has been taken as a half-day absence (1 for yes, otherwise leave blank)
   ▶︎ Half-day last day: if the last day has been taken as a half-day absence (1 for yes, otherwise leave blank)
2. Fill in the Excel template with the information regarding your employees' absences. If you want to import:
   ▶︎ a full-day absence, enter the same date as the start date and end date.
   ▶︎ an absence of a couple of hours over the course of a day, enter the same date as the start date and end date, but also the corresponding start time and end time for that absence.
   ▶︎ a half-day absence, enter a value 1 into the Half-day first day column for the second half of the day, or into the Half-day last day column for the first half of the day.
   

   Notes
   ▶︎ Start and end times are only needed for absences tracked in hours (for example, a doctor's appointment from 10:00 am to 11:00 am). These columns can be ignored for any other absences. 
   ▶︎ When copying and pasting the data into the Excel template, make sure to change the format of both the Start date/time and End date/time columns to text afterwards (Right click > Format cells > Category > Text). Also, make sure it is written as DD.MM.YYYY.

3. Go to Imports > Absence periods upload and upload the Excel file. Select the file type Absence periods upload.
   
   
4. Assign the columns in your Excel file to the corresponding attributes stored in Personio. Make sure they have the exact same name.
5. Review the preview of the import and click on Import if everything is correct.

Tip
Alternatively, you can manually enter absence periods through Employee Profile > Absence. You can find more information in the article How Can I Enter Absences for Other Employees?

Import absence balances in bulk 

If you need to adjust an employee's balance, follow these steps to adjust it via an absence balance import:

1. Download the Excel template EN Accrual Balance Upload available in this article's Downloads section. Alternatively, you can create your own template (supported formats: .xlsx, .csv, .xls), which will need to include the same four columns:
   ▶︎ Employee's email address: exactly as stored in Personio
   ▶︎ Absence type: exactly as stored in Personio (incl. case-sensitive)
   ▶︎ Balance: in the format DD or HH depending on the unit of time set for the absence type. If the balance also includes a half day or a half hour, then it must be entered in the format DD.5 or HH.5.
   ▶︎ Balance date (optional): in the format DD.MM.YYYY.
   

2. Fill in the Excel template with the information regarding your employee's absence balance.
3. Go to Imports > Accrual balance upload and upload the Excel file. 
4. Assign the columns in your Excel file to the corresponding attributes stored in Personio. Make sure they have the same names.
5. Review the preview of the import and click on Import if everything seems correct.

Note
Be aware that if you adjust the absence balance by importing in bulk, you won’t be able to choose the adjustment type. The balance will be automatically set to a certain value. If you need to adjust it by some days, refer to the article Adjust absence balances.

Tip
We are happy to assist you in importing your data. If you are planning to do an import and need our assistance, you can contact our service team through the Find Answers section in Personio via Help > Support and Updates > Find Answers.

Next step

Congratulations 🎉
You are ready to move on and Set up your company calendar in Personio.