This article describes the structure and most important functions of the Preliminary payroll section and the payroll table.

What is the Preliminary Payroll section?

The Preliminary payroll section combines all the payroll-relevant data in the People, Personal info, Salary, Time off, Employee changes, and Documents tabs. Here you can:

• Review personnel data, salaries, time off, documents, and data changes since the last approval.
• See details of data changes and navigate to individual employee profiles to make adjustments.
• Approve the monthly payroll and lock the view of the payroll table, so you know exactly which data is considered for that payroll period.
• Create an export of the preliminary payroll, with the current changes highlighted in the Excel file.
• After payroll approval, use the Lohnimportdatenservice to generate exports of master and transaction data directly to the DATEV LODAS/Lohn und Gehalt integration.
• Retrieve and view payroll-relevant documents from DATEV via the Lohnauswertungsdatenservice and distribute them to employees.

Tip
To access this section, go to Payroll in the navigation bar on the left. 

Functions of the Preliminary Payroll section

The Preliminary payroll section is organized by payroll month and payroll group, provided this option has been activated. Here you can:

• Select the payroll month, the group and the tab: Navigate to the required payroll month via the drop-down menu on the top left.
• Approve the preliminary payroll: On the top right of the preliminary payroll table, an overview is displayed that shows the status of your preliminary payroll for the selected month as well as the date from which changes have been flagged. You can approve the preliminary payroll by clicking on the Approve payroll button on the top right of the page. An export is automatically generated.
• Generate exports: You can generate further exports at any time before and after the preliminary payroll for the relevant month is approved by clicking the corresponding button. 
• Send export to DATEV: You can create various exports and send the respective exports for master and transaction data to DATEV via the Documents tab.
• Distribute DATEV exports: As soon as employee-related documents are available for retrieval in DATEV, you can view them under the Documents tab and assign and distribute them to the respective employees via the DATEV Personalnummer.

Furthermore, the section is divided into the tabs People, Personal info, Salary, Time off, Employee changes, and Documents. You can find more details on each tab below. These are the main functions:

Note
Data changes appear highlighted in the Personal info tab with the corresponding detail drawer and in the payroll export file. For them to be flagged correctly, you regularly need to approve the payroll once you have closed the relevant period. For more details on the effects of an approval on flags, read our article on approving the payroll. 

When do employees appear in the preliminary payroll table?

For employees to appear in the preliminary payroll table, two points must be considered: their employment and assignment to payroll. Only if the conditions for both aspects are met, will an employee appear in the payroll table. 

1. Employment

At least one condition must be met:

Regular employment	Terminating an Employment
The employee is employed at least one day in the payroll period, based on hire and termination dates.	The employee receives a compensation payment for up to three payroll periods after their termination date. OR There has been a change to employee data in up to three payroll periods after termination date.

 

2. Assignment to payroll

In addition to the conditions for employment, all conditions for the assignment to payroll must be met:

Employment Type	Legal entity (if enabled)	Payroll group (if enabled)
The employee's employment type is internal.	The employee is assigned to a legal entity (the employee history must match the payroll period).	The employee has a value for the attribute for the payroll group (the employee history must match the payroll period).

The payroll table tabs

The People tab

See all employees belonging to a payroll period in a table, with three predefined views. Each view focuses on relevant attributes to gain a quick overview:

• All employees: View important payroll information such as gross earnings (the total of the salary and compensations for the payroll period) and time off taken (total of all time off recorded) as well as paid vacation balance (number of paid vacation days of each employee remaining in the year) for the selected payroll group.
• Employees starting in the organization: Focus on new hires in the current payroll period and group. Make sure the details are correct. View hire dates, positions, and other key information.
• Employees leaving the organization: Manage data for employees leaving the company in the current payroll period and payroll group. Make sure that you have entered all the necessary data. Review termination, reasons for termination, and associated details.

For each view, you can customize the columns shown. You can also filter, sort, and search for employees according to your preferences. Click an employee's name to go to their profile and see more information.

Note
This tab doesn't highlight changes and isn't included in exports. 

The Personal info tab

Here you can see a table of all the employees included in the payroll for each month. Each employee is displayed in a single line with their personal data, compensation attributes and any data changes. Here you can:

• Keep track: Get a general overview the changes to employee data in the payroll table.
• Review data changes: See at a glance which information has changed, and take action if any adjustments need to be made.
• View details: Click on the employee's details view. Here, you can review any changes in the employee's data, view their time off periods and, if necessary, navigate to the profile to update information. 

For more details on how changes are flagged please see the dedicated section below. 

The Salary tab

See a table of all the employees included in the payroll for the relevant payroll period. Customize the columns displayed, and filter, sort, and search for employees however you prefer. Here you can:

• View compensation data only: Get an overview of only the compensation data and respective changes in the current payroll period.
• Review data changes: See at a glance which information has changed, and take action if any adjustments need to be made.
• View details: Click on the employee's details view. Here you can review any changes in the employee's data, see the time off periods and, if necessary, navigate to the profile to update information. 

For more details on how changes are flagged please see the dedicated section below. 

The Time off tab

Here, you can view a table of all employee time off included in the preliminary payroll for the relevant payroll period. Customize the columns displayed, and filter, sort, and search for employees however you prefer. Here you can:

• Show time off only: Get an overview of time off in the current payroll period. Each time off is shown in a separate line.
• View details: See comments on time off directly in the table. Use this view to review all data changes for an employee, show time off, and navigate to an employee profile to update information.

The Employee changes tab

The Employee changes tab provides you with an optimized overview of all changes that occur within the payroll period. Customize the columns displayed, and filter, sort, and search for employees however you prefer. Here you can:

• Show changes only: Only employees who have had changes to their HR and salary data in the current payroll period appear. The data includes all changes made since the last payroll was approved. For clarity, each change appears in a separate line. Note To see changes scheduled in the future, go to the Information tab. 
• See more details: In addition to the information that there has been a change, you can also see the previous and new details, when the change happened, and when it took effect. This allows you to distinguish between normal changes and corrections made during the payroll period.

Note
The export file doesn't include the Employee changes tab. 

The Documents tab

Under the Documents tab, you can now find a convenient overview of all payroll exports generated during the specified payroll period. You can also download these from here and send them directly to DATEV. As soon as documents are ready in DATEV, you can retrieve them under the Documents tab in Personio with a simple click and distribute them to your employees.

The following fields provide an overview and show:

• Document: The name of the document. This could be an Excel file, a generated DATEV export, or any documents retrieved from DATEV.
• Source: Shows whether the document comes from Personio or DATEV.
• Target audience: Shows whether the document is aimed at employees or the legal entity.
• Payroll group: The document's corresponding payroll group, if enabled.
• Status: Shows whether a generated DATEV export can be transmitted to DATEV, has been uploaded to DATEV, or has already been imported into DATEV for payroll. For all other documents, the status serves as an indication of whether there has been an error.
• Created on: The creation or retrieval date of the document.
• Action: Options to download, send to DATEV or delete a document.

How are changes highlighted in the preliminary payroll?

Prerequisites for the flagging of changes in the preliminary payroll 

To ensure that data changes are highlighted correctly in the preliminary payroll, you need to:

• Approve the preliminary payroll regularly: You need to approve the preliminary payroll regularly. For more details on why this is important for the flagging of changes, read our article on the topic.
• Verify that attributes are included in the payroll table: In order for them to be included in the preliminary payroll table, the attributes, compensations and time off that you want to track must be included in the settings.

Changes in the Personal info and Salary tabs

Data changes and new data are highlighted as follows:

• Data changes made in the previous month (or previous payroll period) appear at the top of the table. 
• New or updated employee data is highlighted in orange and with a dot at the beginning of the row.
• New employees are marked with a green New flag for the first payroll month.
• Exiting employees are marked with a red End flag in their last payroll month. 
• Time off are recorded according to the payroll period. This means that additional exports after payroll approval will not affect the time off displayed.

Changes in the detail view drawer

For a detailed view of changes, click a row of an employee for whom changes are highlighted to open a drawer with more context. If payroll has been approved early and the table view is fixed, you can still see subsequent changes here. 

Tip
If necessary, click the employee's name at the top of the drawer and go to their profile to update attributes.

In the payroll export file

All changes to personnel and salary data within the payroll period are flagged in in the payroll export file which is in Excel format. Here, you can review any changes and notify your payroll accountant accordingly.

The payroll export file is created automatically when you approve the payroll. It reflects all changes that were highlighted when the payroll was approved. The tabs include the following:

• Under the Personal info and Salary tabs, all the information reflected in Personio is displayed, with changes highlighted.
• The Time off tab shows all time off that have occurred.
• The Delta Personal info tab only shows employees with changes to their personal data, and the Delta Salary tab only shows employees with changes to their salary data.

Subsequent changes after approval are not highlighted in this file. In order to view such changes made after the approval of the payroll, generate a new payroll export file. 

Tip
For further information on approving payroll and handling subsequent data changes, read our article on the topic.

Special cases

Tip
We recommend make any changes to the attributes "legal entity" and "payroll group" in Personio on the first day of your payroll period in order to avoid the behavior described below. You can do this by doing a scheduled attribute change.