This article explains how to set up and manage billing groups in Personio Payroll.

What are billing groups?

Payroll groups are organizational units within a company that make it possible to define and make more flexible the payroll process for different employee groups. This allows you to separate employees with a fixed salary from those paid hourly and, if necessary, release and pay groups at different times within the same billing month. 

All employees must belong to exactly one billing group. The groups must be mutually exclusive and complete. Employees for whom no suitable group criterion applies, such as no stored basic salary, are automatically assigned to a separate group, so that no employee is excluded from payroll. 

Before you begin

Make sure you have the necessary permissions and are registered as an administrator to manage the payroll settings.

Please note:
The payroll groups in the Manage tab under Payroll are exclusively available for German payroll accounting and can only be configured within a company. 

Product limitations

• Access rights management: Different access rights per billing group are not currently supported. All Personio payroll managers with access to the company can see all groups.
• Grouping criterion : Billing groups currently only support grouping by remuneration type. Grouping by other attributes (e.g., department, cost center, location) is currently not possible.
• Different billing periods: Billing groups do not support different billing periods (example: (July 15 to August 14). Only calendar months are supported.
• Scope (legal entity): All employees in a billing group must belong to the same legal entity (company). Extended scenarios (example: multiple company numbers within one company) are not currently supported.
• Switching between groups : An employee cannot be moved to a different group after the contribution estimate has been sent. Changes will only take effect retroactively in the next billing period. 

Setting up billing groups in Personio Payroll 

General

To set up and manage billing groups, the following three steps must be performed: 

1. Create a billing group: Specify whether you want to use billing groups and allow the groups to be created automatically based on the basic remuneration stored in the profile. 
2. Set release date: Define a release date for each billing group. 
3. Set up contribution estimation and complete setup: Check and confirm the contribution estimationsettings, review all configurations in the overview, and complete the setup.

Please note:
Settings for billing groups cannot be changed as long as individual groups have already been approved for billing. The settings can only be adjusted again once all billing groups have been released.

Create billing groups 

To set up a payroll group for a company in Personio Payroll, proceed as follows:

1. Click on Payrollin the main navigation menu. 
2. Switch to the Manage tab > Billing Processing . 
3. Under Billing Groups, click Edit . 
4. In the billing group configuration options, select whether 
   • no billing groups used or 
   • whether billing runs should be created according to the type of remuneration .
5. Click on Next.

The billing groups are now automatically formed based on the basic remuneration. You can adjust the basic salary accordinglyin the employee profile under Salary > Basic Salary . Once the billing groups have been successfully created, you can proceed with the configuration. 

Please note:
If no basic salary has been entered for an employee, they will appear in the group "no basic salary". 

Set release date

To set up individual release dates for each billing group, proceed as follows: 

1. After creating the billing groups, you will be automatically redirected to the approval reminder .
2. Choose a separate release date for each billing group or use the latest possible release date.
3. Confirm the settings by clicking Next. 

Please note:
For compliance reasons, Personio Payroll cannot recommend a specific release date. Choose a date that fits your payroll processes.

Setting up contribution estimation

Should you use billing groups for a company:

1. Read the settings for contribution estimation and select how they should be submitted.
2. Confirm the settings and complete the setup. 

Important information regarding automatic contribution estimation:

• Contribution estimates are always sent for the entire legal entity at once. They are not sent per billing group.
• If there are still open blockers for a particular employee, either the last known value is used or 0 is set. This will be offset again at the beginning of the following month with the next contribution estimate.

For information on how to manage contribution estimates in Personio Payroll, please see our article on the topic.

Manage billing groups

Billing run view

With the introduction of billing groups, a new, uniform billing run view is also available to you. This consolidates employees, tasks, and documents into an overview per billing group.

• Month-based navigation: Month-based navigation: First, select the current billing month and then navigate to the relevant group.
• Overview of all billing runs : An overview shows the status of all billing groups for the entire month.
• Historical billing runs : You can access past periods via the month-based navigation.
• Widget status: Shows the billing status at a glance, at group and monthly level.

Documents and approval

The following documents will be available to you after the billing runs have been released:

• Amount certificates and SEPA files are generated for each billing group at the respective time of release and are available in the Documents tab of the group view.
• Company-level documents , such as gross-net reports, are only available after all groups have been released. In the Documents tab of the parent view, you can download them using the Download All button after they have been fully released.

FAQ

Who can use billing groups? 

Billing groups are available to all Personio Payroll (Germany) customers. This function is optional and can be set up in the Manage tab under Payroll.

Do I need to use billing groups? 

No. Billing groups are optional. If you do not set up groups, all employees will be processed together in a single payroll run, as before.

What is the fallback group? 

The fallback group automatically includes all employees who cannot be assigned to a defined billing group. This includes, for example, people without a specified remuneration type. This ensures that no employee is excluded from the payroll.

Can an employee belong to multiple billing groups? 

No. The groups are mutually exclusive. Each employee belongs to exactly one billing group.

Can I create groups based on criteria other than the type of compensation (e.g., department or cost center)?

No, that's not possible in this version. Grouping by additional attributes is planned for future releases.

Do I need to activate billing groups to use automatic contribution estimates? 

No. The automatic sending of contribution estimates is available to all customers who use contribution estimates – regardless of whether billing groups are set up.

Can I download documents for a single group before all groups are released? 

Yes, group-specific documents (payroll statements, SEPA files) are available from the moment of group release. Company-level documents (e.g., gross-net, SVBA, contribution statement) are only available after all groups have been fully released.