To use the Loket integration, your company needs a legal entity based in the Netherlands. 🇳🇱

With the Personio-Loket integration, you can sync employee compensation data, making your payroll process faster and more accurate. This article explains the setup, how the sync works for different compensation types, and solutions for common use cases.

The integration supports the sync of:

• Salary (fixed and hourly)
• Recurring compensations
• One-time compensations

Before you start

Find out more about your options for managing salaries in Personio in our articles about the salary tab and the salary components in Personio.

If you've used Loket before, find out more about your options to import data to Personio. Align with your Payroll Administrator on your options to export data from Loket.

To configure the compensation sync:

1. Go to Payroll.
2. Select the relevant legal entity.
3. Go to Manage > Payroll data > Compensation. On this page, you can configure the compensation start date and enable the compensation types you want to sync from Personio to Loket.

Understand the core concepts for compensation sync

Understanding the following concepts is important for a successful and predictable data sync.

1. Use the compensation start date as your source of truth

When you first set up the compensation sync, you need to define a Compensation start date. This date acts as a “line in the sand” and is critical for protecting your historical data.

• Personio as the source of truth: From the compensation start date onwards, Personio becomes the single source of truth for all compensation data. The integration updates Loket's records to match what is in Personio. This includes any retroactive or future-dated changes.
• Protect historical data: Any salary records in Loket with an effective date before the compensation start date aren't changed. This keeps your historical payroll data in Loket secure and unaltered.

Note: 
Once the integration is active, don't add or edit mapped compensation data directly in Loket. The next sync from Personio overwrites any manual changes.

2. Control how compensation is mapped

Mapping is the key to controlling exactly what data is synced. You decide which compensation types in Personio correspond to which components in Loket.

Note:
You need compensation mapping for recurring and one-time compensations. For salary, you only need to enable the sync, as the system automatically maps it to the basic wage component in Loket.

3. Update and delete data

The compensation sync is dynamic. If you:

• Add a new compensation that is mapped
• Update the amount of a salary or mapped compensation
• Delete it in Personio

Loket reflects the change in the next sync.

Sync salary data

The integration supports both fixed and hourly salaries, syncing them from Personio to the basic wage section in Loket. You can find the wage section under Loket > select employee > Employment conditions > Payments > Basic wage.

Important: Before your first salary sync

Before you enable and run the salary sync for the first time, perform a one-time data alignment to prevent accidental data loss. Once the sync is active, Personio becomes the source of truth. 

This means the salary data stored in Personio overwrites the corresponding records in Loket from your Compensation Start Date onwards.

To ensure a smooth transition, follow these steps:

1. Export from Loket: Ask your Payroll Administrator to export a complete report of all current employee salaries from Loket.
2. Compare in Personio: Carefully compare the Loket export with the salary data currently stored in Personio for each employee.
3. Update Personio: Make any necessary corrections in Personio. Make sure the salary for every employee you intend to sync is accurate and up-to-date. 

Performing this check makes sure you don't accidentally replace correct salary data in Loket with incorrect or empty data from Personio.

See how the integration syncs fixed and hourly salaries

Fixed salary:

• The integration syncs a monthly salary in Personio directly to Loket.
• The integration automatically divides an annual salary in Personio by 12 and syncs it as a monthly amount.
• This syncs to Loket's Basic wage unit = Periodic wages.

Hourly salary:

• The integration syncs the hourly rate from Personio to Loket's Basic wage unit = Hourly Wage.

Note:
The integration doesn't sync employee attendance or tracked hours. You need to handle this data manually in Loket.

Sync salary for part-time employees

The integration prioritizes simplicity and consistency.

1. Personio syncs the 100% full-time equivalent (FTE) salary, regardless of the employee's work schedule. 
2. To make sure the salary is calculated correctly for a part-time employee, manually enter their specific working hours in Loket. Go to Employment > Work details > Deviating hours per week.

Check our article on managing part-time employees in Personio and verify the correct setup with your Payroll Administrator.

Handle gaps in salary history

To make sure you have a complete and accurate salary chain, Personio requires an uninterrupted record of salaries for each employee. This record starts from the compensation start date. 

If the first salary recorded in Personio for an employee begins after the compensation start date, a salary gap occurs. The sync then fails for that employee.

Fix a salary gap

You receive a sync issue message specifying the exact period of the gap, something like the following:

Cannot sync base salary because no salary was found for 1 Jan 2026 to 14 Jan 2026. Add a salary in Personio with a start date 1 Jan 2026 and sync again.

To resolve this:

1. Go to the employee's profile and select the Salary tab.
2. Add a new salary record with a start date that matches the first day of the missing period (in the example, 1 Jan 2026).
3. Save the new salary to close the gap.
4. Run the sync again.

Handle holiday allowance

Make sure the base salary you enter and sync from Personio doesn't include the holiday allowance. Your Payroll Administrator needs to configure and process the holiday allowance directly in Loket.

Follow the correct process

1. In Personio: Enter the employee's salary without any holiday allowance included. The integration syncs this salary amount to Loket.
2. In Loket: Your Payroll Administrator needs to configure the holiday allowance calculation for your employees. Loket has its own company-wide logic for this, which keeps your data compliant and accurate.

Understand why this is necessary

Loket's method for calculating holiday allowance is complex and often incorporates other variable pay components (like overtime or shift allowances). 

Syncing a simple, fixed amount from Personio overrides this correct calculation and can lead to payroll errors. The integration respects Loket's role as the specialist for this calculation.

Optional: Track holiday allowance in Personio for reporting

If you want to see the total compensation (including holiday allowance) in Personio for reporting purposes, you can do so safely by following these steps:

1. In Personio, create a separate compensation and assign it to your employees. Read more on creating and managing additional pay.
2. Make sure this new compensation item is not mapped in the Loket integration settings.

Note:
Don't map the holiday allowance component. By creating the "Holiday Allowance" compensation in Personio but leaving it unmapped, you can use it for internal reporting and view it in the Payroll table. This makes sure the sync completely ignores it and doesn't interfere with the holiday allowance calculations your Payroll Administrator manages in Loket.

Sync recurring compensations

The integration syncs recurring compensations from Personio to the benefits and deductions section in Loket. To see this section, go to Loket > select employee > Employment conditions > Payments > Benefits and deductions.

• Mapping is required: Map your recurring compensation types in Personio to the corresponding benefit and deduction concepts from your Loket account. The integration doesn't sync unmapped types.
• Payout frequency: The integration only supports monthly payout frequency for recurring compensations. You need to handle any compensations with a quarterly, annual, or other frequency manually.
• Positive and negative values: The integration correctly interprets positive (benefit) and negative (deduction) values in Personio and syncs them to the appropriate section in Loket.

Tip:
Always enter deductions as negative amounts in Personio (for example, -50.00). 

The integration correctly interprets a negative value as a deduction and syncs it to the right place in Loket. This also makes sure the amount is correctly subtracted when Personio calculates the gross salary in its own payroll views.

Important: Before your first recurring compensation sync

Similar to salary, align your recurring compensation data before running the first sync to prevent unintended changes. 

Once active, Personio becomes the source of truth for all mapped compensation types from your Compensation Start Date onwards.

If a mapped compensation exists in Loket but is missing in Personio for an employee, the sync assumes it's no longer valid and ends or removes that record in Loket from the Compensation Start Date onwards. 

To ensure a smooth transition, follow this one-time alignment:

1. Review your mappings: First, confirm exactly which recurring compensation types you have mapped in the integration settings.
2. Check Loket data: Ask your Payroll Administrator to provide a list of all employees currently receiving those specific, mapped compensations in Loket.
3. Align Personio: For each of those employees, make sure the exact same recurring compensation is correctly entered in Personio with the right amount and effective date.

Performing this check makes sure Personio accurately reflects your intended payroll setup from day one and prevents unintended changes to your employees' recurring payments.

Handle historical and overlapping recurring compensations

A key feature of the recurring compensation sync is its ability to protect your historical data in Loket without requiring manual cleanup.

Scenario: You have an employee with a recurring compensation in Loket that is either still active (no end date) or has an end date that falls after your Personio compensation start date.

The sync's action: When the sync runs, it doesn't delete this record. Instead, the integration automatically updates the existing Loket record by setting its end date to the day before your compensation start date.

The result: This cleanly ends the historical record in Loket, preserving it. Personio then takes over as the source of truth from the compensation start date onwards, without creating errors or duplicates.

Tip: 
Gaps are allowed: Unlike the salary sync, which requires a continuous "salary chain," the sync for recurring compensations allows for gaps. You don't receive an error if there is a time gap between a historical compensation ending in Loket and the first new compensation starting from Personio.

Sync one-time compensations

The integration syncs one-time compensations from Personio to the variable input section in Loket. To see this section, go to Loket > select employee > Payroll > Variable input.

• Mapping is required: Only map one-time compensation types you want to sync.
• Accumulation: If an employee has several one-time payments of the same mapped type in the same period, the integration automatically adds them together into a single entry in Loket. For example, if an employee has three separate €10 bonuses in the same period, the integration syncs a single, consolidated bonus of €30.

A note on historical one-time compensations

If you set your Compensation Start Date to a date in the past, back-fill your historical data in Personio before running the sync. The integration assumes Personio is the complete source of truth for all mapped one-time compensations from the start date onwards. 

If an employee received a mapped bonus in a past month that exists in Loket but hasn't been entered into Personio, the sync interprets this absence as a deliberate deletion and removes the bonus from Loket.

To prevent this, perform the following one-time data alignment:

1. Confirm your mappings: Identify which of your one-time compensation types are mapped in the integration settings.
2. Gather historical data: Ask your Payroll Administrator for a record of all mapped one-time compensations paid out between your chosen Compensation Start Date and the present day.
3. Back-fill Personio: Manually enter these historical one-time compensations into Personio for the correct employees, making sure the payment dates are accurate.

This one-time effort makes sure your historical one-time payment records remain intact when you start syncing.

Review limitations and important considerations

Be aware of the following limitations. The integration doesn't support the items listed here, and you need to handle them manually in your Loket account.

Data entry and management

• Hourly salary: The integration doesn't sync employee attendance or tracked hours.
• Part-time employees: You need to manually enter deviating hours for part-time employees in Loket.
• Terminated employees: The integration can't create compensations in Loket for an employment that has already been terminated. You receive a sync warning in this case.

Unsupported compensation types

• Non-monetary compensations: The integration only syncs monetary values (EUR). The integration doesn't support compensations based on other units (for example, kilometers).
• Currency: The integration only syncs compensations in EUR. If a mix of EUR and non-EUR compensations exists for an employee in a given period, the integration doesn't sync any compensations for that employee in that period.
• Unsupported payout frequencies: The integration doesn't support recurring compensations with a payout frequency other than monthly (for example, quarterly or annually).
• Salary scales and steps: The integration doesn't support these. If you use salary scales in Loket, you need to either disable the salary sync from Personio or accept that Personio overwrites the salary scale data in Loket.

Next steps

Learn more about syncing payroll documents.