This article explains which steps you and your payroll accountant need to take to authorize and set up the relevant Datenservices. Read below about the individual steps you need to go through to successfully set up the integration.

Overview of functions

The DATEV integration includes the following functionalitiesthat you can activate:

Lohnimportdatenservice  Personio → DATEV	Lohnauswertungsdatenservice DATEV → Personio	Automatic eAU retrieval  Personio ↔ DATEV
Time off One-time compensation Fixed salaries Master data hourly wages Recurring compensation	Employer documents Employee documents	Notifications for updates Electronic certificates of incapacity to work

For more information, visit our Help Center article Overview of the DATEV integration.

Start here

Activate and set up your account

Your Personio account needs to be configured to allow you to send confidential data from Personio to DATEV from your Personio account to the DATEV payroll application. Talk to your Implementation Manager, or go to Help & Feedback and contact our Service Team. The integration will then be activated for you, and additional payroll attributes will be added to your account.

Grant access rights for setup and use

The person responsible for your payroll accounting needs to have access rights to be able to set up and use the DATEV integration. Read below which access rights you need to assign.

Set up the integration

Access Rights	Set up integration as	See the integration setup in Personio
Payroll	Editing rights for the relevant legal entity.	Viewing rights for the relevant legal entity.
Account configuration > Payroll	Grant access to All.	Viewing-only rights are not available here.

 

Use integration

Access Rights	Create a DATEV export and request and distribute payroll documents	Download created DATEV exports and payroll documents
Payroll	Editing rights for the relevant legal entity.	Viewing rights for the relevant legal entity.

Steps for your accountant

If you have ordered the DATEV integration from Personio and want to transmit data from Personio to your payroll accountant's payroll software, prior authorization is required. The steps that your payroll accountant needs to complete are in the article Best Practice Payroll Process with Tax Advisors: Setting Up and Accounting with the DATEV Integration.

Once your accountant has completed the necessary steps, you can get started with setting up and authorizing Datenservices. 

 

Configure the general settings

Why are general settings important?

The general settings are necessary to authorize the DATEV Datenservices and use the DATEV integration. DATEV identifies Personio users by their Advisor and Tenant ID. You receive these from your payroll accountant. Without these IDs, you can't transfer any data from Personio to DATEV (Lohnimportdatenservice) or any documents from DATEV to Personio (Lohnauswertungsdatenservice). 

Set up the general settings

Follow these steps to set up the general settings:

1. Go to the General settings section in Settings > Payroll > DATEV LODAS/Lohn & Gehalt.
2. On the left, select the subcompany (if any) for which you want to enter the general settings.
3. Next, click on the pencil icon on the right and enter the following information:
   ▶︎ Advisor ID: This must consist of 4–7 digits.
   ▶︎ Tenant ID: This must consist of 1–5 digits.
   ▶︎ Notification address DATEV Lohnimportdatenservice: Your payroll accountant receives a notification at this email address each time Personio sends a DATEV export to DATEV. 
   ▶︎ LuG tenants: For DATEV Lohn & Gehalt, the first payroll month of the LuG tenant must also be entered in the settings.
4. Next, click on Save.

Once the general settings have been saved, you can continue with the authorization of the DATEV Datenservices.

Authorize Datenservices

Authorization requirements 

• The appropriate DATEV Datenservice (Lohnimportdatenservice, Lohnauswertungsdatenservice, Lohnaustauschdatendservice for eAU) was ordered for you as a client by the person responsible for your payroll accounting via MyDATEV client registration.
• The access rights for the DATEV Datenservice in question were enabled by the person responsible for your payroll accounting on the SmartLogin/SmartCard.
• You have saved the General Settings in Personio. 

Authorizing the DATEV integration

Authorization in Personio

Once the DATEV-Datenservices have been activated for you, you need to authorize Personio to import and export documents on your behalf via the interface. Export documents on your behalf via the interface.

To do so, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Settings > Payroll > DATEV LODAS/Lohn & Gehalt integration.
2. Under Authorization DATEV-Datenservices, click Start authorization process for each legal entity you want to authorize.  
3. Select the interface you wish to authorize in the next window, read the information provided and click on Proceed to complete this step.
4. A new tab opens with the DATEV login page where you can complete the authorization. To continue, refer to the next point Authorization in DATEV.

Note
This step and the setup by the person responsible for your payroll accounting need to be done separately for each subcompany. In general, each subcompany in Personio should correspond to a tenant in DATEV. Entering the same combination of Advisor ID and Tenant ID for several subcompanies is not recommended and should only be considered under special circumstances.

 

Authorization in DATEV

After starting the authorization process in Personio, the DATEV login page opens in a new tab. To log in, you need to be able to authenticate yourself with DATEV, such as with a DATEV SmartLogin, SmartCard or mIDentity. Then follow these steps:

1. Log in with your access data and two-factor authentication.
2. Confirm the authorization to enable Personio to transmit data to and retrieve data from the DATEV data center.
3. A confirmation page will be shown once you have approved the required authorization.

Checking the Authorization Status

To see whether the DATEV-Datenservices have been authorized, and by whom, go to Settings > Payroll > DATEV LODAS/Lohn & Gehalt integration and then to the Authorization DATEV-Datenservice section. The following information is displayed:

• Name and email address of the person whose authorization medium was used.
• The date on which the authorization was carried out.
• Which Datenservices have been authorized (Lohnimportdatenservice, Lohnauswertungsdatenservice, eAU retrieval service).

Note
An authorization only needs to be carried out once for each interface. The link for launching the authorization process therefore only appears if the authorization has not yet been provided.

Revoking Authorization

You can remove the link between your Personio account and the account of the person responsible for your payroll accounting by revoking the authorization. This involves the following steps:

1. Go to Settings > Payroll > DATEV LODAS/Lohn & Gehalt integration.
2. In the DATEV-Datenservice authorization section, click the button Revoke authorization.
3. Click on Revoke authorization and confirm.

Note
Revoking authorization automatically affects both DATEV-Datenservices, and the link is removed immediately. If you would like to restart the authorization, you can carry out the process described above again at any time.

Set up the Lohnimportdatenservice

What is the Lohnimportdatenservice?

The Lohnimportdatenservice supports the process of transferring master data, time off, fixed salaries, hourly wages, one-time and recurring compensations from your Personio account to the DATEV payroll application. 

The confidential data is provided via a secure connection in the DATEV data center for LODAS and Lohn und Gehalt. Data from Personio can be uploaded to the payroll application and used for the next payroll run. 

Set up the Lohnimportdatenservice

All settings for the Lohnimportdatenservice can be made in Settings > Payroll > DATEV LODAS/Lohn und Gehalt integration . This includes selecting the data to be exported and assigning the compensations to a DATEV salary type. 

Learn more about transferring master data, time off, fixed salaries, hourly wages, one-time and recurring compensations with the Lohnimportdatenservice. For further information, see the article Overview of Transferred Employee Master Data.

Set up the DATEV Lohnauswertungsdatenservice

What is the DATEV Lohnauswertungsdatenservice?

Personio's Lohnauswertungsdatenservice allows you to directly access and import the documents that your payroll accountant has released in DATEV LODAS or Lohn und Gehalt. The confidential documents are retrieved from the DATEV data center via a secure interface and stored on the Personio server. You can retrieve them from there, and so can your employees, if you so choose.

Set up the DATEV Lohnauswertungsdatenservice

Select the documents to be imported

Select the documents that are relevant to your company. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Settings > Payroll. Then click on the DATEV LODAS/Lohn & Gehalt integration tab.
2. Select the relevant sub-company.
3. Go to Lohnauswertungsdatenservice > Settings and enable the transfer of all the documents you require from the Employer documents and Employee documents categories. Use the Preview button to view sample documents.
4. Click Save.

 

After their retrieval from DATEV, the documents selected in this step will be accessible under Payroll > Documents in the spreadsheet for the relevant month. To find out more about further document processing, read our article Importing Documents via the Lohnauswertungsdatenservice.

Note Only documents your payroll accountant has released to you will be shown as available for selection. Info-Doc. 1022662 explains how your payroll accountant can give you access to documents in DATEV LODAS or Lohn und Gehalt.

Documents available for import

A list of documents that are available for transfer from DATEV is shown below. They are subdivided into employer and employee documents. Information on the reason for their creation, explanatory information, and abbreviations are also shown. You can find examples of each document type in the table as well as download links using the abbreviations on the right.

Tip You can also access these examples of both employer and employee documents in Personio by going to Settings > Payroll, clicking on the DATEV LODAS/Lohn & Gehalt Integration tab, going into the Lohnauswertungsdatenservice – Settings section for employer and employee documents and clicking on the Preview button. 

 

 

Set up the automatic eAU retrieval via the DATEV integration

How does eAU retrieval work?

With eAU retrieval, Personio automatically retrieves the eAU from the statutory health insurer via the DATEV integration and saves it in Personio whenever a time off request is made due to illness. Both HR Management and the employee will be informed every time its status is updated. This fully automates the eAU process. Find out more about automatic eAU retrieval.

The eAU request is sent regardless of the duration of the requested time off. This ensures that the eAU can be requested even if time off have been entered incorrectly, and the time off can be adjusted by HR Management. The eAU is retrieved as soon as at least one day in the entered time off overlaps with the eAU period.

Note
If a time off that has already been entered is changed, another eAU request is initiated. Time off can therefore be covered by multiple eAUs.

Tip
Time off recorded in hours can also be considered in the eAU process. To do this, go to Settings > Work Hours and Time off > Time off > Certificate & Substitute and set the requirement for a certificate for the relevant time off to Required. 

Conditions for eAU retrieval

The eAU is only available for employees with statutory or another (non-private) type of health insurance. Employees with private health insurance should continue to follow the usual process of uploading their medical certificates manually. 

For the eAU to be retrieved for the correct time off, the following criteria must be met for employees and time off.

Employees who meet the following criteria will be considered for eAU retrieval

The attribute Consider in German payroll is set to Yes. The DATEV-Personalnummer attribute contains a valid value. The Type of health insurance attribute is set to Statutory health insurance or Other health insurance.

In addition, the eAU is only requested when entering certain time off periods.

Time off periods that meet the following criteria are considered for the eAU process

The time off must have been entered. In the Settings of the entered time off type, the category sick leave is assigned. In the Settings of the entered time off type, a sick certificate is required from X days.

Set up eAU retrieval

Setup in DATEV

In order to set up automatic eAU retrieval, the person responsible for DATEV must complete the following steps:

Step 1: Ordering the Lohnaustauschdatenservice

As with the previous DATEV Datenservices (e.g. the Lohnimportdatenservice), you also need to order the service to use: 

1. Go to the MyDATEV Mandantenregistrierung.
2. Subscribe to the Lohnaustauschdatenservice.

Step 2: Configuring eAU access rights

Once you have subscribed to the Lohnaustauschdatenservice, you can configure the relevant access rights:

1. You need to enable access to the Lohnaustauschdatenservice on your Personio client's SmartLogin/SmartCard.
2. If you use the DATEV Lohn und Gehalt integration, you need to complete additional steps in DATEV to set up the access rights. See this DATEV Helpcenter article for all relevant information.

Setup in Personio

Once the setup in DATEV is successful, you need to complete the following steps in Personio:

Step 1: Fill in the attribute Type of health insurance

Only employees with statutory health insurance are eligible for eAU retrieval. The system recognizes this from the Type of health insurance attribute.

• Fill out the mandatory attribute Type of health insurance for all employees.

Step 2: Authorize the eAU functionality in Personio

After the Lohnaustauschdatenservice has been ordered and set up in DATEV (see above), the eAU functionality can be authorized in Personio. Follow these steps to authorize the Lohnaustauschdatenservice:

1. Go to Settings > Payroll.
2. Then click on DATEV LODAS/Lohn & Gehalt integration.
3. Under Authorization DATEV-Datenservices click the button Start authorization process.
4. Activate eAU retrieval (Lohnaustauschdatenservice) and click on Proceed.

Step 3: Activate the eAU functionality

To activate automatic eAU retrieval in Personio, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Payroll.
2. Then click on DATEV LODAS/Lohn & Gehalt integration.
3. Under eAU retrieval (Lohnaustauschdatenservice) – Settings, tick Active.

Use of features

Next Steps

You have successfully set up the DATEV integration and can now easily run your monthly payroll automatically. For a detailed description of how monthly payroll works with the DATEV integration and which steps you need to go through in order to send and receive data from Personio to DATEV, read our Help Center article Monthly Payroll in Personio With the DATEV Integration.