This article outlines the differences between terminating an employee using the Termination employment feature, and ending an employee's contract with the Contract ends attribute.

It also details the effects of each action in Personio.

Differences between terminating the employee vs. ending their contract

The Contract ends attribute and the Termination employment feature might seem similar because they both refer to ending employment and allow you to input a date.

However, they have different effects in Personio:

• The Contract ends date marks the final day of employment under the employee's current fixed-term contract. However, the employee may continue working at the company if they receive a new contract. This date is not needed for employees with indefinite contracts.
  
  
• The Termination date marks the final and definitive last day of employment at the company. This date is needed for both employees with indefinite contracts and those with fixed-term contracts.

Main effects: 

• The Contract ends date is for internal use only and does not end employment automatically. It activates reminders 30 days prior, allowing you to extend the contract or set a Termination date. If you do not set a Termination date in addition to the Contract ends date, the employee can continue to log into Personio, as their contract can be extended in the future.
  
  

• The Termination date ends employment automatically and changes the employee's profile status to Inactive, preventing them from logging into Personio.
  
  
  

End the employee's contract

1. Open the relevant Employee profile. 
2. Click Edit.
3. Locate the Contract ends attribute and choose a new date via the calendar.
4. Click on Submit.
5. In the 30 days before the Contract ends, you will receive a reminder to decide on extending the contract or terminating the employee.
   • To extend the contract, check your Inbox reminder and click Prolong contract to access the Contract Ends attribute.
   • To terminate the employee, refer to the section below.

If a fixed-term employment becomes a permanent contract, you can leave the Contract ends attribute blank and remove the original date.

Terminate the employee

1. Get edit rights for the section where the Status attribute was allocated.
2. Open the relevant Employee profile.
3. Click on the three dots and click Terminate employment.
   

   Note
   Make sure to enter the correct Termination date. Entering a past date (example: 01.01.2024 instead of 01.01.2025) will delete all time off periods after the Termination date. 

4. Enter the Termination date.
5. Enter further details Notice announced, Last day of work, Type of termination and Reason.  
   

   Type	Description
   Collective layoff agreement	Layoff agreement between the employer and a labor union.
   Contract expired	The employment contract has come to an end.
   Court settlement	Legal agreement reached in court to resolve disputes related to employment termination.
   Death	The employee has passed away.
   Dismissal	The employer has terminated the employment relationship for a reason that is considered fair under UK law.
   Dismissal with irrevocable suspension	The employee was dismissed from their position and has been suspended from work indefinitely.
   Mutual termination	The employee and employer agree to terminate the employment relationship.
   Resignation	The employee has voluntarily terminated the employment relationship.
   Retirement	The employee has reached the age of retirement and has chosen to leave the workforce.
   Settlement agreement	The employee and employer have reached a settlement agreement.
   Transfer	The employee has been transferred to a new position in a different legal entity.
   Valid cancellation	The employment contract has been canceled for a valid reason. For example, the employee withdrew from the contract before the start date.

6. Optional: Check and adjust the prorated vacation calculation under Accrued days for each time off type with an accrual policy.
7. Click Terminate and confirm by clicking Yes, terminate employment.
8. The employee's last day of work will now appear under Employee profile > Personal info > HR information > Status as Employment end date: DD.MM.YYYY.

Tip
Alternatively, you can also terminate multiple employments at once using the Import functionality in Personio. To do so, perform an employee data import, but add the following columns to the standard import file: Termination date, Termination reason (free text), Termination type.

Other effects of ending a contract

• Reminders
  Administrators and employees with edit rights for the section where the Contract ends attribute is located receive a reminder in their Inbox 30 days prior to the set date. If you want other employees to be reminded of a Contract ends date, you can create additional reminders.
  
  
• Prorated vacation entitlement
  

  The Contract ends date directly impacts the employee's vacation entitlement. Vacation days for the year of contract termination are calculated proportionally based on the employee's accrual policies and the Contract ends date. Extending an employee's contract may also alter their available vacation days.
  
  

• Hourly wages 

  The hourly salary will be prorated according to the Contract ends date. The hourly salary will be based on the days worked until the contract ends. Employees can track their time in the Attendance tab, but any time logged after the contract end date won't count toward the salary.
  
  
• Timeline view
  The Contract ends date appears in orange in Employees > Timeline view. The employee remains listed even after the contract expires. 

Other effects of employee termination

• Prorated vacation entitlement
  The Termination date directly impacts the employee's vacation entitlement. Vacation days for the year of termination are calculated proportionally based on accrual policies and the Termination date. You can manually adjust the amount of vacation days based on a prorated calculation offered by Personio.
  
• Prorated salary calculation
  If the termination date falls within the month, the salary will be prorated according to the settings for prorate salary calculation in Settings > Salary & Payroll > General.
  
  
• Preliminary payroll
  The employee is removed from the preliminary payroll after their termination month, unless there are salary payments or changes to their data, which will still appear for up to 3 months post-termination.
  
  
• Status update
  The day after termination at 00:00 UTC, the employee's Status changes from Active to Inactive. If the employee is not deleted from Personio, they:
  • Can no longer log in.
  • Can only be found in the search bar or the People list by employees with viewing rights for the attribute status.
  • No longer appears in the OrgChart view.
  • Will continue to appear in historical analyses and reports.
  • Will no longer be included in your Personio plan.
  • Will not receive offboarding emails and notifications.