In this article, we look into error messages that users often encounter when setting up or using the DATEV integration.

Problems during setup

The following error messages occur during the authorization process, after the DATEV integration has been successfully set up.

Authorization unfortunately unsuccessful!

When attempting to transfer data to DATEV or when retrieving payslips from DATEV, you receive the error message "Authorization was unfortunately not successful!".

This means that access rights for the Lohnimportdatenservice and/or Lohnauswertungsdatenservice are missing. 

Solution: Your payroll accountant has to grant access in DATEV. 

Let your payroll accountant or tax consultant know that they can get support from DATEV when ordering and setting up payroll applications. Tax consultants may book a free appointment with the DATEV Partner Onboarding team in the short-term.

Missing Tenant and Advisor ID

In the preparatory payroll accounting table, an error message indicates that important information for the DATEV export is missing.

In this case, the Tenant and Advisor IDs haven't been stored yet.

Solution: Enter the Tenant and Advisor IDs in Personio.

Navigate to Settings > Salary & Payroll > Employer Information and enter the Tenant and Advisor IDs from DATEV Lohn & Gehalt. Also enter the first billing month. Your payroll account can provide this to you as well.

Lohnimportdatenservice 

Attribute value in the payroll table is marked as invalid

In DATEV LODAS and Lohn & Gehalt, certain fields are subject to validation and not all values are accepted.  These validation rules were therefore also introduced in Personio in order to avoid errors when data is transferred to DATEV.

Typical examples are the maximum length of the position title (30 characters) and the format of zip codes and social security numbers.

Solution: Adjust the attribute values.

To eliminate the errors, change the value for the relevant employee to a valid one. You can do this either directly in the Employee Profile > Personal info or, for multiple employees, via an employee data import. You can find more information about employee data imports in our article: How Do I Perform an Import? 

Lohnauswertungsdatenservice

Document distribution/preview reset for this month through recent changes to employee data

If Personio detects that an attribute that is relevant for assigning employee documents was changed in a billing month, the distribution of documents and preview is reset. This is indicated above the payroll table with an error message.

Changes to the following data points will result in the error:

• DATEV personnel number
• Consider in German payroll
• Subcompany (if applicable)

Solution: Reconfirm the retrieval of the documents. They will otherwise not appear in the preview, nor can they be downloaded and distributed to the employee profiles.

Then click on Retrieve documents again and process the documents as usual. 

Documents can't be retrieved due to duplicated Personalnummer

A DATEV Personalnummer that is duplicated within a subcompany will result in an error message above the payroll table for the employees concerned; the relevant numbers will be shown.

If this happens, documents cannot be retrieved, as they cannot be uniquely assigned to the employees of the subcompany. 

Solution: Check any changes and how the DATEV Personalnummer attribute of the relevant employees is assigned; if necessary, consult with your payroll accountant. Then also check whether the history of the employee within Personio is correct. Then click on Retrieve documents again and process the documents as usual.

Documents for some employees could not be retrieved or assigned

When this error appears, no documents could be retrieved or assigned for some employees who should be included in the payroll. This may be because "No" was seleted for the attribute "Include in payroll" and the DATEV-Personalnummer is missing. This is indicated by a warning above the payroll table. The employees concerned will also be highlighted in the table with a warning triangle.

If documents have been transferred, but the payslip is missing, this is also indicated by a warning triangle. 

Solution: Check your data for errors and correct them; consult with your payroll accountant or tax consultant if necessary.

Then click on Retrieve documents again and process the documents as usual.

Retrieved and distributed documents are reset after new employees have been added

Documents that were retrieved and already distributed for a completed month are reset, as soon as new employees are added for the coming month. This happens when their hire date is in the coming month and the value for the attribute Consider in German payroll

Solution: Retrieve the documents for the month again and distribute them.

Note:
To prevent this from happening in the future, ensure that for new employees added directly in Personio or via import, the attribute Consider in German payroll has no value. To add the value at the hire date, use the scheduling option for attribute changes.