DATEV Personal: Collaboration with the law firm
An overview of the division of responsibilities in payroll processing. The monthly process, your responsibilities, our responsibilities, deadlines and cut-off dates, as well as a monthly checklist.
Introduction
Payroll processing is a team effort. You provide us with your employees’ data and documents via DATEV Personal, and we use this to prepare the monthly payroll and handle the reporting and certification processes. To ensure nothing falls through the cracks, it helps to have a clear picture of who is responsible for which step.
A few clarifications up front, as there are often misunderstandings regarding the division of responsibilities:
The fact that you enter data into DATEV Personal does not mean that you will now be preparing the payslips yourself – we remain responsible for calculating the wages. Nor do you need to be an expert in payroll; you provide the information from your business, and we sort out the technical questions.
This article describes the monthly process, assigns the tasks and sets out the deadlines you should keep in mind.
The monthly process
Every payslip month follows the same pattern. Throughout the month, you continuously record any changes that occur in your business – such as new hires, changes of address or sick leave notifications. At the end of the month, you collate the variable figures.
As soon as the data is complete, you approve it. Once approved, it is transferred to our payroll system and we process the payroll. We then provide you with the reports and distribute the payslips to your staff.
The key to a smooth process is the timely and complete approval of your data. The later the data reaches us, the tighter the timeframe for on-time payroll processing becomes.
What you are responsible for
Your role involves everything that only you know about your business. This primarily includes day-to-day transaction data and changes to staff details.
Specifically, you record monthly data such as working hours, bonuses or allowances and approve them. You keep your employees’ master data up to date and provide documents for their personnel files.
For new hires, you ensure the personnel questionnaire is completed and, where necessary, trigger the immediate notification. In the event of sickness, you retrieve the electronic certificate of incapacity for work.
How to carry out these individual data entry tasks is explained in detail in separate help articles:
What we take care of
We handle the technical processing. We use your data to prepare the monthly payroll and ensure that all contributions and deductions are calculated correctly.
This includes all reporting and certification procedures: registering employees with and deregistering them from social security, submitting contribution statements, and providing certificates to health insurance funds and public authorities. These reports are generated via our payroll programme.
Once payroll has been processed, we make the reports available to you via DATEV Unternehmen Online and distribute the payroll documents digitally to your staff:
Deadlines and cut-off dates
To ensure payroll is completed on time, we need your data by a fixed date each month. We set this deadline together – it depends on your pay date and the number of employees you have.
Please adhere to the agreed submission deadline. If the data is received late, payroll processing may be delayed, and last-minute corrections will only be possible to a limited extent.
Regardless of the monthly deadline, there are notifications that must be submitted immediately. The immediate notification for new hires in certain sectors is due no later than the start of employment – in this case, it is not the monthly cycle that counts, but the date on which employment begins.
An overview of your and our responsibilities
Your responsibilities:
- Record monthly data and absences and approve them by the deadline
- Keep your employees’ master data up to date
- Provide documents for the personnel file
- Create new employees and trigger the immediate notification where required
- Report resignations
- Retrieve the eAU for sick leave notifications
Our tasks:
- Prepare the monthly payroll
- Submit registrations and deregistrations, as well as proof of contributions, to social security
- Processing certificates for health insurance funds and public authorities
- Providing reports
- Distributing payslips to your staff
This breakdown serves as a starting point and can be adapted to suit your business. If you would prefer to hand over individual steps to us, or conversely take them on yourself, we will tailor the arrangement to your specific needs.
A short monthly checklist will help ensure you don’t forget anything:
- [ ] Record new hires and departures for the month
- [ ] Master data changes entered
- [ ] Sick leave notifications processed and eAU retrieved
- [ ] Variable monthly data recorded
- [ ] Data released for transmission
Common sources of error
- Forgotten to approve: Data you have entered will only reach us once you have approved it. Without this step, it remains unused in the system and is omitted from the payroll.
- Missed the deadline: Late data leads to delays and makes last-minute corrections difficult.
- Immediate notification confused with monthly approval: The immediate notification is due as soon as employment begins and does not follow the monthly cycle.
- Incomplete details regarding staff changes: If details are missing when a staff member joins or leaves, we have to follow up, and payroll processing is delayed.
- Duplicate communication channels: If data is supplied partly via DATEV Personal and partly by email, information is more likely to get lost. A single, consistent channel is more reliable.
Frequently asked questions
Do I now have to do the payroll myself?
No. You provide the data; we take care of the payroll calculations. DATEV Personal does not alter the basic division of responsibilities.
By when must I provide the data?
We’ll agree on the monthly submission deadline together. It will be based on your pay date. Immediate notifications must be submitted by the time work commences at the latest, regardless of this.
Who retrieves the sick note?
You usually retrieve the eAU in DATEV Personal. We describe exactly how the retrieval process works and when it is permitted in a separate article.
What happens if I miss the deadline?
Payroll processing may be delayed. We’ll do our best to respond at short notice, but we can’t guarantee this in every case. Please get in touch with us well in advance if you’re running out of time.
Can I delegate individual tasks to you?
Yes. The division of tasks is not set in stone. We’ll work out together which steps you’ll take care of and which we’ll handle, and we’ll adjust this as needed.
Who handles the notifications to the health insurance funds?
We submit registrations, deregistrations and proof of contributions via our payroll software. You provide us with the necessary data via DATEV Personal.
Where can I find the reports once payroll has been processed?
We make the reports available to you via DATEV Unternehmen online. We distribute your employees’ payslips via DATEV Arbeitnehmer online.
Legal notice
This article provides an overview and is not a substitute for individual advice. The specific division of responsibilities and deadlines are governed by the agreement with your company.
If you have any questions about the process or about adjusting the division of responsibilities, please contact us directly.
Last updated: June 2026