🎯 For Admins and HR Managers. Skip this step if you manage contracts outside of Planday and wish to send an existing contract to an employee.
With the contract module in Planday, you can build or upload contracts directly in Planday and use data from the employee information to personalise the contracts. That way, you only need to create one contract per Employee type, group or Department and can send personal contracts to your new hires using the merge fields function. This guide covers the following topics to create or upload a contract.
Go to Settings > People > Contract set-up and press Create to set up a contract template.
Create a contract using Planday text editor
Start by giving a unique name to the contract. Choose which Employee groups can use this contract and set a category for this contract (optional).
Type
The Insert text function allows you to type the content of your contract directly into the text editor. You can use the text editor to stylize your contract and use employee data from your Planday to fill in certain fields.
The Import Document function allows you to upload an existing Microsoft Word document with the correct layout according to your company’s layout and use employee data from your Planday to fill in certain fields.
Merge Fields
No matter the type of contract you create, you can automatically merge each employee's information into the contract using merge fields.
You can find a list of available merge fields in the section below the text box with example data associated with the employee. See this detailed document on merge fields describing each value and their equivalent Danish values in case your Planday was set up in another language.
If entered into Planday’s editor, note that the merge fields should be spelt as they are in Planday. Be sure to use < > if using Planday text editor or remove < > if using Microsoft Word to compose your contract. Any custom data fields that you may have created, such as visa information, COVID compliance, will have a custom_ prefix to them and can be used in the contract.
💡 If you are missing a merge field, create a new field for the employee information page by going to Settings > People> Employee form setup. Once you have created a new field, it will appear on the employee's profile. Then enter a value in this field before using the merge field.
Upload file
Logo (This option only appears if selecting the Insert text function)
If you have chosen to compose your text in the Planday text editor, you can import a company logo and embed it into the digital contract with the option to position it.
Document (This option only appears if selecting the Import document function)
This allows you to upload an existing *.doc document with your layout and text. We recommend the file be in Word format so you can use the merge fields and thus get the most out of the contract module in Planday. See the complete list of predefined merge fields here.
Generate test contract
If you want to see how the contract looks, you can preview it by generating a test contract. This test contract fetches data from your profile and shows you what the contract may look like for the employee using your information.
Import your document using merge fields in Microsoft Word
If you want to include information from Planday in your self-managed contracts, such as employee and company information, then you must choose Import document for Type. This lets you import your company’s contract into Planday and customise it for your employee.
Note: The following examples use Microsoft Word for macOS, and these steps may differ slightly in other Word versions or on Windows.
To add Planday information to your external contract, open your contract in Word and create a new merge field. You can do that by going to the Insert menu and pressing the Insert a Field button or the menu bar in Word > Insert > Field.
Inside All categories, look for MergeField from the list and select it (you can press “m” twice after selecting All to jump to the MergeFrield quickly). You can now enter the name of the field you wish to merge with the employee’s data with its corresponding value from Planday. Be sure not to include < or > in your value.
To add more merge fields, copy and paste an existing merge field and then rename it according to the following instructions (or see the animation below):
Double-click / right-click on the object and select Toggle Field Codes. You can name the new field accordingly before updating (double-click / right-click on the object and select the Update field).
You should copy the merge field from Planday and paste it into Word instead of entering it manually to minimize errors.
Remember to save. After this, the field will appear in the contract template in Word and you can upload the contract file in Planday.
Once all the desired merge fields have been created and the contract template has been uploaded to the system, you are ready to send it to your employees.
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