🔓 Access level in Planday: Administrator, HR manager.

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ℹ️ Important read:

Getting started — Set up your business.
Do you use Xero? See Import your existing employees from Xero.

You can manage employees in different areas of Planday, but the main hub is the Employees page. As an admin, you can also create new employees through the Planday app or by importing them from a third-party HR service.

To create employees in Planday on the web:

Go to the People > Employees page.
Click on the Create employees dropdown and select Create one employee.
Fill out the form with essential personal and job-related details. Press Save to move to the next step.

You can send your newly created employee a welcome message or login information to their email address. Read more on How to customise the welcome message. Press Done to complete the process.

Make sure the username is a valid email, as Planday will send log-in details there. If you encounter an error when saving, ensure all required fields marked with an asterisk (*) are completed.

Add multiple employees from the People page

Easily add staff to Planday with the Create multiple employees feature. You can enter basic details here and complete the rest later.

Go to People > Employees > Create employees.
Select Create multiple employees to add information for several employees at once.

Import employees using an Excel template

Please note: This feature is under development. If you need help, you will receive this in your onboarding, or you can send a message to the support team.

If you have many employees to import, bulk creation is an efficient alternative to adding them individually.

Go to People > Employees > Tools > Employee import via template.

The more you've set up Departments, Employee groups, and Contract conditions in Planday, the smoother your bulk import will be.
You can insert rows to add multiple employees directly through this interface.

Alternatively, download a template, fill in your employees' details in Excel, and upload it via the Import option. Make sure to match the format required for Planday to read your data correctly. See the bottom of this article to download the template file.

Format your employee data in Excel as follows:

Email address, name, gender, and department are mandatory fields.
Keep the template structure unchanged—don't add or delete rows.
To assign an employee to a department, place an X in the appropriate field.
For Employee group assignments, enter an hourly wage (e.g., "12" for €12.00) or 0 in the relevant field.
For Bank account, format as registration number followed by account number (e.g., "1234 567890" or "1234 / 567890").
In dropdown columns, ensure your entry matches an existing list value (e.g., "Male" or "Female" for gender).
For checkboxes, enter Yes or X to tick.
Phone numbers should start with +[country code] (e.g., "+44" for the UK), using available country codes.

After entering all data, save the file and import it using the Import button, then follow the steps.

Add employees from the Schedule page

You can quickly add staff while creating or editing a shift on the Schedule page. This method lets you enter basic details to start scheduling immediately, with the option to complete their full profile later.

Completing all mandatory fields is important if you want your employees to use Planday or connect with an integration.

Fill in all required fields later under People > Employees.
Invite your employees through People > Employees > Tools > Send invitations.

Use of special characters in the username

The following characters are not supported in the username:

Umlauts ä, ö and ü, and the ß in upper and lower case.
Scandinavian letters æ, ø, å in upper and lower case.

These characters are supported in the username:

a-z in upper and lower case, 0-9 and .! #$%&'*+/=? ^_`{|}~-

Save time by viewing more information at once

To save time when adding a lot of information, click the dual column icon next to the save button. This switches to a compact view, making it easier to enter information quickly and spot any missing mandatory fields.

How to create employees using the Planday app:

As an admin, log in to the Planday app, go to More > People, and tap the add employee icon in the top right corner. Enter the employee details, then press Create to complete the process.

Edit employee details from the People page on the web

You can edit employee details from the People page using two methods: quick edit and full edit.

1. Quick edit

Click on the employee’s name or anywhere on the line to access the quick edit menu. This lets you quickly view or update an employee's details, assign them to Departments or Employee groups, and adjust their security permissions.

2. Full edit

Access full edit mode by hovering over an employee’s name and clicking the pencil icon or by opening quick edit and selecting Edit. Here, you can modify all employment data, including personal info, work details, documents, and more.

For additional management options, use the User Actions dropdown menu.

Edit employee details from the Schedule page

To edit an employee's details from the schedule, switch to the Employee view. Hover over the employee's name and click the Profile button to open their profile and make changes. Note that this can't be done in Groups or Positions view.

Get notifications when new employees are created

To set up notifications for new employee additions, go to Settings > Your Organisation > Notifications and select New employee created. Add recipients, like Schedule Managers, who should receive these alerts. You can choose to send notifications via Planday message, SMS, or both. This helps your management team stay updated on new staff members when managing large Planday organisations.

Please note: Our carrier’s standard text rates may apply if you select notifications by SMS.

How to invite employees to Planday

See related articles:

ℹ️ Need more help?

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How to add and update employees in Planday