Get API credentials from Personio

For the integration to work, you will need API credentials from Personio. In your Personio account, go to Settings > Integrations > API credentials and select Generate new credential. Fill out the form:

Name – e.g. Planday Credentials
Integration – Other
Personal data – in the Read column, select Employees and Absences. Leave all others unselected.
Readable employee attributes – Select all

When you have made your selection, select Generate new credential. Once done, you can access Your client ID and Your secret to use in the integration setup.

Activate the integration

⚠️ Depending on your Planday subscription, be aware that there may be a maximum number of Departments you can set up in Planday. Imports will possibly be incomplete if you exceed the maximum allowed departments limit. Read how to handle the max number of departments limit to ensure a successful import.

In Planday, go to Settings > Integrations > Overview. Select Personio > Connect > Connect company.
Enter your company name, the Client ID and Client secret you got from your Personio account, and press Authorise access.

In the next step, define which of your Personio entities should correlate to a Planday Department by selecting from the dropdown menu.

When you have made your selection, click Next.

You should now see a list with all available employees. With direct search, using the search bar or filtering by Department or Status, make sure that only employees you want to have imported into Planday are selected. By default, all employees are selected.

Before you finalise your selection by clicking Start import, choose if you would like to enable the automatic import of data in the future by having the options under Settings selected. You can change these settings later by managing your integration under Manage > Manage company > Settings.

Read below for more on how the two settings impact the integration.

Import current and future leave data

⚠️ Please note: Leave data can only be imported, if all available employees are selected.

If you have this option selected:

All current approved absences from Personio will appear as shifts in the in the Planday schedule to help you keep an overview while scheduling.
All future approved absences of the connected Personio account will automatically be synchronised to Planday daily at 11 PM.

💡 A full day absence appears as a shift from 8 AM - 4 PM. Half day absences appear as shifts from 8 AM - 12 noon or 12 noon - 4 PM.

If you don’t have this option selected:

All approved absences in Personio will need to be created manually in Planday.

Import all current and future employees from Personio

If you have this option selected, the integration will take the steps below not only once, but automatically daily at 11 PM:

Import selected employees to Planday and assign them to the Employee group Personio.
💡 You can additionally assign them to your Planday Employee groups later. It is recommended to leave employees in the Personio employee group as well.
Create Departments in Planday if necessary. Be aware of the Departments limit.
Send welcome e-mail be to newly created employees.
Import Employee group wages and monthly salary details.
any changes to mapped employees in Personio will be synchronised with the daily imports.

If you don’t have this option selected:

all of the above takes place, but only once: all future employees created in Personio will need to be imported separately.

How to handle the Departments limit

💡 Your Planday subscription plan defines your maximum number of Departments. On the Starter plan, you are limited to having 1 Department, while the Plus and Pro plans allow up to 5 or more Departments. When in doubt, check with the Planday support team. If necessary, upgrade to a plan that allows enough Departments.

Departments that would go over the limit and employees assigned to it will not be created in the import.

How are employees assigned to Departments in the import?

You define in the integration setup, which of your Personio entities should correlate to a Planday Department. In the import, employees will be added to Planday Departments as follows:

If there are Departments with matching names, employees will be added to them. In that case, your total number of Departments would be unaffected.
If there is no Department with a matching name, the system will try to add Departments named after the Personio entity. This would affect your total number of Departments.
If you import employees from Personio with no value in the required field, they will be assigned to a newly created fallback Department called Personio. This would affect your total number of Departments.

How do I ensure an uninterrupted, complete import of employees?

When applicable, match the name of a Planday Department with the name of the Personio entity you want to have connected to it.
In Personio, check the number of entities that would be imported by going to Settings > Organization.
Consult Planday’s support team to make sure you know your maximum number of allowed Departments. If necessary, upgrade to another plan.

Need more help?
Please search for answers in the 🔍 Help Center or watch our ▶️ video tutorials.
Contact our support team via the blue icon at the bottom if you have more questions.

See related articles:

How to connect Personio with Planday