How do I set MetronHR up?
Setup runs in three stages. The first run after registration creates the company with its industry, federal state and size. The setup wizard then sets the rules for holiday, overtime, sick notes and the recording lock. Finally you invite your employees by email and assign them a working-time model.
As at:September 2026
Step 1: create the company
The first run starts immediately after registration and asks for the details that later feed the calculations. Anyone who abandons it loses nothing: the state is saved and continued at the next sign-in, and a completed run is skipped.
The person who registers thereby becomes management of the new company and is the only role that can subsequently open the setup wizard and the company settings.
- Register and confirm the email address.
- Enter the company data: name, industry, federal state and size band.
- State how you heard about MetronHR. That is the only entry with no effect on the calculations.
- Complete the first run. The company is then created and the application is open.
Step 2: set the rules in the setup wizard
After the first run a second, thematic wizard is available. It first asks which steps apply to your business at all, and then goes through the rules that otherwise sit spread across several settings pages.
The wizard is not compulsory. Everything in it can also be set later individually through the settings pages; it only arranges what is otherwise scattered. Skipping is kept as a state of its own and not as completion, and the progress display distinguishes done, open and skipped.
The state belongs to the company, not to the session. Switching device continues rather than starting over.
- The federal state for the public holiday calendar
- Holiday rules, including the carry-over rule into the following year
- How overtime is handled
- Sick notes and from when a certificate is required
- Lock periods for time tracking
- Visibility of absences in the shared calendar
Step 3: federal state and public holidays
If no federal state is set, the system calculates without public holidays. That does not go unnoticed, as the interface then shows a warning bar of its own, but it is the one step you should not leave out.
Public holidays take effect in four places: in the target hours of the time account, in the working day calculation of every absence, in the calendar views and in shift planning. A public holiday is not a non-working day per person, though. Anyone working on a public holiday records time as normal; the effect lies solely in the target.
Three levels determine which public holidays apply to whom. They take effect in this order.
| Level | What it determines | When you need it |
|---|---|---|
| The company's federal state | Which statutory calendar applies at all. | Always. Without this detail the calculation runs without public holidays. |
| Selecting and deselecting individual public holidays | Whether a single day is treated as non-working in the business. | When a statutory public holiday is worked at your business, or the other way round. |
| A different federal state per person | A calendar of its own for individual employees. | With sites across state borders. |
The company's federal state
- What it determines
- Which statutory calendar applies at all.
- When you need it
- Always. Without this detail the calculation runs without public holidays.
Selecting and deselecting individual public holidays
- What it determines
- Whether a single day is treated as non-working in the business.
- When you need it
- When a statutory public holiday is worked at your business, or the other way round.
A different federal state per person
- What it determines
- A calendar of its own for individual employees.
- When you need it
- With sites across state borders.
The steps here describe a running system. Anyone who does not have one yet sets it up during the trial and keeps everything created along the way.
Step 4: set the working-time model
The working-time model is the detail with the widest reach in the whole setup. Not only the target hours depend on it, but also the working day calculation of every absence, the minimum number of hours for a half day, the break deduction in time tracking and the conversion of overtime into days off.
A model describes the target, not the timing. It sets how much is worked, not when. Core hours and shift sequences cannot be represented in it; the timing is handled by shift planning.
One model serves as the default for newly created people, and differing assignments are made per person with a start date. Changes are kept with dates, so a retrospective report uses the model that applied in that period. Models no longer needed are archived rather than deleted, so that old reports stay correct.
Three structures are available. The system calculates the weekly hours from them.
| Structure | How the target is set | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Daily Structure | Target hours per weekday, set individually. | the weekdays differ in length, such as a short Friday. |
| Weekly Structure | A total per week. | the weekly hours are fixed but their distribution is not. |
| Monthly Structure | A total per month. | you think and bill in monthly hours. |
Daily Structure
- How the target is set
- Target hours per weekday, set individually.
- Fits when
- the weekdays differ in length, such as a short Friday.
Weekly Structure
- How the target is set
- A total per week.
- Fits when
- the weekly hours are fixed but their distribution is not.
Monthly Structure
- How the target is set
- A total per month.
- Fits when
- you think and bill in monthly hours.
Step 5: invite employees
Invitations go by email, individually or as a bulk operation with several addresses at once. There is no invitation without an email address.
Important for understanding the list: the invitation does not yet create an account. It creates an entry with a token, and the person only comes into being when they accept the invitation. If somebody already has an account, say from another company, the membership is added rather than a second account created. Anyone who can no longer find their link can request it again themselves, without administration having to do anything.
- Choose the role and assignment for the person to be invited.
- Assign an employee number. It must be unique among the existing members and among the open invitations, otherwise two invitations collide on acceptance.
- Send the invitation. Beforehand the system checks the permission, the role granted, both number ranges and the free licences.
- The invited person opens the link, sets their password and is thereby a member.
- Enter the start of employment in the personnel file where it differs from the day of joining.
- During the trial the licence check does not apply, and the number of invitations is not limited there.
- In a bulk operation the check runs against the total rather than person by person.
- Joining and leaving are kept as employment periods, with exactly one open per person. Rejoining by the same person is provided for.
What the setup does not do
Shift planning comes with a first run of its own, with templates for areas, pools, shift definitions and staffing rules. It is the only module that can be switched off, and it belongs to the Professional plan.
In the product the employment contract is a data record and not a document. No contract PDF is generated and no signature is obtained. A contract document that has been uploaded sits in the personnel file and has no connection to the contract fields.
Follow-up questions
- Do I have to go through the setup wizard?
- No. It is not compulsory. Every setting in it can also be made later individually through the settings pages. The wizard only arranges what is otherwise spread across several pages, and it remembers how far you got.
- How long does the setup take?
- That depends on the number of employees, not on the software. The company, federal state and working-time model are set in a few minutes. The time goes into the invitations and the personnel files, and both can be done as a bulk operation.
- What happens if I do not set a federal state?
- Then the calculation runs without public holidays, and that distorts both the target hours in the time account and the working days of every absence. In that case the interface shows a warning bar so that it does not happen silently.
- Can somebody work in two companies?
- Yes. If an account belongs to several companies, you choose one after signing in, and switching is also possible during use without signing in again. With exactly one membership there is no choice to make.
- What if I sent an invitation to the wrong address?
- The invitation can be deleted as long as it has not been accepted. As no account has been created with it, nothing is left behind, and the employee number becomes free again.
Describes the state of the application onSeptember 2026. What changes in the product is in the product updates.
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Reading up is one thing. Setting it up yourself takes an afternoon.
MetronHR records working time at the terminal, in the app and in the browser, keeps holiday and overtime up to date and files the month ready to go. Try it free for 14 days.
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