Handing hours over to payroll cleanly
Payroll needs, per person and month, the paid hours, separated into regular work, premium hours and absence types, plus the state of the hours account. That is handed over as an Excel or CSV file with one row per person. What matters is not the format but that the month is closed.
As of:September 2026
What payroll really needs
Not all the times, but the derived figures. Anyone sending a list of every clocking event merely shifts the work, and it gets done by hand a second time there.
- Paid regular hours in the month, per person.
- Premium hours separated into night, Sunday and public holiday, because they are treated differently for tax (section 3b EStG).
- Absences by type: leave, illness, unpaid leave of absence, public holiday.
- Overtime, in so far as it is paid out rather than put into the account.
- The state of the hours account at the end of the month, as a control figure.
The month-end close is the actual job
A handover is only as good as the close before it. If a sick note is missing, a leave request is still pending or somebody forgot to clock out, the total is wrong, and the mistake only surfaces on the payslip.
So a check belongs before the export: missing days, pending requests, entries without an end, times outside the working time model. Only then is the month locked, and only a locked month is a solid basis.
Corrections after the fact are the normal case, not the exception. What matters is that they stay traceable: who changed what and when. Without that history, there is no way in case of doubt to establish whether the payroll or the recording was wrong.
Knowing the rules is one thing, keeping to them day to day another. MetronHR checks breaks, rest periods and maximum working time automatically as time is recorded.
Formats and routes
In small and medium-sized businesses the handover almost always runs via a file, and that is not backwardness but a deliberate decision: the file is readable, checkable and archivable, and the tax adviser can process it without access to the system.
| Route | When it fits | What needs settling |
|---|---|---|
| An Excel file per month | The standard case. One row per person, columns per figure. | Agree column names and their order with payroll once, and then keep them the same. |
| A CSV file | When the other side imports automatically. | Settle the separator, the character set and the decimal separator in advance, otherwise 7.5 hours turns into 75. |
| REST API | When a system is to fetch the data itself on a regular basis. | An account with read access to time entries and absences is enough; it should get no more. |
| Webhook | When the other side is to learn immediately that something has changed. | The receiver has to tolerate duplicate deliveries; the delivery identifier stays the same for that. |
An Excel file per month
- When it fits
- The standard case. One row per person, columns per figure.
- What needs settling
- Agree column names and their order with payroll once, and then keep them the same.
A CSV file
- When it fits
- When the other side imports automatically.
- What needs settling
- Settle the separator, the character set and the decimal separator in advance, otherwise 7.5 hours turns into 75.
REST API
- When it fits
- When a system is to fetch the data itself on a regular basis.
- What needs settling
- An account with read access to time entries and absences is enough; it should get no more.
Webhook
- When it fits
- When the other side is to learn immediately that something has changed.
- What needs settling
- The receiver has to tolerate duplicate deliveries; the delivery identifier stays the same for that.
As of 15/09/2026. Which resources the interface carries is set out on the REST API page.
Where it comes unstuck in practice
At three points, and none of them is technical. First at absences that are only in the calendar and not in the time tracking. Second at premiums that are paid as a flat rate instead of being derived from the actual times, which makes the tax exemption under section 3b EStG impossible to demonstrate. Third at corrections typed into the file after the fact instead of into the recording: after that the file and the system no longer match, and nobody knows which figure applies.
Further reading:Section 3b EStG · Principles for the proper keeping and retention of books (GoBD)
This is not legal advice; for a specific case at your workplace you are better off asking someone qualified to give it.
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Frequently asked questions
What we are asked about this most often.
Per person and month, the paid hours separated into regular work and premium hours, the absences by type and the state of the hours account. A list of individual clocking events is not needed for that and makes checking harder.
Usually as an Excel or CSV file with one row per person. The separator, the character set and the decimal separator should be settled once. Anyone wanting to hand over automatically uses the REST API with an account that can only read.
Once a month after the close, usually in the first working days of the following month. What matters is that the month is locked beforehand, otherwise the basis changes after the handover.
It belongs in the recording and not in the file. After that the month concerned is handed over again or the difference is taken into account in the following month. What matters is a change history showing who changed what and when.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
Knowing the rules is one thing. Keeping to them is another.
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