Hourly-paid employees are paid based on the hours they actually worked. 

This requires the relevant feature to be enabled and working hours to be tracked in Factorial. When that's the case, hours worked can be moved from time tracking into the Compensation module and from there on to DATEV – no manual transfer is needed.

Without the feature enabled, or without tracked hours, no values are transmitted.

How to set up

To set up hourly employees, please follow these steps:

Step 1: Set an hourly rate in the contract

The employee's contract must have the following set up:

1. The “Base salary type” must be set to “hourly base salary”. (Important: Do not use „Geleistete Stunden“ as Base salary type)
2. The “Base salary” must be having a value per hour

Step 2: Set up the Integration settings

In the Integration settings, the following mapping must be set up:

1. Grundgehalt pro Stunde: Link the wage type for hourly wage (usually wage type 1000 - Stundenlohn as seen in our screenshot bellow. Please check with your DATEV admin/tax advisor for the exact number).This enables the transfer of the hourly rate (e.g., €20.00) to DATEV.
2. Payroll concept Geleistete Stunden: Link to the same wage type as choose above (In our example bellow 1000 - Stundenlohn). This will enable the transfer of the number of hours worked (e.g., 38 hours).

Strep 3: Configure “Extra and special hours” for hourly-based compensation in the settings

For this open the Time Tracking settings and go to the policy for hourly paid employees and open “Extra and special hours”.

1. Extra hours calculation: Enable the setting “Planned hours”. This guarantees that any hour worked beyond the schedule (e.g., working 39 hours when scheduled for 38) is properly counted as an extra hour instead of being “lost” against the 40-hour contract limit.

   

2. Extra hour rules: Configure the Base rule under “Extra hour rules” according to a 1:1 hourly rate.

   

   
   Afterwards set the “Compensation Method” to “Überstunden(h)”.

   

3. Special hours( if applicable): The special hours need to be set up as the extra hours as well.
   The hourly rate must be on a 1:1 basis and set to the previous created compensation Method that is linked to the correct Lohnart in DATEV. Please check with your DATEV admin/tax advisor for the exact Lohnarten number and set up, to ensure that the worked hours are synced to the correct place in DATEV.

   

Step 4: Configure Compensation for hourly-based compensation in the settings

For this open the Time Tracking settings and go to the policy for hourly paid employees and open “Compensation”.

1. The “Compensation period” must be set to “Daily”

   

The “Calculation frequency” must be set to “Daily”

Step 5: Enable time tracking module connection

Once the contracts and policies are correct the time tracking module connection can be enabled.

Go to Settings → Compensation → Connected modules → Time tracking, and enable “Hourly employees only” in the box on the right.

Looking at the process in the praxis:

1. Approve planed working hours in timesheets:
   All tracked hours within scheduled working hours automatically flow into the compensation module under the "Hours worked" concept after they have been approved.

   

2. Pay out extra hours or special hours: To transfer extra hours(outside scheduled working hours) as well as special hours, the already approved timesheet must be paid out ("vergütet") in the timesheet of the employee.

   

3. Allow for buffer time:
   The transfer to the compensation module (as well as the automatic calculation of any Verpflegungspauschalen) may take a few minutes.
4. Synchronise:
   As soon as all values are visible in the compensation module, you can start the synchronisation with DATEV or generate the export for payroll accounting.