Payroll accounting in paper form has become obsolete in many companies. In the course of digitization and the focus on environmental protection and greater economic efficiency, the focus is on digital payroll. If you also want to make the switch and send your employees digital payroll in the future, you should know everything you need to know about data protection and legal regulations in advance and incorporate them into the changeover.
Personal delivery or retrieval via a platform?
Digital payroll accounting via a portal saves you a lot of time and money as an employer. It is important that your employees can only access the payroll in person and that external inspection is excluded. You comply with this legal requirement if you enable retrieval with a secure login including password via an encrypted connection. Include the technical conversion and higher security requirements in IT in the changeover and get experienced support before you access the digitization of payroll.
Facts about data protection and data security
The format must be universally valid and digitally signable. It is best to create the payslip as an unalterable PDF and follow the Remuneration Certificate Directive of the German Civil Code (BGB) in terms of form and content. You should refrain from sending it by email, as small errors in the email address or a computer shared by the employee with other people increase the risk of a third-party disposition. It is best to use a two-stage procedure for eligibility and make the payslip available for personal retrieval on the intranet. The printout is only possible after storage and requires a manually entered PIN that is only known to the respective employee. Compliance with all regulations sounds complex, but it is not difficult to achieve after setting up the system once and training employees.
Current Legal Regulations for Digital Payroll
The legal requirements for digital payroll accounting are regulated, among other things, in the Federal Data Protection Act. Here, § 9 defines access control and requirements for encrypted transmission. Even the smallest security gaps in the transfer process or in the allocation of access authorization lead to legal disputes between employees and employers. It is advisable to have the IT used in the company checked in terms of data protection and transmission security, to use particularly high-quality encryption techniques and to monitor IT security around the clock. The dispatch or provision of the payslip must be personalized. This means that every employee may use access that is only known to him or her and can only be used by him or her for retrieval, data storage and subsequent printing. As an employer, you are subject to due diligence to comply with all legal, formal and substantive regulations. They are responsible for ensuring the transmission and are fully and exclusively liable for pitfalls and security gaps.
Despite all the measures for conversion: The digitization of payroll accounting is forward-looking
To ensure the security of the transmission or retrieval of payslips on the intranet, you have to change your system once and from now on opt for continuous monitoring of IT. Even if the initial effort should not be underestimated, you will save a lot of time and money in the long run. You protect the environment and use your resources carefully without restriction.
In what form do you provide your employees with monthly payroll? Have you already made the switch to digital payroll? What experiences have you had?.
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