Digital personnel file obligation: what really applies from 2027

“From 2027, the digital personnel file is mandatory” – you are reading this sentence everywhere right now. In newsletters, at trade fairs, in offers from software vendors. But it is not true as it stands. Private employers in Germany have no obligation to keep a personnel file at all – neither on paper nor digitally.

What actually exists: since 1 January 2022, employers have had to keep certain payroll records electronically. If you did not want to do that, you could apply for an exemption. It is precisely this exemption that ends on 31 December 2026. From 2027, every employer must therefore keep part of its personnel documents in digital form – and many of these documents are in the personnel file today.

In this guide you will learn what German law really requires, which documents are affected, how long you have to keep personnel records, what happens to paper originals and what you need to watch out for regarding data protection and the works council. At the end, we show you how to introduce the digital personnel file in six steps.

As DOCSHERO®, we have been introducing digital files in companies of every size and industry for more than 20 years – including personnel files with a connection to DATEV.

Legal status and source review: 3 November 2026. Not legal advice.

• No obligation to keep a personnel file: private employers do not have to keep a personnel file – neither on paper nor digitally. The personnel file is only mandatory in the public sector, for example for federal civil servants.
• Obligation for payroll records: since 1 January 2022, certain payroll records have had to be kept electronically (§ 8 Abs. 2 BVV). The only new thing in 2027 is that the exemption from this ends.
• Around 20 document types are affected, for example residence permits, proof of exemption from insurance, mini-job declarations, the written statement under the Nachweisgesetz (German Evidence Act), proof of parenthood and records under the Minimum Wage Act.
• Paper originals stay for now: you must keep scanned originals until the next social security audit has been finally concluded.
• Easiest with a real file: if you have to digitise anyway, it is best to keep the entire digital personnel file straight away – with access rights, deadlines and a connection to payroll.

There is no statutory obligation to keep a personnel file for private-sector companies in Germany. No law requires you to create a file for your employees, let alone that it has to be electronic. Almost every company keeps one anyway, because the employment contract, certificates and evidence have to be filed somewhere.

The public sector is different: under § 106 of the German Federal Civil Servants Act (Bundesbeamtengesetz, BBG), a personnel file must be kept for every federal civil servant. It may be kept partly or entirely in electronic form, but it does not have to be. Civil servants of the federal states are covered by their own state laws.

So where does the “mandatory from 2027” come from? From the Beitragsverfahrensverordnung (BVV, German Contribution Procedure Ordinance). It governs which payroll records employers have to keep for social security purposes. Since 1 January 2022, § 8 Abs. 2 BVV has required certain of these records to be added to the payroll records in electronic form. At the same time, § 8 Abs. 3 BVV allowed employers to be exempted from this until 31 December 2026 on application to the responsible audit service of the German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung).

From 1 January 2027, electronic record-keeping therefore applies without exception. However, the obligation only covers payroll records – that is, part of what is in a typical personnel file. But if you have to keep these documents digitally anyway, you have a good reason to digitise the remaining documents at the same time.

The list shows: it is mainly about evidence that matters for calculating contributions. When the German Pension Insurance audits you, it wants to see why someone was exempt from insurance, why a mini-jobber is not in the pension insurance scheme or why a childless supplement is missing. This evidence must be available electronically.

Much of the data is created digitally anyway, for example the notifications from payroll. The critical items are the paper documents that employees bring with them: certificates of enrolment, children’s birth certificates, residence permits or signed declarations from mini-jobbers. Under § 9 Abs. 5 BVV, they must be converted into an electronic format.

The electronic payroll records must be available at any time and readable without delay throughout the retention period. In theory, a folder of scans on the network drive is enough for this, but in practice it rarely is. By the next social security audit at the latest, you have to find the right documents for each person quickly – and completely. If you are scanning for this anyway, you can take the opportunity to digitise all your documents straight away and migrate your existing records cleanly.

One point is often overlooked: there is a second deadline for the audit itself. Under § 126 SGB IV, employers could also choose until the end of 2026 not to transmit the data for the electronically supported social security audit (euBP) digitally. This exception also expires on 31 December 2026.

The German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) describes personnel files as a collection of documents and records that concern an employee’s personal and professional circumstances and have an inner connection with the employment relationship. Private notes, rumours or documents unrelated to work do not belong in it.

Particular care is needed with health data. Certificates of incapacity for work now mostly arrive electronically via the health insurance fund, and the employer is not entitled to know diagnoses. Documents on company integration management (betriebliches Eingliederungsmanagement) should be filed separately and with particularly tight access rights. Data protection for personnel files sets tight limits here: only what is necessary for the employment relationship is stored.

In a digital file, you no longer sort documents into tabs but by document type. Each document type gets its own access rights and its own retention period. That way, the manager sees the target agreement but not the garnishment order. And payroll finds the proof of parenthood without seeing the appraisals.

The most important period for payroll records is laid down in the German Social Code (Sozialgesetzbuch): you must keep them until the end of the calendar year following the last social security audit. Because the pension insurance audits at least every four years, this often adds up to five years or more in practice. If a document is also used as an accounting voucher, the tax periods apply in addition. For accounting vouchers, annual financial statements and business letters, the retention periods under German tax and commercial law of six, eight or ten years apply.

For the rest of the file, the following applies after an employee leaves: keep it as long as claims are possible, then delete it. The standard limitation period is three years from the end of the year in which the claim arose. Most companies use this as their guide.

How long does a warning (Abmahnung) stay in the personnel file? There is no fixed period, even though two to three years are often quoted. According to the Federal Labour Court (judgment of 19 July 2012, 2 AZR 782/11), employees can only demand the removal of a justified warning once it has lost its warning function and the employer no longer has a legitimate interest in documenting it. That depends on the individual case. An unjustified warning, on the other hand, must be removed on request.

§ 9 Abs. 5 BVV is unambiguous here: the original documents must be kept until the social security audit has been finally concluded, or longer if other provisions require it. If you scan all paper documents in January 2027, you may therefore only destroy them after the next completed audit. After that, the electronic version is sufficient.

Some documents you should keep in the original as a matter of principle. Notice of termination and termination agreements require the written form under German law; the electronic form is excluded (§ 623 BGB). A fixed-term contract must also be agreed in writing (§ 14 Abs. 4 TzBfG). Digitally, this is only possible with a qualified electronic signature. Of the three types of electronic signature, only this one replaces the written form. If you want to have an employment contract signed digitally, you therefore need to know whether it contains a fixed term.

Since 1 January 2025, the written statement under the Nachweisgesetz has at least become easier: in many cases, the essential terms of employment may be transmitted electronically in text form. The document must be accessible and it must be possible to save and print it, and you must request a confirmation of receipt with the transmission. This simplification does not apply in industries covered by the German Act to Combat Undeclared Work (Schwarzarbeitsbekämpfungsgesetz), such as construction, hospitality or building cleaning.

For the scanned documents: complete, legible, unalterable. Define who scans, how quality is checked and where the files end up. These rules belong in a procedure description, similar to a GoBD process documentation for accounting.

The right to inspect the personnel file is set out in § 83 of the German Works Constitution Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz, BetrVG): employees may view their file without giving a reason and may bring in a member of the works council. Their own statements on its content must be added to the file on request. In addition, Art. 15 GDPR grants a right of access and to a copy of the stored data.

Within the company, the principle is as much as necessary, as little as possible. HR sees the whole file, the manager only what they need for their management tasks, and payroll the documents relevant to payroll. On paper, this can hardly be implemented: whoever unlocks the cabinet sees everything. Digitally, you control access rights per role and document type, and every access is logged.

Since the judgment of the CJEU of 30 March 2023 (C-34/21), according to the case law of the German Federal Labour Court (BAG), the legal basis for processing is no longer the general clause in § 26 Abs. 1 Satz 1 BDSG, but as a rule directly Art. 6(1) GDPR, and additionally Art. 9 GDPR for health data. In practice, this means: every processing operation needs a clear purpose, an authorisation concept and a deletion concept.

If the data is held by a service provider, you need a data processing agreement. With a cloud solution, it pays to look at the location: our HEROcloud runs on its own infrastructure in German and European data centres.

Under § 87 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 BetrVG, software that is objectively suitable for monitoring the behaviour or performance of employees is subject to co-determination. Whether you intend to do so is irrelevant. A digital personnel file with access logs and reports generally falls under this.

The usual approach is a works agreement (Betriebsvereinbarung). It governs which data goes into the file, who accesses what, how access may be logged and analysed and when data is deleted. If no agreement is reached, the conciliation committee (Einigungsstelle) decides.

So involve the works council from the start, not just shortly before launch. If you can already present the access rights concept in the first workshop, you save yourself rounds of revisions later. Incidentally, the works council does not have a permanent right to inspect all files. A works council member only sees a file if the employee brings them in. Otherwise, the works council only receives, case by case, the information it needs for a specific task.

There are also disadvantages, and you should know them before you start:

• Implementation effort: document types, access rights and periods have to be defined properly once. Existing files have to be scanned or deliberately left on paper.
• Costs: licences, setup and operation cost money, even if the effort for filing and searching goes down.
• Dependence on the vendor: the file is only as available as the system. An open archive format and an export path are therefore important.
• Training and acceptance: HR, managers and employees have to learn new processes.
• Works council and data protection: the works agreement, authorisation concept and deletion concept take project time.
• Paper does not disappear entirely: originals stay until the next social security audit, documents requiring the written form often permanently.

Most of these points are one-offs. The advantages, on the other hand, take effect every day, and you have to meet the obligation for payroll records from 2027 anyway. If you only scan the mandatory documents, you end up with two filing systems: a digital one for the audit and a paper one for everything else. That is usually more expensive than a single digital file.

In ELO, the digital personnel file is called ELO HR Personnel File. It brings together all of an employee’s documents in one file, with access rights per role, automatic deadlines for probationary periods, fixed terms and retention, onboarding and self-service. If you run payroll with DATEV, you connect the file to DATEV LODAS or DATEV Lohn und Gehalt via ELO Personnel File for DATEV. Master data is then synchronised in both directions. This is based on the ELO for DATEV partnership: ELO is an official DATEV partner.

New documents reach the right file via a digital mailroom, and employees sign contracts digitally with HEROsign. Because the personnel file runs on the same platform as invoices, contracts and emails, you only need one audit-proof archive for all documents. That is exactly what distinguishes a platform like ELO from a simple DMS that only stores files.

DOCSHERO® is a certified ELO Business Partner and sets up the digital personnel file so that access rights, deadlines and processes fit your HR – on your servers or in the HEROcloud. The free digitalisation check shows you in just a few minutes where your company stands today.

Legal status and source review: 3 November 2026. Statutory requirements are linked directly. This article is not legal advice – in individual cases, please involve a lawyer, tax adviser or data protection officer.

• § 8 BVV: payroll records (version from 1 July 2026, German)
• § 9 BVV: retention of records (German)
• § 28f SGB IV: record-keeping obligation, payroll records (German Social Code)
• § 28p SGB IV: audits of employers (German Social Code)
• § 126 SGB IV: electronically supported social security audit (German Social Code)
• § 106 BBG: personnel file (German Federal Civil Servants Act)
• § 83 BetrVG: inspection of personnel files (German Works Constitution Act)
• BAG, judgment of 19.07.2012 – 2 AZR 782/11 (removal of a warning, German)
• DATEV: digital personnel file – mandatory from 2027? (German)