Payroll in the Netherlands: how a typical monthly workflow goes

Payroll in the Netherlands: how a typical monthly workflow goes

This page describes a typical monthly payroll workflow for organizations in the Netherlands.

Who belongs on payroll

Anyone with a fixed-term or indefinite employment contract belongs on payroll. Freelancers and volunteers are typically not included, since they don't have an employment relationship with the organization.

Payroll platforms double as HR platforms

For small organizations, a payroll platform can usually also serve as the HR platform. That means it should be the only place where the organization stores:
  • Personal data: address, date of birth, BSN, and similar details.
  • Contracts: the signed employment agreement itself.
  • Work details: start date, end date, salary, weekly working hours, and any other terms that affect payslips.
The same platform is usually also where employees request leave, request reimbursements, and access their payslips.
Use the employee's personal email, not their work email. Employees should always be able to access their payslips, even after they leave the organization. Add each employee to the platform with their personal email address, and have them log in with that email, not their institutional one.

Our recommended platform: Employes

We recommend  Employes  for organizations with fewer than 20 employees, for its simplicity, standardized processes, and user-friendliness. Organizations above 20 employees can still use Employes efficiently, but at that size it might be worth checking whether a platform with more advanced features fits better as the team grows.

How a typical monthly payroll cycle runs

Step 1: Keep Employes updated throughout the month

Every payroll change ("payroll mutation") needs to be entered into the platform as it happens: salary changes, changes in working hours, contract renewals, or special leave such as parental or unpaid leave. This is typically the responsibility of an HR or operations officer. Entering mutations as they occur, rather than batching them at the end of the month, avoids a last-minute scramble before the cutoff date.

Step 2: Check mutations before the cutoff date

Every payroll platform has a cutoff date after which a mutation or reimbursement only takes effect in the following month's payroll. This is usually somewhere around the 15th to the 20th of the month, assuming salaries go out around the 25th, but check your own account's settings since it varies per platform (and sometimes per month). Before that date, someone should check that every mutation for the month is in the platform.

Step 3: Approve the payroll run

Once mutations are confirmed, the payroll run usually needs someone's approval before the platform's payroll specialists process it into payslips and wage tax filings.

Step 4: Pay salaries and wage tax

Employes generates two SEPA payment files after processing: one for salaries and one for wage taxes. Upload both to your bank to make the payments (see Employes kennisbank:  Overige veelgestelde vragen ).
Important dates:
  • 25th of the month: our recommended date to pay salaries to employees.
  • Last day of the following month: the deadline to file and pay wage tax (loonheffingen) to the Belastingdienst. Wages paid in January, for example, must be filed and paid by the end of February (see Belastingdienst:  Aangifte loonheffingen doen  ).

Payroll journals

After payroll is processed, the platform generates payroll journals (loonjournaalposten): accounting entries that record gross salaries, employee wage tax, social security contributions, and any other deduction or benefit affecting payroll. These journals feed your bookkeeping so it reflects your actual payroll costs.
Journals can come at company level (amounts aggregated for the whole entity), department or cost-center level (for example, per team), or employee level. Which one to use depends on how your bookkeeping is organized, but a company-level journal is usually enough for small organizations.

Retroactive changes

Retroactive changes are usually possible. In Employes, you can reopen and correct a finalized payroll run yourself, up to one month after the month in question, since a new wage tax filing can be submitted that overwrites the previous one (see Employes kennisbank:  Wijzigen van een verloning ). For changes beyond that window, contact Employes' support team.

Switching payroll providers

Switch from January whenever possible. Moving providers mid-year is possible, but it takes more time, effort, and back-and-forth paperwork than a clean start at the new tax year.
Switching usually takes 2 to 3 months, so reach out to the new provider around October to be ready to go live in January.

Good to know

  • Payroll mutations entered after the cutoff date land in next month's payroll, not the current one.
  • Employees keep access to their payslips after leaving, as long as they were added with their personal email.
  • A company-level payroll journal is enough for most small organizations; only go granular (department or employee level) if your bookkeeping needs it.