Payroll for a sole trader with employees

You operate an Einzelunternehmen or work as a self-employed freelancer and employ two people. The payroll belongs to those employees. Money you take for yourself is an owner's drawing, not a third managing-director salary. The profit and drawings rules in § 4 EStG distinguish private withdrawals from business expenses.

Your route is: confirm the bookkeeping setup → obtain the two payroll calculations → file wage tax → make payments → reconcile the payroll records in Norman.

1. Confirm the setup before the first month

Tell Norman Support that you are a sole trader with two employees and whether you use EÜR or keep a balance-sheet Ledger. Norman's integrated payroll approval and Ledger workflow currently requires an SKR03 or SKR04 chart. An ordinary EÜR account without that setup does not automatically receive the payroll postings described in the GmbH guide.

Agree who will calculate payroll and transmit the employer reports. Until the integrated setup is confirmed for your account, use your existing payroll provider or tax advisor for those steps. Do not change your legal form to GmbH just to obtain a payroll option.

2. Obtain the monthly payroll package

Provide the reviewed employee details, agreed salaries, current tax and insurance data, work schedules and any changes for the month to the agreed payroll preparer. Obtain the two payslips, payroll summary, wage tax return amounts, fund contribution amounts and payment instructions.

Check that the package includes both employees and the correct month. Keep your own drawings separate. If there are no changes, the recurring task is to confirm that fact and review the new month's package.

3. File wage tax and pay the amounts

Have the responsible preparer complete the employer's Lohnsteuer-Anmeldung through the agreed route and give you the transmission receipt. If using Norman's assisted route, request the review and filing as described in the submission guide. Confirm the result rather than treating a preview as a filing.

Arrange net salary, Finanzamt and health-fund payments according to the package and applicable due dates. Confirm separately who handles the social-insurance reports. Your personal income tax payment and your drawings remain outside the employees' payroll.

4. Bring the evidence into Norman

Upload the payroll summary and supporting documents under Documents. Import or sync the corresponding business-bank payments and match the documents to the relevant transactions. Use the payroll expense categories agreed for your EÜR setup, with no payroll input VAT.

For ordinary EÜR bookkeeping, review the actual payments and their allocation with the payroll summary; uploading the summary alone does not create the expenses. If payroll has instead been posted through an agreed Ledger setup, payments clear the recorded liabilities rather than creating the expenses again. Keep one consistent method so the summary and bank payments are not counted twice.

5. Finish the month and prepare the year

Keep together the two payslips, wage tax transmission receipt, contribution evidence and matched payments. Check that recorded employee costs include the applicable employer contributions, while private drawings and personal income tax remain separate.

Repeat monthly. At year-end, reconcile the payroll totals with the appropriate bookkeeping report and give the records to whoever prepares your EÜR and income tax return. Those annual returns are separate from the employer's wage tax filings. See exporting categories and supporting documents.