HeavenHR

What Is HeavenHR?

A finance director at a 60-person Berlin manufacturer knows exactly what German payroll feels like without the right tools: hours cross-referencing Lohnsteuer tables, manually calculating Sozialversicherung contributions, and emailing DATEV exports to the tax consultant before the deadline closes. HeavenHR was built for that specific situation. The Berlin-based company, founded in 2015, built an HR and payroll platform aimed at German small and mid-sized businesses that need local compliance without enterprise complexity.

HeavenHR GmbH focuses on three interconnected problems: digital HR administration, automated German payroll, and applicant management — all running on a unified data foundation. Because the HR admin module and payroll engine share the same data model, there are no manual imports between systems. An absence approved in HR Admin flows directly into the next payroll run. A new hire created during onboarding populates payroll automatically.

The platform is not a Swiss Army knife of global HR features. It is a focused product for companies operating under German labour law, and that focus shows in the depth of its payroll compliance. All servers are based exclusively in Germany, satisfying both GDPR and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG).

Key Features

Real-Time Payroll Simulation

The standout feature in HeavenHR's payroll module is its live simulation capability. Before a payroll run is finalised, HR managers can preview the exact net pay for every employee — including tax deductions, pension contributions, and statutory health insurance — and adjust variables without committing. This is meaningfully different from batch payroll systems that only reveal errors after the run completes. Catching a miscoded benefit or an incorrect absence deduction in simulation prevents correction runs and the administrative overhead that follows.

The engine handles all German tax classes (Steuerklassen I–VI), child allowances (Kinderfreibeträge), church tax, and solidarity surcharge. It produces legally required wage tax certificates (Lohnsteuerbescheinigungen) and submits social security data directly to German carriers via the certified ITSG process.

Automated Social Security Submissions

German payroll is administratively dense. Employers must register new employees with health insurance providers, submit monthly contribution statements (Beitragsnachweise), and notify the relevant authorities when employees leave. HeavenHR automates all of this through certified electronic submission processes. Social security registrations, deregistrations, and contribution statements go out directly to the Krankenkassen and the Deutsche Rentenversicherung without manual intervention.

This automation alone represents significant time savings for companies that currently handle these submissions manually or rely on a tax consultant for routine notifications.

Digital Personnel Files

Each employee in HeavenHR gets a structured digital personnel file covering all payroll-relevant data, contracts, certificates, and correspondence. Documents are stored securely on German servers, with access controls limiting visibility by role. The file serves as the audit trail regulators expect — employers can produce complete employment histories for inspections without hunting through paper archives.

The personnel file connects directly to payroll: employment contract terms, agreed salaries, and benefit entitlements all feed the payroll engine automatically, reducing the dual-entry errors common in organisations using separate HR and accounting systems.

Absence and Time Management

Absence management in HeavenHR covers annual leave, sick days, special leave categories under German law (Bildungsurlaub, Sonderurlaub), and parental leave (Elternzeit). Employees submit requests through a self-service portal; managers approve with a single click. Approved absences deduct from leave balances and feed directly into payroll.

Time recording meets the legal requirements of the 2019 European Court of Justice ruling on working time documentation — a requirement German employers cannot ignore. Recorded hours integrate with payroll, so overtime calculations run automatically within the configured parameters.

Recruiting and Onboarding

The Recruiting module handles multi-channel job postings, applicant tracking, and digital contract creation. New hires created during the recruiting process flow automatically into the HR Admin and payroll modules, eliminating the duplicate data entry that typifies businesses running separate ATS and HRIS tools. Career pages can be customised for company branding without technical configuration.

Pricing

HeavenHR uses per-employee, per-month pricing across three modules that can be purchased independently or combined. Recruiting costs approximately €1 per employee per month. HR Admin is around €5 per employee per month. The full Payroll module, which includes all HR Admin features, runs approximately €13 per employee per month.

For a company with 50 employees on the full Payroll plan, that is roughly €650 per month — competitive with standalone payroll providers but significantly below the pricing of full-suite platforms like Personio or SAP SuccessFactors at equivalent headcount.

A 14-day free trial is available with no credit card required, covering the complete product. Given the depth of the payroll compliance functionality, the trial period is genuinely useful for verifying that the platform handles a company's specific wage types and benefit structures correctly before committing.

The pricing model does not include a free tier, so it is unsuitable for micro-businesses or sole traders. Minimum viable use starts at five or more employees where the automation benefits begin to outweigh the monthly cost.

EU Compliance and Privacy

HeavenHR operates with a deliberate data localisation position: all servers are located exclusively in Germany, and customer data is not transferred outside Germany. This satisfies the most stringent interpretation of GDPR data residency expectations and means that the platform falls entirely under German data protection law — both GDPR and the supplementary BDSG.

The platform uses SHA-256 encryption for stored data. Core payroll processes are developed and maintained in-house in Berlin, meaning payroll calculations and data handling do not rely on third-party sub-processors for the critical compliance functions.

For German HR administrators, this is a material difference from cloud HR platforms that route data through US-based infrastructure under standard contractual clauses. HeavenHR's data never leaves German jurisdiction, simplifying data processing agreements (Auftragsverarbeitungsverträge) and reducing compliance audit complexity.

Who It's Best For

German SMEs running payroll in-house who currently use a combination of spreadsheets, DATEV exports, and manual submissions. The automation of social security filings and tax calculations alone typically recovers several hours per pay period.

Companies growing from 20 to 200 employees in Germany where the administrative overhead of German payroll is becoming a full-time function. HeavenHR scales with headcount without requiring a dedicated payroll specialist.

HR teams that need a compliant document trail for German labour law inspections. The digital personnel file structure satisfies the documentation requirements under the Nachweisgesetz and related regulations.

Organisations with strict data localisation requirements — regulated industries, companies with works council (Betriebsrat) agreements on data handling, or businesses processing sensitive employee categories under GDPR Article 9. German-only hosting removes a class of compliance risk.

HeavenHR is not the right fit for companies with employees across multiple EU countries, organisations that need deep HR analytics, or businesses whose payroll complexity extends beyond the German statutory framework.

The Verdict

HeavenHR occupies a specific and useful position in the German HR market. Its payroll engine is purpose-built for German compliance, and the automated social security submission capability is genuinely valuable — not a checkbox feature. The unified data model between HR admin and payroll eliminates the dual-entry inefficiencies that trouble many growing German businesses.

The trade-offs are real: narrow integration ecosystem, no multi-country support, and a smaller support organisation than enterprise-grade HR platforms. For German companies running payroll domestically, those limitations rarely matter. For businesses that need payroll in multiple countries or deep integrations with broader enterprise tooling, the evaluation would need to go elsewhere. Within its defined scope, HeavenHR delivers what it promises.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HeavenHR GDPR compliant?

Yes. HeavenHR stores all data exclusively on servers located in Germany. No customer data is transferred outside Germany. The platform uses SHA-256 encryption and meets both GDPR and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). A data processing agreement (Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag) is available for enterprise customers.

Does HeavenHR handle German payroll taxes automatically?

Yes. The payroll engine covers all German tax classes, church tax, solidarity surcharge, and statutory social security contributions. It submits social security data directly to German carriers through the certified ITSG process, including employee registrations, deregistrations, and monthly contribution statements.

How does HeavenHR compare to Personio?

HeavenHR has deeper payroll automation for the German market, including real-time simulation and direct authority submissions. Personio covers more HR functions — recruitment marketing, performance management, and multi-country payroll. HeavenHR suits companies where German payroll compliance is the primary requirement; Personio suits those who want a broader HR suite with international reach.

Is a free trial available?

Yes. HeavenHR offers a 14-day free trial covering the full product with no credit card required. The trial allows teams to test payroll simulation with real employee data to verify that the engine handles their specific wage types and benefits correctly.

Can HeavenHR support employees outside Germany?

HeavenHR is built for the German regulatory framework. It does not support multi-country or international payroll natively. Companies with employees in multiple EU countries should evaluate platforms with broader international coverage, such as Personio, Sage HR, or a global payroll provider with German capabilities.