The employer area manual

1Up and running in ten minutes

Sign-up, confirmation and first steps. The 30-day trial is free and needs no payment details.

1. Open the Employers & public bodies page on homeoffice.lu and click Try free for 30 days.
2. Enter the Company name, your Name (optional), your Work email address and a Password of at least 10 characters.
3. Accept the terms and click Create account.
4. Open the email “Please confirm your account” and click the link. It is valid for 3 days. You are then signed in automatically.

The trial lasts 30 days from account creation, with every feature. It ends by itself: without an order, access becomes read-only and your data is kept. A reminder goes to the billing address 7 days before the trial ends.

The “Getting started” list

On the Overview, the Getting started card guides you through five steps and disappears once everything is done:

1. Complete company details: billing address and VAT number (chapter 3).
2. Add employees: one by one or by CSV from payroll (chapter 4).
3. Record the first days: in the calendar, or a pattern such as “every Friday” (chapter 5).
4. Bring employees on board: send the personal links so everyone records their own days (chapter 6).
5. Set the rules: internal quota, alert threshold and weekly report (chapter 3).

Signing in, forgotten password

The Log in link is at the top of every page of homeoffice.lu. Forgot your password: Forgot your password? → enter your address → the link is valid for 2 hours. For security, the reply is the same whether or not the address exists.

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2How homeoffice.lu calculates

The three counters (tax threshold, social security, internal rule), the statuses and the projection. Read it once: everything else follows from it.

Each recorded day is one working day outside Luxembourg. There are four types: Home office (HO), Business trip (BT), Training (TR) and Other work abroad (OT). Days in Luxembourg, holidays and sick days are not recorded: they stay empty.

The tax threshold, with examples

The start and leaving dates in the employee record reduce the threshold and working days automatically. Future days already recorded (a planned business trip, for instance) count too: the counter shows what will really be left.

Social security

Only home office counts. The limit is 49.9 % of the employee’s working days: the company value (230 by default), pro rata for a mid-year start or leaving date, or an individual value in the employee record.

The internal rule (home office quota)

Many employers cap home office, for example at 60 % of working time as in the public sector. Set the quota under Settings → Rules and alerts and choose the period: per week, per month (average) or per year (average). An individual quota in the employee record replaces the company one.

Per week or month, homeoffice.lu compares each period with the Luxembourg working days in that period, multiplied by working time and quota:

The internal rule does not change the tax status; it adds the INTERNAL label and the “x wk over” figure in the overview.

The statuses

The “Used up on” projection

For the current year, homeoffice.lu estimates the date on which the employee will have used up their threshold, based on their Planned home office days per week (employee record, 1 by default).

Luxembourg public holidays (including 9 May and 26 December) are marked in the calendars and excluded from working days.

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3Setting up the company and rules

Billing details, internal quota, alerts and weekly report.

Settings → Company

• Company name, RCS number, VAT number.
• Billing address: required to place an order. The street must include a number; the postcode is checked by country (4 digits in Luxembourg and Belgium, 5 in France and Germany). A preview “On the invoice” shows the result.
• Invoice recipient (empty = company name) and Email invoices to (for example your accounts team).
• For public bodies: tick the Peppol box and enter the Order / buyer reference and the Recipient Peppol ID. Every invoice is then also available as XML (Peppol BIS Billing 3.0).

Settings → Rules and alerts

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4Managing employees

Add, import from payroll, edit, archive and delete.

Adding an employee

Menu Employees → Add employee. Only first name and last name are required.

Importing from payroll (CSV)

1. Click Download template to get a file with two sample rows.
2. Export the list from your payroll software or fill in the template. Semicolon or comma separator; UTF-8 or Windows (Excel); 2 MB at most.
3. Choose the file and click Import. The result is shown: new, updated, skipped.

The first row must contain the column names. Only first_name and last_name are required:

• residence: FR, BE, DE, LU or XX (other country); three-letter codes (FRA, BEL, DEU, LUX) are also recognised. A row with an unknown country is skipped. Dates: YYYY-MM-DD or DD.MM.YYYY.
• An existing employee is recognised by staff number, otherwise by email, and updated rather than duplicated. Only the columns present in the file are updated: a missing column leaves the record unchanged. So you can re-import every month.
• Incomplete rows are skipped and counted as “skipped”.

Leaving, archiving, deleting

• An employee leaves during the year: enter the Leaving date. Their thresholds are reduced pro rata and their history stays complete. The leaving date alone does not stop billing: archive them once the year is closed.
• Archive: the employee disappears from the overview and exports, is no longer billed, and their personal link stops working. Their days are kept. Reactivate brings them back.
• An archived employee’s calendar can no longer be edited: reactivate them to correct a day.
• Delete only appears after archiving and permanently removes the employee, their days and photo.

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5Recording days

The year calendar, recording by click or drag, and regular patterns.

Click a name in the overview or the employee list: the record opens with the counters and the year calendar.

The calendar

1. Choose the Type of day in the palette: Home office, Business trip, Training, Other work abroad or Clear.
2. Click a day to mark it, click again to clear it. Drag across several days to mark them in one go. With the keyboard: Enter or Space.
3. Saving is automatic; “Saved” appears. The counters update immediately.

• Weekends and Luxembourg public holidays are greyed out (the holiday’s name appears on hover), but can still be recorded if someone really worked that day.
• Days before the start date or after the leaving date are blocked.
• Each month shows its total.
• A dot on a day means it was recorded by the employee (personal link or app).

Recording a regular pattern

• Without Overwrite existing entries, only empty days are filled. Tick the box to overwrite.
• With the Clear type, the period is emptied (for example to cancel a planned pattern).

Who recorded what

Each day keeps its source: HR (employer area), employee (personal link) or app, with author and time. HR entries take precedence: an employee cannot change or delete a day entered by HR, neither in the app nor through their link. HR, on the other hand, can correct every day.

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6Bringing employees on board

Personal link, QR code and app: everyone records their own days, HR stays in control.

Each employee has a personal link that opens their own calendar, with no account or password. The same code also links the free homeoffice.lu – 34 days app to your company.

Sending the links

• To everyone at once: Employees → Send links to everyone. Every employee with an email address gets their link.
• To one person: employee record → Email the link, or Copy and send it from your own mailbox.
• In person: show the QR code; the employee scans it with their phone camera or in the app.

What the employee sees

• Their counters: tax threshold, social security, internal rule.
• Their calendar, where they record their days (including a regular pattern).
• Their Annual statement (PDF).
• They see neither other employees nor payroll data, and cannot change their record.

The app

With the app, the employee answers a notification every evening; their confirmed days reach you automatically (date and type, never location). HR entries take precedence: in a conflict, the app takes HR’s version. Days recorded through the app also carry a dot in your calendar.

Link lost or passed on

Employee record → Create new link. The old one stops working immediately (including in the app, which has to be linked again). Links don’t expire on their own; they stop working if the employee is archived or if you turn off personal links.

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7Overview, alerts and report

See at a glance who is getting close to the threshold, and get warned in time.

The key figures

• Active Employees; On track; Close (5 days or fewer, or limit reached); Exceeded.
• Over quota: employees with at least one period above the internal rule (if you have one).
• Days recorded: all days of the year, including future ones.

The table

Sorted by urgency: exceeded first, then limit reached, close, on track. Columns: Used (of which planned), Left (red “+4” if exceeded), Budget (one box per day, the last 5 in alert colour), CCSS, Internal, Used up on and Status.

Filter with the search box (name, department, staff number), the Exceeded, Close and Internal rule buttons and the department list. Change the year at the top right.

The charts

Useful for management meetings: breakdown by month and type, and the most popular home office days. Each chart can be downloaded as SVG and also shown as a table.

Instant alerts

As soon as an entry (HR, link or app) crosses a line, an email “Home office threshold: …” goes to the alert address:

Each alert is sent only once per employee per year; if the counter drops again (day deleted), it can be sent again later. If you turned it on, the employee gets a copy.

The weekly report

Every Monday morning, a summary: employees over the threshold, close, budget used up within six weeks, over the internal rule, and how many employees recorded their own days. Otherwise: “Everything is on track”. Can be turned off in the settings. It is not sent when access has expired or there are no active employees.

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8Exports and records

For payroll, the tax authorities and your archive. Exports remain available even after the subscription ends.

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9Users, permissions and log

Several people from HR, payroll or management can work together at no extra cost.

1. Settings → Users → Invite a colleague.
2. Enter the email address, name and role, then Send invitation.
3. The colleague receives an email valid for 7 days, chooses a password and gets access.

• The number of users is unlimited and doesn’t affect the price.
• An email address can only belong to one company account.
• An invitation not yet accepted can be sent again; Remove withdraws a user’s access (except the owner).
• My account: everyone changes their own name and password here.

The log

The last 100 changes with date, author and action: employees added, days changed (by HR, by the employee as “self:” or by the app as “app:”), links sent, alerts, payments… Useful to establish who recorded what and when.

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10Subscription and billing

Prices, ordering online or by invoice, automatic renewal and one-click cancellation.

The price

€4.00 per active employee per month, minimum €39.00 per month, plus VAT (17 %). The minimum covers up to 9 employees. With yearly payment, 2 months are free (you pay for 10). Archived employees are not billed; HR users are unlimited.

Active employees are counted on the day of the order or renewal.

Ordering

1. Check the billing address (Settings → Company): without it, ordering is blocked.
2. Billing: choose Monthly or Yearly.
3. Click Pay online (card, Bancontact… via Mollie) or Order by invoice.

• Online: access is extended as soon as the payment is confirmed. The payment method is stored for renewals.
• By invoice: access is extended immediately; the invoice arrives by email and is payable within 10 days by bank transfer.
• The new period starts the day after the end of the trial or paid period: ordering early loses you no days. You can order at the earliest 31 days before expiry.

Automatic renewal and cancellation

Unless you act, the subscription renews for the same length. You receive a notice 30 days before expiry (yearly payment) or 10 days before (monthly), with the amount. You can cancel in one click up to 3 days before the end of the period, that day included.

Under Next period you can switch from monthly to yearly (or the other way round) for the next renewal, up to the cancellation deadline. While renewal is active, the order buttons are hidden: there is nothing to order.

If the charge fails

If the stored payment method is no longer valid, the next period is automatically invoiced for bank transfer. If the bank declines the charge, you receive the email “Payment failed”: access then runs until the end of the paid period; order again under Billing to extend it. While a charge is still being processed, access stays open for up to 10 days after expiry.

When access ends

If the trial or paid period ends without an order, the account becomes read-only: you can see and export everything but can no longer make changes; employees can no longer record days through links or the app. Nothing is deleted. An order restores everything immediately.

Invoices

The Invoices list shows number, date, period, amount incl. VAT and status (open or paid), with the PDF; for public bodies also the Peppol XML file. Each invoice is emailed to the Email invoices to address (empty = owner).

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11Data, security and deletion

Who sees what, what is stored and how to delete everything.

• No location is ever sent: only the date and type of days (and an optional note in the app).
• Each company sees only its own data; employees see only their own.
• Passwords are stored encrypted; single-use access links (confirmation, password, invitation) expire.
• Employee photos are optional, visible only to the company’s users and to the employee, who can also add or remove it. Only add one with their consent.
• A data processing agreement (Article 28 GDPR) is available on request at hello@homeoffice.lu.

Deleting the account

1. Owner only: Settings → Delete account.
2. First use Back up all days as CSV.
3. Type the company name to confirm, then Delete permanently.

Employees with their days and photos, users and the log are deleted. If invoices have been issued, they are kept together with the company details, as the law requires.

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12Frequently asked questions

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