Personalliggare in Sweden: the staff register, explained
A personalliggare (staff register) is the Swedish Tax Agency requirement that businesses in certain industries record, as it happens, who is working in the business and when each shift starts and ends, while a timesheet is the basis for how many hours each employee is paid for. They serve different purposes, and the industries covered need both.
This guide covers which industries are covered in 2026, what the register must contain, what a shortcoming can cost and which changes are proposed. We will update the guide once the Riksdag has decided on the proposals.
The short answer
The personalliggare shows the Tax Agency who works in the business and when. The timesheet shows how many hours each employee is to be paid for. A café, a restaurant or a hair salon usually needs both. A cleaning company or a shop as a rule needs only the timesheet.
What is a personalliggare?
A personalliggare is a list of everyone working in the business, day by day, with when each shift starts and ends. It must be available on the premises, and the Tax Agency may make inspection visits there, check the identity of those working and compare with the register (Skatteverket, how the register works, in Swedish).
Which industries must keep a personalliggare?
According to the Swedish Tax Agency (in Swedish), anyone running a business in one of these six industries must keep a personalliggare in 2026:
- Construction, where the register must, with some exceptions, be electronic (Skatteverket).
- Vehicle servicing.
- Body and beauty care, for example hair care, manicure and pedicure, massage and tattooing (Skatteverket).
- Food or tobacco wholesale, meaning the wholesale side and not shops.
- Restaurants, where the Tax Agency also counts cafés, street kitchens, pizza takeaways, staff canteens and catering (Skatteverket).
- Laundries.
Exemptions and borderline cases
What the business actually does decides, not its industry code. Cleaning and retail are not on the list, so cleaning companies and shops as a rule need no personalliggare. If a cleaning company cleans textile carpets, however, that part counts as laundry work (Skatteverket FAQ). If a business runs several activities on the same premises and at least one of them is covered, everyone working on the premises must be recorded (Skatteverket on mixed businesses). Except in construction, the requirement also does not apply in these cases:
- Only the owner and close family work in the business: in a sole trader business the owner, their spouse and children under 16, and the equivalent for the manager of a closely held company or partnership.
- The covered activity is a small part of the business: at least 75 percent of it is something else, for example when the restaurant makes up less than 25 percent of a hotel's turnover.
What the personalliggare must contain
According to the Tax Agency, the register works like this:
- The business's name and personal identity or organisation number, and for each day the first and last name, plus personal identity number, co-ordination number or the equivalent foreign number, of everyone working.
- When each person's shift starts and ends.
- The details are recorded as the shift starts and ends, not afterwards.
- Outside construction, the register may be kept on paper, in a bound book with numbered pages and permanent ink, or electronically. An electronic register must log every event, so it shows who changed what and when.
- The register is kept for two years after the end of the calendar year in which the tax year ended.
Inspection visits and the control fee
At an inspection visit, the Tax Agency may check the identity of those working and look at the register. If the register has not been kept, has been kept incorrectly or is not available, the Tax Agency can charge a control fee of SEK 12,500, plus SEK 2,500 for each person working who is not recorded in the register (Skatteverket). If a new fee is charged within a year, the base amount is SEK 25,000 (Tax Procedure Act, chapter 50, section 4, in Swedish).
What is set to change, and what is not
Today the requirement covers the six industries above, and the requirement for an electronic register applies only to construction. A 2024 inquiry (SOU 2024:61) proposed an electronic personalliggare in every industry and higher control fees.
The government did not go ahead with those parts. In the government bill 2025/26:282 (in Swedish), put to the Riksdag on 9 June 2026, the government takes the view that a requirement for an electronic register in every industry should not be introduced and that the control fees should not be adjusted at present. Instead it proposes some changes from 1 January 2027. The Riksdag has not yet decided on them, the bill is with the Committee on Taxation (riksdagen.se, in Swedish). The proposals:
- At an inspection visit, the Tax Agency would also be able to look into whether a tax audit is needed, and question the business and the people working there about employment and working conditions.
- For someone whose employer is not the business keeping the register, such as hired staff, the register would have to show who the employer is.
- An electronic register would have to be built so that its details can be transferred electronically to the Tax Agency, and they would have to be transferred when the Tax Agency asks.
What is a timesheet, and why do you still need one?
A timesheet shows how many hours each employee worked, day by day, and is the basis for pay. It is needed in every industry: for hourly staff the hours are the pay, and section 11 of the Working Hours Act (in Swedish) requires the employer to keep records of on-call time, overtime and additional hours, which employees have the right to see.
The personalliggare does not cover that. It shows when someone was on site and is kept for the Tax Agency to check, but it does not say which hours are to be paid or what counts as overtime. Read more about how to track employee hours and the Swedish Working Hours Act.
Personalliggare and timesheet side by side
The same questions, two different answers:
| Question | Personalliggare | Timesheet |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Show the Tax Agency who works in the business | The basis for pay and for records of overtime and additional hours |
| Who requires it | The Tax Agency, in six industries | Pay, in practice. The Working Hours Act requires records of on-call time, overtime and additional hours. |
| When it is kept | As each shift starts and ends | Per day, week or month, often afterwards |
| Contents | Name, identity number, start and end time | Date and hours per employee |
| How long it is kept | Two years after the end of the calendar year in which the tax year ended | Records of overtime and additional hours: the calendar year they cover and two more (AFS 2023:2). |
| Who sees it | Whoever keeps it, and the Tax Agency at an inspection | The employer, and employees may see the records of their overtime and additional hours |
Can one system do both?
Some systems keep both a personalliggare and a timesheet. If you use one, check that it meets the Tax Agency requirements for an electronic register: recording as the shift starts and ends, the identity details and a log of every change. The requirements are described on the Tax Agency website (in Swedish).
Klokka and the personalliggare
Klokka does not replace a personalliggare. Klokka is the timesheet: the hours per day, seen by both the employer and the employee. The hours are logged afterwards and Klokka stores no identity numbers.
If you run a café or restaurant or a hair salon, you therefore need a personalliggare alongside Klokka.