In brief

Sending payslips securely

A payslip belongs to one person – and after sending usually sits in four mailboxes.

Do not send the payslip as an attachment, send a link that expires once collected. A password-protected PDF helps little if the password is in the same mail, and a portal only pays off with many employees. What you need: the file encrypted, the password by another route, and an expiry date.

Why email is the wrong route here

Mail is copied, not moved. The payslip then sits in your mailbox, in the employee’s mailbox, in both backups and often in the provider’s archive. Anyone who gains access to one of those years later sees salary, social security number and deductions.

Then the everyday mistakes: a row slips in the mail merge and Meier gets Müller’s payslip. The mailbox is shared with a deputy. The employee forwards it to a private account, where it stays forever.

What the three usual routes are worth

Password-protected PDF. Better than nothing, but only if the password arrives by another route. If it is in the same mail, or it is the date of birth, it is decoration. Older PDF encryption can also be broken with common tools.

Employee portal. A clean solution and right for larger companies. For a team of five it is a lot of effort, and every person needs an account and another password.

Link with an expiry date. The middle way: the file is stored encrypted, the recipient opens a link, and afterwards it is gone. No account on the other side, no file left lying around.

What the law says

Salary data is personal data. Under the revised Swiss data protection act an employer must protect it appropriately – and for salary data that means more than an unencrypted attachment. If payroll runs through an external accountant the data is passed on, which needs a data processing agreement.

And with tunnl.

With tunnl. you write the payslip in or attach the PDF, set a pickup window and send the link. Encryption happens in your browser – the content never reaches our server in readable form. You can set a separate password and pass it on by phone.

For the monthly run there is batch sending: a list with file, recipient and password, one run, forty payslips. The list is read only in your browser.

What tunnl. cannot do here: tunnl. does not replace a payroll system and does not produce payslips. It is the step in between – from the finished PDF to the right person.

What else tunnl. is for · Compared with email and WeTransfer · What it costs