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Features

The application covers the full workflow of a personnel cost calculation: from capturing positions to calculating annual costs and exporting to application formats. Input is possible both in natural language and through a structured form; both input paths write to the same list of positions, so positions added through the chat can be edited in the form and vice versa.

Application scenarios

  • General project cost planning — Preliminary calculation of personnel costs for a research or teaching project with different staff categories and durations, independently of any specific application format.
  • Third-party funding application with DFG-style personnel categories — Multiple staff categories (e.g. postdoc, doctoral candidates, student assistants) are combined into a single application and calculated over several years; the Excel export provides the data for the application annex.
  • BUND application with itemised employer contributions — For federal application forms, employer contributions (pension, health, unemployment, long-term care insurance) are reported separately for each year; a dedicated sheet in the Excel export reproduces the BUND format in full.
  • Student assistant budgeting — Hourly-based calculation of one or more student assistant positions across several semesters, with an annually adjusted hourly rate and a cap of 80 hours per month.
  • Level progression planning — Inclusion of planned level progressions within the project duration; the year of progression is marked separately in the annual overview.
  • Pay scale scenario comparison — Calculation of multiple variants with different pay-scale-increase forecasts or without any increase at all, without re-entering the list of positions.

At a glance

  • Hybrid input: natural-language chat and a form with collapsible sections
  • Position types: TV-L pay grades E9 to E15Ü with levels 1–6, and student assistants on an hourly basis
  • Calculation modes: yearly slices, year-specific pay scale increases, optional level progression, optional no-increase mode
  • Output formats: Markdown table in the user interface, multi-sheet Excel export, PDF export
  • Quality assurance: schema-based validation, clarification mechanism, fall-back form, deterministic calculation
  • Q&A mode operating on the calculated result
  • Tool for importing updated pay scale data from Excel

Input and dialogue handling

Natural-language input is converted to structured parameters by an LLM-assisted component. If the component detects that required fields (pay grade, level, position share, start and end date) are missing, it issues a specific clarification question instead of guessing. After repeated processing failures, the form is activated automatically.

  • Chat mode — Description of the project in one or several sentences; the system asks for missing details and incorporates the completed parameters into the list of positions.
  • Form mode — Structured per-position input with drop-downs for pay grade, level, position share, duration, and optional level progression; positions can be removed individually.
  • Intent recognition after the calculation — Inputs are automatically classified as questions about the calculation, modifications, or a new calculation.

Calculation

Once parameter extraction has succeeded, the calculation itself is rule-based. Each position is broken down into yearly slices; for each slice, base salary, employer-gross, and prorated special payment are computed and aggregated to an annual total.

  • TV-L calculation — Pay grades E9 to E15Ü, levels 1–6, with proportionally calculated position shares.
  • Student assistant calculation — Hourly-based, with an annually adjusted hourly rate, a cap of 80 hours per month, and application of the employer-gross factor.
  • Pay scale increases — Settable individually per calendar year; an entire project can also be calculated without any increases.
  • Level progression — Optional per position; the year of progression is shown with both the old and the new level.
  • Itemised employer contributions — Pension, health, unemployment, and long-term care insurance are calculated separately for the BUND format.

Quality assurance

The validity of the results is safeguarded by several interlocking mechanisms. LLM-assisted input processing is consistently kept separate from the calculation; the values shown or exported come exclusively from the rule-based calculation core.

  • Schema-based validation — The LLM response is checked against a typed data model; value ranges for levels, position shares, and dates are constrained.
  • Completeness pre-check — If the LLM returns a position list with missing required fields, it is automatically converted into a clarification question rather than being calculated with defaults.
  • Multiple parse attempts with error recovery — If processing fails, the LLM is invoked again with a reduced, error-oriented prompt; repeated failures trigger the form fall-back.
  • Robust JSON extraction — Several strategies recognise JSON in differently formatted LLM responses (direct parsing, code block, embedded object).
  • Q&A on stored values — Follow-up questions are answered from the existing calculation, so no new values are produced by the LLM.
  • Validated level progressions — The progression date must lie within the position's duration; the new level must be higher than the current one.
  • State-controlled dialogue — A state manager allows only defined transitions between input, validation, calculation, and Q&A.

Interfaces and data formats

The application communicates with a single external component and supports import and export of common office data formats.

  • OpenAI-compatible chat API — Any LLM endpoint with OpenAI compatibility; local servers such as LM Studio, Ollama, or vLLM work without modification. URL, model name, key, and timeout are configurable.
  • Excel import (pay scale data) — Updates to the pay scale table, special payment rates, employer contributions, and student assistant hourly rates can be imported from an Excel file via a command-line tool; a validation option checks the plausibility of imported values.
  • Excel export — Multi-sheet output containing an overview, per-position detail tables, and a separate sheet in BUND format with itemised employer contributions.
  • PDF export — Formatted output of the full calculation for application annexes.
  • Markdown tables — Direct rendering in the user interface, also used as context for the Q&A mode.