What this guide covers
How a salary advance or loan is paid out and then recovered. Someone raises it, the CFO/CEO approves it, finance confirms it as paid (records that the money has actually gone out), and the balance is then recovered from future pay automatically. This page (Payroll > Additions and Deductions > Advances & Loans) is finance's pay-out queue and recovery tracker.
Who can do this: the advance-manage permission (ADVANCE_MANAGE). Approval itself happens in the Pending Approvals inbox; this page handles the pay-out confirmation and tracks recovery.
Raising one
In "Raise an advance / loan for an employee", pick the "Employee", the "Amount (R)", a "Reason", and the "Recovery" mode:
Full — next pay run - recovered in one go on the next payroll (a true advance).
Instalments - recovered over a number of runs (a loan); set the number of "Instalments".
Click "Raise for approval". The request is confidential and goes to the CFO/CEO for a decision in their Pending Approvals inbox - not to the employee's own manager. Once approved it appears in "Awaiting payout (approved)" below.
The two lists
Awaiting payout (approved)
Approved advances that are ready to pay out (Employee, Amount, Recovery, Reason). When finance has actually paid the money, click "Confirm paid" - this records the outstanding balance and starts the recovery on the next run.
Only click "Confirm paid" after the money has genuinely been paid. It is what kicks off recovery.
Outstanding (being recovered)
Active advances/loans with a balance still being recovered (Employee, Amount, Outstanding, Recovery, Status). The recovery comes off each run (the whole amount next run, or the per-instalment amount) until the balance reaches zero.
The Status column follows this lifecycle: REQUESTED → APPROVED → DISBURSED → RECOVERING → SETTLED. A request the CFO/CEO turns down shows REJECTED; one withdrawn before payout shows CANCELLED. DISBURSED is set by "Confirm paid".
Good to know
Advance vs loan is just the recovery mode - full next run vs instalments.
Approval is separate and confidential - it's done by the CFO/CEO in Pending Approvals; this page is pay-out + recovery only.
"Confirm paid" = "money paid" - don't click it before the payment is actually made.
Recovery is automatic on each run, so the balance reduces without further action. It goes to SimplePay as an amount on the employee's draft payslip.
Related guides
Pending Approvals - where the CFO/CEO approves or rejects the request.
The Bonuses page and The Deductions page - the other variable-input pages (a plain Deduction just takes money off; this one pays out and recovers).
Running monthly payroll (myWork → SimplePay) - where recovery is applied each run.