How to give an advance or defer a deduction

What is it for?

An advance is salary paid early and repaid in instalments on the following payslips. fiscaldoo keeps the instalment plan and the balance outstanding. On the payslip, it deducts the instalment up to the legal limit: together, these deductions cannot exceed one sixth of pay.

When to use it?

• The employee asks for part of their salary before the end of the month.
• The company lends money to the employee, with a contract and monthly instalments: use Worker loans.
• You want to see what was left undeducted in a month: use Deferred deductions.

Do not use this screen for a wage garnishment or for union dues: they have their own rules (see How to handle a wage garnishment).

Where to find it?

• Payroll › Pay › Advances on pay
• Payroll › Prepare › Deductions and loans › Worker loans
• Payroll › Prepare › Deductions and loans › Deferred deductions

Before you start

• Your profile is Payroll Processor or Payroll Administrator.
• You have the document supporting the advance, for example a statement from the employee.
• The month's batch has not been validated yet.
• To post the batch, the Advance on the remuneration pay item needs a posting template (see How to post the payroll to accounting).

How to use it

Record the advance

1. Open Payroll › Pay › Advances on pay and click New.
2. In Worker, choose the employee, for example Carla Sofia Mendes.
3. In Document of the advance, enter the reference, for example Declaração AD-2026-01.
4. Check the Date of the advance and enter the Amount advanced, for example 800.
5. In Months to recover, enter 2. In Month of the first instalment, choose the first day of the month, for example 01/11/2026.
6. Click Activate. The state becomes Active and the Plan tab shows the instalments.

Deduct the instalment on the payslip

The payslip picks up the instalment by itself: there is no line to add.

1. Open the month's payslip in Payroll › Process › Payslips.
2. Click Calculate. The Advance on the remuneration line comes in by itself, with the amount deducted. If you add the line by hand, choose the advance in the Advance payment column.

Record a loan

1. Open Worker loans and click New.
2. Fill in Worker, Loan contract, Capital lent, Annual interest rate (%), Number of instalments and Month of the first instalment.
3. Click Activate and check the plan.

Advance example. Carla earns €1,900.00. The November instalment is €400.00, but the limit is €1,900.00 ÷ 6: the payslip deducts €316.66. Base pay counts towards this limit; the meal allowance does not.

• Gross €2,029.15, Social Security €209.00, IRS withheld €124.00, Other deductions €316.66.
• Net pay: €1,379.49.
• After the batch is validated, the advance shows Recovered €316.66 and Balance €483.34. What was not deducted stays in the balance and is claimed the next month, always up to the limit.

Loan example. Diogo Ferreira Lopes receives €600.00 at 0 %, in 6 instalments from 01/12/2026. The plan has €100.00 instalments and, in the first one, €0.75 in the Benefit in kind column: the difference between the contract rate and the reference rate of 1.505 %.

What reaches the accounting. Recording the advance or the loan does not create journal entries: the payment to the employee is recorded separately, in the bank. In the batch's journal entry, the payslip deduction comes out of the transitory account 231290 Remunerações em processamento (payroll in process): debit 231290 and credit the template's account, with the €316.66 of the example. In the demo, the template uses 2322 Ao pessoal (to staff), within 232 Adiantamentos (advances).

Expected result

• The advance is Active and closes by itself when the balance reaches €0.00. The state becomes Repaid.
• The payslip shows Other deductions and the net pay already reduced.
• The Deferred deductions list shows what other deductions left undone in a month. Nothing is created by hand in this list. The advance does not go through it: in the demo, it stayed empty and the €83.34 difference stayed in the advance's balance.

Important notes

• One-sixth limit. The limit comes from the Labour Code (Código do Trabalho), art. 279. Pending validation by a certified accountant or employment lawyer: the basis of the limit and rounding down.
• Profiles. The HR profile does not have these menus.
• When the employee leaves, handling the balance is part of How to handle an employee leaving.

Common problems

“The “Advance on the remuneration” line of the payslip … no active advance is chosen”

• Message: “A linha “Adiantamento por conta da retribuição” do recibo de Bruno Miguel Teixeira desconta um adiantamento, mas não está escolhido nenhum adiantamento ativo deste trabalhador. …” (The “Advance on the remuneration” line of Bruno Miguel Teixeira's payslip deducts an advance, but no active advance of this employee is chosen. What happened: nothing can be deducted without the advance plan. How to fix it: in the payslip lines, choose the employee's advance in the “Advance payment” column (the advance must be activated first, in Payroll › Pay › Advances on pay), or remove the line.)
• Cause: the line was added by hand for someone who has no advance.
• What to do: remove the line or choose the advance in the Advance payment column, and click Calculate again.

“The “Advance on the remuneration” line of the payslip … deducts an advance that was cancelled”

• Message: “A linha “Adiantamento por conta da retribuição” do recibo de Carla Sofia Mendes desconta um adiantamento que foi anulado. …” (The “Advance on the remuneration” line of Carla Sofia Mendes's payslip deducts an advance that was cancelled. What happened: the payslip was calculated before the advance was cancelled and kept the line. How to fix it: remove the line from the payslip (or choose another advance of the employee in the “Advance payment” column) and calculate the payslip again. Validated payslips are not changed.)
• What to do: remove the line, or choose another advance in the Advance payment column, and click Calculate again.

I cannot cancel or delete an advance

• Messages: “The advance of Carla Sofia Mendes already has deducted instalments and cannot be cancelled. How to fix it: it closes when repaid; correct a wrong instalment with a corrective payslip.” and “Only a draft advance can be deleted: cancel it instead.”
• What to do: let the advance follow the plan. As long as nothing has been deducted, Cancel asks for confirmation on an Active advance: “Cancel this advance? The payslips in draft that already deduct it keep the line and cannot be validated until you remove it and calculate them again. Validated payslips are not changed.” To correct an instalment, see How to correct a payroll run.

Errors when filling in

• “The amount advanced must be greater than zero. How to fix it: correct “Amount advanced”.”
• “The month of the first instalment is the first day of a month. How to fix it: choose day 1.”