How to handle labour claims and an employee's insolvency

What is it for?

Two different records:

• Labour claims: what the employee is still owed by the company, or the company by them. fiscaldoo tells you when the claim becomes time-barred and whether it can only be proved by document.
• Insolvencies: when an employee is declared insolvent and the court orders them to assign part of their income to a trustee. fiscaldoo deducts that amount on the payslip.

What about the employer's insolvency? fiscaldoo has no specific record for the insolvency of the company. In that case, record and document each employee's claims as explained here, and see the law in Important notes.

When to use it?

• Labour claim: when an employee claims an amount, or when the company owes something it wants to keep in view until it is paid.
• Documentary evidence: when you need to gather the payslips and timesheets of a period, for a court or for the insolvency administrator.
• Insolvency: when you receive the court's decision about an employee. For a garnishment order, see garnishments.

Where to find it?

• On the Payroll › Prepare › What is there to do this month? dashboard, Situations and duties with a worker group: Labour claims and Insolvencies. Also on the employee record, under ⋮.
• Payroll › Close and review › Human resources maps › Documentary proof of labour claims.

Before you start

• Your profile is Payroll Administrator.
• For insolvency: you have the court decision, with the amount the employee keeps and the end of the assignment. The trustee's contact exists in Contacts. If not, ask someone with the Accountant profile to create it.
• The Insolvency: income ceded to the trustee pay item has a posting template. If not, create it as explained in How to post the payroll, with Debit account 231290, Credit account 2781 and Partner Other third party.

How to use it

Record a labour claim

1. Open Labour claims and click New. Choose the Worker.
2. In Kind of claim, choose Credit from the contract, its breach or its termination, Compensation for breach of the holiday right, Indemnity for an abusive sanction or Payment of overtime.
3. Fill in Description, Due since and Amount (EUR) and save. The State section fills in by itself.
4. If Only provable by document is ticked, write in Idoneous document which document it is and attach it in Documents.
5. When it is resolved, choose in Result: Paid or Settled by judicial settlement. Until then it stays Open.

Export the documentary evidence

1. Open Documentary proof of labour claims.
2. Fill in Worker, From and Up to. All three are required.
3. Click Export PDF or Export XLSX. The file contains the Payslips and Time maps of that period. It does not contain the recorded claims or their documents: add them separately.

Deduct an employee's insolvency

1. Open Insolvencies and click New. Fill in Worker, Insolvency process and Trustee.
2. In Trustee contact (accounting), choose the contact.
3. From the court decision, copy Court order, Date of the decision, Excluded per month, Cession from and Cession until. The Excluded per month amount is what the employee keeps: fiscaldoo does not calculate it. Save.
4. Click Activate.
5. On the month's payslip, click Calculate. The Insolvency: income ceded to the trustee line comes in by itself, among the deductions.
6. Click Validate and Account. Pay the trustee in Payroll › Pay › Settlement with creditors: the Delivery to a third party line shows the trustee's contact in Pay to. Untick the lines you will not pay now. If the same contact receives another withholding, the amounts come on the same line.
7. When the assignment ends, open the record and click End.

Claim example. An employee whose contract ended on 30/11/2026 claims €260.00 of overtime due on 15/04/2020:

• Prescribed from: 01/12/2027 (one year from the day after the end of the contract).
• Only provable by document: ticked, because it fell due more than five years ago.
• Keep the documents until: 01/12/2027.

With the employee still in service, the State says “The worker is in service: the credit does not prescribe while the contract lasts.” After the deadline, Prescribed is ticked.

Insolvency example. November 2026, base pay of €1,450.00, with €1,000.00 excluded per month:

Line	Amount
Base pay	€1,450.00
Employee Social Security	−€159.50
IRS withheld	−€21.00
Net part, without meal allowance	€1,269.50
Excluded per month	−€1,000.00
Income assigned to the trustee	€269.50

The payslip pays €1,129.15: the €1,000.00 excluded plus the €129.15 meal allowance. Journal entry for the line, checked in the ledger, with the trustee's contact on the account 2781 line:

Account	Debit	Credit
231290 Remunerações em processamento	€269.50
2781 Outros devedores e credores (corrente)		€269.50

Expected result

• Each claim shows in the list the due date, the amount, the limitation date and the result.
• The documentary evidence downloads a file for the chosen employee and period.
• The insolvency is Active and each payslip in the period has the line.

Important notes

Source: Labour Code (Código do Trabalho), arts. 333, 336, 337 and 347, text read on PGDL on 04/11/2026; Insolvency and Corporate Recovery Code (CIRE), arts. 88 and 239, text read on PGDL on 05/11/2026.

• Limitation. Claims become time-barred one year from the day after the end of the contract (art. 337, no. 1).
• Proof. Compensation for breach of the right to holidays, compensation for an abusive sanction and overtime, due more than five years ago, can only be proved by a suitable document (art. 337, no. 2).
• No waiver. The employee's claim is only extinguished without payment by a court settlement (art. 337, no. 3).
• Employer insolvency. The contract does not end with the declaration of insolvency: the insolvency administrator continues to fulfil the obligations until the final closure (art. 347, no. 1). Employees' claims have privileges (art. 333). The Wage Guarantee Fund (Fundo de Garantia Salarial) covers those the company cannot pay due to insolvency or economic difficulty (art. 336). fiscaldoo does not calculate or communicate any of this.
• Assignment of income. For the three years after the case is closed, the available income is assigned to the trustee (CIRE, art. 239, no. 2). What is reasonably necessary is excluded, such as the minimally dignified support of the employee and their household, as a rule up to three minimum wages (no. 3). That is why Excluded per month comes from the court decision.
• A garnishment at the same time. The declaration of insolvency suspends enforcement proceedings on the assets of the insolvent estate (CIRE, art. 88, no. 1). fiscaldoo does not suspend the garnishment by itself. If an insolvency arrives for an employee with an active garnishment, talk to the accountant.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: the net part without the meal allowance, because CIRE art. 239, no. 3, counts “all income” before the exclusions; account 2781 in the template; and what to do with the active garnishment in view of CIRE art. 88.

Common problems

Posting refused: the trustee has no contact

• Symptom: when you click Account: “Estes credores não têm contacto de contabilidade: Processo 2201/26.0T8PRT — Nome do trabalhador (…). …” (These creditors have no accounting contact: … What happened: the amount withheld is owed to a third party and the journal entry credits that third party's account with its partner; without it the creditors would be mixed up and could not be reconciled one by one. How to fix it: fill in the contact on each one (Payroll › Configure › Company › Creditors without contact lists them with a link) and post again.)
• Cause: the insolvency was activated without Trustee contact (accounting).
• What to do: fill in the contact and click Account again. If the contact does not exist, ask someone with the Accountant profile to create it.

The claim says the employee is in service, but the contract has already ended

• Symptom: Last day of the contract and Prescribed from are empty, on a claim recorded before the termination was confirmed.
• What to do: open the claim, change Consulted on to another day and click Save: Last day of the contract and Prescribed from are filled in. Put today's date back in Consulted on and save. Until then, do not rely on the list for the limitation period.

The amount is refused

• Message: “The amount of the credit cannot be negative. How to fix it: enter the amount as a positive number.”
• What to do: enter the amount without a sign.

On exporting the evidence: “Some required fields are empty”

• Cause: the Worker, From or Up to is missing.
• What to do: fill in all three.

On activating the insolvency: “has no court order”

• Message: “The insolvency of … has no court order. What happened: the amount the debtor keeps is fixed by the court, so without the order nothing can be calculated. How to fix it: fill in “Court order” and “Date of the order” from the order that starts the cession.”
• What to do: copy the two fields from the decision and click Activate again.

The assignment dates are refused

• Message: “The cession ends before it starts. How to fix it: correct “Cession from” or “Cession until”.”
• What to do: copy the dates from the court decision.

On posting: “Posting blocked”

• Message: “Contabilização bloqueada: 1 rubrica(s) com valor não têm modelo de contabilização em 30/11/2026: Insolvência: rendimento cedido ao fiduciário. […]” (Posting blocked: 1 pay item(s) with an amount have no posting template on 30/11/2026: Insolvency: income ceded to the trustee.)
• What to do: create the pay item's template (see Before you start) and post again.