An advance is money you pay an employee ahead of salary and then recover through payroll. SolaHR has two kinds:
- Same month (shown in the list as Salary Advance): recovered in full from that month's salary.
- Long term (shown as Employee Loan): recovered in fixed monthly installments, starting in a chosen month, until the balance is zero.
Use this screen to record an advance, mark it as disbursed (paid out), see which payroll month will recover it, move the repayment month, suspend or cancel it, and print or email vouchers for the employee to sign. HR and finance staff use it.
Three dates are kept apart on purpose: the advance date (the day the money is given), the repayment month (the payroll month that starts recovering it) and the payroll run that finally deducts it. Recording an advance never needs a payroll run to exist; if the repayment month has no run yet, the deduction simply waits and is taken when that month's draft is generated.
Where to find it
- Sidebar: Payroll & Compensation → Advances. URL:
/advances. - From an employee's page: the Advances shortcut opens this screen.
The menu item appears when your plan includes advances and your role has View advances & loans (or the older View advances, deductions, tips, overtime). Opening the list needs View advances & loans.
Permissions
| Action | Permission |
|---|---|
| See the list, Print all, PDF, Cash sheet | View advances & loans |
| Add record, Change repayment month, Cancel or suspend, Delete, Email vouchers, Signed copy | Create/edit advances & loans |
| Disburse | Disburse advances |
| Role | Access |
|---|---|
| Owner, SolaHR Administrator | Everything. |
| HR Operations Manager (older role) | Everything on this screen. |
| HR Records Viewer (older role) | View and print. |
| HR Manager, Department Manager, Attendance Recorder, HR Viewer | No access. |
Screen tour
Header: Employee Advances — Manage short- and long-term employee advances. Top-right: Print all, PDF, Cash sheet (the pending advances as a table with the notes and coins to hand out), Email vouchers (when at least one advance has been disbursed) and Add record.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Employee | Employee name, with "Issued date" (the advance date) or the employee number. |
| Type | Salary Advance (same month) or Employee Loan (long term). |
| Total amount | Amount advanced. |
| Monthly installment | Long-term installment, or —. |
| Remaining balance | Still to be recovered. Drops when a payroll run recovers it. |
| Repayment | Where the advance stands against the payroll calendar, see below. |
| Status | See Statuses. |
| Document | Print and PDF for the voucher; Signed copy to upload the signed paper; the voucher's state (copies, acknowledged, emailed). |
| Actions (the ⋯ button) | Disburse, Change repayment month, Cancel or suspend, Delete, depending on status and permissions. |
The list shows 15 advances per page, newest first, with page controls. There is no search or filter. Empty state: No records found.
The Repayment column
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Deducted after disbursement | Recorded but not yet paid out, so payroll does not recover it. |
| Deducted in Month Year payroll | Scheduled: it will be taken in that run. |
| Waiting for Month Year payroll | The repayment month is in the past or current and has no payroll run yet. Link: Generate Month Year payroll. |
| In the draft payroll | A draft run already contains the deduction. |
| Behind schedule | A long-term advance skipped months because payroll was finalized without the installment: "Skipped in finalized payroll: months (the schedule is extended)". |
| Month Year payroll was finalized without it | A same-month advance whose month is closed. Choose another month with Choose a repayment month. |
| Repaid | Every deduction sits in a finalized payroll. |
| Cancelled | Withdrawn. |
Add an advance
-
Click Add record.
-
Fill in:
Field Required Rules / defaults Notes Employee Yes Any employee. Type Yes Same month (default) or Long term. Total amount Yes At least 1. Cannot exceed Max advance % of the employee's salary (default 50%). Uses the Salary on the employee record. Monthly installment Long term only At least 1 and not more than the total. Shown only for Long term. Advance date Yes Default: today. "The day the money was given. It can be earlier than the repayment month." Printed on the voucher. Repayment month (a month and a year) Yes Default: this month. "The payroll month that deducts it. A month without a payroll run yet is fine: it is deducted when that draft is generated." A month whose payroll is already finalized is refused: "The payroll for month is already finalized and cannot take this deduction. Choose a later, open repayment month." Notes No Up to 1,000 characters. -
Click Save. You see Updated successfully. The advance is Pending Approval.
Rules checked when you save:
- Max advance: if the total is above the limit, a message under Total amount gives the limit, for example 50% of salary = 6,000.00. Set to 0 in Payroll Settings to switch the check off.
- The employee must belong to your organization. Single and bulk creation both check it.
- One same-month advance per employee per month: a second one (not cancelled) for the same repayment month is refused under Repayment month. Increase the existing one by cancelling and re-entering it, or use a long-term advance.
- A long-term advance gets an end month: number of months = total ÷ installment rounded up.
Disburse an advance
Pending advances are not recovered by payroll. Disburse once the money is handed over.
- Click ⋯ → Disburse on a Pending Approval or Active advance.
- There is no confirmation. You see Updated successfully and the status becomes Disbursed.
From now on the advance is recovered in each payroll run from its start month.
Change the repayment month
Use ⋯ → Change repayment month (or the chip Choose a repayment month) when the planned month is wrong or was closed without the deduction.
- The dialog Change repayment month says "Choose the payroll month that should recover this advance for name (currently month). Only months whose payroll is not finalized can be chosen. The change is recorded in the audit log."
- Pick the First repayment payroll month and type the Reason for the change (required).
- Click Save. You see "Repayment month updated."
SolaHR never moves a repayment month by itself. It refuses if the advance was already deducted in a finalized payroll ("This advance was already deducted in a finalized payroll; its repayment schedule cannot be moved.") or is repaid or cancelled ("A repaid or cancelled advance cannot be rescheduled.").
Cancel or suspend an advance
Click ⋯ → Cancel or suspend and confirm Cancel employee advance — "Cancel this advance using the existing cancellation rules. Review the employee and amount before continuing." — Cancel advance. What happens depends on the status:
| Current status | Result |
|---|---|
| Pending Approval | Cancelled. |
| Active | Suspended: back to Pending Approval. |
| Disbursed, nothing recovered yet | Suspended: back to Pending Approval; payroll stops recovering it. |
| Disbursed, already partly recovered | Refused. |
| Received, Completed, Cancelled | Not offered. |
So to cancel a disbursed advance you click twice: once to suspend it, once to cancel it. The row menu shows Cancel or suspend for pending, active and disbursed advances.
Delete an advance
- Click ⋯ → Delete (shown only while nothing has been recovered).
- Confirm Delete this record? — Delete.
An advance with any payroll recovery can't be deleted.
Print, PDF and email vouchers
Vouchers come from the same print system as payslips (Documents and printing): your branding, bilingual layout, a QR code and a signature line according to the acknowledgment policy.
- Print all / PDF produce one voucher per page for every advance in the list. The row's Print / PDF does one. A voucher of record exists from disbursement on (disbursed, received, repaid); a pending advance prints clearly marked as a request.
- Each voucher shows the voucher number, Name, Employee number, the month, the date, Current advance, Total previous advances (earlier same-month advances that month), the remaining salary and the signature block.
- Signed copy next to a disbursed advance uploads the scan of the signed voucher (PDF, PNG or JPG up to 10 MB). It does not mark anything paid.
- Email vouchers sends each employee only their own voucher by a secure link or as a PDF (see Documents and printing).
- Cash sheet prints the table of pending advances with the cash denominations you configured.
If no record matches, you see No printable advance records found for the selected filters.
Statuses and lifecycle
| Status | Meaning | Recovered by payroll? | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pending Approval | Recorded, not yet paid out. | No | Disburse, Cancel, Delete |
| Active | Older status for an approved advance. | No | Disburse, Suspend, Delete |
| Disbursed | Paid to the employee. | Yes | Suspend (if nothing recovered), Delete (if nothing recovered) |
| Received | The signed voucher was recorded as received. | Yes | — |
| Completed | Balance fully recovered. | No | — |
| Cancelled | Withdrawn. | No | — |
If a payroll run that recovered the last installment is recalculated, the recovery is undone and a Completed advance returns to Disbursed until the run recovers it again.
How recovery works in payroll
Each time a month's run is calculated, for every Disbursed or Received advance with a balance:
- Same month: recovered in full, only in its start month.
- Long term: from the start month onward, the installment or the remaining balance, whichever is smaller. Every run takes one installment, so a skipped month extends the schedule instead of doubling a later deduction.
The deduction is taken only for an employee who is in that month's run. If an advance is due for someone who is not in the run, the run warns: An advance of amount is due this month for an employee who is not in this run; it was not deducted.
The recovery appears in Advances deduction on Payroll Runs, with the remaining balance on the employee breakdown, and as Advance Repayments on the payslip. Advances are taken after every other deduction.
Worked example 1: a salary advance
On 12 October 2026 Sara Khan (salary AED 9,000) asks for AED 1,500. HR clicks Add record: Sara Khan, Same month, 1,500, Advance date 12/10/2026, Repayment month October 2026, saves (limit is 50% = 4,500), prints the voucher, Sara signs it, and finance clicks Disburse. October payroll shows Advances deduction 1,500.00 and the advance becomes Completed.
Worked example 2: a loan over six months
Omar Haddad (salary AED 12,000) needs AED 5,500 for school fees.
- Add record: Omar Haddad, Long term, total 5,500, installment 1,000, Repayment month October 2026. The end month is March 2027 (6 months: five of 1,000 and one of 500).
- Finance pays him on 5 October and clicks Disburse.
- October run: Advances deduction 1,000.00; Remaining balance 4,500.00.
- November to February: 1,000 each; balance 500.
- March 2027: 500 recovered; status Completed.
- In December Omar asks to pause. Because recovery has started, Cancel or suspend is refused. HR instead reduces his pay impact next month by agreement outside this screen, and the loan continues.
How it connects
- Payroll Runs: recovers disbursed advances each month.
- Payslips: Advance Repayments lines.
- End of Service: the settlement deducts the remaining balance of the employee's active and disbursed advances and closes them.
- Approvals: pending advances appear there with Approve & disburse and Cancel request.
- Documents and printing: voucher layout, acknowledgment and email.
- Payroll Settings: Max advance %.
Confirmations and outcome notices
Save, disburse, cancel and delete show Updated successfully. Refused actions show Action could not be completed. Field problems are listed at the top of the dialog. If the connection drops you see Status not confirmed; click Check current status before repeating, especially before Disburse.
Tips and common problems
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Advance not deducted | Still Pending Approval, or start month later. | Click Disburse; check the start month. |
| "Amount exceeds the allowed limit" | Above Max advance % of salary. | Lower the amount or change the setting. |
| Second same-month advance refused | One per employee per month. | Cancel and re-enter a combined amount, or use Long term. |
| Can't delete | Something was already recovered. | It stays for the audit trail. |
| Advance missing from the list | The list is paged, 15 per page. | Use the page controls, or check the employee's payroll breakdown. |
| The repayment says Waiting for month payroll | The repayment month has no run yet. | Generate that month's draft (use the link), or change the repayment month. |
| "The payroll for month is already finalized and cannot take this deduction." | The chosen month is closed. | Pick a later, open month. |
| Run already approved when you disburse | Locked runs don't recalculate. | Recovery starts in the next open month for long-term advances; a same-month advance for a locked month is never recovered, so set its start month to an open month. |