Record a staff advance or loan

What advances do

Sometimes you give a worker cash before payday, or lend them money for an emergency. The Advances screen keeps track of what each employee owes you. When you run their pay, Worklog shows the outstanding balance and lets you take some or all of it back off their wages.

The screen lists every advance you have given and every repayment — taken off wages by a pay run, or paid back in cash or by EFT. Each person's balance shows next to their name when you record a new advance, on their card in the Staff Register, and in the Advances report under Payroll Reports.

Where the money shows

An advance is real money leaving one of your accounts, so Worklog books it as money out of the account you pick under Paid from — petty cash, Capitec, Investec or any other account under Money. It shows in Banking like any other payment, and on your Balance Sheet as Staff advances, a current asset: money your staff owe you. (An advance you entered in Opening Balances as a loan owed to the business stays on Loans receivable until it is paid back.) It isn't a cost, so it doesn't touch your profit, and there is no VAT on it.

A repayment works the other way. Paid back in cash or by EFT, it is money in to the account you pick under Paid into, shows in Banking, and brings Staff advances down — it isn't income, so profit and VAT stay untouched. Taken off wages in a pay run, no money moves: the payslip and Advances record it, the net pay in Banking is already after it, and Staff advances come down all the same. Every rand is booked once — nothing missing, nothing twice.

💡In Banking, an advance or a repayment shows a 🔒 instead of ✕. Its amount, date and removal belong to Advances, so the advance and its money always move together; which account it went through, how it was paid and a note can still be changed in Banking.

💡Reading a bank statement later — the PDF reader under Banking, or a CSV import? A line that is an advance or a repayment you already recorded here, the same amount within a few days, is left unticked (marked 💰 advance) or skipped, so the money isn't counted twice.

💡Because it is money, recording an advance also needs edit access to Money out, and a repayment edit access to Money in — and removing one, full access there. With access to Advances alone you can still change a repayment plan or a note.

💡A login that prepares the pay run sees what each person owes (the dates, the amounts and what each advance is for), even without access to Advances, because the interest-free loan benefit is worked out from it. It sees no reasons, notes or documents.

The rules for taking an advance back off pay

A written agreement that names the debt. An employer may not deduct from pay unless the employee in writing agrees to the deduction in respect of a debt specified in the agreement (BCEA section 34(1)(a)). Worklog keeps the tick for each advance, which is its own way of working, not the Act's words. The Advance form and Quick Log's advance card ask you to tick that the worker signed it, and keep who ticked and when. If you later change the advance's amount, the tick is cleared, because the agreement named another debt, and you are asked again. Worklog does not yet print the agreement for you.
Advances given through the WhatsApp bot: the bot does not record staff advances. Quick Log in the app does, with the tick above.
The pay run asks before it takes a repayment off an advance with no tick. Your Yes is kept on the advance (who and when), so it is asked once, and the pay run keeps it and prints it on the payslip. The database refuses a repayment off an advance with no tick, so an old copy of the app, a second tab or another way in cannot take one. If you say No, nothing comes off that run and the advance stays owing. Advances recorded before this was added have no tick, so each is asked at its next repayment.
No interest or fee. If any charge, fee or interest is payable on an advance, it is a credit agreement under the National Credit Act (section 8(4)(f)), and charging interest to avoid the taxable benefit below is not a fix. Section checked on 30 October 2026, not read again for this help.
No more than a quarter of pay. A deduction under section 34(1)(a) may not exceed one quarter of the worker's remuneration, counting every such deduction in the run (National Minimum Wage Act section 5(4)).
Over R3 000 owed in all. No value is put on a debt to the employer while the total owed, all advances and loans together, does not pass R3 000 in the pay period (Income Tax Act Seventh Schedule paragraph 11(4)(a)). Over that, the whole amount owing, not only the part above R3 000, is valued: a loan with no interest is a taxable benefit to the worker, worth the interest at SARS's official rate on what is owing each day, less any interest they pay (paragraph 11(1)). Worklog works that benefit out in each pay run and puts it through PAYE, UIF and SDL. See "The interest-free loan benefit in the pay run" below.
Every advance to someone on the Staff Register is treated as owed because of their employment. A loan to a director or member only because of their shareholding is not a staff advance and should not be recorded here: the Income Tax Act treats a loan like that as a dividend, not as a fringe benefit (section 64E(4)).

The interest-free loan benefit in the pay run

What it is. An advance repaid from net pay with no interest is a debt on which no interest is payable, so it is a taxable benefit (Income Tax Act Seventh Schedule paragraph 2(f)(i)). You, as the employer, work out its value (paragraph 3(1)).
How it is worked. For each pay period, Worklog takes the amount owing on each day, at the official rate in force that day (the repo rate plus 100 basis points, Income Tax Act section 1), over 365 days. A day counts when the amount is owing at the end of it: the day of an advance counts, the day of a repayment does not. The value is rounded to the cent, once, on the tax year's running total, not the rate. A rate change is never back-dated (the proviso to paragraph 11(2)(b)).
When. The benefit accrues on the last day of each period for which cash pay is due, so on the person's own pay period: a week, a fortnight or a month (paragraph 11(2)(a)(ii)). It is taxed in the pay run for that period.
The R3 000 test. Each pay period: if the total the person owed was over R3 000 on any day of it, every day of the period is valued (paragraph 11(4)(a)). Study debts and qualifying home loans count in that total, but carry no value themselves.
The whole tax year so far is valued (paragraph 11(1)). Each pay run takes the value of every pay period of the tax year up to and including its own, worked on the advances and repayments as they stand, less what the person's saved pay runs of that tax year already carry, and never less than nil. So the first pay run after this arrives also takes the earlier periods, from 1 March 2026; a stretch with no cash pay is picked up by the next pay run; and an advance or repayment entered late, a corrected amount or a changed purpose is picked up by the next pay run of the same tax year. A pay run you void or turn down gives its amounts back. Pay runs already saved are never changed: Worklog never lowers a saved pay run. If a correction makes the year's value less than the saved pay runs already carry (a repayment entered late with an earlier date, an advance changed to a study or home loan, an amount corrected down), those pay runs keep what they took. To correct the tax certificate, void those pay runs and run them again. A pay period belongs to the tax year its last day falls in, and nothing is valued for a pay period that ended before 1 March 2026.
The tax on the earlier periods. Only this pay period's own part goes into this pay period's pay. The part for earlier periods is taxed one period's share at a time, the way SARS's employer guide taxes backdated pay of the current tax year (Fourth Schedule paragraph 9(3)(a)): the tax on the pay with that share added, less the tax on the pay without it. An earlier pay period that had a pay run is taxed on top of that period's pay (its share accrued on that period's last day, paragraph 11(2)(a)(ii)). A stretch with no pay run in Worklog (an unpaid month, days between two pay cycles, months before your first pay run in Worklog) is taxed on top of this pay run's pay, the way SARS's employer guide adds backdated pay to the pay received. This pay run's own part is taxed in this pay run's own PAYE, so it is not counted in the pay those earlier shares are added to. Where the pay with the benefit stays under the tax threshold, the benefit carries no PAYE: only the part over the threshold is taxed. The UIF on the earlier periods is worked month by month, each share under the ceiling and rates of the month its pay period ended in (Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act section 6(1) and (2)), and none for a month the person was employed for under 24 hours (section 4(1)(a)). A share for the month the pay run is paid in counts under that month's ceiling with the month's other pay. The UIF on an earlier month's share shows in the UIF of the pay run that carries it, in the EMP201 and the UIF declaration for the month that pay run was paid in, so they still add up to the pay runs. The UIF of that pay month can then be more than 1% of the monthly ceiling, because the Act puts that UIF in the earlier months it belongs to (section 6(1) and (2)). A pay run saved late for a pay period that a later pay run already took part of pays only the tax its own pay causes on that part: the tax on it at the period's pay with this pay run, less the tax on it at the period's pay without this pay run (on this period's pay as it stood then), on its own line. Where the pay run that took that part had no pay for the period and so paid the tax on top of its own pay, the late pay run pays only the amount by which the tax at that period's pay is more than the earlier pay run already paid on it, never less than nil. Nothing is refunded. If earlier months' pay runs still have to be entered, enter them before the later ones: once a later pay run has caught up a stretch, the tax it took on it stays, even where the earlier month's own pay would have taxed it less.
The year is valued on the pay periods the person was actually paid for: every saved pay run gives its own period and every period it caught up, and the days that no pay period covers are cut into periods of the person's pay frequency (a whole missed month is one period, three missed days are a three-day period). So when a pay day moves, weekly pay changes to fortnightly or monthly, or a business changes from calendar months to 21st to 20th months, a stretch of days that a pay run has already looked at is not cut into a new period again, in the same tax year or the next, even when its value was nil, as long as something was owed in it when the run was saved (its days are still valued later if an advance dated back into them is entered afterwards): the pay periods of an earlier tax year only cover their days. A period Worklog makes up for days no pay period covered never reaches back before 1 March of the tax year it ends in, so days before 1 March that no pay period covered stay unvalued and are not carried into the next tax year; a pay period you were really paid for that runs across 1 March is valued whole, in the tax year of its last day. Where two saved periods share a day, it belongs to the one that ends later, and the R3 000 test is still made on each period as it was paid for, whole. One rare case is not closed: when two pay periods overlap by a day, and a pay run is voided after a later one while another run is entered late, one day can be valued twice (one day's value is R2,12 for each R10 000 owed at 7,75%, so it can only tax too much). A pay run already saved for a later period (next month's salary paid early) keeps what it took for that later period out of this pay run's sum. A pay run paid in one tax year for a pay period that ends in the next takes no benefit: it accrues on the last day of that period, in the next tax year, and the first pay run of that year takes it. If a pay run is for a pay period that ended in the tax year that closed on the last day of February, the benefit for it accrued on the period's last day, in that year. Worklog values that one period on the pay run and catches up nothing else of that year. SARS's guide for employers says that for pay that accrued in a previous tax year the employer applies to SARS for a tax directive.
Someone who left and was taken back on has the days before their current start date on the Staff Register left out, and what their first stretch of pay runs carried is not counted against the new one: no cash pay was payable in between.
Where it shows. The pay run shows, for each person, what they owe, the days valued and the benefit, with the rate and the day it started. It is not paid in cash, so it is not in gross or net pay. It is added to the pay PAYE, UIF (up to the ceiling) and SDL are worked on (Fourth Schedule paragraph 1, "remuneration" (b); Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act sections 1 and 6; Skills Development Levies Act section 3(3)). The PAYE and UIF on it come off the cash pay first (Fourth Schedule paragraph 3(1)), then any advance repayment. If the pay is too small, lower the repayment. The benefit is not part of the Employment Tax Incentive's "monthly remuneration" (its proviso leaves out an amount other than a cash payment) or its "wage" (Employment Tax Incentive Act section 1).
The payslip shows it as a line that is not cash. The IRP5 worksheet shows it under code 3801 (the full cash equivalent for the year, Seventh Schedule paragraph 17), and a home loan left out under paragraph 11(4)(c) under code 3834, which SARS's codes guide makes part of 3696, the gross non-taxable income (Worklog does not add up a 3696 total). The EMP201 and EMP501 carry the PAYE, UIF and SDL that follow from it.
The rate table is kept by Worklog's administrator from SARS's Table 3. If it was last checked more than 45 days before the period ends, the pay run says so; nothing is refused.
The books are not changed by the benefit. It is a tax figure. IFRS for SMEs would also discount an interest-free loan in the books (Section 11); Worklog does not do that.

Before you start

The worker must already be in your Staff Register. If you have not added them yet, do that first.
Advances are part of the Team and Complete plans, together with the rest of payroll.

Record a new advance

Open Advances from the Payroll section and tap + Advance.
Pick the worker from the Employee list. If they already owe you money, the amount they owe shows next to their name.
In Amount (R), type how much you gave them.
In Date given, check the day the money was handed over — it starts on today.
Under Paid from, tap the account the money came out of. It starts on your default account.
In Repay per pay run (R), you can set an amount to take back automatically each payday, for example 200. Leave it blank to deduct by hand each time. When you fill in both an amount and a repay figure, a line shows roughly how many pay runs it will take to clear.
Tick that the worker signed the written agreement for this advance. A new advance cannot be recorded here without the tick: the law governs the deduction, not the giving of the money, but Worklog asks now so that a repayment can come off pay later (BCEA s34(1)(a): the worker agrees in writing to the deduction in respect of a debt specified in the agreement). On a correction of an older advance the tick is optional. A tick belongs to the amount and the person it was given for, so a changed amount clears it.
In What is this advance for?, leave Ordinary unless it is a study loan or a home loan. A debt incurred to further the worker's own studies carries no value (Seventh Schedule paragraph 11(4)(b)). A home loan of not more than R450 000 carries no value only if you tick that all four conditions of paragraph 11(4)(c) are met: the debt was assumed to buy a residential home for the worker; the home's market value is not over R450 000 in the year it is bought; the worker's remuneration proxy is not over R250 000 in the year the loan is granted; and the worker is not a connected person in relation to you. SARS's fringe benefit guide prints other figures (R650 000 and R360 000); the Act, as the Gazette gives it, decides. Advances that were recorded before this question existed are Ordinary until you change them here.
In Reason - optional, you can note why, for example transport, groceries or an emergency. You can leave this blank.
Tap Record Advance.

The advance is saved straight away: it is added to that worker's balance, and the same save records it as money out of the account you picked, so it shows in Banking at once. If they already owed money, Worklog shows a note telling you the new amount is added on top of what they owe.

See what someone owes

The list shows each advance you gave (with a plus) and each repayment (with a minus) — taken off wages by a pay run, or paid back in cash or by EFT and recorded here — with the date and any note. It is sorted by name, newest first for each person. Each entry gets its own number (like ADV-2026-0005), repayments included. Search for a name or a number to see one person's history, or open Show ▾ and pick Advances given or Repayments to show only one kind, How it got there (added by hand or booked by a pay run), or — once two or more people record them — one person's entries. For each person's balance, open the Advances report under Payroll Reports. Under the list, 📄 PDF and 📊 CSV / Excel print the entries as you have them, with what was advanced and repaid among them at the bottom, and what the people listed still owe today — worked out from all their entries, so a narrowed list never shows a repaid advance as owed.

Paid back in cash or by EFT instead of from wages? Tap ↩ Repayment (it shows while anyone owes something), pick the employee, enter how much — up to what they owe — and the day, and under Paid into tap the account the money went into. It is recorded as money in to that account, so it shows in Banking, and what they owe comes down at once; the next pay run takes off no more than is still owed. Tap one to change it, or ✕ to remove it; a repayment a pay run took off wages is that run's record — void the run to undo it.

A repayment taken off wages in a pay run is recorded here and on the payslip, but it is deliberately NOT a bank transaction — no money moved. The wage payment you see in Banking is the net amount after the repayment, exactly like your bank statement, and the advance balance — and Staff advances on your Balance Sheet — comes down at the same time.

Fix an advance you got wrong

Typed the wrong amount, day, account or repay figure? You can change an advance — or a repayment paid back by hand — by tapping its row in the list. Its money in Banking changes with it.

Find the advance in the list — search for the worker's name if the list is long.
Tap the "Advance given" row. The form opens as Edit advance, with the amount, the date, the account it was paid from, the repay-per-pay-run figure and the reason.
Change what's wrong.
Tap Save changes. To back out, close the form.

💡A "Repaid from wages" row belongs to the pay run that took it — to change one, void that pay run and run it again. And once its money is reconciled in Banking, an entry's amount, date and account stay as they are: unreconcile it in Banking first. An advance can't be made smaller than what has already been paid back of it.

Set up a repayment plan

Instead of remembering to deduct an advance by hand every payday, you can give it a repayment plan. In Repay per pay run (R), enter how much to take back each pay run, say 200 on a 1000 advance. As you type, Worklog shows about how many pay runs it will take to repay, so you can pick an amount that suits the worker.

Next time you run that worker's pay, the Deductions step already has the repay amount filled in for you, never more than they still owe, so you can just confirm it. If a payday is tight you can still change the figure or skip it that round.

In the list, an advance with a plan shows its amount per run next to a 🔁. The Advances report under Payroll Reports shows each person's repay amount and roughly how many runs are left, so you can see at a glance how everyone is tracking.

Getting the money back in Pay Run

A repayment taken off wages isn't recorded here — that happens when you run their pay. (Paid back in cash or by EFT instead? Use ↩ Repayment, above.)

Start a Pay Run and pick the worker who owes you.
Work through the wizard to the Deductions step. If they owe money, you will see an Outstanding advance block with the amount.
In Deduct from this pay run (R), type how much to take back this pay, or tap Deduct all to take the full balance — or, if their pay can't cover it, all the pay left after UIF, PAYE and any other deduction, so their net pay never goes below R0. Tap None this time to skip it this round.
Finish the Pay Run. The repayment comes off their net pay and shows on the payslip as Loan / advance repayment.

💡You do not have to take it all at once. Deduct a smaller amount each payday and the balance keeps reducing until it reaches zero.

Good to know

⚠️Recorded an advance by mistake? Tap the ✕ on its row: the advance and its money out of Banking come off together, and their balance is worked out again without it. If they have already paid some of it back, Worklog won't let it go on its own — remove that repayment first, or void the pay run that took it off wages. Money already reconciled in Banking has to be unreconciled there first. A wrong repayment from wages is fixed by voiding the pay run it came from.

💡Keeping advances in Worklog means you never lose track of who still owes you, and the money quietly comes back through payroll instead of you having to chase it.

Still stuck? Open the in-app help assistant, or email us at hello@worklogsolutions.co.za.

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