The advances screen can be found under Payroll -> Process -> Advance Payment, as shown below.
Understanding The Main Screen
As you can see, there is quite a lot going on with the main screen! Starting from top to bottom, you have:
Bulk Advance Payment List (Button): Selecting this will take you to a different page, allowing you to view the advances in the batches created and download the payment file.
Show Summary Info: Clicking on it will show the four summary boxes. You click the "Hide Summary Info" button to hide it. By default, this information will be hidden.
These four boxes display the figures relating to all advances paid out, the amount of ongoing recoveries and the pending amount left to deduct.
Advance Payments - This is where you can see each worker's advance and their current status. The possible statuses are:
Draft - Advance has not yet been submitted.
Initialized - Advance has been created but recovery has not yet started.
Processing - The recovery process has started.
Closed - The advance has been closed due to funds being recovered.
Action Column - There are a number of things you can do in the action column. You can view the advance in more detail, delete the advance if required and even edit it. For any true advances, you can download the PBE report for the calculation.
Clicking on the search icon in the grid will expand the section and provide options to search. You can also export a report into Excel for the advances! To do so, press the 'Export' button. If you have applied a filter, you can also export only the filtered data.
How to Create an Advance
If you are on the main advance page, you will see there are two ways to create an advance on MDA. These are:
Cash Advance - Cash advances are best used when you have calculated an amount to pay the worker outside of the system and you need a simple and fast solution. The user has to enter the advanced amount manually.
True Advance - True Advance is a feature update that allows you to calculate a more accurate value of payment by using our payroll calculator without creating a payslip and an FPS. This way, you know the value you are advancing the worker is likely to be much closer to their true pay when running their payroll at a later date. True Advances mean improved accuracy on your advance estimates and a reduced likelihood of any Carry Forward deductions for workers.
Once you have determined which advance you want to create, click the button below to learn how to create the advance.
How Will an Advance Look on the Payslip?
The advance deduction will show under 'Deductions' on the payslip, this is where the PAYE/NI also shows.
If you've opted to charge an additional margin to the worker, their 'Company Margin' will be increased by that amount for the number of periods set when creating the advance.
How to Write an Advance Off
Sometimes there is a need to write-off an advance deduction. Usually, this is because the worker has left before paying back the full amount and it may need to be put down as bad debt.
To do this, go to the main advances screen and locate the worker's advance by using the available filters. Once you've done that, click the edit button, as shown below.
The below will appear on your screen.
If you want to write the advance off, then change the periods left to deduct to '0' and press 'Update'.
The advance will not be deducted from the worker's future payroll. However, the accounts will still reflect the advance as outstanding.
To correct this, you will need to post a manual journal to write the advance off and post it to a bad debt code.