Employee Loans

CifraHQ lets you issue salary advances and personal loans to Employees and recover them through automatic per-period Payroll deductions. Every loan follows a documented lifecycle from draft through a signed agreement to active repayment, giving you a complete Audit Trail for each disbursement.

Where to find it

Go to Payroll > Loans.

Loan lifecycle

Draft --> Generate Agreement --> Awaiting Signature --> (Upload signed PDF) --> Active --> Paid Off
                                                                                       |
                                                                                  Write Off

Creating a loan

1. Click New Loan on the Loans list page.
2. Fill in the loan details:

3. Click Save.

The system auto-assigns a Loan Code (e.g., LOAN-00042) and sets the initial Balance equal to the Principal.

Generating and signing the agreement

1. Open the loan in Draft state.
2. Click Generate Agreement to produce the printable loan agreement PDF.
3. Print and have the employee sign the document.
4. Click Upload Signed Agreement and attach the signed PDF scan.
5. The loan moves to Active state and deductions begin on the configured Start Period.

A signed agreement must be attached before the loan can be activated. This protects both parties and satisfies the Código de Trabajo requirement for written salary deduction consent.

Deduction behaviour

Once Active, the engine deducts the Installment Amount from the employee's net pay each period automatically. No manual concept entry is required - the deduction appears as a system concept line in the Payroll run.

• If the remaining Balance is less than the configured Installment Amount in the final period, only the remaining balance is deducted (no overpayment).
• The loan moves to Paid Off automatically when the balance reaches zero.

Loan columns

Writing off a loan

If you decide to forgive the remaining balance (employee termination, hardship, etc.):

1. Open the Active loan.
2. Click Write Off.
3. Confirm the action.

The remaining balance is cleared, deductions stop, and the loan is marked Written Off. The forgiven amount is recorded for audit and payslip purposes.

Cancelling a loan

A Draft or Awaiting Signature loan can be cancelled at any time provided no deductions have been applied:

1. Open the loan.
2. Click Cancel.
3. Confirm.

Loans with even one deduction applied cannot be cancelled - use Write Off instead.

Tips

• One active loan per employee is typical. CifraHQ does not technically block multiple concurrent loans, but verify your policy allows it before creating a second.
• Installment amount should fit the net pay. If the deduction would reduce net pay below the legal minimum wage, the Payroll engine will flag a warning during calculation.
• The signed agreement is mandatory. The loan cannot be activated without the uploaded PDF. This is a hard rule, not a warning.
• Termination handling: When an employee is terminated, any Active loan balance appears in the liquidación as an outstanding deduction. CifraHQ does not automatically deduct from severance - this must be handled manually per your HR policy.

Related: Employees · Payroll Concepts · Periods and Runs · Terminations