Getting started with Benefits
Benefits is where KAMI handles money lent to employees rather than earned by them: company loans, and advances against wages already worked. Both are repaid through payroll, which is what makes them a payroll concern as much as an HR one.
Where: Benefits You need: benefits rights — see Benefits user rights
The two things this module does
| What it is | Repaid by | |
|---|---|---|
| Loans | Money lent to an employee, repaid over months | Instalments deducted from payroll |
| Advance wages (QuickPay) | Early access to wages already earned this period | Deduction from the next payslip |
The distinction matters. A loan is credit: it has a term, usually interest or a fee, and a repayment schedule. An advance is not credit in the same sense — it is the employee's own earned pay, released early, and recovered in full at the next payslip.
Confusing the two produces the wrong product for the employee and the wrong accounting for you.
How a loan moves
request → approval → contract → disbursement → live → repaidA loan is not money until it is disbursed, and it is not settled until every instalment is paid. Between those points it carries an outstanding balance that appears in reports and on final pay.
Where it meets payroll
Loan instalments and advance repayments are applied to payslips as deductions. That means:
- They are affected by payroll timing. An instalment lands on the payslip for the period it is scheduled in.
- Recalculating a payslip re-applies them, so a deduction does not silently disappear when payroll is rerun.
- A leaver's outstanding balance has to be settled, usually from final pay — see Final pay on termination.
Where to go next
Setting up
- Loan types — the products you offer, their limits and their fees
- Benefits user rights
Day to day
Advances
For employees
What Happens Next
- Approved and disbursed loans generate an instalment schedule, which drives payroll deductions automatically.
- Outstanding balances appear in benefit reports and follow the employee until settled.
- Advances are recovered from the next payslip, without a schedule.
Tips
- Decide your loan products before offering any. Limits, fees and terms are set on the loan type, and changing them later does not change loans already live.
- Agree who approves, and what happens when they are away. A loan stuck at approval is a person waiting for money.
- Check outstanding balances before anyone leaves. Recovering a loan after someone has gone is materially harder than deducting it from final pay.
- Keep loans and advances distinct in your own language too. If your staff call both "an advance", the wrong one will get requested.