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Act 4: Payday — Financial Operations

19. Beyond Salary (Loans, Reimbursements, Bonuses)

Story

Sarah now manages financial activities that go beyond regular monthly salary, including employee loans, reimbursements, and bonuses.

These adjustments are connected directly with payroll so employees receive accurate payouts while finance teams maintain clear tracking and audit visibility.

Happy Path

Loans, reimbursements, and bonuses are processed smoothly and reflected automatically in payroll calculations.

  • Create employee loans with amount, installments, interest, and start date
  • Loan installments are deducted automatically during payroll runs
  • One-off amounts for a single employee and month go in as payroll adjustments
  • The adjustment type decides the direction, so nobody types a minus sign: Arrear, Reimbursement and Bonus add to pay, Advance Recovery and Penalty come off it, and Other is pointed either way
  • The form shows which way it will go before saving — green "Adds to pay" or red "Deducted from pay" — and the list and detail screens show the same afterwards
  • Bonuses are included in salary payouts when approved
  • Off-cycle bonus payments can run separately from regular payroll
  • Employees can track deductions and adjustments through payslips

Failure Modes

FailureWhat the user seesWhat happens next
Requested loan amount exceeds company policy limitLoan request rejected during validationReduce loan amount within allowed limits
Invalid installment count configured for loan repaymentValidation rejects repayment planEnter a valid installment schedule
Employee leaves the company with unpaid loan balanceOutstanding balance becomes immediately dueRecover balance during final settlement process
Loan has already been fully repaidNo additional deductions generatedLoan status remains completed

Edge Cases

ScenarioBehaviorWhy
Employee makes an early loan repaymentRemaining loan installments are cancelled automaticallyPrevents duplicate deductions after prepayment
Bonus is processed outside the regular payroll cycleSystem creates a separate off-cycle payroll runKeeps financial periods and adjustments organized
Employee submits reimbursement claims for expensesApproved reimbursement amounts are added to payroll as positive adjustmentsEnsures employees are compensated correctly for company expenses
A penalty or advance recovery is entered as a plain positive numberIt is stored and applied as a deduction anywayThe adjustment type owns the direction; entering "500" against a Penalty could otherwise have paid the employee 500
The type of a pending adjustment is changed from Arrear to PenaltyThe amount flips from an addition to a deduction on its ownThe sign is derived from the type on every save, so a half-edited record cannot be left pointing the wrong way