Almost every Sri Lankan business lends money to its staff. Very few track it properly. It starts as a note in a diary, becomes a spreadsheet, and eventually becomes an argument about whether a deduction was already made.
Staff Finance turns it into a process.
Advances
Each employee has an advance limit. A request inside the limit is straightforward. A request above it goes through an override workflow with a record of who approved it and why — instead of a verbal decision nobody can reconstruct six months later.
Advances are tied to payroll, so the recovery happens automatically rather than depending on someone remembering.
Staff loans
Longer-term loans amortise on either a flat rate or a reducing balance, and the two are calculated correctly and kept distinct. That sounds obvious and is the thing spreadsheets most often get wrong — a flat-rate schedule presented as reducing balance quietly overcharges the employee, which is a problem you do not want to discover during a dispute.
Repayment schedules are visible to both sides. The employee can see what they owe and when it clears.
Bilingual agreements
Loan agreements print in both Sinhala and English. An employee signing a document they can read is both fairer and considerably more enforceable.
Access control
Access is role-based. A line manager sees their own team. HR sees everyone. Staff financial information does not sit in a shared spreadsheet that half the office can open.
Why it matters beyond bookkeeping
Staff lending is a real liquidity drain that most owners have never quantified. The first month of running this properly usually produces a number that surprises people. Knowing it lets you set a policy instead of responding case by case.
Who it is for
Businesses with enough staff that advances have stopped being informal — roughly twenty employees upward, or fewer if you also run staff loans.
How it installs
Installed through cPanel and integrates with your existing payroll and HR records. Pairs with Company Finance if you also want your borrowing tracked in the same place.