Mutual settlements with employees: deduction of debts for goods from wages

In retail, employees often buy goods from their own store by taking them "on credit", with the cost later deducted from their salary. The challenge of this process is the need for double control: the owner must record the sale of the goods so they are correctly written off from stock, and at the same time must not forget to deduct the exact debt amount when calculating and paying the salary, avoiding cash register discrepancies. 

Entrepreneurs usually contact Torgsoft support with the following questions: how to correctly process such a purchase by a seller, how to link the seller’s salary to their own debts as a customer, and why, after the automatic salary deduction, some goods may still appear as "unpaid" in reports. 

The mode for mutual settlements with employees is designed specifically to automate this process by linking the employee profile as a "Seller" with their profile as a "Buyer".

Step 1. Correct employee setup

For an employee to be able to take goods on credit, and for the program to correctly deduct this amount from their salary, the employee must be registered in the system not only as an employee but also as a counterparty (customer).

1. Creating a customer card. Sellers are issued a discount card (for example, with a fixed staff discount) and are registered as VIP customers who are allowed deferred payment.

2. Linking the employee to a counterparty. In the Settings — Employee menu, the employee edit form contains a required field «Counterparty». Here you need to select the created customer card of the employee. The program will use this counterparty for goods-and-money settlements when paying salary.

Step 2. Processing the sale of goods "on credit"

When a seller takes goods from the store for personal use, this operation is processed as a regular sale to a VIP customer with deferred payment. The employee adds the goods to the receipt, scans their personal customer card, and closes the sale without depositing money into the cash register (the goods are issued on credit). The goods are written off from stock, and a debt to the store is recorded on the balance of this employee-counterparty.

Step 3. Deducting the debt during salary calculation

If you have the additional option "Salary Calculation" activated, the debt deduction process is automated as much as possible.

When creating a payroll statement (Salary Calculation — Payroll Statement menu), you can include the employee’s accumulated debts in the salary calculation:

1. Use the action «Include employee debts in the payroll statement».

2. When you click this button, a window opens with a list of employees and the amounts of their debts for purchased goods.

3. In the «Repay debt» column, enter the amount you want to deduct from the employee’s current salary (this can be either the full debt amount or part of it).

4. After confirmation, the program will automatically create two records:

•    An accrual under the category «Employee debt» (which will reduce the salary amount «To be paid»).

•    A financial document «Payment from customer with personal money», which will repay this employee’s debt as a buyer.

The money is virtually "deposited" into the cash register as payment for the goods and assigned to the financial analysis item "Trade revenue".

 Common problem: why do goods remain "unpaid"?

One of the most frequent requests from entrepreneurs concerns a situation where, after the automatic salary deduction, the employee’s overall balance becomes correct (zero), but specific goods in their purchase list still remain marked as "unpaid".

 Reason: this happens if the «Partial payment with item-by-item breakdown» mode is selected in the program settings for VIP customers. In this mode, the system requires each payment to be strictly linked to a specific item in the receipt. However, automatic debt deduction through the payroll statement repays the counterparty’s overall balance and is not linked to specific product items.

How to resolve this situation:

• Option 1 (Manual). Do not use automatic deduction through the payroll statement. Instead, pay the employee the full salary (process the salary payment), then go to the sale mode and accept this money as payment for specific "debt" receipts.

• Option 2 (System-based). If it is not critical for you to track the payment of every individual screw or T-shirt taken by the employee, you can use the VIP customer mode «Keep goods-and-money balance». In this mode, payments are not linked to specific sales; only the total debt amount is controlled, and it will be correctly reduced to zero when deducted from salary.

With the correct setup of the "Employee — Counterparty" link and an understanding of how payment modes work, an entrepreneur can avoid routine calculator-based deductions and ensure accurate stock balances and settlements with staff.