Processing of distraint

General information

In Distraint functionality

• Payment prohibition details can be stored in the employee's salary base. These details are visible to payroll clerks under the additional row information for the distraint salary type on the salary slip and can be used, for example, in the National Enforcement Authority's payment prohibition calculator.
• The system can automatically generate purchase invoices for distraint payments deducted from employees.

 

User rights

To generate an automatic distraint invoice, the user must have the following access rights:

• Salaries – Payroll – All rights
• Purchases – New purchase invoice – All rights
• Purchases – Search purchase invoices – At least viewing rights
• Purchases – Supplier register – At least viewing rights
• Limitations – Access only personal salaries – No restrictions

The automatic distraint invoice feature is not available in the Procountor product versions Ledger basic and Ledger Plus.

A salary type has been added to the system: 6051 Distraint (autom. invoice). This enables automatic creation of a purchase invoice for distraints. If automatic invoice creation is not wanted, previous distraint salary type6051 can still be used as before.

 

Usage settings

To enable automatic distraint invoice creation:

1. Navigate to Management > Company info > Usage settings
2. Check the box for Create distraint invoice automatically

With the option Approve distraint invoice automatically selected, the invoice is automatically set to Approved status, bypassing any invoice circulation settings. The user generating the invoice does not need rights to approve or verify purchase invoices.

If the invoice should follow the normal approval workflow, do not select Approve distraint invoice automatically. In this case, the invoice will remain in Unfinished status and await further processing.

 

Salary base - distraint settings

Once Create distraint invoice automatically is enabled in the settings, distraint settings must be defined per employee. Only one distraint setting can be active for an employee at a time.

Distraint settings are managed via:

• Payroll > Employee Register > Salary base – Distraint button

The Distraint view consists of two sections:

• Distraint setting
• Deducted distraint

 

Distraints settings

The following are defined in the distraints setting:

• Enforcement authority
• Prohibition number
• Reference number for the invoice
• Start date for automatic distraint invoicing
• End date for automatic distraint invoicing

Authority

• The enforcement authority receiving the deducted distraint funds from the employee.
  Select from a list of suppliers in the group Ulosottoviranomaiset (automatisoitu). If the group is empty, all suppliers are shown, and the selected supplier is added to the group automatically.
• Mandatory field.

Prohibition number

• Displayed on the salary slip under salary type 6051 Disrtraint (autom. invoice), in the additional row information. Can be used in the Enforcement Authority's garnishment calculator.

Reference number

• Reference used when remitting deducted distraints.
• Mandatory field.

Start date

• Date from which the distraint will be handled and purchase invoices are created automatically for the distraints.
• The system shows salary type 6051 in the salary base and salary slip when the current or payment date falls between the start and end dates.
• Mandatory field.

End date

• Date until which the distraint is valid and purchase invoices are created automatically.
• If not set, the salary type is shown when the current or payment date is after the start date.

Notes

• Free-text field (250 characters) for user notes, for example, information about payment-free moths or other instructions of the prohibition on payments.

 

Deducted Distraint

Deducted distraint section shows data withheld from the employee:

• Prohibition number
• Slip number
• Distraint sum
• Slip payday
• Slip status

 

SAVE

• Saves the defined distraint settings.

REMOVE SETTING

• Removes distraint settings from the employee. Salary type 6051 is removed from the employee’s salary base but remains on already created salary slips and does not delete already created, unpaid purchase invoices. Already created salary slips will continue to use the distraint setting that was in effect at the time the salary slip was created. New salary slips will no longer have salary type 6051.

REMOVE HISTORY

• Deletes all data from the Deducted distraint section.

 

Distraint on salary base

The system adds salary type 6051 Distraint (autom. invoice) to the salary slip when a valid distraint setting exists. Unit value of the salary type is by default 0.00.

The salary type is shown in the salary base when the current date is between the start and end dates.

 

Distraint on salary slip

The salary type 6051 Distraint (autom. invoice) is added to the salary slip when the payday is between the start and end dates. The system does not calculate the distraint amount automatically. The amount must be calculated manually, e.g., using the Enforcement Authority’s calculator.

The additional row information of salary type 6051 include distraint setting information, which can be used, for example, in the Enforcement Authority’s calculator. The distraint setting is the setting that was in effect at the time the salary type was added to the salary slip. If the distraint setting changes after the salary type 6051 is added, the setting will not change for the salary slip.

Note!

If salary type 6051 (Distrain (autom. invoice) is removed from the salary slip, the salary type cannot be added to the salary slip again. The salary slip must be invalidated and a new salary slip must be created. See also Changing the payday of a salary slip.

In addition, the additional row information shows deducted distraints from other salary slips with salary type 6051 during the payment month in question. Distraints deducted using other salary types are not shown.

 

Distraint invoice

The distraint invoice is created automatically when the salary slip is approved, provided that:

• Create distraint invoice automatically is enabled in settings
• Salary slip contains salary type 6051 with a defined amount
• No purchase invoice has yet been created for the distraint
• The user has sufficient access rights

If the setting Approve distraint invoice automatically is selected in the usage settings, the invoice status is set to Approved, bypassing invoice circulation. The user does not need rights to approve or verify purchase invoices. If not selected, the invoice status will be Unfinished.

The automatically created distraint invoice need to be processed and paid like any normal purchase invoice.

 

Invoice details

The following details are saved to the distraint invoice:

• Supplier info: From the Supplier register, based on the enforcement authority in the distraint setting
• Invoice date: Date the invoice is created
• Due date: Salary slip’s payday
• Reference number: From the employee's distraint settings
• Delivery method: Not sent
• Account number: From the Supplier register
• Product: Salary type’s name
• Product code: No product code
• Quantity: 1
• Price: Amount of salary type 6051 in euros
• VAT: 0%
• VAT status: No VAT handling
• Accounting number: Determined based on payroll default accounts:

 

Account number

The accounting number is affected by the setting:
Management > Company info > Usage settings > Post salary slips by row by default?

If selected:

• Debit: Credit account for salary type 6051 of Default salary postings
• Credit: Supplier's default purchase invoice account

If not selected:

• Debit: Category “Other deductions” of Payroll default salary postings
• Credit: Supplier's default purchase invoice account

The accounting number on the distraint invoice must match the accounting number on the salary slip so that the debt is offset upon payment.

If the invoice is modified (e.g., comment added), the accounting page will revert to the supplier's default accounts. To prevent discrepancies, the system updates the supplier’s default accounts to match the Default salary postings each time a distraint invoice is created automatically. Any manual changes to supplier accounts are overridden to ensure consistency.

 

Editing approved slip

If the distraint invoice has been created from the salary slip and the salary slip is changed back to the Unfinished status, the distraint invoice will not be updated or invalidated automatically. The user must edit or invalidate the distraint invoice manually if necessary.

If automatic distraint invoice creation is enabled and a salary slip is re-approved:

• A new distraint invoice is not created if a distraint invoice related to the salary slip has already been created, even if the distraint amount has changed
• A new distraint invoice is created only if no distraint invoice has been created previously or a previously created distraint invoice has been invalidated

Note! If a distraint invoice has already been created from a salary slip and salary type 6051 Distrain (autom. invoice) is removed but reappears on the salary slip (e.g., due to a change in the payday), a new distraint invoice will be created upon approval. In this case, the user must invalidate the unnecessary distraint invoice.

 

Changing the payday of a salary slip

Changing the payday of a salary slip may also affect salary type 6051 Distraint (autom. invoice).

If the previous payday was within the start and end dates defined in the distraint settings, but the new payday is not within that range, salary type 6051 Distraint (autom. invoice) will be removed from the salaryslip.

If the previous payday was not within the start and end dates defined in the distraint settings, but the new payday falls within that range, salary type 6051 Distraint (autom. invoice) will be added to the salary slip.