How to process wage assignments and pay creditors
What is it for?
An employee can assign part of their salary to a third party, by deed or contract. fiscaldoo keeps that assignment, deducts the amount on each payslip and shows what is still to be paid to the recipient. It does not send anything to the creditor: the payment and recording it are your steps.
When to use it?
- When the employee gives you a deed or contract in which they assign part of their pay.
- Every month, after validating the payslips, to pay the creditor and record the payment.
- When the assignment ends.
- Do not use it for an order from a court or an enforcement agent: that is a garnishment. Nor for a loan from the company itself: see advances and deductions.
Where to find it?
- Assignments: Payroll › Process › Assignments of remuneration, or, on the employee record, ⋮ › Assignments of remuneration.
- What is to be paid: Payroll › Pay › Deliveries to assignees.
- Paying the creditor: Payroll › Pay › Settlement with creditors.
- Creditors to complete: Payroll › Configure › Company › Creditors without contact.
Before you start
- Your profile is Payroll Administrator. The Payroll Processor sees the assignments, but does not have New.
- You have the deed or contract signed by the employee, as a file.
- The employee already has a computed payslip: that is where fiscaldoo sees how much can be assigned.
- The creditor exists in Contacts. If not, ask someone with the Accountant profile to create it: Contacts › New. Today, with the Payroll Administrator profile, the list has no New and the assignment field does not offer to create one.
- The Assignment of remuneration pay item has a posting template. In the demo company it did not: create it as explained in How to post the payroll, with Debit account 231290, Credit account 2781 and Partner Other third party.
How to use it
- In Payroll › Process › Assignments of remuneration, click New. Fill in Worker, Assignee (who receives), Deed or contract (the reference), Ceded per month and From. Only fill in Up to if the contract has an end.
- In Document of the assignment, upload the file. In Assignee contact (accounting), choose the creditor. Click Save. The assignment is in Draft.
- Click Activate. The state becomes Active and Ceded per month can no longer be changed.
- On the month's payslip, click Calculate. The Assignment of remuneration line comes in by itself, among the deductions. Click Validate: the amount appears in Deliveries to assignees, in the To deliver state.
- Click Account. The journal entry credits account 2781 with the creditor's contact.
- Open Payroll › Pay › Settlement with creditors. A window opens with one line per creditor, all ticked. Untick in Pay the ones you will not pay now: the Net pay to the worker, the Tax Authority and Social Security have their own path. Check Bank or cash journal, Date of the payment and Pay now, and click Record payment.
- In Payroll › Pay › Deliveries to assignees, click the line and fill in Delivered on and Delivery reference. Save in the list itself.
- When the assignment ends, open it and click End. The state becomes Ended and, when you click Calculate on the next payslip, the line goes away.
If the assignment does not fit on the payslip. The assignment is deducted as far as the garnishable part allows, and the shortfall is not carried to the next month by itself. The payslip warns you, and the line's How was it calculated? repeats the calculation. For an employee whose pay dropped to €1,000.00, the €300.00 assignment was €0.00:
“A cessão de retribuição a “Financeira do Norte, S.A.” (300,00 € por mês) foi descontada só em parte no recibo de Fábio Nuno Carvalho: 0,00 € descontados e 300,00 € por descontar, porque a parte penhorável (CT art. 280.º), depois das penhoras, já não tem margem. …” (The assignment of pay to “Financeira do Norte, S.A.” (€300.00 per month) was only partly deducted on Fábio Nuno Carvalho's payslip: €0.00 deducted and €300.00 outstanding, because the garnishable part (Labour Code art. 280), after the garnishments, has no room left. How to fix it: check the garnishments and the assignment amount; the payslip does not deduct more than the garnishable part allows.)
Example. An employee with €1,650.00 of base pay assigns €150.00 per month to a finance company, from 01/11/2026. The last payslip had a garnishable part of €344.50, so the assignment was accepted. The November 2026 payslip was:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Base pay and meal allowance | €1,779.15 |
| IRS withheld | −€102.00 |
| Employee Social Security | −€181.50 |
| Assignment of remuneration | −€150.00 |
| Net | €1,345.65 |
Payslip journal entry, for the assignment part, checked in the ledger:
| Account | Debit | Credit | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 231290 Remunerações em processamento | €150.00 | ||
| 2781 Outros devedores e credores (corrente) | €150.00 | Financeira do Norte, S.A. |
Payment to the creditor, after Record payment:
| Account | Debit | Credit | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2781 Outros devedores e credores (corrente) | €150.00 | Financeira do Norte, S.A. | |
| Bank outstanding payments | €150.00 | Financeira do Norte, S.A. |
The payslip's account 2781 line is reconciled with the payment's.
Expected result
- The assignment is Active, with the document attached.
- Each validated payslip adds a line in Deliveries to assignees.
- After payment, the creditor leaves Settlement with creditors, and the delivery line shows the date and the reference.
- Check the payments made using the Delivered on column. The list only shows deliveries from payslips that were not cancelled.
Important notes
- The limit. The employee can only assign a pay claim, free of charge or for consideration, “to the extent that it is garnishable” (Labour Code (Código do Trabalho), art. 280, text read on PGDL on 04/11/2026). The calculation of the garnishable part is in How to apply a wage garnishment.
- When it is checked. When you click Activate, with the employee's last payslip, deducting the active garnishments and the other active assignments.
- Garnishments come first. The assignment only deducts what the garnishments leave. In the example, with a €344.50 garnishment in December, the assignment line was €0.00. Check this line whenever a garnishment arrives. Pending on-screen validation: the payslip warning with the amount left undeducted.
- No IRS or Social Security. The line is a deduction: it does not change the IRS or Social Security base.
- Creditors: the Creditors without contact list shows assignments, garnishments and unions without a contact all at once.
Common problems
On activating: “has no document”
- Message: “The assignment of … has no document. What happened: the payroll only deducts an assignment that is backed by the deed or contract signed by the worker, so that the deduction can be justified. How to fix it: attach the document in “Document of the assignment” and activate again.”
- What to do: upload the file, save and click Activate again.
On activating: the assignment is refused because of the amount
- Message: “A cessão de … é recusada: 5000.00 por mês é mais do que a parte penhorável que resta (344.50). …” (The assignment of … is refused: 5000.00 per month is more than the garnishable part left (344.50). What happened: Labour Code art. 280 only allows assigning a pay claim to the extent that it is garnishable; the garnishable part of the last payslip is 344.50, of which 0.00 is already taken by garnishments (monthly maximums) and other assignments. How to fix it: lower the amount to 344.50 at most.)
- What to do: talk to the employee. If the contract asks for more than the limit, the company can only deduct up to the amount shown.
On activating: “the worker has no payslip”
- Message: “The assignment of … cannot be checked: the worker has no payslip. […] How to fix it: calculate a payslip of the worker first.”
- What to do: compute a payslip and click Activate again.
On saving: the dates or the amount are refused
- Messages: “The assignment ends before it starts. How to fix it: correct “From” or “Until”.” and “The ceded amount must be greater than zero. How to fix it: correct “Ceded per month”.”
- What to do: correct the field shown.
On posting: “have no accounting contact”
- Message: “Estes credores não têm contacto de contabilidade: … O que aconteceu: … Como resolver: preencha o contacto em cada um […] e contabilize de novo.” (These creditors have no accounting contact: … What happened: the amount withheld is owed to a third party and the journal entry credits that third party's account with its partner; without it the creditors would be mixed up and could not be reconciled one by one. How to fix it: fill in the contact on each one […] and post again.)
- What to do: see who is missing in Creditors without contact. Open the assignment in Payroll › Process › Assignments of remuneration, fill in Assignee contact (accounting), save and post again.
On posting: “Posting blocked”
- Message: “Contabilização bloqueada: 1 rubrica(s) com valor não têm modelo de contabilização em 30/11/2026: Cessão de retribuição. […]” (Posting blocked: 1 pay item(s) with an amount have no posting template on 30/11/2026: Assignment of remuneration.)
- What to do: create the pay item's template (see Before you start) and post again.
The assignment line is €0.00
- Cause: the active garnishments take up the month's garnishable part.
- What to do: tell the employee and the creditor, because there is no payment that month.