Disburse Advances

Pay out approved cash advances to employees from a bank or cash account and start the clearance clock.

Checked against the product 06 Oct 2026

Goal

Pay out an approved advance and record the payment, so the employee can start spending it.

Before you begin

Expense Settings: Staff Advance Account Winlium debits this account when you disburse.
A cash or bank account to pay from Accounting > Chart of Accounts.
For Cash: a Default Petty Cash Account in Expense Settings Cash disbursements are paid from this account.
An open financial period for today's date
An approved advance

Steps

Open Disburse Advances
In the menu choose Expense, then Operations, then Disburse Advances. The list shows approved advances that have not been paid out. When there are none you see No advances awaiting disbursement.
Find the advance
Search by advance number, then select Disburse on the row.
Screenshot pending
Disburse Advance window with Bank Transfer chosen, a bank account selected and a reference typed
1. 1Choose how the money is paid.
2. 2Pick the bank account (Bank Transfer only).
3. 3Optional reference.
Choose the method
In Disbursement Method choose Bank Transfer or Cash.
Pick the account
For Bank Transfer, pick the account in Bank Account. For Cash there is no account field; Winlium pays from the Default Petty Cash Account in Expense Settings.
Add a reference
Type the transfer reference in Reference. This is optional.
Confirm
Select Confirm. The button shows Disbursing.... A green message says the advance was disbursed. The advance leaves the list.

Field reference

The list:

Field	Type	Required	Details
Advance No	Text	No	The advance's number. Search uses this column.
Employee	Text	No	The person who asked for the advance.
Purpose	Text	No	Cut after 80 characters.
Approved Amount	Number	No	The approved amount, or the requested amount when none was set. No currency sign.
Requested Date	Date	No	When the advance was created, DD/MM/YYYY.
Actions	Button	No	The Disburse button.

The Disburse Advance window:

Field	Type	Required	Details
Disbursement Method	Dropdown	Yes	CashBank Transfer Default: Bank Transfer
Bank Account	Dropdown	Required when Disbursement Method is Bank Transfer	Shown only for Bank Transfer. Empty list text: No cash/bank accounts found. If empty on confirm: Select a bank account for a bank transfer disbursement.
Reference	Text	No	Placeholder: e.g. transaction reference.
Attachments	List	No	Read-only. Shows the files the employee attached to the request. Hidden when there are none.

Statuses and what happens next

The advance changes from Approved (called Awaiting Disbursement in My Advances) to Disbursed. Winlium also sets the clearance due date: today plus the clearance days from the advance's policy, or the Advance Clearance Period (days) in Expense Settings, or 30 days when neither is set. The employee must clear the advance with receipts or return unused cash by that date. The outstanding amount starts as the approved amount.

Returning unused cash has no screen in Winlium today. Do not look for a button for it on this page.

Ledger impact

Ledger impact: Confirm in Disburse Advance

Debit and credit entries for Confirm in Disburse Advance
Side	Account	Where the account comes from	Amount
Dr	Staff Advance	Expense Settings > Staff Advance Account	The approved amount (the requested amount when no approved amount exists)
Cr	The bank or cash account	Bank Account for Bank Transfer; for Cash, Expense Settings > Default Petty Cash Account	Same amount

The entry is dated today and falls in today's period. When the employee later clears the advance with an approved expense, that expense credits Staff Advance.

Approvals

Disbursing needs no approval. The advance was approved earlier. See Workflows and approvals.

Reverse or void

You cannot reverse or void a disbursement from this screen.

Who can do this

Listing needs expense:advances:read. Disbursing needs expense:advances-disburse:create. The account list also needs accounting:chart-of-accounts:read. See Roles and permissions.