ANTE User ManualAllowance Configuration
An allowance is money paid to an employee on top of basic pay: a rice subsidy, a transportation allowance, a meal allowance, a perfect-attendance bonus. The Allowance screen is where you define what kinds of allowance your company pays (the allowance types) and who gets them, and how much (the allowance plans). The type decides how payroll treats the money for tax and contributions; the plan decides the amount, timing and attendance behavior for each employee.
You reach it at Manpower → Payroll Setup → Allowance. The screen works the same way as Deduction: the list shows the types, and opening a type shows its plans.
Allowance Types
The Allowance screen lists every type, grouped by category, with two tabs: Active and Archived. Archiving a type removes it from the active list without deleting it, and an archived type can be restored from the Archived tab. Click Create Allowance Type to add one, or open an existing type and choose Edit. The Export / Import button moves allowance plans in and out of the system as a spreadsheet.
A few types are created by the system for BIR reporting. Their name and category are locked on the edit screen ("System-generated BIR type") and cannot be changed.
Name and Category
Below the category the screen shows a short explanation of what the chosen category does, a worked example, and a Compare all categories link that opens a side-by-side table of all four. The explanation is generated from the same rules payroll uses, so it always matches what will happen.
The Four Categories
| Category | In gross pay? | Subject to income tax? | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taxable | Yes | Yes (see Tax treatment below) | Allowances that are ordinary taxable pay: post, transportation, hazard, incentives |
| De Minimis | Yes | Tax-exempt up to its threshold; only the excess is taxed | Statutory small benefits such as rice subsidy and meal allowance |
| Non-Taxable | Yes | No | Allowances that are part of gross pay but not taxed |
| Non-Taxable (Paid After Deductions) | No | No | Money paid on top of take-home: it skips gross pay and is added after deductions |
For example, with ₱10,000 basic pay, a ₱1,000 allowance and ₱2,000 of deductions in a cutoff, the same allowance behaves differently by category:
| Category | Gross pay | Taxable income | Take-home pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taxable, regular compensation | ₱11,000 | ₱11,000 | ₱9,000 |
| Taxable, other benefit | ₱11,000 | ₱10,000 (the allowance sits under the annual ceiling) | ₱9,000 |
| Non-Taxable | ₱11,000 | ₱10,000 | ₱9,000 |
| De Minimis (within its threshold) | ₱11,000 | ₱10,000 | ₱9,000 |
| Non-Taxable (Paid After Deductions) | ₱10,000 | ₱10,000 | ₱9,000 |
Take-home is the same in these examples; the categories differ in what gross pay and taxable income say, and therefore in income tax, the contribution bases, and the BIR reports. These are the same illustrative figures the screen shows in its own explainer.
Tax Treatment (Taxable Category)
When the category is Taxable, a Tax treatment choice appears (field label: Withhold this allowance as). It decides how payroll withholds tax on the allowance:
If you are unsure, ask: "is this a fixed part of the monthly pay, or a bonus on top?" Fixed pay is Regular compensation; a bonus is Other benefit.
Contribution Basis (Non-Taxable Paid After Deductions)
A Non-Taxable (Paid After Deductions) allowance stays out of gross pay and taxable income. Three checkboxes let you count it as compensation for a government agency anyway:
See Payroll Group → Deduction Basis for where each group's basis is set.
De Minimis Threshold (De Minimis Category)
For a De Minimis type, four extra fields describe the tax-free limit:
For example, a plan of ₱5,000 a month on a type with a ₱2,500 monthly threshold is half within the limit: 50% of each cutoff's allowance is tax-free and the other 50% is the excess that goes through the ceiling.
Absence Reduction
These settings, available on every category, control what monthly absence does to the allowance. They work together with plans set to Banded by Absence.
Absence is judged for the whole calendar month, even when payroll runs semi-monthly: each cutoff pays the month's entitlement so far minus what earlier cutoffs already paid, so the month-closing cutoff lands exactly on the monthly amount times the band.
Dispatch and Attendance Rule
Changing a type's category or tax settings affects payroll computed afterwards. Payslips already posted keep the figures they were computed with; recompute a cutoff if it is still open and should reflect the change.
Allowance Plans
A plan is the assignment of one allowance type to one employee, with the amount and the rules for paying it. Click a type on the Allowance screen to open its plan list. The page title is the type's name, with three summary cards: Assigned Employees, Allowance Category and Tax Status. The plans table has Active Plans and Inactive Plans tabs. From this page you can also Edit the type, Archive it, run a Mass Import, or Assign Employees.
Assigning Employees
- Open the type
Go to Manpower → Payroll Setup → Allowance and click the allowance type.
- Click Assign Employees
Search and tick every employee who should receive this allowance, then continue.
- Fill in the Allowance Settings
The settings below are applied to every employee you selected. The dialog's subtitle shows how many employees are selected and the type name.
Computation ModedropdownHow the amount is calculated each cutoff. See the table below. Default: Fixed.Deduction Per AbsentnumberShown only for Per Absent: the amount taken off the allowance for each absence.Allowance Amount*number, greater than 0The allowance for the month (the plan list calls it the monthly allowance). Payroll splits it across the month's cutoffs according to the Payment Period.Payment PerioddropdownWhen the allowance is given: Every Period (default), First Period, Last Period, or Not Given.Effectivity Date*dateThe date the allowance starts. - Save
Click Assign Allowance. A message reports how many employees were assigned, and the new plans appear in the Active Plans tab.
You can also assign allowances to one employee from the Managing Allowances section of their Employee Records profile, where the same type, amount, payment period and effectivity date are entered per person.
Payment Period
| Payment Period | What payroll does |
|---|---|
| Every Period | Pays the amount divided by the number of cutoffs in the month: half of it on each semi-monthly cutoff, all of it on a monthly cutoff. |
| First Period / Last Period | Pays the whole amount in the first (or last) cutoff of the month, and nothing in the other. For pro-rated and per-absent plans, attendance from both cutoffs is combined. |
| Not Given | The plan exists but pays nothing. |
For Banded by Absence plans, choose Every Period or Last Period. A banded plan set to First Period only sees the first half of the month.
Computation Mode
| Mode | Effect on the cutoff's allowance |
|---|---|
| Fixed | Pays the full cutoff amount regardless of attendance. |
| Pro-Rated Ratio | Multiplies the cutoff amount by days present divided by working days. A forgiven holiday counts as present, and the ratio never exceeds 1. |
| Per Absent | Takes Deduction Per Absent off the cutoff amount for each absence, never going below zero. |
| Banded by Absence | Pays the share set by the type's absence bands for the employee's month-to-date absence. |
| Attendance Gate | Pays the full amount only if the type's attendance condition is met; otherwise the reduced share. See Attendance Gate. |
| Per Unit (days / hours / overtime) | Treats the amount as a rate and pays rate × units counted from timekeeping (days present, hours worked, or overtime days). The rate is never split across cutoffs; the Payment Period only says in which cutoff it is paid. |
Attendance Gate and Per Unit only work when the allowance type has an Attendance rule; see Allowance Attendance Rules.
Working with One Plan
Click any row in the plans table to open the plan. The Plan Information tab shows the settings and status; the History tab lists every balance transaction. The dialog's buttons are:
- Add Balance — adds to the plan's balance, with an amount and remarks.
- Pay Balance — records a payment against the balance, with an amount and remarks. Disabled ("No balance to pay") when nothing remains.
- Edit — opens Edit Allowance Plan. The employee, the Total Given Amount and the remaining balance are shown but cannot be changed; you can change Allowance Amount, Computation Mode, Deduction Per Absent, Payment Period and Effectivity Date.
- Deactivate or reactivate the plan. An inactive plan moves to the Inactive Plans tab and stops paying until reactivated.
- Delete the plan, after a confirmation that warns it cannot be undone.
To stop an allowance but keep its history, deactivate the plan instead of deleting it.
Bulk Import
Mass Import on the plan list (and Export / Import on the type list) loads many plans from a spreadsheet through four stages: Upload, Validate, Review and Import. Every row needs an Allowance Period value that the system recognizes (blank or unrecognized is rejected; Not Given is accepted). Rows that fail validation can be downloaded as an error report, and past imports are listed under Import History.
Where Allowances Show Up in Payroll
Each cutoff, payroll walks every active plan and does this:
- Finds the plan's amount for the cutoff from its Payment Period.
- Applies the Computation Mode, then any dispatch suppression.
- Adds the result to the right bucket for the type's category: gross pay, taxable income, the de minimis exempt and excess amounts, or the amount paid after deductions.
The totals appear in the Allowance Pay column of Payroll Summary, in the earnings of Salary Detail, and on the payslip in Payslip Center. When a banded or gated allowance pays zero, the payslip still lists it with the reason, so the employee can see why it is nil.
The allowance flows on into the Allowance Reports, and taxable allowances feed the year-end annualization (see Annualization).
How It Connects
Set up first
- Payroll Group — sets the cutoffs allowances are paid across and the basis SSS and PhilHealth read.
- Allowance Attendance Rules — defines the gate or per-unit rate that Attendance Gate and Per Unit plans use.
- Dispatch Treatment — decides whether flagged allowances pause while an employee is dispatched.
Gets its data from
- Employee Records — lets you assign allowances to an employee from their own profile.
- Payroll Time Keeping — supplies the days present and absent that pro-rated, banded and gated plans read.
Feeds into
- Payroll Summary — adds each employee's allowances to gross pay, tax and net pay for the cutoff.
- Payslip Center — shows each allowance line, and the reason when it pays zero.
- HR and Payroll Reports — lists allowances paid per type and employee in the Allowance Reports.
- Annualization — counts taxable allowances in the year-end tax true-up.