ANTE User ManualSeparation Pay
Separation Pay is where you compute, review, and release an employee's final pay after they've been separated — separation pay itself (per Philippine Labor Code rules, when the separation reason qualifies), any remaining 13th/14th month balance, unused leave converted to cash, a payroll salary that was held for them after the separation, and the year-to-date tax settlement, minus any final deductions. The page is built around three tabs: Process, History, and Settings.
Accessing Separation Pay
- Click HR in the sidebar.
- Open Payroll, then click Separation Pay.
Opening the page only takes view access to Separation Pay — that's also enough to Download statement and Generate bank file (both are read/export actions). Computing, overriding a line, adding a deduction, releasing, and voiding all need the module's additional update permission — without it, those action buttons are hidden, and the Settings tab's separation-pay policy fields are read-only.
Process
The Process tab lists every employee who is currently separated — the same population you'd find filtering Employee Records to the Separated status. Each row shows the employee's code, name, separation type, effectivity date, Branch (an em dash when the employee has no branch assigned), and a Final pay badge: Not started, Draft, Released, or Voided.
A branch picker above the table (showing All Branches by default) narrows the list by branch. Open it, search or browse the branch tree — parent companies with their sites indented beneath — and pick one; choosing a parent covers its whole subtree. If nothing matches, the table says No separated employees in this branch.
- ComputeClick Compute on a row with no package yet (or click the row itself) to create a Draft final pay package and open it.
- OpenClick Open on a row that already has a package to reopen it, at whatever stage it's at.
If a separated employee doesn't appear here, separate them first from their record's Actions → Separate action.
Clearance
If a separation type's policy says clearance is required (for example for AWOL), the Process tab shows a Clearance column with Pending, Cleared, or Not required. Click Mark cleared on a Pending row once the employee has completed clearance, or Revoke clearance to put it back to Pending. While clearance is Pending, the package shows a notice and Release final pay is blocked until the employee is cleared.
The clearance buttons need their own permission, Separation Pay — Clearance, so you can let HR or a department head sign off clearance without giving them the rest of Separation Pay.
The final pay package
Computing or opening a package opens its workspace dialog, showing the employee's name, separation type, effectivity date, status, payable total, and employee code. If the employee has since been re-hired, a note explains that the package still settles the separated period, and — if the rehire falls in the same tax year — the tax settlement returns to the payroll engine's regular year-end true-up instead of being finalized here.
The component lines, in the order they're computed:
Each unused, convertible leave credit is valued at one flat daily rate — capped, per plan, at that leave plan's maximum cash-conversion credits. The daily rate comes from the employee's last Posted payslip; if none exists, it falls back to their contract instead — the contract's custom daily rate if it has one, otherwise monthly rate ÷ 22. The first 10 converted days are treated as de minimis tax-exempt; any days beyond that are taxable.
This valuation is identical under both of the payroll group's Day pricing basis settings. Under Per scheduled hour, a leave day taken while the employee is still active is paid at that day's scheduled hours — but a leave credit cashed out here is still worth one flat daily rate (an hour of leave works out to one-eighth of a day), because leave balances are always kept in days, never hours.
Each line shows its Computed figure alongside the effective Amount (the two differ once a line has been overridden) and its Tax treatment — Exempt, Taxable, or Non-taxable.
Downloading the statement
Click Download statement (available at any stage — Draft, Released, or Voided) to download a quitclaim-style PDF: your company's name and address; the employee's name, code, separation type, effectivity date, and years of service; the same component lines (including Financial assistance) and tax treatment shown in the dialog (deduction lines negative); the payable total; an acknowledgement-of-receipt statement; and a signature block for the employee and an authorized representative.
A Draft statement is stamped DRAFT — not yet released with a translucent "DRAFT" watermark across the page, so a preview can never be mistaken for the final document. A Released statement instead reads Released on [date]; a Voided package still downloads, stamped VOIDED on [date] with the void reason, for the audit trail.
Overriding a line
While the package is still a Draft, click Override on any computed line (not available on manual deduction lines — remove and re-add those instead) to open the override dialog:
Click Apply override to save. The line's row shows the override reason underneath the component name from then on.
Adding a manual deduction
While the package is a Draft, use the form below the lines table — Deduction (a title, e.g. an accountability) and Amount — then click Add deduction. Manual deduction lines can be removed with the Remove button on their row; computed lines cannot be removed, only overridden.
Auto loan-balance deductions
If the employee has an outstanding balance on any LOAN-category deduction plan (an HDMF or SSS loan, for example), computing or recomputing the package automatically adds one Deduction line per plan — titled "Loan balance — [plan name]" — for the remaining balance. Unlike a manual deduction, this line has no Override or Remove button here — if the loan shouldn't be netted against the final pay, deactivate the plan on the Deduction page first, then click Recompute below so the line drops out.
Releasing the package does not close the loan plan — it stays open, and the offset is only a settlement offer. Record the actual repayment on the plan separately once it's honored.
Savings release in final pay
If the employee has a balance saved in a savings deduction, computing the package automatically adds one Savings balance released line for their whole available balance (what is saved, less anything already scheduled or processing). It has no Override or Remove button — the amount is exactly what the plans hold. Releasing the package lowers each savings plan by its share and records a Final pay withdrawal on Savings Withdrawals; voiding the package restores the balance and marks that withdrawal Voided.
Recompute
Click Recompute at any time while the package is a Draft to refresh every computed line against the employee's latest posted data — useful if a cutoff posted or a leave balance changed since the package was first computed. Recompute does not touch your manual overrides or manual deduction lines.
Release final pay
Click Release final pay on a Draft package to commit it. Releasing is final — it bridges the 13th/14th-month balance into a payment record (visible on 13th Month Pay's Manual Records), converts the leave credits, and locks the package.
If the policy sets a release deadline, the package shows Release due [date] — the separation date plus the number of days in the policy (for example 30 days, per DOLE Labor Advisory 06-20), so you can see when final pay must go out.
Items whose release method is Cheque (see Financial assistance) are paid by cheque and are left out of the final-pay bank file.
If the employee still has payroll cutoffs that aren't Posted yet, a confirmation appears: "This employee still has payroll cutoffs that are not posted. The tax settlement and the held salary are only final once every cutoff is posted — salary held in an unposted cutoff is not included. Release anyway?" Click Release anyway to proceed, or post the remaining cutoffs first for a settlement that won't need revisiting.
If the computed amounts drifted since the package was last computed (for example, a cutoff posted in the meantime), release is blocked, the package recomputes automatically, and a message asks you to review the refreshed lines and release again.
Once released, the package's separation pay, financial assistance, leave conversion, and tax refund or deficiency stop being visible only here — they fold into that employee's Alphalist Breakdown (attributed to the separation year), the BIR 2316 certificate, and the release month's Monthly Remittance Return (1601-C). No extra step is needed — this happens automatically as soon as the package is Released.
Void
Once a package is Released, click Void to reverse it — enter a Reason (required) and confirm. Voiding reverses the leave conversion and the 13th/14th-month bridge payment; the frozen lines stay on the record for audit. A fresh Draft can be computed afterwards from the Process tab.
History
The History tab lists every final pay package ever created — Draft, Released, and Voided — with a Status filter above the table. Columns: package number, employee code, employee name, separation type, effectivity date, payable total, released date, and status. Click any row to reopen that package's workspace, the same dialog described under Process above.
Generating a bank file
Tick the checkbox that appears on Released rows (the only status that can be disbursed) and click Generate bank file — the button shows the number selected. In the dialog, confirm the Processing date and click Generate to download a BDO disbursement spreadsheet — the same format used by Payroll's Bank File Writers.
A selected employee with no bank account number on their employee record is left out of the file and listed in the dialog under Skipped — no bank account on file instead of being silently dropped. Add their bank details and generate a separate file for them once fixed.
Settings
The Settings tab holds one separation pay policy per separation type — this is what the Process tab's Separation pay line computes from. The table lists every separation type with its current policy; click a row (or its Edit button) to change it.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Separation pay | Whether this separation type carries separation pay at all — Applicable or Not applicable. |
| Months / year | How many months of pay accrue per year of service. |
| Floor (months) | The minimum payout, in months of pay, regardless of tenure. |
| Tax | Exempt or Taxable. |
| Basis | What "one month of pay" means for the computation. |
| Year rounding | How a partial year of service is rounded before multiplying. |
Editing a policy
Click Save policy to apply. The change affects packages computed or recomputed afterwards — it does not retroactively change an already-released package.
Separation types & BIR reason codes
A second card, below the policy table, maps each separation type to its BIR alphalist "reason of separation" code — separate from the pay policy above. Pick a code from the dropdown on a row — T (Terminated / Transferred out), R (Retirement), D (Death), or TR (Transferred) — and click Save. A type left Not set is reported as T. The same code can also be set when creating a brand-new type from the Separate Employee dialog.
A separation year's chosen code shows up on that employee's Alphalist Breakdown so HR can double-check it before filing.
Saving a code here needs your HRIS Create or Update permission, not Separation Pay's own update permission — separation types are HRIS reference data, even though this card lives on the Separation Pay Settings tab.
Financial assistance
Below the separation pay fields, the policy dialog has a Financial assistance (separation benefit) section for companies that pay a goodwill or contractual benefit on top of — or instead of — statutory separation pay. It is computed the same way as separation pay but on its own line.
Financial assistance that falls in the basket treatment is added to the employee's 13th-month-and-other-benefits figure on the Alphalist Breakdown and BIR 2316, so the ceiling is applied once across everything.
Final pay release rules
Four separation types ship with defaults based on DOLE rules pre-filled (review them against current DOLE issuances before use): Redundancy (position declared redundant, or labor-saving devices installed) at 1 month of pay per year of service; Retrenchment, Closure or Cessation of Business, and Disease at ½ month per year — all four floored at one month and marked tax-exempt as involuntary causes. Every other default type (Resignation, Termination, Transferred, Retirement, Death) starts as Not applicable; turn one on and set its own policy if your company pays separation benefits for it too. Retirement pay is governed by its own rules (RA 7641) rather than this Labor Code Art. 298-299 policy, so Retirement is intentionally left Not applicable here by default.
Related Topics
- Employee Records — Separating an Employee — how a separation is recorded, which is what makes an employee appear on the Process tab
- Employee Records — Re-Hiring a Separated Employee
- 13th Month Pay — the accrual that Separation Pay draws its 13th/14th month balance line from
- Alphalist Breakdown — where a Released package's tax settlement, and its reason-of-separation code, show up on the employee's annual BIR figures
- Deduction Plans — deactivate a LOAN-category plan here to stop it from auto-adding a deduction line to future final pay computations
How It Connects
Set up first
- Service Incentive Leaves — the leave plans that can be converted to cash decide the unused-leave line of the final pay.
- Deduction — an open loan-category deduction plan is offered as a balance deduction line in the final pay.
Gets its data from
- Employee Records — recording a separation on the employee record is what lists the employee on the Process tab.
- 13th Month Pay — the remaining 13th/14th-month accrual becomes a line of the final pay.
- Payroll Center — salary held on a posted cutoff's Separated Employees (On Hold) list is paid here as Held salary; the tax settlement and the held salary are final only once every cutoff is posted.
Feeds into
- Savings Withdrawals — a released package pays out the whole savings balance and records a Final pay withdrawal.
- Alphalist Breakdown — a released package is attributed to the separation year and its reason code is shown.
- BIR 2316 — the settlement is carried onto the employee's certificate.
- Monthly Remittance — the settlement counts in the release month's 1601-C return.