Special Advances (Loans)

Special advances are one-time cash advances requested on behalf of workers, separate from the daily base advance. They work like loans -- the money gets taken back out of the worker's future payment cycle.

How the Request and Negotiation Works

Special advances go through a structured back-and-forth between the project manager and the company admin.

Step 1: Manager Requests

A project manager puts in a special advance request for a worker, providing:

• How much the worker needs
• Why they need it

There are some rules:

• A worker can only have one active request going at a time (if one is already pending, in negotiation, or waiting to be finalized, they cannot start another)
• Once a previous request gets rejected or paid off, they can submit a new one
• The manager has to be managing the worker's project

The request starts in the pending state.

Step 2: Admin Reviews

The admin looks at the request and has three options:

Approve it outright -- Accept the requested amount as-is. The approved amount gets added to the worker's loan balance, and it will be deducted from their next payment cycle.

Turn it down -- Reject the request with a reason. The manager can always submit a new request later if needed.

Make a counter-offer -- Propose a different amount. This kicks off a negotiation.

Step 3: Negotiation

When the admin makes a counter-offer, things get interesting:

The One-Round Rule: The admin only gets one shot at a counter-offer per request. This is intentional -- it prevents the negotiation from going back and forth forever. Once the admin has countered, the manager has to either take it or leave it.

What the manager can do after a counter-offer:

Accept -- The manager agrees to the admin's proposed amount. The request moves to a "pending finalization" state, and the admin has to give their final stamp of approval. At this point the admin must approve -- they cannot reject an offer that was already accepted. An agreement is an agreement.

Reject -- The manager says no to the counter-offer. The request is closed out as rejected. The manager can submit a fresh request if they want to try again.

Step 4: Finalization

If the manager accepted the counter-offer:

• The admin gives the final approval
• The approved amount gets added to the worker's loan balance
• The advance is now approved and waiting to be deducted from the next payment

Maximum Rounds

There is a cap on how many negotiation rounds can happen (the default is 3 rounds, and it can be changed in system settings). If the maximum is hit without anyone reaching an agreement, the request automatically gets rejected.

Special Advance Statuses

Status	What it means
Pending	Fresh request, waiting for the admin to look at it
Negotiating	A counter-offer is on the table, going back and forth between admin and manager
Pending Finalization	The manager accepted the counter-offer, just needs the admin's final sign-off
Approved	Everything is settled, the amount has been added to the worker's loan balance
Rejected	Someone said no (either party) or the max rounds ran out
Paid	The advance has been deducted from a payment cycle

Negotiation History

Every proposal and counter-offer is recorded:

• Which round it was
• The proposed amount
• Any message that went along with it
• Who proposed it (manager or admin)
• When it happened

This creates a complete trail of how the negotiation played out.

How the Deduction Works

Once a special advance is approved:

1. The approved amount gets added to the worker's loan balance
2. When the next payment cycle is calculated, all approved advances that have not been deducted yet get totaled up
3. That total is subtracted from the worker's gross earnings
4. Each deducted advance gets linked to the payment record and marked as paid
5. The worker's loan balance goes down by the amount that was deducted

Loan Balance

The worker's loan balance is the total of all approved special advances that have not been fully paid back yet. This balance:

• Goes up when a new advance is approved
• Goes down when advances are deducted during payment processing
• Rolls forward from cycle to cycle until it is fully cleared
• Is visible to both managers and admins

The Key Rules

1. One active request per worker at a time
2. The admin only gets one counter-offer per request (the one-round rule)
3. If the manager accepts a counter-offer, the admin has to approve it -- no backing out of an accepted deal
4. There is a configurable cap on negotiation rounds (default is 3)
5. Hit the max rounds without an agreement and the request gets automatically rejected
6. The actual deduction only happens when payment is processed, not when the advance is approved
7. No new advance can be requested while one is already in active negotiation