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This guide provides instructions on setting distraint for an employee, creating a settlement point, reporting and paying distraint in Netvisor. The guide also covers the necessary access rights and provides an example of distraint calculation. Distraint is delivered based on the payment prohibition provided to the payer. In addition to regular pay, distraint income includes holiday bonuses, fringe benefits, commissions, and various fees. 

The amount of distraint is calculated from net income. A protected portion is always left for the employee for subsistence, the size of which is confirmed annually and is also affected by the number of people dependent on the employee's support. More information on delivering distraint and examples of its calculation can be found on the Oikeus.fi website.  The program calculates the size of the protected portion according to the length of the pay period by multiplying the daily protected portion by the number of days in the pay period.

Check the calculation of distraint if necessary with the payment prohibition calculator.

Setting distraint for an employee

Read separate instructions if needed for setting the maximum amount of distraint and defining the fixed amount of distraint

Define in the employee's basic information whether distraint is withheld from the employee. Also mark the number of people dependent on the employee's support for calculating the protected portion. The program automatically calculates the amount of the protected portion based on the confirmed daily value for each year and the number of people dependent on the employee's support. You do not need to remember to update the protected portion when the calendar year changes.

Add the calculation of distraint for the employee as follows:

  1. Open the view by selecting Payroll > Personnel > Employee listing.
  2. Click the employee's name.
  3. Activate the "Payroll information" section "Distraint" checkbox.
  4. Enter the number of people dependent on the employee's support in the "Distraint dependents" field that opens.
  5. Save the changes.

Remove the "Distraint" checkbox from the employee's information if the employee has a distraint-free month. In this case, distraint is not automatically formed on the payslip.

Creating distraint settlement point 

Each employee must have their own "Distraint" settlement point for settling distraint to the enforcement authority.


  1. Open the view by selecting Payroll > Payroll > Obligations > Settlements > Go to settlement point settings.
  2. Select the "New settlement point" link.
  3. Fill in the settlement point information as follows:
    • Type: Select "Distraint".
    • Name: Name the settlement point as desired. The name of the settlement point appears on Netvisor's account statement.
    • Calculation: Select the salary type with which the deduction is made on the payslip. Distraint is collected from the employee and forwarded to the enforcement authority.
    • Default period: Select that settlements are made monthly.
    • Is the settlement paid: Select the "To be paid" checkbox if you want to create bank transfers from the settlement point to the "Settlements" page.
    • Bank account number: Enter the account number provided in the payment prohibition in IBAN format.
    • Reference number: Enter the reference number provided in the payment prohibition.
  4. Save the settlement point.

Attach the employee to the settlement point from which distraint is withheld:

  1. Select "Employees attached to settlement point" > "Attach employee to settlement point".
  2. Select the employee and click "Save".

Distraint salary type

Netvisor's ready-made salary models have a "Distraint" salary type, whose "Source" is "Distraint". This includes all the guidance needed for calculating the amount of distraint. The salary models have a default formula of the total net pay and various fringe benefits, from which the distraint is calculated.

Distraint on payslip (example)

In the example, the employee has one person dependent on their support. The pay period is 1.12.2022-31.12.2022.

The debtor's protected portion (in 2022) is 23.20 euros per day, which is increased by 8.34 euros due to the dependent person. The protected portion per day is therefore 31.54 euros. The program always calculates the amount of the protected portion for 30 days if the pay period is a month. In this case, the protected portion becomes 946.20 euros. For pay periods that are not a full calendar month, the actual days of the pay period are used in the calculation of the protected portion.

The amount of net pay on the calculation is 1734.77 euros, to which the amount of fringe benefits 20.00 euros is added, making the total amount of distraint income 1754.77 euros.

The amount of distraint income exceeds the protected portion but is at most twice the protected portion. In this case, two-thirds of the pay exceeding the protected portion is distraint, i.e., 539.05 euros.

Distraint reporting

Report distraint as follows:

  1. Open the view by selecting Payroll > Payroll > Obligations > Settlements.
  2. Click the "Distraint" settlement point "New settlement" link.

  3. Select the desired period in the "Settlement start" and "Settlement end" columns.

    Note that the distraint settlement can only be created once for the same period. Choose the dates according to how many salary payment dates there are in the month:

    • If there is only one salary payment date in the month, report the settlement for the entire month at once.
    • If there are multiple salary payment dates in the month, click the "Fetch settlement by date range" checkbox to activate it and limit the search to end on the latest salary payment date.
    • Take the next settlement of the month from the end of the previous settlement to the next salary payment date.
  4. Click "Fetch settlement rows from payroll" button to get the information for the report.
  5. Check the accuracy of the information and select "Save settlement".

    After saving, you return to the "Settlements" view.

Reviewing the report:

  1. Open the report by clicking the "Settlements" view "Unreported" link.

    On the report, you can see both "Company information" and "Settlement information". Arrange the information in ascending or descending order by clicking the column header (e.g., "Employee").

  2. Select from "Select fields" which information you want to appear on the report.
  3. Print the report from the top row "Printer" icon (see image below, point 1). Select the desired format and print settings and press the "Generate report" button.

Distraint payment

  1. Create a bank transfer in the "Settlements" view by clicking the "Pay" link.
  2. Confirm the transfer of the settlement to the payment view by clicking "OK". The status of the settlement updates to "In payment".

The bank transfer is waiting to be sent to the bank in the "Payment view".

  1. Open the view by selecting Payroll > Payroll > Pay salaries.
  2. Select the payment material to be active by clicking the checkbox from the settlement row (see image below, point 1).
  3. Check the due date (2).
  4. Select the bank account from which the payment is to be made (3).
  5. Select "Continue to confirmation view" (4). 
  6. Check the information and select "Send for payment" (5).
  7. You will receive a notification of successful sending.

Access rights

Performing the functions requires the following access rights:

  • "Settlements" view: Does not require a separate access rights role. Requires payroll "Function-specific rights" read or edit rights to Payroll > Insurances and settlements.
  • Paying the settlement: Requires payroll "Function-specific rights" edit rights to Payroll > Payment. Additionally, "Sales and accounts payable rights" access rights are required for the Accounts payable section to Purchase invoice payer and Bank transfer payer.

Frequently asked questions

Can the settings be defined so that the amount of distraint is 1/3 of the net pay?

If you want to withhold 1/3 of the net pay as distraint from the employee, this information must be manually edited on the payslip.

Does the program automatically calculate the protected portion for distraint?

The program automatically calculates the amount of the protected portion based on the confirmed daily value for each year and the number of people dependent on the employee's support.

What should I do if the employee has a distraint-free month?

Remove the "Distraint" checkbox from the employee's information. In this case, distraint is not automatically formed on the payslip.

How do I know that the amount of the protected portion is correct and does it include people dependent on support?

If the number of people dependent on the employee's support is not known, you can use the payment prohibition calculator to check how many dependents the protected portion includes. After this, you can check in Netvisor from the employee's settings whether the number of people dependent on support is set correctly. 

Keywords: Distraint, Distraint, Settlement point, Protected portion, Payslip, Reporting

This article has been translated using an AI-based translation tool. The contents or wording of these instructions may differ from those in other instructions or in the software.


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