Employee credit benefit at no cost to the employer
A staff credit programme that costs you nothing and carries no exposure
You are probably already in the employee lending business without having decided to be.
Salary advances get approved informally. Loans get made to long-serving staff and quietly forgotten. Finance carries receivables nobody reconciles, HR fields requests it has no policy for, and the whole thing sits on your working capital rather than someone else's. Meanwhile the employees you did not help are borrowing from informal lenders at rates that show up later as absenteeism, attrition and wage-advance pressure.
7Later replaces that with a structured programme funded by a licensed financial institution. You lend nothing. You carry no credit risk. You need no licence. Nothing appears on your balance sheet.
What changes on your side
An alternative to salary advances and informal staff loans, moved onto a licensed lender's balance sheet.
Who funds it
- Today
- Your working capital
- With 7Later
- A licensed lender
Who decides
- Today
- Line managers, case by case
- With 7Later
- The lender's policy, uniformly
Where the receivable sits
- Today
- Your balance sheet
- With 7Later
- The lender's balance sheet
Who chases repayment
- Today
- Nobody, or finance
- With 7Later
- Nobody — it is intercepted before net pay
Administrative load
- Today
- Ad hoc, unbudgeted
- With 7Later
- One monthly file, or none
What staff get
- Today
- Whatever was negotiated
- With 7Later
- A defined limit, on defined terms
Choose your level of involvement
Employers differ in what they are willing to sign, and we do not require the same thing from all of them. Three configurations exist; you pick the one your legal and finance teams can approve.
You can move between levels. Employers commonly begin at the first and move to the second once the programme has run for a few cycles without incident.
Employee benefit, no cash outlay
What it costs you
Nothing.
There is no fee to the employer in any configuration. Financing comes from the lender, and the lender's revenue comes from the credit product and its merchant network.
The only real cost
The only real cost is payroll team time, and only in the deduction configuration: one reconciliation file per pay cycle, produced from data you already hold. In the salary domiciliation configuration there is no cost and no task at all — you pay salaries to the accounts employees nominate, exactly as you do now.
What your people get
A defined limit sized to net pay, usable at merchants, online, on fuel, groceries and utility bills. Short terms, typically one to four instalments. Enrolment through WhatsApp or a web page in a few minutes, with no app to install — which matters more than it sounds, because app installation is where most workforce financial programmes lose the majority of their intended users.
Credit is issued as spending capacity within a defined merchant and utility network rather than as cash, which keeps the benefit anchored in essential consumption.
For HR and payroll
What we need from your payroll team
Deduction configuration only
Integration with common payroll platforms is available. Where a direct integration does not exist, a file exchange works and is what most employers use.
- Confirmation of pay cycle, pay date and payment method
- A monthly file of authorised deductions in a format we will agree, typically a direct export from your existing payroll system
- Defined joiner and leaver notifications, so limits open and close on time
- A named contact who can answer a question within a business day
Rollout
-
Week 1
Agreement
Agreement with the lender, scope of participation, communication plan.
-
Weeks 1–2
Data exchange
Payroll or account data exchange agreed and tested with a pilot group.
-
Week 2
Enrolment opens
Staff enrolment opens. Employees register through WhatsApp or a web page in a few minutes.
-
Weeks 3–6
First full cycle
Issuance, spending, collection, reconciliation.
-
From week 6
Full workforce
Open to the full workforce.
No system is installed on your premises. No software is procured. Nothing is capitalised.
Employer enquiry
Arrange a conversation
Tell us about your workforce and payroll. We will match you with the right configuration and lending partner.
If you have a banking relationship already, the fastest route is usually to introduce us to that bank. You become the first employer of a programme your own bank runs.
Frequently asked questions
Does the employer lend the money?
No. Financing comes entirely from a licensed financial institution. The employer contributes no capital in any configuration, and no receivable appears on the employer's balance sheet.
Does the employer carry credit risk?
Only if it chooses to. Of the three configurations, one uses an employer guarantee and two do not. In the payroll deduction configuration the employer executes a deduction but takes no exposure, and in the salary domiciliation configuration the employer is not a party to the arrangement at all.
Does the employer pay anything?
No. There is no fee to the employer in any configuration. The lender's revenue comes from the credit product and its merchant network. The only real cost to an employer is payroll team time, and only in the deduction configuration — one reconciliation file per pay cycle, produced from data the company already holds.
Do we need a licence as an employer to offer this?
No. Credit is issued by a licensed lender to the employee directly. The employer is either a payroll administrator, a guarantor, or nothing at all, depending on the configuration — none of which constitutes lending.
How much work is this for our payroll team?
In the deduction configuration, one file per pay cycle drawn from data you already hold, plus joiner and leaver notifications. In the salary domiciliation configuration, none — the employer simply pays salaries to the accounts employees nominate, as it already does.
We already run a staff loan scheme. Why change?
Most internal schemes are funded from working capital, approved case by case, and reconciled irregularly, which puts a growing receivable on the employer's balance sheet and an unbudgeted administrative load on finance and HR. Moving the same benefit onto a licensed lender's balance sheet removes the capital, the exposure and the discretion, and replaces them with uniform terms applied by policy.