Payroll · Ajudas de custo (per diem)
Per diem with no spreadsheets and no tax doubts
The employee logs the trip with departure and return times. The team leader approves it, and the company pays it with expenses in a single transfer. The accountant gets everything ready to process, and their payslip reaches the employee through Selfcare.
A flat rate per night is not a tax limit
The law doesn't say how much you pay per trip. It says how much stays exempt, and that depends on the hours. A night away that starts at 22:00 and ends in the morning counts as half a day. Treat everything as exempt and you risk unpaid IRS (personal income tax) and Segurança Social (Portuguese social security). Without an itinerary map, the company also loses the tax-deductible expense.
The employee
Log the trip and see what you'll receive
Destination, purpose, departure and return with times. While filling it in, the employee sees the nights away, the percentage of a day the law allows, the exempt limit for that trip and what becomes taxable.
- Paid per night away or by the legal percentages of a daily amount, as the company decides
- Trips within Portugal and abroad, each with its own limit
- Minimum distance confirmed on every entry: 20 km for a day trip, 50 km with a night away
- Two overlapping trips are refused, and within Portugal the maximum is 90 days in a row
A 30-minute demo with your data imported live.
Who approves
In Approvals, next to annual leave
The trip goes to whoever leads the employee's team, in the same inbox as absences and expenses. If it goes over the exempt limit, the taxable part shows before anyone decides.
- Decided by a leader of one of the employee's teams, or whoever the company chooses in Who approves, the owner or HR
- Approve or reject one at a time, or several at once
- Rejecting asks for a reason, and the employee fixes it and submits again
- Whoever decides is told when there's a new trip, and the employee when it's decided
At the end of the month
Pay, with everything to hand for the accountant
Approved trips are paid in Payments, in the same batch as expenses: added up into one transfer per person, or one per trip. The accountant gets the month's file and the itinerary maps and enters the trips in their own software. You upload the payslip they produce to Selfcare, and the employee sees it there.
- One batch and one SEPA file for the bank, with expenses and per diem
- One transfer per person or one per trip, with the date and destination in the payment description, to reconcile the statement
- Month's file for the accountant, with the NIF (tax number), the hours, and the exempt (A22) and taxable parts
- Itinerary map with departure, return, length of stay, place, purpose and amounts, ready to sign
- Above the exempt limit, you pay the net amount on the accountant's payslip, with IRS and Segurança Social already withheld
The law applied, without having to think about it
The limit is always the legal one
Even with a flat rate per night, the exempt part comes from each trip's hours and the year's limit: €65.89 a day within Portugal.
Each trip keeps its own calculation
The approved amount is what gets paid, even if the company changes the rate per night later.
Nothing gets paid twice
Each trip stays linked to the batch that paid it. Cancelling the batch, or reverting the payment, puts it back to unpaid.
One switch
Turn it on in Settings, Modules, with or without Selfcare payroll. Turned off, it disappears for the whole company and nothing is lost.
The accountant sees everything
They check each month's trips and download the itinerary maps, but they can't approve.
Everything on record
Every entry, correction, decision and cancellation goes into the audit log, with who did it and when.
See Selfcare with your own data
Settings
The company chooses how it pays
A flat rate per night, or the legal percentages of a daily amount. The page shows the year's limit and two examples with the amounts you chose, so you see the effect before saving.
- An amount above the limit is allowed: the difference is taxed on the payslip
- With Selfcare payroll on, per diem can go on the month's payslip instead of being paid separately
- Selfcare loads each year's limit, not the person setting it up
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Selfcare payroll?+
No. Salaries can stay in your accountant's software. Selfcare pays the per diem, gives them the month's file and distributes the payslip they produce. If you use Selfcare payroll, you can choose to pay it directly on the payslip, with the DMR-AT (monthly pay return to the AT, the tax authority) filled in.
Why does the accountant have to process it?+
Because the law requires it. Even the exempt part has to go on the DMR-AT, and anything above the limit is income, with IRS and Segurança Social withheld on the payslip.
Is it the same as the Expenses module?+
No, but they are paid together. Expenses reimburse the amount on an invoice. Per diem is an amount per trip, with a tax limit and a mandatory declaration. A hotel paid against an invoice to the company is an expense. That night's per diem is something else, and the two can go out in the same transfer or separately, as the accountant prefers.
What about kilometres in your own car?+
That's a different allowance, with its own log: mapas de kms (mileage logs), a separate module with the same licence, paid in the same batch as per diem.
Can I work it out beforehand?+
Yes, with the per diem calculator, which uses the same rules Selfcare uses on payslips.
See a trip from entry to payment
In a 30-minute demo we log a trip, approve it, pay it with expenses and look at what the accountant receives.