- For Companies
- Invoices & Payments
Can Remote People provide cash advances directly to employees?
Modified on: Wed, 25 Mar, 2026 at 3:36 PM
No. Remote People cannot process personal cash advances or petty cash to individual employees. As an EOR, this falls outside our payroll and compliance role and creates financial, legal, and tax risks for everyone involved.
If an employee needs to cover business expenses, the recommended alternatives are:
- Client-Direct Purchase : You can purchases the item or service directly, retaining full control
- Horizons IT Asset Purchasing Service: end-to-end procurement for IT equipment, managed by a Remote People specialist
- Airwallex Company Card : You can authorize the employee with a controlled company card; no personal outlay, full client visibility over spend limits.
Note for clients with employees in China
China's tax authority treats cash advances without a matching official receipt (fapiao 发票) as potential taxable employee income. This can trigger back-taxes and penalties for the legal employer. Remote People's reimbursement model ensures every expense is linked to a valid fapiao before billing, protecting both the client and the employee.
Airwallex Company Card Solution
The Airwallex card solution allows clients to issue company or employee cards , physical or digital, to their team, including EOR employees, for approved business expenses. The Airwallex account is registered and managed entirely under the client's own entity, not Remote People's, giving clients full ownership of their financial processes.
Card type: Deferred debit card (not a credit card). Transactions are deducted from the linked account after a short delay of 1–3 business days. There is no line of credit, spending is constrained by either the client-set spending cap or the available account balance, whichever is lower.
Fees:
| Transaction value | Fee |
|---|---|
| Under $30 USD | $0.60 (deducted from account balance) |
| $30 USD and over | Free |
What you can can do with the Airwallex platform:
- Issue company cards or individual employee cards, in digital or physical format
- Set spending limits, permitted vendors, and transaction category rules per card
- Manage employee access and permissions, including the ability to restrict or allow usage by role
- Set up approval workflows so transactions require sign-off before going through
- Track all spending in real time in one dashboard, with automatic categorization, no manual receipt chasing
- View detailed expense reports broken down by employee for easy reconciliation
Key benefits:
- No upfront cost for employees: all expenses go directly through the card
- Full client control: you manage their own account, rules, and permissions without needing to involve Remote People in individual transactions
- Clean audit trail: all spend is automatically recorded and reportable
- No burden on HR or finance: Remote People is not involved in the day-to-day expense management flow
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