Finance
Prepare, approve and disburse a payroll run
Review the period and employees, resolve readiness blockers, approve the run and follow payment completion.
GuideFor payroll preparers, approvers and payment operatorsContent reviewed
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Before you start#
Use the payroll Pay Run area. Preparing, approving and disbursing a run are separate responsibilities. Confirm your authority for the stage you will perform and the organization's separation-of-duties requirements.
Review the payroll period, employee selection, pay inputs, attendance, approved leave and outstanding bank or tax verification. Compute and approval controls require the month to have ended; use the current-month preview for estimates.
Prepare and compute#
- Open the run for the intended period.
- Review the included employees. Select at least one employee before computing.
- Select Compute payroll.
- Inspect the readiness results and employee records.
- Resolve blocking items with their responsible owners.
- Select Re-compute payroll after correcting inputs or changing the selection.
Approval uses the readiness snapshot taken at compute time. Fixing an input elsewhere does not refresh that snapshot by itself.
Check the result: Review employee count, gross and net totals, readiness findings and any held-back records. Confirm that the latest computation includes the intended employees.
Approve the run#
An authorized approver reviews the computed results and selects Approve run when eligible. Approval can be blocked by unresolved readiness issues, a changed selection, an open month or an approval restriction.
If the workflow presents a conflict involving the approver's own pay, follow the displayed review or hold-back process. Do not bypass the restriction by treating a preparation permission as approval authority.
Approval generates salary slips and clears the eligible run for disbursement. It does not prove that the bank has paid employees.
Instruct and confirm payment#
- The authorized payment operator reviews the approved run.
- Select Disburse pay to instruct eligible payments.
- Follow the payment records in Disbursement.
- Record the bank's UTR evidence for the relevant payment records.
- Use Instruct remaining payments only for the outstanding eligible records when the workflow requires it.
A run can remain disbursing while payment confirmation is outstanding. Check the record states before repeating an instruction.
Close the period#
Review the month-close checklist and resolve its blocking items. Unsettled claims or unpaid linked payroll can prevent closure. Refresh the checklist after corrections, then use the enabled Close action for the period.
Reopening a closed period is a separate correction workflow for an authorized operator.
Troubleshooting#
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| Compute is unavailable | Period end, preparation authority and employee selection. |
| Approval is unavailable | Readiness blockers, changed selection and approval restrictions. |
| A corrected input is not reflected | Recompute the run while the workflow permits it. |
| Run is still disbursing | Outstanding bank confirmations and returned or held-back records. |
| A payslip is missing | Approved records and the run's slip count; use the authorized missing-slip action if offered. |
| Period cannot close | The current close checklist and unresolved payment or claim items. |
Use Bank and payroll changes and Payslips for the employee-facing handoffs.
See Prepare, approve and disburse a payroll run on the product site
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