Batch cycle access and payslip approvals
The Access tab on a batch cycle decides who can see that cycle's payrolls and who can move payslips through verify, approve, close and pay. Use it to give your payroll team access to a payroll, to split preparing and approving between different people, and to limit a regional payroll officer to the employees they look after.
Where: Settings › Payroll › Batch Cycles › the cycle › Access
You need:
- Write access to the Settings › Payroll right, to change the list
- The Payroll Batch right, for anyone you add
How access works
Access is a set of permissions per person, not an ordered chain of approvers. Payslips move through a fixed sequence of statuses:
Open → Pending → Verified → Approved → Closed → Paid (with On Hold to park a payslip)
To move a payslip forward one step, a person needs the tick for the status they are moving it to. Nobody can skip a step, except moving straight from Open to Verified. Moving a payslip back to an earlier status is always allowed.
Only people on a cycle's Access list see its payrolls. Someone with full payroll rights who is not on the list cannot see them.
How to give someone access to a batch cycle
- Open Settings › Payroll › Batch Cycles and select the cycle. Save a new cycle first — access cannot be added until it exists.
- Open the Access tab and click Edit.
- Click Add a person and choose them under Person. Only people with the Payroll Batch right are listed.
- Tick what they may do: Verify, Approve, Close, Pay. Viewer is always ticked.
- Tick Profile Access if they should only see payslips of the employees their own profile access covers.
- Click Save.
To remove someone, click the bin icon on their row and confirm. This cannot be undone, but you can add them again.
Access columns
| Column | What it allows |
|---|---|
| Person | The person being given access. Each person appears once per cycle; there is no limit on how many people |
| Profile Access | When ticked, they see only payslips of employees inside their own profile access rights, for example their branch |
| Viewer | See the cycle's payrolls and payslips. Always on |
| Verify | Move payslips to Verified — checked by the preparer |
| Approve | Move payslips to Approved |
| Close | Move payslips to Closed — finalised, ready to pay |
| Pay | Move payslips to Paid |
What Happens Next
- Changes apply straight away to every payroll on the cycle, including ones already in progress. They can take up to an hour to show for someone who already has the payroll open.
- People on the list are notified about payrolls according to the steps they can act on.
- Employees see their own payslip once it is Paid. If Allow viewing Closed payslips is on in Payment settings, they also see it once it is Closed.
Tips
- Give at least two people each right. If the only person who can approve is on leave, payroll stops.
- Separate preparing from approving. Give your payroll officer Verify, and a manager Approve and Close. Give Pay to whoever releases the bank transfer.
- Use Profile Access for regional teams so an officer handling one branch cannot open everyone's payslips.
- Add people to every cycle they work on, including bonus and commission cycles. Access does not carry over from one cycle to another.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: Someone with payroll rights cannot see a payroll. They are not on that batch cycle's Access tab. Add them.
Q: Someone cannot approve a payslip. They need the Approve tick, and the payslip must already be Verified. Steps cannot be skipped.
Q: A person is not in the Person list. They do not have the Payroll Batch right, or their account is not active or invited. See Payroll user rights.
Q: An approver sees only some payslips. Profile Access is ticked for them, so they see only employees inside their own profile access.
Q: Can I set approval levels, like first approver then second approver? No. Each status is a separate permission. To get two levels, give one person Verify and another Approve.