ANTE User ManualPayroll Approvers
Payroll Approvers is a configuration screen under HR → Payroll Setup. It decides who signs off a payroll run before it can move from For Approval to Approved in the Payroll Center.
Payroll approval follows the same approval chains as filings and employee changes: stages that recommend or approve, approvers, backups, and one inbox. Out of the box, approval goes to the Director of your HR department, and one director's approval is enough. If your company needs more sign-offs, for example Finance Director first, then the CEO, you build them as a chain under Approval chains → Payroll approval. This page shows the chain that governs a run and who currently matches each stage.
Accessing Payroll Approvers
- Click HR in the sidebar
- Open Payroll Setup
- Select Payroll Approvers
Choosing the approval flow
When your company uses approval chains (the normal case), the top of the page shows a card Approval chain: <name> with the button Open approval chain settings. It opens Approval chains on the Payroll approval module, where you add stages, choose who each stage goes to (a user level, a role, a position rank in a department such as Director of Human Resources, the immediate superior or a named person), set backups and let a later stage act for an earlier one. The change applies to the next payroll run you submit; a run already waiting for approval is re-routed to the new chain from its first undecided stage.
Only when the company has no payroll chain yet (or the install is still on the earlier approval engine) does the page show the older Approval flow dropdown instead:
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| Default — HR Director Approval (built-in) | One approval stage. The payroll run goes to a Director in your Human Resources department. This is what applies until you choose otherwise. |
| One of your own flows | Any active approval flow you have built for payroll. Pick one and click Save; Customize flow opens it in the workflow editor. |
Checking who will actually approve
The Approval stages card underneath lists every approval stage in the selected flow, the rule it uses (for example Director — Human Resources), and the names of the people who currently match that rule.
This list is checked against your real employee records, so it is the fastest way to confirm that payroll can actually be approved before month-end.
A stage highlighted in red means no one in your company currently satisfies that rule — for example, the flow expects an HR Director but nobody holds that position. Fix it by giving the right person a Director position in the Human Resources department, or by choosing a different flow. Payroll keeps working in the meantime: the built-in flow falls back to another HR member, then to a company administrator, so a run is never left with nobody able to approve it. A company's full-access administrator approves only where the flow names them, and nobody can approve their own payroll run; only a Multibook (level 0) account can override an approval.
How approval works day to day
- HR opens a payroll run in the Payroll Center and clicks Submit for Approval. The run moves to For Approval.
- The approver of the first stage is notified and finds the run in the header Approvals panel (To approve), alongside filings and employee changes. The number on the header icon counts it. They can also decide from the run itself on the Payroll Summary.
- While the run is waiting, the payroll summary shows an Approval status panel naming who it is waiting on and what each stage has decided.
- Approve passes the run to the next stage. In a multi-stage chain only the last approval moves it to Approved, ready to post.
- Send back returns the run to For Review. A reason is required, and HR sees it so they know what to correct. A send back ends that approval; HR fixes the run and submits it again.
Whoever submits a payroll run cannot approve it — the Approve button stays disabled for them and explains why. This keeps preparation and approval in different hands. The one exception is a company small enough that the submitter is the only person who could approve; that case is allowed and recorded.
A second, separate exception: anyone with full system access, or whose role sits at the very top of your company's role hierarchy (level 0), can approve or send back a run even when they are not the assigned approver — including one they submitted themselves. This is disclosed on screen before they confirm, notifies the approver being overridden, and is written to the audit log every time. See Deciding outside the normal routing (override) on the Payroll Summary page for the full detail.
A run can also reach For Approval with no approval flow at all — for example one that predates your company's approval flows, or whose flow was cancelled after submission. The Payroll Summary page offers a Start approval flow button to recover it and route it to whoever is configured above; see No approval flow (stranded runs) on the Payroll Summary page.
The Payroll approval dialog
Clicking a payroll run in the Approvals panel opens the Payroll approval dialog, so you can decide without leaving the panel. It shows the cutoff period, then the facts you need to judge the run: Pay date, Employees, Total gross, Total net and Submitted by (a run whose approval was started by someone else shows Approval started by). Under them is the approval trail with every stage and its decision.
- Approve and Send back appear only when the stage is yours. When you act for an earlier stage that allows it, or outside the normal routing as a top-level user, the buttons read Approve on behalf / Send back on behalf and a note says whose place you take.
- Send back asks for the Reason (required) before it is sent.
- Open Payroll Summary goes to the full payslip-level figures. Check them there before approving.
- If the run is no longer waiting for approval, the dialog says so and shows no buttons.
Permissions
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| View the page | Your role must grant Payroll Approvers configuration access |
| Change the flow | Your role must also grant Payroll Approvers update permission — without it the dropdown and Save button are read-only |
| Approve a payroll run | Decided by the flow, not by a permission: only the person the flow routes the run to can approve it |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
| I can't find Payroll Approvers in the menu | Open HR → Payroll Setup. If it is still missing, you may not have permission — contact your administrator. |
| The Approve button is greyed out on a payroll run | Hover it — the tooltip says why. Usually the run is waiting on someone else, or you are the person who submitted it. |
| A stage shows "Nobody currently matches this rule" | Assign the required position (for the built-in flow: a Director in Human Resources), or select a different approval flow. |
| Submitting payroll says no approver could be resolved | The selected flow has a stage nobody can fill. Open Payroll Approvers, check the Approval stages card, and fix the highlighted stage. |
| The Payroll Summary page says "No approval flow for this run" | The run reached For Approval with no approval flow attached (it predates approval flows, or its flow was cancelled). Someone with the Submit for Approval permission needs to click Start approval flow on that page to route it to the approver configured here. |
| I saved a new flow but the current run still uses the old one | With approval chains, a run waiting for approval moves to the new chain from its first undecided stage. On the earlier flow editor, return the run to For Review and submit it again to pick up the new flow. |
How It Connects
Set up first
- Approval chains (Payroll approval) — where you build the stages, approvers and backups of the payroll sign-off; the built-in HR Director flow needs no setup.
- Project Processes — the earlier multi-stage flow editor, used only when the company has no payroll chain yet.
Gets its data from
- Payroll Center — HR submits a run for approval there, which starts the flow chosen here.
Feeds into
- Payroll Summary — shows who a run is waiting on and holds the Approve and Send back buttons.
- Approvals panel — approvers find the payroll run in the header Approvals panel, with filings and employee changes, and decide it in the Payroll approval dialog.