Review and approve a pay run

A pay run is where you check what each contractor will be paid and release the money. This guide covers reviewing statements, approving, and dealing with holds and failed payouts. Only owners and admins can do this.

Open a run

Go to Money → Pay runs.
Choose Review & approve on a run, or Open to look at it.

The run shows each contractor's statement, its status, the total for the run and how much is ready to pay. A run says Collecting statements until at least one statement is submitted, then Ready to approve.

Review each statement

With Review each statement before approving the run on (Settings → Money → Pay your team), a submitted statement is only paid once someone has marked it reviewed. Statements that are not reviewed roll to the next run instead of being paid. A banner on the run tells you how many are awaiting review.

Open a contractor's row to see their statement: time by week or the retainer, adjustments, and expenses.
Check the hours, adjustments and expenses. Use View receipt to see an expense's receipt.
Then choose one:
- Mark reviewed if it is fine.
- Send back with a note to ask for changes. The contractor is emailed your note and the statement reopens for them. It shows as Sent back until they resubmit.
- Reject expense on one expense, with a reason. The expense is removed, the total is recalculated and the statement is sent back. The contractor is emailed the reason.

The drawer keeps a review history. Each statement also has a comments button where you can answer the contractor's questions.

A statement that is sent back rolls to the next run if you approve before the contractor resubmits.

Before you approve

The "Before you approve" section shows the provider's quote for each payout, the fee, your balance afterwards, and how the run compares with your caps. Contractors with no payout details yet cannot be paid in this run.

Choose to approve. The dialog lists each transfer, the fee, and what will be debited from your balance. The fee is paid by you, and the contractor receives their full total.
If the run is over a cap and second confirmation is on, type the run total to confirm.
Confirm. Handl creates and funds the transfers. This cannot be undone once funded.

If a statement was reviewed, sent back or resubmitted while the dialog was open, Handl asks you to check the new total before it goes ahead.

Statements that are not ready (drafts, held, not reviewed, sent back, or a zero total) roll to the next run. The approval dialog tells you how many.

Holds after a payout-details change

If a contractor changes their bank or recipient details and Hold payouts after payout details change is on, you are notified and their next payout waits. The Pay runs page shows what they changed (before and after, masked). Choose Acknowledge & release once you are happy the change is genuine. The statement returns to where it was.

If you do not want to wait, approve the other contractors and the held one rolls to a follow-up run.

Failed payouts

If a transfer fails, the run shows Some payouts failed and the Pay runs page shows the reason from the provider. Choose Retry to try the payout again, or Roll to next run to move that statement to the next run. Retry does not create a second payment when the first one actually went through.

What the statuses mean

Rolled over: the statement moved to the next run, with its hours, expenses and adjustments. It was not paid in this run.
Closed: pay terms changed: the member was paid "N days after the weekly statement", moved to another schedule, and there was nowhere to move the statement. It was closed, and its time and expenses were released to be picked up again. A statement with adjustments is left in the run instead, flagged "adjustments need moving", so you can sort it out.

What happens in project costs

Expenses become committed project costs when you approve, and actual costs when paid.
Adjustments are booked as project costs when you approve, split across the projects the contractor logged time to in proportion to their hours (or onto your internal project if there were none). If one cannot be booked, the run shows a banner with Book now.
Time is not booked twice. It is already costed on the time entries.

FAQs

Can a project manager approve? No. Only owners and admins can see, review and approve pay runs.

Can I remind a contractor? Yes. Use the reminder action on a statement that has not been submitted.