This guide covers payroll approval, its implementation, required rights, building company hierarchy, and the stages of the approval process in Netvisor.

Please read Payroll approval implementation carefully first!

CONTENTS

Payroll approval

In Netvisor, it is possible to approve payroll before they are transferred for payment.

Enable payroll approval separately from payroll settings if you want to use the feature.

Pay > Settings > Payroll settings

Once approval is enabled, a new approval stage appears in the payroll process.

Approve payroll from your own payroll approval view within Netvisor. This way, calculations do not need to be separately delivered to the approver.

Pay > Payroll > Approve payroll

You can view the resulting payslips in the approval view's preview mode in PDF format.

The payroll approver receives an email notification when the payroll accountant transfers payroll for approval. The payroll accountant receives an email notification when payroll is approved or rejected.

Assign the user approving payroll the Foreman role (E). If necessary, approval can also be done with the Payroll accountant role (P).

Approval of payslips leaves a record in the payslip handling history, and the records are readable by both the payroll accountant and the approver. Note! To ensure that payslip comments are visible to the approver in the payroll approval function, make sure they have edit rights in the payroll-specific rights.

Approval process

If payroll approval is enabled, a new stage appears in the payroll process: "Payslips in approval".

When using approval, unprocessed payslips are transferred for approval before the payslip delivery stage. An email notification is sent to the approver about pending payroll.

Approve or reject calculations in a separate payroll approval view. Approval moves the payslips forward in the calculation process to the printing stage. Rejection returns the calculation back to unprocessed. The payroll accountant receives an email notification of approval and rejection.

A record is always left in the payslip handling history when a payslip is moved from one stage to another.

 

Payroll approval implementation

The implementation can be fully performed by a person with the Accounting office administrator role (TPK) of the company. The Payroll accountant role (P) is not sufficient to grant the necessary access rights and roles to client company users. The User administrator (KH) can edit users' specific rights and company hierarchy but cannot assign the Foreman role (E). The Accounting office administrator role (TPK) is required to assign the role.

TPK, KH, and/or TT role users can see who has which role and can find the people who can set the necessary rights. Check the company's users and roles as follows:

Company name > Users and roles > Company users

Netvisor experts can assist by granting the necessary Foreman role (E). KH users can edit specific rights. To change access rights by Netvisor experts, the company's authorized signatory must confirm this request, which should be attached to the support request.

User guide: Users - Adding and managing access rights

First, determine who is supposed to approve payroll in the company. Does one person approve everyone's payroll, or does each foreman approve their team's payroll? Based on this information, you can do the groundwork to implement the desired approval practice by setting approval rights in the company hierarchy before implementing payroll approval.

For payroll approval, the approver must have at least:

  • Approval rights in the company hierarchy
  • Foreman role (E)
  • Edit rights in specific rights for Payroll approval
  • Read rights in specific rights for Payroll

Before setting rights, review the instructions below before selecting payroll approval from payroll settings.

Building company hierarchy

In the company hierarchy, it is defined whose payslips the user can approve. The company hierarchy models the users' location in the company and their mutual rights to each other through hierarchy rights. Hierarchies are used in approving working hours and travel expense reports, as well as factual verification of travel expense reports if factual verification is selected for use. Hierarchy approval rights are also used in payroll approval. Build hierarchies to match the entire company's approval hierarchy and grant rights to the right people at the right hierarchy levels.

Read more about company hierarchies and their construction: Company hierarchies

Build the company hierarchy through the company menu:

Company menu > Company hierarchy > Hierarchy rights tab

Managing the hierarchy requires the User administrator (KH) or Accounting office administrator (TPK) role.

Build company hierarchies so that the desired payroll approval method is fulfilled. Grant the approver approval rights to the levels below which they must also manage.

Place employees in the built hierarchy, i.e., give employees a default hierarchy level.

You can do this from the employee listing in bulk or individually on the "Hierarchy rights" tab of the company hierarchy.

Once the company hierarchy is done and employees are in the correct levels, grant approvers approval rights to the desired levels.

  • Please note that the approver also gets rights to the levels below the level assigned to them!

If the approver has the Payroll accountant role (P), this overrides the company hierarchy.

Setting access rights

Edit the user's payroll-specific rights and roles on the "Users and roles" page. The User administrator (KH) or Accounting office administrator (TPK) can edit access rights.

Company menu > Users and roles > Drill down to user > Specific rights

Edit rights to payroll approval view

Set the approver's edit rights to "Payroll approval". With only read rights, the approval and rejection functions on the page are not available.

If the user's purpose is only to approve payroll, you can easily customize their access to only, for example, payroll approval and employees using specific rights, and restrict access to other pages.

However, specific access rights do not grant access to the page; access requires the Foreman role (E) or Payroll accountant role (P).

A user with the "All rights" profile selected will by default have edit rights to this page as well.

Specific rights to "Payroll approval" make the payroll approval page visible in the Pay menu as a separate item, which is locked by default:

Pay > Payroll > Payroll approval

Edit rights to employees

Set the payroll approver's specific rights to edit "Employee management" if they want to:

  • List and handle employees from the employee listing
  • Drill down to employee basic data

If the user only approves payroll in the approval view and does not need access to employee basic data, you can leave the right unassigned.

Rights to payroll reporting

The payroll approval view's employee-specific pay period comparison window (opens from the approval view's "Comparison" column link) is one of the payroll reports.

Set read or edit rights from payroll-specific rights to "Reporting" to open the report.

The same comparison window can also be opened from the employee listing:

Pay > Personnel > Employee listing > Show columns > Payroll data > Pay comparison

Access to the employee listing requires specific rights to employee management. To see the payroll approval view's payroll comparison window, the approver must have specific rights to read or edit "Employee management," i.e., the same rights and logic as seeing payslips.

Rights to preview payslips in approval view

In the payroll approval view, it is possible to open the payslip preview window from "Show selected payslips".

The button opens a payslip in preview mode (PDF), from which you can directly approve or reject the payslip.

Viewing payslips (PDF) requires read or edit rights to payroll. Specific rights are safe to grant because actual payroll requires the Payroll accountant role (P).

After the weekly update release on 24.8.2018, it is possible to see the pdf prints of employees' payslips from employee data. Previously, this required the Payroll accountant (P) role. Thus, with the Foreman role (E), you can check paid payslips even after the payroll process. With the Foreman role (E), the entrepreneur can see payroll reports with the same information as payslips, but they are not shown as pdf files.

Pay > Personnel > Employee listing

Notification view rights

A separate "Unapproved payslips (pcs)" link has been made for the approver in the "In my handling" widget in the notification view.

The payroll heading becomes visible only when approval is enabled from payroll settings.

To make the "Unapproved payslips" link visible in the notification view widget, the user must have:

  • Foreman role (E)
  • Edit rights to payroll approval

Giving foreman role (E)

Assign the approver the Foreman role (E). With this role, the user gains access to the payroll approval view and the right to see employee payroll data within the limits of the built company hierarchy approval rights.

With the Payroll accountant role (P), you can see all calculations in approval on the approval page.

Email communication

To ensure automatic approval communication works, check that the approvers' and payroll accountants' email addresses are correct in the system.

If the message recipient is an employee in the company:

  • The email in the employee's basic data is used.
  • The email language version is selected according to the employee's language choice.

If the message recipient is not an employee of the company:

  • The email found in user data (User menu > My basic data) is used.
  • The default language of the email is Finnish unless another default language is set in the basic data.
  • The user's data must have Email as the channel for system messages.

Notification view

Approval-related information is displayed in the notification view when rights are in place, but communication enhances the approval process.

Payroll monitoring view

The payroll accountant can monitor the approval status in the payroll monitoring view (by clicking the "Pay" heading in the menu).

The number of payrolls in approval and processed is also visible in the pay period listing:

Pay > Payroll > Payslips and pay periods

Approval-related columns and information become visible when approval is enabled from payroll settings.

 

 

Enabling approval

Select payroll approval separately for use from payroll settings. Do this only at the end when all groundwork is done.

  1. Go to payroll settings.
  2. Enable the function. The activation can be done by a person with edit rights in specific rights to "Basic data".

Enabling payroll approval brings approval-related columns visible on different pages and a new approval stage in the payroll process, allowing the payroll accountant to transfer payroll for approval. Similarly, access to the payroll approval page is enabled.

Disabling payroll approval

If you disable approval from payroll settings, all approval-related columns and functions are removed from views. Similarly, calculations in approval are returned to unprocessed. Already approved payroll remains in the process at the stage they are in.

Pay > Settings > Payroll settings

Once settings are done

Payroll accountant

  • Sees a new approval stage in the payroll process where they transfer payroll for approval.
  • Cannot transfer payroll for printing directly from the payroll process page.
  • Sees the status of payroll in approval in the notification view, payroll monitoring view, pay period listing, and payroll process.
  • The payroll accountant receives an email notification when payslips are approved.
  • NOTE! Emails are sent to all those with the Payroll accountant role in the company and have "Email" as the default channel in their communication settings.

Approver

  • Sees the "Payroll to approve" link and the number of payrolls they can approve in the notification view.
  • Sees the "Approve payroll" page under the "Payroll" heading.
  • Can access the "Approve payroll" view.
  • Sees payroll in the approval view only from employees they have been given approval rights to through the company hierarchy.
  • Can approve and reject payroll in the approval view.
  • Can drill down to employees' payslips they have hierarchy rights to.
  • Also sees payroll data from employees they have rights to according to the hierarchy.
  • The user's data must have Email as the channel for system messages.
  • Receives an email notification about payroll to be approved.

Frequently asked questions

Who can perform the payroll approval implementation?
The implementation can be fully performed by the Accounting office administrator (TPK). The Payroll accountant role (P) is not sufficient to grant the necessary rights and roles.

What rights must the approver have?
The approver must have the Foreman role (E), approval rights in the company hierarchy, and specific rights "Payroll approval" (edit) and "Payroll" (read).

Can the approver see the payslip in PDF format?
Yes. The approval view has a preview function. This requires read or edit rights to payroll.

How do I get email notifications to work?
Ensure that the user data has the correct email address and "Email" is selected as the communication channel.

Keywords: payroll, payroll approval, company hierarchy, access rights, foreman role

This article has been translated using an AI-based translation tool. The contents or wording of these instructions may differ from those in other instructions or in the software.


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