Every invoice gets paid in two steps: someone on your team approves it, then someone schedules it into a payrun. Approving and scheduling are separate permissions, so you can choose who checks the work and who releases the money, and invoices don't wait on one person.

Who can do this: Team members whose role includes Can approve Invoices (to approve) or Can schedule Invoices (to schedule). Admins manage roles.

Availability: Approving is available in every account. Scheduling, and the Scheduled, Processing and In-Flight statuses, are part of Worksuite Global Pay.

Your workspace may use different names for Invoices, Partners or Tasks.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Before you start

Invoice statuses

StatusWhat it means
NewWaiting for someone to approve or reject it.
ApprovedApproved for payment. With Global Pay, it still needs to be scheduled.
ScheduledSet to be paid in an upcoming payrun. It moves to Processing when the payrun starts.
ProcessingBeing paid in the current payrun. It moves to In-Flight once funding is received and the payment is released.
In-FlightThe payment has been released to your freelancer. Compliance screenings or currency trades can delay this step.
PaidMarked paid by your team (for invoices paid outside Worksuite), or set automatically a few days after In-Flight, depending on the country the payment goes to.
RejectedRejected by your team. Your freelancer gets an email with the reason you added.

If your account doesn't use Global Pay, you can still approve invoices and mark them Paid when you've paid them outside Worksuite.

Who can approve and who can schedule

  • Approving and scheduling are separate permissions. A role can include Can approve Invoices, Can schedule Invoices, or both. Some teams give them to different people on purpose, so the person who approves the work isn't the person who releases the payment.
  • Rejecting is its own permission too: Can reject Invoices. Returning a rejected invoice to New needs Can undo invoice rejection.
  • Which invoices a person sees also depends on their role. A role can give access to all invoices, or only to invoices they created, invoices on Tasks they manage, or invoices on Tasks or Contracts their Team can access.
  • Each team member has one role. To give someone both permissions, their role needs both.
  • An Invoice Approver is notified, but isn't the only one who can approve. If your account uses the Invoice Approver field, the person picked there gets the notification. Anyone whose role includes Can approve Invoices, and who can see the invoice, can approve it.
  • The Invoice Approver list only shows team members whose role includes Can approve Invoices. If a manager is missing from the list, their role doesn't include that permission.

Change who can approve or schedule

Important: A change to a role applies to every team member who has that role. To give one person different rights, move them to a different role.

To add a permission to a role:

  1. Go to Settings → Team → Roles and Permissions.
  2. Open the actions menu for the role and choose Edit Role.
  3. In the Invoices section, turn on Can approve Invoices, Can schedule Invoices, or both.
  4. Click Update.

You'll see "Role updated successfully." The Administrator role already has every permission and can't be edited. Your account's predefined roles can be edited, but not renamed or deleted.

To move one team member to a different role:

  1. Go to Settings → Team → Teammates.
  2. Find the team member and select a different role in the Role column.

The team member's options change the next time they open an invoice. For more on roles, see Roles and Permissions for Team Members.

Approve or reject invoices

  1. Go to Invoices → All Invoices. You can also find invoices on a Task or in a freelancer's profile.
  2. Open a New invoice, or open the actions menu at the right of it.
  3. Click Approve or Reject, then confirm.

When you reject, add a reason. Your freelancer sees it in the email they get. If the invoice was created from a timesheet, rejecting it also rejects the timesheet.

To approve or reject several invoices at once, select them in the list and choose the action. Select invoices with the same status.

Your freelancer gets an email when you approve or reject their invoice.

Schedule invoices for payment

  1. Go to Invoices → All Invoices and find an Approved invoice.
  2. Open the invoice, or open the actions menu at the right of it, and click Schedule.
  3. Choose a date in Select schedule for date and click Schedule.

The invoice moves to Scheduled, and Worksuite handles the rest of the payment. Dates and times show in the time zone selected in your settings.

To schedule several invoices at once, select them in the list and choose Schedule. If some can't be scheduled, Worksuite lists them and the reason before you confirm.

Reschedule or unschedule an invoice

  1. Find the Scheduled invoice.
  2. Open the actions menu at the right of it.
  3. Click Reschedule to pick a different payrun date, or Unschedule to move it back to Approved.

From the same menu you can also reject the invoice, download its PDF, or duplicate it.

See whether an invoice is scheduled, and who scheduled it

  1. In Invoices → All Invoices, check the Status column. You can add the Scheduled for column to see the payrun date.
  2. Open the invoice and select the Audit Trail tab to see who approved and who scheduled it, and when.

Get an invoice paid sooner

If an invoice can't wait for the next payrun, you can request an off-cycle payrun. See Off-Cycle Pay Run.

Troubleshooting

I don't see Schedule on an approved invoice

Your role doesn't include Can schedule Invoices, or your account doesn't use Global Pay. Ask an admin to check your role. On some accounts, Worksuite's Payments team schedules invoices for you. Your Business Solutions Architect can confirm how your account works.

Schedule is greyed out

Hover over Schedule to see the reason:

  • "Partner has missing tax information." or "Partner has incorrect or missing payout method.": ask your freelancer to complete their tax information or payout method.
  • "Zero amount Invoice cannot be processed.": the invoice total is zero, so there's nothing to pay.
  • A message about the currency: the invoice currency can't be paid to your freelancer's payout method. Ask your freelancer to check the currency on the invoice.

Your account may show a different word than Partner or Invoice.

"Action not available because the Invoice amount exceeds your limits."

Your role has a maximum amount it can approve. Ask a team member with a higher limit to approve it.

The Task linked to the invoice is pending or rejected, and your account doesn't allow approving invoices for those Tasks. Check the Task's status, then try again.

"Contract Budget(s) exceeded."

The invoice is more than the budget left on the Contract. See How to Correct or Remove an Invoice.

I can't mark a Scheduled invoice as paid

Once an invoice is Scheduled, Worksuite pays it and updates the status. To pay it outside Worksuite instead, unschedule it first, then mark it as paid.

If none of these match, contact Worksuite Support with the invoice number, the team member's email address and a screenshot of what they see.

Support/Resources

Still have questions about approving and scheduling invoices? Click Support in the bottom-left corner of Worksuite to contact our Support team, or email support@worksuite.com. Including a link to the page you're on and a screenshot helps us answer faster.