Managing payroll is always critical, but when your organisation runs multiple payrolls (say, across different sites, departments, or branches), the approval process can quickly become a confusing maze of emails, spreadsheets, and internal sign-offs.
This complexity isn’t just time-consuming; it is also risky. When approvals get complicated, mistakes slip through. Deadlines get missed.
People don’t get paid on time. And that’s when the real headaches start.
That’s where a well-designed Multi-Level Payroll Approval workflow makes all the difference.
What is Multi-Level Approval for payroll?
Multi-Level Approval is simply a process where different payroll runs are reviewed and authorised separately, with the ability to involve multiple approvers in a set sequence.
Instead of one person giving a final “yes,” the payroll must pass through several checkpoints, therefore, ensuring maximum accuracy and compliance.
It’s not complicated – it’s just organised. Each payroll run follows a clear path through your approval process, with built-in checkpoints to catch problems before they become disasters.
Here’s how it works in practice
A company might run separate payrolls for different employee groups, each requiring a different approval structure, for example:
- Level 1 (Payroll Team) – Approves the initial data for the salaried staff payroll.
- Level 2 (Finance Team) – Reviews the final budget and cost implications.
- Level 3 (Executive/CEO) – Provides the final, high-level sign-off.
Via Elementary, we can customise any number of levels to match your organisation’s unique structure and compliance requirements perfectly.
And it can be as granular as you need it to be.
- Different payrolls can have a different number of levels
- Within each level, there can be multiple people who can approve at that level
- The rules on each level can be conditional, so for example, one person from each level or multiple people from level 2 and one person from level 2
Let’s say you’re running payroll for a company with office staff and field workers. Each group needs different people to sign off:
Office Staff Payroll
- Level 1: HR team checks the basics (any 1 of 4 HR users has the authority to approve)
- Level 2: Finance reviews the numbers (2 people have the authority and are required to approve)
- Level 3: Finance Director gives final approval
Field Workers Payroll
- Level 1: Operations Manager confirms hours
- Level 2: Regional Director checks overtime against the budget
- Level 3: Finance Director signs off on costs (3 people have the authority to approve)
- Level 4: Director of People Services gives final approval
Every payroll follows its own route with no confusion about who needs to approve what and no chasing the wrong person for sign-off. Just a clear process that everyone understands.
Ascend’s seamless Multi-Level Approval solution
We built our Multi-Level Approval feature because we got tired of seeing businesses struggle with payroll chaos. Our Elementary platform handles all your different payroll runs in one place, with approvals that actually make sense. This newly launched Multi-Level Approval
feature is a key addition to the Elementary platform.
- Assign unique approvers – specify who needs to sign off on which payroll runs.
- Set the approval sequence – define the exact order of authorisation with the ability to have multiple approvers per level.
- Track progress in real-time – see exactly where each payroll run stands. No more guessing or chasing emails.
You get to;
- Set your own rules and change them when you need to
- Have a complete view of what is happening at any point in your payroll
- Keep things moving with automatic reminders
- Track everything with a full audit trail of who approved what and when
Why this matters more than you think
Getting approvals right isn’t just about ticking boxes. It’s about protecting your business and your people.
When payroll approval is a mess, mistakes happen. Wrong rates get paid. Overtime gets miscalculated or missed. Statutory payments go missing. These aren’t small problems – they’re the kind of issues that end up costing serious money and damaging relationships with your team.
Most businesses think their current approval process is fine. Until they add up how much time gets wasted chasing approvals, fixing mistakes, and dealing with payroll problems that should never have happened.
Multi-level Approval catches these problems before they reach your employees’ pay packets. It ensures the right people are checking the right things at the right time.
Ascend includes Multi-Level Approvals by default
Multi-Level Approval might sound complex, but with the right tool, it becomes a streamlined, transparent, and error-resistant workflow.
Ascend’s Multi-Level Approval feature, now part of our Elementary platform, is uniquely designed to give your organisation granular control over each payroll step, ensuring compliance, reducing bottlenecks, and adapting to your specific approval processes. It’s built by people who understand that payroll isn’t just about processing numbers—it’s about accuracy and flexibility, every time, in a way that fits your organisation.
If you would like to see Multi-Level Approval in action, contact us for a demo
