How to approve worker cost changes

When a worker's rates need to change, the request comes to Cost Approval for you to check before it takes effect. Nothing changes until you approve it, so this screen is your opportunity to confirm that every new figure is right.

Each request covers one worker and can include several rates at once: a general rate, holiday rates, sleep in rates, and any enhanced rates that apply at particular sites.

How worker rates connect to payroll

These are the rates you pay your workers, and they are what payroll uses to work out each worker's hours and costs for a pay run. They are kept separately from the rates you charge clients.

Changing a client's rates does not change what workers are paid. If a worker's pay should change too, their own rates need updating and approving here.
An accurate payroll depends on approved rates. If a rate is missing or still waiting for approval, the payroll will not reflect it.

See How to run and export a payroll for how these rates appear in a pay run.

Before you begin

Setting up worker costs is available on Agency Accelerator Pro.
You will need a user access level that allows you to approve costs.
Have the agreed figures to hand so you can check the new rates against them.
Approve only what you are confident in. It is far easier to withdraw a request now than to correct rates that have already been applied to jobs and payroll.

Finding your cost approvals

Select Tasks in the left hand menu.
Choose Cost Approval.

Every request awaiting a decision is listed, showing:

Worker: the worker's name and reference number
Requested by: who submitted the request, and the date they submitted it
No of Rates: how many rates the request covers
Actions: Withdraw or Approve

Reviewing the rates in a request

Select the rates dropdown beside a worker to see everything the request covers. For each rate you will see:

Rates: the name of the rate, such as General Rate or Sleep-in Bank Holiday Rate
Rate type: whether it is a Standard rate or an Enhanced rate
Provider | Sites: which provider and site the rate applies to, where relevant
Current Rate: what the worker is on now
New Rate: what is being proposed

An asterisk beside a rate name means that rate has enhanced rates attached to it. Select the chevron at the end of that row to expand it, and you will see each enhanced rate listed underneath with the provider and site it applies to, along with its own current and new figures.

Work through both the standard and the enhanced rates before deciding. It is the site specific enhanced rates that are easiest to overlook, and they are often the ones that affect your margin most.

Tip: Compare the Current Rate and New Rate columns line by line rather than scanning the total. A single rate entered incorrectly is easy to miss when six figures all look similar.

Approving or withdrawing a request

Once you are satisfied the figures are correct, select Approve on that worker's row. The new rates then apply going forward, including to the worker's hours and costs in payroll.

If something is not right, select Withdraw. The request is not approved, and the worker stays on their current rates until a corrected request is submitted.

Please note: Each worker is approved separately. Approving one request in the list has no effect on the others, so work down the list and deal with each in turn.

Please note: A payroll that has already been exported is locked and will not change when you approve new rates. Approve rate changes before you export the pay period they should apply to.

If something looks wrong

A new rate does not match what you agreed. Withdraw the request and ask the person who submitted it to resubmit with the correct figure, rather than approving it and correcting it afterwards.
A worker's pay in payroll does not reflect a rate change. Check whether the request is still waiting here for approval, and whether the change was made to the client's rates rather than the worker's.

If a request will not approve, disappears from the list without a decision, or shows a rate you do not recognise, please contact our Support Team with the worker's name and reference number and we will look into it.