Payroll Run Status
What each payroll run status means, what you can do at each stage, and how a run moves from draft to paid
Every payroll run carries a status that tells you where it is between "just created" and "money has moved," and what you can do with it right now. This page covers the real statuses a run can be in, what triggers each transition, and what your options are at each stage.
The six statuses
| Status | What it means | Editable? |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | You're building it — adding payees, entering hours and amounts. Nothing has been reviewed yet. | Yes, fully |
| In review | Past the entry steps: the run is on Payroll Summary, Union Reports or Submit Payroll. Still yours to change. | Yes |
| Approved | Cleared its approval requirement and is on its way to Processing. Usually visible for only a moment. | No |
| Processing | Greenroom is sending the payroll to our tax partner, giving any direct deposits their payment numbers, numbering any union fund and child-trust remittance checks, and routing union fund payments. Usually brief; an interrupted submit can remain here until it is resumed or checked. | No |
| Paying out | Submitted and accepted by our tax partner — direct deposits have their payment numbers, fund and trust remittance checks are numbered and funds are routed, but the bank hasn't confirmed the money has landed yet. This is the status you'll typically see for a while after you submit. Personal paper checks are printed or mailed from here on, and get their numbers then. | No |
| Paid | Confirmed complete. The bank has confirmed the payout. | No |
A run normally moves forward through this list. If our tax partner's paid confirmation arrives during submission, it can go from Processing straight to Paid. An all-benefits run can also skip Paying out when it carries employer contributions, every included entry has no wages, deductions, taxes, reimbursements or net pay, and no payroll remains with our tax partner. It moves from Processing straight to Paid after its union fund checks are numbered and fund routing is saved. Paid on that run means it's complete in Greenroom, not that any union check has been mailed or cleared.
There are two backward moves, both deliberate:
- In review → Draft, whenever you choose it (see Editing a payroll below).
- Processing → In review, automatically, after a verified safe refusal or when a background check confirms an interrupted submit left the payroll unapproved with our tax partner. See below.
A run that lands back in 'In review' after you submitted it isn't broken
It means Greenroom confirmed that the submit did not approve the payroll with our tax partner or move the money. The run returns to an editable state so you can review it and fix what stopped submission.
The commonest case is an expired approval deadline — the pay date you chose was no longer reachable by the time the payroll arrived. An Admin or Payroll teammate uses Change check date, chooses New check date, then Save check date. Greenroom recalculates taxes for the new date. Existing approvals still count if the amounts stay the same; demo payrolls keep estimated taxes. An Approver asks a Payroll or Admin teammate to change the date.
Other definite refusals return to review with the reason and the next step: for example, an Admin may need to add the company phone in Business info on Settings → Company, or Greenroom may need to repair the payroll with our tax partner. Follow that message. There is no 15-minute wait for a run that has safely returned to review.
An interrupted submit can be resumed
If Greenroom cannot verify that a refusal left the payroll safe to edit, the run stays at Processing. An unanswered submit may already have reached our tax partner, so do not start a replacement run.
Open the run's Submit Payroll step. While the first submit may still be running, it says Still submitting and updates on its own. In about 15 minutes, Resume submit can appear under This submit didn't finish. An Admin or Payroll teammate, or the reviewer whose approval is still current, can use it. An Approver with that recorded approval first checks the attestation authorizing completion of the revision they approved; other Approvers are told who can finish it. Greenroom checks with our tax partner first, so a payroll it already approved is not approved again. If the resumed submit is declined again, contact Greenroom.
If our tax partner already approved the payroll, the run moves forward. If a background check confirms an interrupted submit left it as an unapproved draft, the run can return to In review. See Resuming an interrupted submit.
Awaiting reviewer is the same status as In review
If your company requires approval from someone other than the preparer before a payroll can be submitted, a run that's been sent for approval displays as Awaiting reviewer instead of "In review." It's the same underlying status — the label changes because the next action belongs to someone else. See If your company requires a second approval below.
Editing a payroll
Editing and deleting a draft require Admin or Payroll. Approver teammates read Payroll Summary and can approve a payroll they did not prepare; the entry and Union Reports steps are disabled, and Delete draft is hidden.
Only Draft and In review runs can be changed. From In review, click Edit payroll (back to draft) on the Payroll Summary screen to return it to Draft — you'll land back on the Employees & Loan-outs step with every payee still there.
That rule is enforced at the moment each edit is written, not just when the screen loads. If a run is submitted while someone else still has it open, their next change is refused — "…is processing — a submitted run can no longer be edited" — instead of slipping in behind the submission. The same applies to a payee-profile edit that would recalculate an entry on a run that has just left Draft or In review: that run is skipped and any others update as normal.
A run at Approved also allows Change check date for Admin and Payroll; it does not reopen the pay entries. To correct a Paid run, create an amendment against it (see Correcting a paid payroll).
Note: If your company requires approval from someone other than the preparer, sending a run back to Draft clears any approval already recorded on it. After you resubmit, the run needs approving again: an approval never carries over to changed numbers.
The tax chip is separate from the run status. Payroll Summary keeps Taxes out of date — recalculate before submitting if an included entry is recalculated while taxes are syncing, or an included payment owed through our tax partner was not part of that sync. A newly added row with no payable amount does not by itself cause this status. An Admin or Payroll teammate uses Resync taxes for the current entries; an Approver asks them to do it before approving.
If your company requires a second approval
A company-wide setting, Require approval from another person (on Settings → Company: the Payroll approvals card before company approval, the Payroll and approvals group after), means a payroll needs one approval from someone other than the person who prepared it before it can be submitted. It's on by default. An Admin can turn it off for a one-person production, and then submitting works as a single step: skip to Correcting a paid payroll.
With the control on, the Submit Payroll screen changes for everyone:
- A preparer sees a Send for approval button instead of Submit. A run's preparers are the teammates whose saved changes moved what it pays; until anyone has, the person who started it is its preparer (see Submit Payroll). Using it parks the run at In review, displayed as Awaiting reviewer, shows a Payroll sent for approval confirmation, and emails the teammates who are set up to approve and didn't prepare it. It moves no money yet. The final required approval submits automatically unless our tax partner's final review is still pending or another submit check refuses it. A refused send is titled Not sent for approval and gives the reason; fix it and send again. A preparer can't approve the run. If no teammate who didn't prepare it is set up to approve it yet, their approval panel says so (below).
- A reviewer (an Admin, Payroll, or Approver teammate who did not prepare the run) sees an approval panel headed "Needs approval from someone other than [preparer]", naming every preparer, with Approve this payroll and Return to preparer buttons.
- Approve this payroll follows the attestation. It records the review and automatically submits the payroll when the required approval is complete, subject to the same submit checks.
- Return to preparer sends the run back to Draft and clears any approval recorded so far. A short explanation is required, so the preparer knows what to fix.
- If automatic submission is refused, Approved. Not submitted yet shows the reason while keeping the approval (the notice is titled Payroll is on hold instead when our tax partner is holding your company's payroll). The panel identifies the reviewer and time, with Approved · waiting to submit. After the refusal is resolved, the recorded reviewer or an Admin or Payroll teammate reviews the attestation and chooses Submit to Greenroom.
Your company's pending final review with our tax partner does not stop preparation, sending for approval, or recording approvals. Only submission waits. Once final review is complete, the reviewer whose approval is still current, or an Admin or Payroll teammate, must choose Submit to Greenroom. Submit payroll shows Final review is pending; see While your company's final review is pending. Our tax partner can also hold your company's payroll after that review; a submit it refuses then reads Payroll is on hold (see If your company's payroll is on hold).
Sending, approving, and submitting are refused while any included payee has negative net pay. Payroll Summary shows Deductions exceed pay, names each affected payee and the shortfall, and explains the correction. The refusal begins "This payroll can't be sent for approval, approved or submitted until these deductions are corrected." Ask an Admin or Payroll teammate to correct the deductions, then try again. See What can block submitting.
A post-tax deduction with a lump-sum target, such as initiation dues, never causes this refusal: it takes only what the check can cover, the rest stays owed for later checks, and Payroll Summary lists it under Installments reduced. See Payroll Adjustments.
Editing resets the approval
Any change to the money on the run clears the recorded approval: an amount, who's included, a payee's payment details, or a change on a payee's own record that recalculates this run. If a reviewer approves and then someone changes an amount, the run needs approving again against the new numbers. A teammate whose change moves what the run pays becomes one of its preparers, so someone else has to approve it.
When no teammate is set up to approve yet
If you prepared the payroll and no one else on your team is set up to approve it, the approval panel on Submit Payroll opens with a notice saying why, before you send it for approval and after. A teammate is set up once their row on Settings → Team reads Active: they've set a password of their own, or they didn't join through the Team tab. A teammate whose access is deactivated, or whose account is disabled, can't approve and isn't counted, and neither is one who has prepared the run too. The notice takes one of two forms:
- No one else on the team. Titled No one else can approve this payroll yet: "It needs approval from someone other than you, and no one else on this company's team can approve it." Then: "Use Invite member on Settings → Team to add a teammate. Once they set their password, they can approve it."
- Teammates who haven't set a password yet. Titled Waiting on a teammate to set up their sign-in (or Waiting on teammates to set up their sign-in): "It needs approval from someone other than you. This teammate hasn't set a password of their own yet:" (or "These teammates haven't set a password of their own yet:"), then one line per person with their name and their Team row's state: invite pending, invite expired or hasn't set a password. Then: "Resend the invite from Settings → Team, then ask them to approve this payroll." ("Resend their invites…" for more than one). When anyone listed reads hasn't set a password, it adds "If they were given a temporary password, they can sign in with it now." ("Anyone who was given a temporary password can sign in with it now." for more than one). It says if because hasn't set a password also covers a teammate who was deactivated before setting a password and later reactivated: their invite link stopped working when they were deactivated, and they were never given a temporary password.
Both forms have a Go to Team settings button, which opens Settings → Team.
The invite and resend instructions above are for an Admin. If you have the Payroll or Approver role, the notice says An admin on your team can add a teammate with Invite member on Settings → Team. or An admin on your team can resend the invite from Settings → Team. Team settings still lets you see who the admins are. The notice only explains: Send for approval works the same, and the run still waits for a teammate's approval. It's gone as soon as a teammate who didn't prepare the run is set up. See Team for resending an invite.
Deleting a payroll
A draft can be deleted from its own page: every step of a draft payroll has Delete draft in its header. It asks first, under the title "Delete draft [run code]?": "This deletes payroll [run code] and everything entered on it: its payees' entries, pay lines and approvals. This can't be undone." For a prepay it also says that the payees it held out of other open payrolls go back into them, and that those payrolls are recalculated and need approving again. Confirm with Delete draft, and you land on History, which reads "Draft payroll [run code] was deleted."
Only a Draft can be deleted: a run that's already In review has to go back to Draft first (Edit payroll, or a reviewer's Return to preparer). Nothing past Draft can be deleted — Approved, Processing, Paying out, and Paid runs are permanent records. A delete from a page opened before the run moved on is refused with "Only a draft payroll can be deleted, and this one is no longer a draft. Reload the page to see where it is." A draft that has already been sent to our tax partner to calculate taxes, or is being sent right now, can't be deleted there either: "This draft has already been sent for tax calculation, so it can't be deleted here. Contact Greenroom and we'll remove it."
You don't have to delete a draft you no longer need: it moves no money unless it's submitted. While it's open, the Run Payroll page offers to resume it ("[run code] is in progress — resume it", for the newest open run), and starting another run of the same type for the same week opens it again rather than creating a second one. Deleting is also how you free a union contract that only drafts have used. The contract's card says, for example, "Used by payroll run GR-2026-0003 (Draft). Keep this contract, or delete the draft run GR-2026-0003 from its payroll page if it isn't needed."
Correcting a paid payroll
There's no "Cancelled" status or "undo" for a payroll once it's Paid. To fix an error in one, create an amendment run against it — any Paid run qualifies, with no special company setting required. Amendments record the correction as new payment lines rather than editing the original run, so the original stays an accurate historical record. See Adjustment Runs for how to create one.
If something goes wrong after you submit
By the time a run reaches Paying out, the money is already committed on Greenroom's side — direct deposits have their payment numbers, fund and trust remittance checks are numbered and union fund payments are routed, whether or not the bank has confirmed yet. There's no self-service "retry" or "cancel" at this point, and you won't see a stand-alone "Partially Paid" or "Failed" status: if our tax partner reports a problem with a payout, Greenroom is alerted directly and handles it.
If a run sits at Paying out for longer than seems normal, don't resubmit it — contact support with the run's code so it can be checked directly.
Voided means our tax partner voided the payroll after submission
On rare occasions our tax partner reports a payroll as voided after it was submitted. Its status doesn't change when that happens, since undoing check numbers and fund routing needs a person to look at it. Instead it reads Voided: in History, on the payroll's own page, in the Dashboard's Recent payrolls and in each payee's Payment history. History's Status filter finds it under Voided, not under the status it kept, the Dashboard stops counting it as paid (see Dashboard Overview), and the Consolidated register and 1099 filing preview leave it out of their totals (see Reports Overview). Its submit confirmation reads "Payroll [run code] was voided". The payroll's page, its run steps, its payroll register and union remittance on Reports, and its printable union report show a red notice: "This payroll was voided after submission (first seen [date]). These amounts may no longer reflect actual money movement — contact support before relying on them."
A voided run also can't be downloaded or exported. It stays listed on Reports, marked "— VOIDED by our tax partner". Its payroll register and union remittance still show on screen, under that red notice, but every download from it is refused with a message that sends you to the run page for the void details — rather than the run quietly disappearing from the picker, which would leave anyone reconciling a bank statement hunting a discrepancy with nothing on screen to explain it.
Pay hasn't been calculated yet
If an included payee's pay has not finished calculating after Add, it blocks sending for approval, approval, and submission. The refusal begins "Pay for [name] hasn't been calculated yet." and names Resync taxes, Retry sync, or Calculate taxes on Payroll Summary, according to the tax chip. An Admin or Payroll teammate uses that control before trying again; an Approver asks them to calculate it. See The full refusal and next step.
Next steps
See Reviewing Payroll for what happens on the Payroll Summary screen before you submit, Processing Payroll for the submit step itself, or Payroll History to find a specific run by status.