An Employee Is Blocking Payroll

Read this when a payroll draft shows an employee flagged Needs attention or Complete payroll onboarding, and you can’t approve.

Find who’s blocking

The draft marks blocking employees with a red flag, and a task on your overview page names them. If the list is long, sort or search the draft by status. The employee’s profile shows the specific item.

The checklist

Go through these in order. The first five cover almost every case.

Cause	How to see it	Fix
Hasn’t accepted the invite	Status is Invited	Resend from their profile. See Someone didn’t get their invite.
Onboarding not finished	Status is Onboarding. The profile shows which step is missing.	Ask them to log in and finish. It’s usually the W-4, state withholding form, or bank account.
No bank account	Profile bank details are empty	The employee adds direct deposit in their portal
No pay rate	Compensation has no rate	Add an hourly or annual rate
Missing state withholding form	Documents tab shows the form as not started	The employee completes it from Documents in their portal
Work location problem	Workplaces tab: no location, or a location in a state that isn’t Active	Assign a work location. Complete the state’s registration. If they work remotely, make sure the remote flag is set so their home state is used.
State-specific attributes	A banner or profile field such as “WA attributes” or “MI Form 151” is invalid or empty	Some states need extra details per employee, for example Washington’s Long-Term Care exemption with its quarterly date, or Michigan’s withholding certificate. Fill them in on the profile. If it still rejects, email support with a screenshot.
Visa status not set	Employee is on F-1 or OPT but withholding is standard	Email support. See Special tax situations.
Name or SSN mismatch	Agency validation fails	See Name or SSN is wrong.
Converted from contractor, record is Inactive	Recently converted, status shows Inactive	Conversions activate overnight. If still Inactive the next day, email support.
Benefits deductions not yet synced	Draft says waiting on a provider such as Thatch	Provider deductions sync shortly before the deadline. If the deadline is today and it hasn’t synced, email support. We can move the pay date a day or push it through.

The employee says there’s nothing left to do

This happens. The employee’s portal shows onboarding complete, but the admin side still flags them. It’s usually a state form the employee’s view doesn’t show, a workplace or state attribute only an admin can set, or a sync delay after they finished. Check the admin profile for the specific item. If nothing is obviously missing, email support with the employee’s name and we’ll find it on the back end.

If you can’t fix it before the deadline

Remove the employee from the draft, approve the rest of the payroll on time, and pay the employee with an off-cycle payroll once their issue is cleared. One person’s missing form shouldn’t make everyone late.

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An Employee Is Blocking Payroll

Find who’s blocking

The checklist

The employee says there’s nothing left to do

If you can’t fix it before the deadline

​Find who’s blocking

​The checklist

​The employee says there’s nothing left to do

​If you can’t fix it before the deadline

Find who’s blocking

The checklist

The employee says there’s nothing left to do

If you can’t fix it before the deadline