Approve a payout

Money the customer has paid does not move to anyone’s bank account until an order’s Payout step is approved. Approval is the point where the platform accepts that the work is done and the money can be released.

Who does this. Whoever the Payout step is assigned to on the workflow, normally the organisation that owns the order, with finance write access. An installer cannot approve their own payout.

Approve it

1. Open the order and go to its Payout step.
2. Make sure that the payouts listed are correct. They show who is paid and how much.
3. Complete the step.

What approval does

Effect	Detail
Releases the money	Approved amounts appear under Approved, awaiting next payout in the payout overview
Generates invoices	Customer invoices and share invoices are created at this point, not before
Starts the clock	The next payout run collects the money and sends it out

Before approval, the invoice sections on the order say the invoice will be generated when payout is approved. That is expected, not a fault.

When approval is blocked

The step refuses while any item paid through Installer.com is still unpaid, and it names the count.

Two ways forward:

• Get the item paid. The customer can still pay from the Pay step.
• If it was paid outside Installer.com, make the payment step optional in the workflow and skip it. That is a workflow change, not the per-line switch in Exclude a line from the payment step, which is set while pricing.

Cancelling an order is the same approval

The Payout step is the approval that matters. Cancelling an order early is not a way around it.

An order that runs its course reaches Done on its own, with the Payout step completed along the way. Cancelling is the other route, and it is the one this section is about.

Nothing can be left unresolved when you cancel. If money on the order has not been settled, cancelling approves that payout. You have to tick a box saying the amount is right before it will let you. The box names the figure. It is deliberate, not a side effect.

• Authorised payments are captured first.
• Offers the customer never paid for stay uncharged.
• The approval cannot be undone.

Because closing moves money, it needs finance write when there is a payout to approve. A colleague who can edit orders but holds no finance permission cannot close one.

If you do not want the payout to happen, credit the customer in full first. That is the only way to close an order without paying it out. See Credit offer lines.

It does not have to be a manual click

The Payout step is a workflow step like any other, so it takes the same timing settings.

Setting	What it does
Auto-complete	The step completes itself, so nothing waits on a person. Most merchants configure this.
Due after days	Gives the step a deadline, three days by default. It shows as Overdue once passed.
Due at time, skip weekends	Fixes when the deadline falls, and keeps it on working days.

Set these on the workflow template, so every order of that type behaves the same. Whatever you agree with your installers on timing belongs here, not in someone’s diary.

Your own money waits on this step too. Nothing is paid out to anyone before it completes, so leaving it undone holds your own part back as well as the installer’s share.

Who can approve

Whoever the Payout step is assigned to, which is set by the workflow template. It is normally the team that carries the finance responsibility.

On an order you were dispatched to, the step belongs to the organisation that owns the order, so you do not approve your own payout. On an order you own yourself, you do, even when you are also the installer on it.