Temporary staffing: reconcile approved time to payroll and client billing

A temporary staffing firm has to pay its workers and bill its clients, but the records do not always move together. A client may approve time after payroll is due. A worker may cover two assignments with different rates. A corrected timesheet may reach one system and leave the other unchanged. Reconcile the hours through both paths rather than assuming the payroll export proves the invoice is complete.

Use the employee, assignment, worksite, work date, workweek, and timesheet version as the connection. Retain pay terms and client billing terms separately. They may share an hourly unit without sharing a rate, overtime rule, approval process, or payment date.

Keep the effective dates for each placement and rate change. A revised bill rate beginning Wednesday should not silently rewrite Monday's hours. Record the worksite and role, client purchase-order reference where required, approver, and any agreed billable expenses. A broad employee record is not enough when one person works on several assignments.

DOL's FLSA recordkeeping guidance includes hours worked each day and each workweek, wage basis, and pay information. For covered employees, keep the actual working record even when the client's approval is pending. Missing approval is an exception to resolve; it is not a reliable substitute for determining what work was performed.

Assign someone to unresolved time before payroll cutoff. Obtain supporting records, contact the relevant manager through the firm's normal process, and escalate uncertainty to the payroll owner. DOL's overtime guidance states that compensable overtime cannot be waived through an advance-authorization policy. Client billing approval and employee wage obligations therefore need distinct controls.

A system may block an export when a timesheet is unapproved. That is a workflow configuration, not a legal determination. Have an approved exception process that allows the responsible payroll team to meet applicable requirements while retaining the disputed commercial record. State and local rules, classification, and joint-employment facts may require additional review.

Consider a hypothetical group with 1,000 supported hours worked. Payroll includes all 1,000, but invoices include 940. Of the remaining 60, 40 await a client time approval and 20 were excluded by an incorrect billing code. Show those two explanations separately. The first needs commercial follow-up; the second needs a controlled system correction.

Do not assume the 60 hours have the same dollar value. Extend them using the applicable assignment rates, premium terms, and contractual exclusions. Keep ordinary hours, overtime, other premiums, and expenses separate so the reviewer can see whether the difference is quantity, price, or eligibility.

Bullhorn's documentation distinguishes raw timesheets, evaluation of pay and bill rules, and the resulting payable and billable charges. Use that separation to reconcile totals at each step. An approved timesheet can still produce an incorrect charge if the placement's effective rate or rule is wrong.

When a timesheet changes, keep the earlier version, reason, approver, and replacement. Identify whether payroll has already been paid and the client invoice already issued. The correction may require a payroll adjustment, a credit and replacement invoice, or only a change to an unprocessed record. Do not resend the whole week without checking what was already completed.

Give each correction a link to the original transaction. A two-hour reduction should not become a second negative record that is later imported twice. Reconcile the net effect by employee and client, and confirm that the correction reached every affected system. An exception list should show the next action, not merely a status of error.

A workweek can cross month-end, and payroll and invoices may be processed in the next month. Give accounting the dated hours, applicable rates, unprocessed charges, and later corrections so it can apply the company's accrual and revenue policies. A bank withdrawal alone cannot identify which month's work generated the payroll cost.

Retain a final bridge from work performed to payroll and billing, with unresolved items valued where support exists. Review repeated exceptions by client, approver, and assignment setup. A persistent delay may call for better client terms or a different approval arrangement; a repeated rate error calls for a placement-control fix before the next worker starts.