Can you stop a payment after we've approved the hours?

Last updated: September 21, 2026

Applies to: staffing Partners and their account teams who have approved a worker's hours and then realized the hours were wrong, or who need a payment held while something is checked. If instead you want a payment to go out faster, that is the opposite question — see Your worker's hours are approved — when do they get paid, and can a payment be expedited?.

Summary: Tell us as soon as you know, because approval is what starts the payment moving and the window is short. Before that week's pay run processes we can usually take the approval back off the hours so nothing is paid. Once the payment has been processed and sent it usually cannot be recalled, and it becomes a pay correction instead. Either way the first step is the same: email support@ascen.com with the worker and the work week, and say plainly that the hours should not be paid yet.

Why speed matters here

Approved time is picked up for payroll on a rolling basis — it is not held in a queue waiting for someone to look at it. That means the practical difference between "we can stop this" and "this is now a correction" is usually hours, not days. Send the request as soon as you spot the problem, even if you do not yet know the right numbers. "Do not pay Alex Sanchez's week of 9/7 yet, we are confirming the hours" is enough to act on; the corrected figures can follow.

Before that week's pay run — we can take the approval back off

If the hours have not yet been processed for payment, we can return them to an unapproved state so they stop flowing to payroll. Nothing is paid while they sit there, the entries are not deleted, and once you have confirmed the correct hours they can be corrected and approved again for the normal cycle.

This is the outcome you want in the common cases:

  • The worker was approved for a full week but did not work the full week.

  • A shift was approved twice, or approved against the wrong assignment.

  • Your client has told you the hours are disputed and you want the payment paused while it is sorted out.

Why you cannot simply delete the timesheet yourself

A timesheet can no longer be deleted once it has been approved, signed, or invoiced. This is deliberate — approved time is the record that payroll, the worker's pay stub and your client's invoice are all built from, so it cannot quietly disappear underneath them. If you try and find the option gone, that is the reason, not a fault with your account. Send it to us instead and we will make the change and keep the record straight.

Once the payment has been sent

After a payment has been processed and issued it is with the banking system, it usually cannot be pulled back. At that point the situation is no longer a hold; it is a correction, and how it is handled depends on what was wrong and by how much. Email support@ascen.com and we will tell you what the options are for that specific case before anything else is done.

Please do not ask the worker to return money, and do not arrange anything directly with them. Anything involving a worker's pay — including recovering an overpayment — has wage rules attached to it and has to come through us, because we are the employer of record. We will tell you what can be done and what has to be said to the worker.

What to send us

Requests that arrive with only an internal timesheet or contractor ID usually cost a round trip, because those IDs are not how we search. Include:

  • The worker's full name as it appears on their Ascen record.

  • The client and assignment.

  • The work week or shift dates affected.

  • Whether you want the whole week held or a specific day corrected.

  • The correct hours, if you already know them. If you do not, say so and send the hold request anyway.

Send it to support@ascen.com rather than to an individual account manager's inbox, where it can sit unread while the pay run closes.

How to avoid needing this

Approval is the point of no easy return, so the cheapest fix is at the approving step:

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