How do I pay a worker for hours the client shouldn't be billed for?
Last updated: September 21, 2026
Applies to: Staffing partners who want a worker paid for time that the end client will not be billed for — most often a holiday your agency chooses to cover when the client does not.
Summary: Send the hours to support@ascen.com and ask for them to be entered as no bill. The worker is paid for them, and they are excluded from the client's invoice. The hours stay on the record, so there is still a clear account of what was paid and why.
When you need this
A public holiday your agency pays but the client does not cover.
Any other hours you have agreed to pay the worker where the client is not being billed.
First check whether it is already automatic. Where holiday pay is configured on the assignment, it is applied for you and the worker does not enter anything — see Do I enter time for a public holiday? and Holiday and premium pay. Use the route in this article when paying the hours is your agency's own decision rather than a configured entitlement.
What to send us
The worker's name, and the client or assignment.
The date or dates, and the number of hours for each.
That they should be entered as no bill.
Whether the worker also worked that day. Say so explicitly if they did — the no-bill hours are entered in addition to the worked hours, not instead of them. More than one entry on a single date is normal; see Can I add more than one time entry for the same day?.
What "no bill" means
The hours are recorded on the timesheet and paid to the worker in the normal pay run for that period.
They are excluded from the client's invoice.
It is a status on the entry rather than a deletion, so the record still shows what was paid. That is what you want if the client, the worker, or an auditor asks about it later.
What not to do instead
Do not reduce the worker's actual worked hours to balance it out. Recorded time should always be the time actually worked. If the client will only pay for less than the worker worked, that is a billing question, not a reason to change the timesheet — send it to us.
Do not move the hours onto a different date. The date decides which pay period the worker is paid in, so moving hours changes when they get paid.
Do not simply leave the hours out and pay the worker some other way. Hours paid outside the timesheet do not reach the worker's pay record correctly.
Expenses work the same way — and you can do those yourself
For expenses there is a no-bill control you can use directly: mark the expense no bill if you do not want it invoiced to the client. See How do I add expenses?.
Who to contact
support@ascen.com for entering the hours, and for anything about how a specific invoice was built. For when invoices are generated, see When do you invoice clients?.