> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.worklayer.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Approve, export, and complete payroll

> Review the payroll approval dialog, generate the export, inspect run documents, and complete the period only when final.

Approving a payroll run freezes salary and personal data for the period and generates the official export. **Complete Run** is a later, permanent lock, so treat approval and completion as two separate decisions.

## Decide whether the run is ready

In **Payroll**, open the period and revisit **People**, **Salary**, **Time Off**, **Employee changes**, and **Action required**. Correct structural pay problems before approval. An open review item is not always a blocker: the **Approve payroll?** dialog can offer **Approve anyway**, while warning that unresolved items may cause errors with your tax advisor.

## Approve and inspect the export

Choose **Approve payroll** to open the **Approve payroll?** dialog, then read it before confirming. It describes the frozen salary and personal data, payroll group setting, official export, and how later changes are tracked as retroactive. With no open review items, confirm with **Approve & export**. With open or unverified items, the dialog offers **Approve anyway** and warns about their risk. If you need to resolve an item first, return to **Action required**.

After approval, open the run's **Documents** tab and find the generated export. Check that it belongs to the period you intended and that the run status is **Approved**. If an export must be generated separately, use **Generate export** on the approved run and inspect the resulting document.

## Complete only after follow-up

When the payroll handoff and any corrections are finished, choose **Complete Run**. The confirmation says the run will be locked permanently and no further changes will be possible. Read it and confirm only when the period is final.

> [!WARNING]
>
> Completing a run cannot be undone. Approval may still leave review items open; completion should wait until the work for the period is finished.

## Next steps

[Prepare payroll](https://help.worklayer.ai/help/payroll/prepare.md) · [Find missing access](https://help.worklayer.ai/help/troubleshooting/access.md)


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