Your first payroll and the owner-level rule

When someone from HR, Finance or Accounting signs a company up for Sahora, they can set everything up, but the first payroll waits for the company's owner or finance head before it is approved. This guide explains the rule and how to meet it.

Who this applies to

On the Get started form, the person signing up chooses Your position:

Owner / President / CEO
Treasurer / CFO / VP-Finance
Human Resources / Finance / Accounting

The first two are owner-level. If the person chose Human Resources / Finance / Accounting, they still get Owner / Management access to set the company up, and the rule below applies.

What waits and what doesn't

Until an owner-level person has joined:

A notice on every page of the workspace says: "Add your company's owner or a Treasurer / CFO / VP-Finance on the Users page (as Owner / Management, with their position). They need to sign in before the first payroll can be approved. Imports and setup can go ahead meanwhile."
Company setup, employees, imports and attendance go ahead as usual.
The first payroll can be computed and submitted, but not approved. The payroll page shows why.
Imported payroll history (past payrolls brought in from your previous system) is approved as usual and doesn't wait.

Add the owner-level person

Open Users.
In the invitation form, choose the Role Owner / Management.
Enter their email and full name.
Under Their position, choose Owner / President / CEO or Treasurer / CFO / VP-Finance.
Click Invite. They get an email to set a password and two-step verification.
Ask them to sign in. The rule is met only once they have signed in at least once.

If the person already has Owner / Management access, click Edit on their line, choose their position under Their position (Owner / Management), then click Save roles.

Screenshot to come: The Users page invitation form with Owner / Management chosen and the Their position list

When the owner-level person first signs in, Sahora asks them to confirm the terms their colleague accepted for the company.

Then approve the first payroll

Once the owner-level person has signed in, the notice disappears and the payroll can be approved as usual (see Submitting and approving a payroll). The approver must still be someone other than the person who prepared it.

What can go wrong

"The first payroll is approved by the company's owner or Treasurer / CFO / VP-Finance. Add them on the Users page as Owner / Management with their position; once they have signed in, they can approve it." The owner-level person hasn't joined or hasn't signed in yet. Follow the steps above.
"Someone else sets your position (another owner, or your accounting firm)." Nobody can set their own position. Another Owner / Management user, or your accounting firm, sets it.
The notice stays after you invited them. They have not signed in yet, or their position isn't owner-level. Check their line on Users.

Good to know

When a payroll is submitted while the company is still waiting, the company's owners get an email saying the payroll waits for the owner-level person.
Until the person joins, the owners also get a weekly reminder by email. No email is sent if your company's emails to its people are switched off.
If you think this rule was applied to your company by mistake, contact Sahora support.
Who may do what in Sahora: Users and roles.

Where this guide gives a rate, limit or number of days set by law, it is the one in force today, 24 October 2026, from the official tables Sahora uses for payroll.