What is approved work, and why does it decide the amount you can receive?

Approved work is data about the day, shift or time worked that an authorized person has checked and confirmed under the business's process. In the earned wage access system, only this sufficiently reliable portion of work should be used to compute the already-earned wages and the early-access limit. A successful time-punch that is still pending approval does not yet mean that work is eligible for receiving money.

The most important point for a worker to remember is:

> Having punched in means the system has recorded data; approved work means that data has been confirmed to enter the limit-calculation step.

Is "approved work" a legal term?

"Approved work" is mainly an operational term in working-time management, payroll and the earned wage access system. Each business may name the status differently, such as "confirmed", "valid", "approved", "closed" or "eligible for wage calculation" (don't confuse it with other meanings of this phrase — see How many meanings does "daily wage" have?).

The Labor Code sets out principles relating to wages, working time, overtime and wage payment. However, the process of who approves work, at what moment and using which status in the software usually has to be made concrete by each specific business in its regulations, permission structure and appropriate internal processes.

Therefore, a worker should not assume that a status on one app will mean exactly the same thing at every company.

Five commonly seen work statuses

Some systems separate "approved" from "period-locked". Approved work can be used to compute the limit within the period, but it may still be validly adjusted before payroll locks the data. So approved work does not yet mean the end-of-period wage has been fully settled.

Why shouldn't the limit be computed from unapproved work?

Initial time-tracking data may be missing or wrong for many reasons:

• Forgetting to punch in or out.

• Punching the wrong shift, wrong location or wrong day.

• The timeclock losing its connection.

• Data from the client arriving late.

• Overtime not yet confirmed by the manager.

• Leave or unpaid leave not yet updated.

• A punch being recorded as a duplicate.

• Employee codes not matching between systems.

If the system allows receiving money right on unapproved work, the business may pay out beyond the actual wage. When the work is edited, the worker may have their limit reduced, be short on the end-of-period wage, or trigger a discrepancy-handling process.

Preventing errors from the start is always easier to understand and causes fewer disputes than clawing back or adjusting after money has been paid out (see also the risks of deploying EWA).

How does approved work decide the amount you can receive?

Earned wage access should not take the entire monthly wage, divide it evenly and let it be received in advance. The system needs to determine the income that has already arisen from valid work, then apply safety rules.

Illustrative formula

Remaining available limit = (Wages from approved work × Safety rate) − Amount already received − Reserve/adjustment

Where:

• Wages from approved work: the provisional amount computed from confirmed days/hours/shifts.

• Safety rate: the rate the business allows to be accessed, which may be lower than 100%.

• Amount already received: the total of successful transactions in the period.

• Reserve/adjustment: the portion held back for fluctuations that may affect the net wage received.

Approved work is an important input, but not the only one. The limit also depends on the business's rules, employment status, pay period, transactions already made, funds and other control conditions.

An example before and after work is approved

Suppose a worker has an illustrative base wage of VND 9,000,000/month and the business conventionally uses 26 standard workdays for a simple example.

Illustrative unit rate per day:

9,000,000 ÷ 26 ≈ VND 346,154/day.

At a certain point in the month:

• The system has recorded 10 workdays.

• Of these, 8 days are approved.

• 2 days are still pending the manager's check.

• The assumed safety rate is 70%.

• There is no early-access transaction yet and no additional reserve calculated.

Before approving the remaining two days

Wages from approved work ≈ 8 × 346,154 = VND 2,769,232.

Illustrative limit ≈ 2,769,232 × 70% = VND 1,938,462.

After the two days are approved

Wages from approved work ≈ 10 × 346,154 = VND 3,461,540.

Illustrative limit ≈ 3,461,540 × 70% = VND 2,423,078.

So the limit increases by about VND 484,616 after the two days are approved. If the two days are rejected or adjusted, the limit will not increase as in the example above.

> Note: The way workdays, wage components and the safety rate are converted in the example is only to explain the mechanism. A business must apply its own approved payroll formula and earned wage access policy.

Who has the authority to approve work?

The work approver is designated by the business and can often be:

• A team leader or shift leader.

• A direct supervisor.

• A department manager.

• A client representative confirming the working time.

• The HR/operations department in exceptional cases.

• Payroll at the checking or period-locking step.

One individual should not be allowed to create the data, approve the work, adjust the limit and handle the payout all by themselves. Separating responsibilities helps reduce errors and fraud.

What is the work approver responsible for?

• Checking the right person, the right day, the right shift.

• Confirming regular hours and overtime based on valid data.

• Handling missing or abnormal work within the deadline.

• Clearly stating the reason when rejecting or adjusting.

• Not sharing the approval account.

• Ensuring that those who have resigned or transferred units are updated to the correct status.

How does the work-approval deadline affect the worker?

If work is approved late, the earned-wage-access limit may also update late. The worker has done the work but cannot yet access the corresponding money because the system does not yet have sufficiently reliable data.

The business should stipulate:

• The deadline by which the manager must complete work approval.

• A substitute when the manager is on leave or absent.

• An alert for work pending approval beyond the deadline.

• A report on the number of people affected by late approval.

• A channel for workers to flag work that has not been processed.

• The time to update the limit after work is approved.

For models with many workers, "the number of people whose work is approved on time" should be an important operational metric, because it is the condition that directly drives the ability to use earned wage access.

Six common time-tracking errors and how to handle them

A worker should not ask someone else to log in or punch on their behalf to "fix it quickly", because this action can create further discrepancies and violate the business's rules.

The explanation and work-adjustment process

A clear process can consist of six steps:

1. Detect the discrepancy: The worker or the system notices missing/wrong work.

2. Submit a request: Choose the day, shift, error type, explanation content and evidence if needed.

3. Manager verifies: Cross-check the work schedule, shift assignment, device data or the client's confirmation.

4. Approve or reject: Clearly record the result and the reason.

5. Re-synchronize: The system updates the work and recomputes the limit.

6. Notify: The worker is informed of the new status, the change in limit and how it is handled if money has already been received.

What should each adjustment request store?

• The requester.

• The day/shift to be corrected.

• The data before and after the edit.

• The reason and evidence.

• The approver.

• The date and time of approval.

• The impact on the limit and payroll.

• Whether it has been synchronized or not.

Approved data should not be edited directly without leaving a history.

What if work is adjusted after money has been received?

This is a situation that needs to be stipulated in advance in the earned wage access policy.

When work decreases after a transaction, the system should:

1. Recompute the eligible already-earned wages.

2. Compare with the total amount the worker has received.

3. Pause new requests if the amount received exceeds the new limit.

4. Clearly notify the cause and the difference amount.

5. Move to the approved settlement/adjustment process.

6. Store the entire handling trail.

Not every difference should automatically be treated as the worker's "debt" if the file, agreement and nature of the transaction have not been defined that way. The handling must fit the applicable legal model and regulations.

Why has the limit still not increased even though work was approved?

Approved work is the most important condition but is not sufficient in every case. The limit may not have changed because:

• The data has not yet reached the synchronization cycle.

• The worker's profile has not completed authentication.

• The receiving account is not yet valid.

• The unit rate or payroll data is not yet in effect.

• The pay period is locking or changing over.

• The worker has used up the eligible portion.

• There is an adjustment/reserve that makes the remaining limit zero.

• The total program cap or the funds have temporarily reached the limit.

• A prior transaction is awaiting a result or investigation.

• The account is temporarily locked due to a safety alert.

The system should display the specific cause and guide the next step, rather than only reporting "insufficient limit".

How does approved work differ from a closed payroll?

Therefore, the "expected remaining wage" during the month can change until the payroll is closed.

How should a business design the work-status screen?

The worker should be able to see:

• Total days/hours recorded.

• Total approved work.

• Work pending approval.

• Work rejected or needing supplementation.

• The most recent synchronization date.

• The current limit.

• The reason the limit has not updated.

• A button to submit an explanation or contact support.

Color is only a support. Each status still needs a name and a text description so the user does not have to guess the meaning.

A dashboard for supervisors and HR

An operational dashboard should have at least:

• The number of people whose work needs approving today.

• The number of people with work pending approval past the SLA.

• The number of records missing a clock-in/clock-out.

• The number of overtime shifts not yet confirmed.

• The number of adjustments after a transaction has arisen.

• The number of people without a limit due to missing approved work.

• The average approval time by manager/unit.

• The successful-synchronization rate.

• The number of complaints related to work.

The goal of the dashboard is not to pressure with numbers, but to find the exact bottleneck that is stopping workers from being able to use their entitlement.

Worker checklist when the limit has not arrived

• [ ] Check whether the workday has appeared on the system yet.

• [ ] See whether the status is pending approval, approved or rejected.

• [ ] Check the shift, clock-in, clock-out and overtime.

• [ ] See whether the leave/shift-change request has been updated.

• [ ] Check the profile and the receiving account.

• [ ] See whether a prior transaction is awaiting handling.

• [ ] Read the reason the system displays.

• [ ] Submit an explanation for the correct day/shift, with evidence if the process requires it.

• [ ] Contact the correct manager or support channel; provide the employee code, not the password/OTP.

Business checklist for approving work on time

• [ ] There is a consistent definition of each work status.

• [ ] There is one employee code used throughout the systems.

• [ ] Approvers are assigned by unit/shift/department.

• [ ] There is a substitute when the main approver is absent.

• [ ] There is an SLA and an alert for backlogged work.

• [ ] The right to create/edit data is separated from the right to approve exceptions.

• [ ] Every adjustment has a reason and a history.

• [ ] Approved work is synchronized in the correct version.

• [ ] The limit is recomputed after every relevant change.

• [ ] The worker receives an easy-to-understand notification.

• [ ] There is a report on the number of people affected by late approval.

• [ ] Work edited after money has been paid out has been tested.

Conclusion

Approved work is the bridge between the work done and the amount eligible to be received early. If the work data has not been confirmed, the system does not yet have a sufficiently reliable basis to compute the limit.

For a worker, it is necessary to clearly distinguish "having punched in" from "approved" and to use the correct explanation channel when there is a discrepancy. For a business, approving work on time is not just an administrative task; it is the link that decides the experience, financial safety and scalability of earned wage access.

Workers should check their work status and the guidance for handling work errors on the system. A business wanting to design a work-approval process tied to earned wage access can learn more at Earned wage access for businesses.

> Note: This article provides general information and does not replace the business's regulations or legal advice for a specific case.

References

• Labor Code No. 45/2019/QH14

• Law on Electronic Transactions No. 20/2023/QH15

• Personal Data Protection Law No. 91/2025/QH15

---

Author: Nguyen Minh Khang — Specialist, Strategy Division, Nhan Kiet Manpower Supply Co., Ltd.

Earned wage access consultation for businesses: Hotline 0937.022.655 · Email info@nhankiet.vn · Earned wage access for businesses