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

> ## Agent Instructions
> Driven is a sales-compensation platform. Use its terminology: Compensation Plan, Compensation, KPI, Manual KPI, User Variable, Quota, Performance, Payout (Draft, Approved, Paid, Cancelled), Correction, Adjustment. Payout types are equal, deferred and advance. Default roles are Admin and Employee; companies can add custom roles. The Driven Agent builds plans from uploaded documents and chat. The Compensation Builder is where compensations are configured.

# Approve payouts

> Approve a draft to lock it, mark it paid once the money has moved, or send an approved payout back to draft.

Approving a payout is a finance action. You need **Approve payouts** on that plan. See [Roles](https://docs.driven.work/users/roles.md).

Payouts are approved one at a time, in order. You cannot skip a period.

## Move a payout forward

**1. Review the draft**

Open the payout from **To review**. Check the deals, the total and any comments. Make [adjustments](https://docs.driven.work/payouts/adjustments.md) before you approve. You cannot make them after.

**2. Approve and lock**

Click **Approve & lock commission**. Driven freezes the calculation. See [Locking](https://docs.driven.work/payouts/locking.md). The payout moves to **To pay**, and the person is told their payout is approved.

**3. Mark it paid**

When the money has been transferred, click **Mark as paid** on the payout, or the same button on the **To pay** row. The person is told their payout is paid.

![Draft payout with a Draft badge, Reviewed checkbox, Comment, Add Item and Approve and lock commission](https://mintcdn.com/driven-a7b16d8c/EfofHHnWRF2nRMlf/images/payout-draft-detail.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=EfofHHnWRF2nRMlf\&q=85\&s=beeba05e846a1e4ad336a8505f0f0814)

## Order

You can approve a payout only when the previous payout in the same series is **Paid**. A series is one person and one payout frequency. March cannot be approved while February is still a draft or only approved.

Cancelled payouts are skipped. If February was cancelled, March waits on January being paid, not on February.

If you approve too early, Driven refuses with **All previous payouts in this series must be paid before approving this payout**.

The first payout in a series has nothing before it, so it can be approved immediately.

Approving also settles outstanding [corrections](https://docs.driven.work/compensation-builder/corrections.md). The amount that lands is calculated at approval time, not from whatever the draft page showed earlier. **Add to next payout** never takes the payout below zero.

## Back to draft

On an **Approved** payout, **Back to draft** unlocks it and recalculates it from current data. This is not available once the payout is **Paid**.

The person is told the payout is back in review, and that the amount may change.

Sending a payout back to draft removes the settlements it had applied, and removes corrections that were recorded against this payout. Corrections it had settled become outstanding again, and will be considered the next time a payout in the series is approved.

## Comments

**Leave a comment...** works on the payout as a whole, or on a single deal from the chat icon on that row. Comments are allowed after the payout is locked.

The person on the payout can comment. So can anyone with **Edit payouts**. When a rep comments, people with company-wide access are notified. When an admin comments, the rep is notified.

## Notifications

If the person has notifications turned on, they receive an email, and a Slack message when Slack is connected, for three events:

* The payout is approved
* The payout is paid
* The payout is put back in review

Each message links them to the payout.


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