Contractor Invoice Approval + Prefunding Expectations for Organization Administrators

⚠️ Contractor invoice and payment deadlines: late action means late payment

• Contractors: submit invoices by the 19th of each month. A saved draft is not a submitted invoice.
• Admins: approve invoices by the 21st of each month. Submission alone does not authorize payment.
• Funding: Toku must receive cleared funds 4 - 5 business days before payout. Initiating a transfer or sending proof of payment does not meet the deadline.
• Standard monthly payout: the last day of the month, provided submission, approval, and funding deadlines are met. Late submission, approval, or funding will delay payment. Every day of delay pushes payment back by at least one day. A missed payment cycle can cause a longer delay; the invoice due date is not a guarantee of payment.

Automation does not remove these deadlines. Earlier published holiday deadlines take precedence; see Toku: 2026 End-of-Year Payroll & Payment Guide.

Purpose

This policy applies to contractor invoice approvals and contractor pre-funding only. Admins are responsible for timely approvals and funding so contractor payments can be processed on time.

Employee payrolls use separate deadlines: For EOR, PEO, and payroll-only employee changes requiring pre-funding, submit by the 10th and ensure funds are received and cleared by the 14th. See Additional Compensation Changes Over $5,000: Prefunding Approval.

Invoices in a ‘submitted’ state will not produce a prefunding invoice to Admins. Once all invoices are approved or rejected, a prefunding invoice will be sent to initiate payment.

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🧾 Contractor Invoices

• Newly hired contractors must manually submit their first invoice in Toku.
• Contractors who manually submit invoices must do so by the 19th of each month. Contractors on auto-submission will have invoices appear as ‘submitted’ automatically.
• Admins must review and approve all invoices by the 21st of each month.
  • Toku will not issue a prefunding invoice until all contractor invoices have been approved by the client. ⚠️ If an invoice is not approved by the 21st, the contractor’s payment will be delayed for every day approval is late. A missed payment cycle can cause a longer delay.

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💸 Prefunding Payment

• When Toku issues a prefunding invoice, Admins must send funds within 48 hours of receipt.
  • Toku must receive cleared funds 4 - 5 business days before payout. Sending a transfer or proof of payment does not meet this requirement.
• This ensures Toku has sufficient funds to process payroll on time.
• Standard monthly payment is released on the last day of each month, provided all submission, approval, and funding deadlines are met. Earlier published holiday schedules take precedence. ⚠️ If contractor prefunding is not received on time, payment will be delayed for every day funding is late. Missing a payment cycle can cause a longer delay.

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📅 Key Dates & Deadlines

For detailed payroll timelines, refer to this article:

• Contractor Calendar (you can export this calendar to your personal calendar for reminders) 👉 Use these calendars to plan ahead for invoice approvals, prefunding, and payroll cutoff dates.

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✅ Admin Checklist

For Contractor Invoices

• [ ] Confirm all contractor invoices are submitted by the 19th

• [ ] Approve invoices in Toku by the 21st For Prefunding

• [ ] Review prefunding invoice immediately upon receipt

• [ ] Send funds within 48 hours of receiving invoice from Toku

  • [ ] Ensure cleared funds are received by Toku 4 - 5 business days before payout

• [ ] Verify receipt of cleared funds so the standard monthly contractor payout can run on the last day of the month

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📌 Summary

• Contractor invoices: Submit by the 19th → approve by the 21st
• Prefunding: Send funds within 48 hours of invoice receipt from Toku and ensure cleared funds reach Toku 4 - 5 business days before payout
• Contractor payout: The last day of the month when all deadlines are met; earlier published holiday schedules take precedence