How payroll and invoicing fall out of sync on-site

Payroll closes on time.

Invoicing runs as expected.

Nothing breaks.

And yet, a few days later, someone is comparing two screens that should match — and don't.

In FIFO and DIDO operations, this usually isn't a mistake. It's timing. Once site hours are approved, the temporary employee workflow starts moving in more than one direction. Payroll progresses on deadline. Billing continues based on the record it had at the time. The disconnect doesn't announce itself when it happens. It shows up later, when someone needs to confirm what was paid against what was billed.

The point where records diverge

Site hours are often signed off close to demobilisation, sometimes during the final shift of a roster cycle. By the time those approvals reach payroll centrally, crews may already be rotating off swing. Invoicing follows later again, working from a record created earlier in the cycle.

The issue becomes obvious when payroll and invoicing are viewed side by side. Payroll is looking at the approved site hours used for pay. Invoicing is still referencing an earlier billing record. Both relate to the same shift, but they are no longer the same record.

Once a supervisor has demobilised, clarification is rarely immediate. Payroll still needs to run on schedule. If an entry is ambiguous — a partial shift, an overlapping break, an unclear site allocation — the closest interpretation is applied, and processing continues. Each system remains internally consistent, but the link between them has already loosened.

Why digital tools don't prevent the gap

Online timesheets improve how hours are submitted and approved on-site, reducing guesswork at the front of the process. Payroll and invoicing automation increases speed and removes manual handling across high-volume operations, with calculations applied automatically and invoices generated without re-keying data.

The issue isn't whether these tools work — they do. The issue is whether they're working from the same approved record. If an adjustment is applied after approval, payroll reflects it. Invoicing doesn't always see the same update. Automation doesn't reconcile timing differences — it processes what it has access to when it runs. Payroll uses the approved hours available at pay time. Invoicing uses the billing record available at the time of invoice generation. Both outcomes are valid, but they originate from different points in the workflow.

Digital tools improve efficiency, but alignment requires a shared reference point.

Where scale turns friction into routine work

At low volume, this misalignment is easy to absorb. A handful of mismatched shifts can be reconciled manually without much disruption to the weekly payroll cycle.

As operations expand across multiple sites, that tolerance disappears. More sites mean more supervisors, more handovers, and more timing differences between approval, payroll, and billing. Mining labour hire providers operating across multiple states must also navigate varying labour hire licensing requirements that affect how workforce records are maintained and reported. What was once an occasional follow-up becomes a recurring task. Growth doesn't create the problem — it exposes it.

Why the issue persists

The misalignment rarely gets fixed because nothing fails loudly when it happens. Wages are paid. Invoices go out. The business keeps moving.

The cost shows up in reconciliation time, internal queries, and duplicate checking across teams. Because the impact is spread across payroll, accounts, and operations, no single team owns the problem outright. It becomes accepted as operational friction rather than identified as a structural issue that requires system-level change.

The fixes teams default to

When the gap becomes visible, teams often respond with process overlays rather than structural change, such as:

• additional approval reminders before payroll cut-off

• tighter submission deadlines for site supervisors

• reconciliation spreadsheets maintained between payroll and accounts

• manual checks before invoices are issued

These steps improve visibility, but they don't remove duplication. The same shift still exists in more than one place. Effort increases, but the structure stays the same, which is why the issue tends to reappear a few pay cycles later.

What alignment can look like

Alignment isn't about adding another check. It's about ensuring payroll and invoicing reference the same approved site record. When that happens, follow-ups are brief. Adjustments appear once. Corrections carry through without creating parallel versions. There's nothing extra to reconcile later.

Within the D-Bit system, the temporary employee workflow can be configured so that approvals, payroll processing, and invoicing all draw from a single approved record. Online timesheets remain the entry point, with payroll and invoicing automation running across the same data path. The outcome isn't faster processing. There are fewer questions after the fact, and no need for those side-by-side comparisons that started the problem.

If payroll and invoicing are already running on site, but you're still reconciling the same shifts later, D-Bit can help you align both workflows around a single approved record. Contact D-Bit to discuss how payroll and invoicing can stay in sync from site approval through to billing.