Branch is an earned wage access (EWA) partner that lets your employees draw on wages they've already worked for before payday, and gives them a digital wallet and debit card. Workforce sends Branch the shift and employee data it needs, Branch decides and pays out the advances, and Workforce recoups each advance from the employee's next pay stub. You can also push tips recorded on a timesheet straight to an employee's Branch wallet.
What's covered in this guide?
How Branch EWA works
Most of the employee-facing experience lives in Branch, not in Workforce. The division of work looks like this:
Workforce enrolls the employee with Branch, sends Branch each approved shift, adds the employee's Branch account to their bank details, and deducts the repayment on the next pay run.
Branch runs the wallet and debit card, decides how much an employee can draw and when, and pays the advance out to the employee.
Employees request advances in the Branch app — there is no advance request screen in Workforce. Branch tells Workforce when an advance has been claimed, and Workforce creates the deduction that recovers it.
The one piece of money movement that starts in Workforce is tip disbursements, which a manager sends from the timesheet.
Turning on Branch EWA
Branch EWA is enabled by Workforce, not from your own settings. To get set up, talk to your account manager or reach out to support. Nothing about Branch appears anywhere in the product — for admins or for employees — until it's switched on for your organization.
Heads-up: Branch EWA can't be enabled if your payroll is processed through Kotapay.
How employees connect to Branch
Employees enroll themselves from the Workforce mobile app. Once Branch EWA is on, a Connect with Branch option appears at the bottom of My Profile > Bank Details, under the prompt "Want to get paid early? Try out Branch!". See Employee Self-Service for Payroll for how employees reach that screen.
The employee opens My Profile > Bank Details and taps Connect with Branch.
A window explains what Branch offers — early wage access, the Branch Wallet and debit card, and faster direct deposits. The employee taps Connect with Branch to continue.
Workforce creates the employee's record in Branch in the background. The screen updates on its own when it's done.
The employee then taps Complete your Branch onboarding, which opens Branch in a new tab, and creates or links their Branch account there.
The Connect with Branch prompt disappears once the employee's Branch payment profile is active, so it won't be offered twice.
If the employee works for more than one organization in Workforce and one of their other accounts is already connected to Branch, the connection is blocked with a message telling them to contact support. An employee can only be connected to Branch through one Workforce account.
What happens to the employee's bank details
Branch issues the employee an account, and Workforce adds it to their bank details automatically — the employee never types the routing and account numbers in themselves.
When Branch activates the employee's payment profile, the Branch account is added to My Profile > Bank Details. If it's the employee's only account it becomes their primary (remaining balance) account. If they already have accounts on file, it's added as a fixed amount of $0, so nothing is routed to it yet.
When the employee sets up direct deposit in Branch, Workforce makes the Branch account their primary account. Any account that was previously primary is switched to a fixed amount of $0. From that pay run on, the employee's net pay lands in their Branch account unless they change the split back themselves.
These changes are treated like any other bank detail change: the employee is emailed, and so are your payroll officers and organization admins. Employees can still edit their own splits afterward — see Upload Employee Bank Details.
What Workforce sends to Branch
Branch needs to know how much an employee has earned before it will advance anything against it. Workforce sends two things:
Employee details, at enrollment — legal first and last name, email address, phone number, an employee number, your business name, and your EIN.
Approved shifts, as they're approved — the shift's hours, the hourly rate the shift was costed at, and the clock-in time.
Shifts are sent at the moment they move from pending to approved on the timesheet. If an approved shift is later unapproved, Workforce deletes it from Branch, which reduces what the employee can draw against.
Shifts are only sent for employees whose Branch account is already active, so an employee's earlier shifts don't retroactively appear in Branch when they enroll.
How advances are repaid
When an employee claims an advance in Branch, Branch notifies Workforce and Workforce creates a Branch Advance deduction for that employee. Repayment is automatic — there's nothing for you to set up per employee or per advance.
The full advance is recouped on the next pay stub. The repayment isn't spread across pay periods.
Multiple advances combine. If an employee draws more than once before payday, the outstanding amounts are added onto the same deduction rather than creating a second one.
It's a post-tax deduction. It comes out of net pay and doesn't reduce the employee's taxable wages, the same way a cash advance repayment does.
The deduction shows as "Branch Advance" in the Deductions section of the employee's pay stub, and under Payroll > Payroll Details > Deductions on their user profile.
The recouped amount is debited from your company bank account together with the rest of the pay run when you post payroll, and passed back to Branch. It's included in the pay run's total withdrawal figure, so no separate payment or wire is needed.
Branch Advance deductions and the Branch Advance deduction type are managed by the integration, so they're locked in Workforce. They can't be edited, deleted, or added by hand, and the deduction type can't be renamed — the only thing you can change on it is the journal account it posts to. If an advance looks wrong, raise it with support rather than editing the pay stub.
Disbursing tips to a Branch wallet
Tip payouts are the one part of Branch that starts in Workforce. A manager can send the tips recorded on a shift straight to that employee's Branch wallet from the timesheet, instead of handing over cash.
Before you can disburse tips
The tip button only appears on a shift when all of the following are true:
The shift is approved.
The shift has tips recorded on it.
The employee has an active Branch account.
You have permission to approve other people's shifts.
Sending the payout
Open the timesheet and find the employee's approved shift.
Click the dollar sign button on the shift card ("Disburse tips").
Confirm the amount in the prompt. It totals every tip recorded on that shift.
The button switches to Tips disbursed once the payout has been sent to Branch.
Each shift can only have one live tip disbursement, so the button can't be used twice on the same shift. If the payout fails, the error from Branch is shown so you can try again once it's resolved. A payout is skipped if the employee turns out not to have a Branch account.
Cash tips are already left out of net pay. Workforce taxes and reports cash tips, but doesn't pay them out in the pay run — they're expected to reach the employee outside payroll. Sending them to a Branch wallet is that payout, so there's nothing to adjust on the pay stub afterward.
Watch out for credit card tips. The button totals every tip recorded on the shift, including tip types your tip setup pays out through payroll — typically credit card tips. Those are already in the employee's net pay, so disbursing them to Branch pays them a second time and nothing on the pay stub offsets it. Only disburse where the tips on the shift are cash tips.
When an employee leaves
When you mark an employee as inactive, Workforce deletes their employee record in Branch, which stops any further advances against their earnings.
Any Branch Advance deduction they still owe stays on their record and is recouped on their next pay stub, including a final pay stub. If an employee leaves with an advance outstanding and no further pay is due, contact support.
Important reminders
Advances are Branch's decision. How much an employee can draw, how often, and any fees are set by Branch. Workforce only supplies the shift data and collects the repayment.
Employees must finish onboarding in Branch. Tapping Connect with Branch in Workforce isn't enough on its own — nothing syncs and no advances are possible until Branch activates their account.
Approving timesheets promptly matters. Only approved shifts are sent to Branch, so late approvals mean employees can't draw against hours they've already worked.
Direct deposit may move to Branch. Once an employee sets up direct deposit in Branch, their whole net pay goes there by default. Expect bank detail change notifications for your payroll officers and admins.
Repayments affect your pay run funding. Advance repayments are collected in the pay run's debit from your bank account, so the amount withdrawn will be higher than net pay plus taxes alone. See Payment Dates and Deadlines for funding timelines.