ClickTime's Timesheet Approvals module allows your employees to easily submit, review, and approve time. If your organization is utilizing the Timesheet Approvals Module, Administrators can approve time for any employee while Managers can be set up to approve the time of their employees. Employees can be set up with a Timesheet Approver if they will be submitting time for approval.
Setting Up Managers and Administrators to Approve Time
How To Assign a Timesheet Approver
How to Submit Time for Approval
How To Unsubmit a Timesheet
Approving Timesheets
Rejecting Timesheets
Timesheet Attestation
Approvals Video
For assistance reviewing and approving time using the Mobile Application, please see the Approving Time with the Mobile Application help guide.
If your team does not have the optional Timesheet Approvals Module, you can still "lock" timesheets to prevent edits to the timesheet. More information on this process can be found in this guide.
If you would like to discuss what adding the Timesheet Approvals Module to your account would look like to your organization, please email our Support Team and we'll be happy to answer any questions and assist with upgrading.
"Stages" of a timesheet
During the timesheet approvals workflow, each timesheet goes through various changes and they are defined in this way:
"Open": refers to a timesheet which is still in-process or has not yet been submitted. The timesheet is editable.
"Waiting For Approval": the timesheet has been submitted and is waiting for review. Timesheet is locked and non-editable. If further edits are needed, a user (or manager with permissions/administrator) can click the "Undo Submission" button on the Timesheet View page.
"Waiting For (Project) Approval": this is similar to "Waiting For Approval" (above), but only applies to organizations who are using the Project Approvals workflow - and which involves having a 'tiered' system of approving Project hours prior to general timesheet review. See here for more details on Project Approvals.
"Waiting for time off approval": refers to a timesheet that has been submitted - and includes both worked hours and Time Off waiting to be approved. The timesheet is non-editable, but the user (or manager with permissions/admin) can click 'Undo Submission' on the Timesheet View page if further edits are needed.
"Approved/Locked": the timesheet has been reviewed & approved by a manager/administrator. Timesheet is locked and non-editable, but if further changes are needed, a (manager with permissions/administrator) can either reject the timesheet or select "Undo Approval". At that point, the user or manager/administrator can go into the details of the timesheet and click 'Undo Submission' to make the timesheet editable again. But if the "reject" option is chosen, this will notify the employee and timesheet approver that the timesheet has been rejected.
"Rejected": the timesheet has been marked rejected by a manager or administrator. This option is often chosen when the timesheet does not meet requirements and there needs to be a notification/reasoning process as to why. As described (above), this option also notifies the employee and approver. Timesheet is considered open/editable at this stage and can be re-submitted.
Setting up Administrators and Managers to Approve Time
An Administrator or Manager with the ability to approve time is called a Timesheet Approver. An Administrator or Manager assigned to approve an employee's timesheet is a Default Approver. To set up an Administrator or Manager as a Timesheet Approver or Default Approver, first go to the Company -->People page.
Navigate to their Person Details page by selecting the "edit" pencil icon next to their name:
In the menu to the left of the page select Security & Permissions, click Edit Section to open the Security & Permissions section. Select Manager or Administrator.
If you select "Manager", you will find several options in the Timesheets section of the page:
- Review timesheets allows Managers to view timesheets
- Notify users about their timesheets allows Managers to send pre-written emails from the Company --> Timesheets page communicating to employees they're timesheets are overdue, incomplete etc.
- Lock and approve timesheets allows Managers to lock, approve, and reject timesheets
- Overriding timesheets allows Managers to enter time for their employees. For more information about the Overriding timesheets permission, please click here
- Selecting All people allows Managers to take these actions for all employees in the system
- Selecting People in specific divisions allows Managers to use their selected settings for the Divisions you specify
If you want the Default Approver to approve time for only specific Division(s), navigate to the Specify Division(s) section of Security & Permissions. Check the boxes next to the Divisions you want the Default Approver to approve time for in the Available Divisions column. Click the right pointing arrow to move those Divisions to the Selected Divisions column.
Please note: A Manager who can approve time for someone in a specific Division will be able to do so for all people in that Division. You will need to set each employee with a Default Approver, and only the Default Approver will be notified when a Timesheet is submitted, but a Manager will be able to approve/reject timesheets for anyone in those Selected Divisions. This is intentional to allow multiple Managers to approve time when the Default Approver may not be available.
When finished, remember to click Update at the top of the section to save your settings.
How to Assign a Timesheet Approver
Employees are assigned one Default Timesheet Approver. An employee can only submit a timesheet when they have a Default Approver.
To select which Manager or Administrator will approve time for an employee, navigate to the Company --> People page, select the "edit" pencil icon next to the employee's name, and navigate to their Person Details page.
In the Timesheet Settings & Approvals section, click Edit Section. Check the box next to Timesheets are approved by:, and in the drop down menu, select the User who will be approving timesheets for the employee. These options will include all Administrators, as well as any Managers that have permission to approve time for that employee. Click Update to save the change.
As of June 2020, Administrators will also be able to use the "Actions" option on the Company --> People page to change Timesheet Approvers for multiple employees at the same time.
This is covered in more detail here.
How to Submit Time for Approval
Once the employee's timesheet is complete, the employee can submit their timesheet to their Default Approver for review. This can be done in two places:
Submitting time from Week View
Submitting time from Timesheet View
If the Employee Cannot Submit Their Timesheet
Submitting Time From Week View
Organizations with a "weekly" timesheet model can submit from the bottom of the Week View page:
Next, users be prompted to enter an optional note and "Confirm Submission":
Users can also choose whether they want cc other email addresses with the notification, as well as if they want to receive a notification when their timesheet has been approved (notifications are always sent when a timesheet is rejected).
Organizations that are not using a weekly timesheet model, or are using our Project Approvals feature, will not see the "Submit" option on the Week View page. They will need to go to Timesheet View and use the options there (see next section).
Submitting Time From Timesheet View
Employees can review their timesheet from the Timesheet View page. After confirming it is correct and complete, they can use the "Submit" option to submit the timesheet to their Default Approver:
This will open a dialogue box where the employee can include notes, CC individuals other than their Default Approver, and choose to receive notifications when their timesheet is approved. The employee can click Submit to submit their timesheet to their Default Approver.
Organizations on a timesheet model that is not weekly will have to submit from the Timesheet View page.
If the Employee Cannot Submit Their Timesheet:
- The employee may not have been set up with a timesheet Default Approver. To set this up, see How to Assign a Default Timesheet Approver
- The employee's timesheet may be incomplete. To learn more about this setting or to adjust the setting, click here
After the timesheet is submitted, the timesheet is locked and the employee can no longer make any changes. The employee will see a lock icon next to their time entries in Day View and Week View.
If for some reason the employee needs to make edits before the Approver has reviewed, they will want to undo/unsubmit. Organizations on a weekly timesheet model can use the "Unsubmit" option on the Week View page:
Which will return the timesheet to an "Open" status.
Similarly, employees can use the "Undo Submission" option from the Timesheet View page:
They will then see a pop-up window asking them to confirm they want to "Undo Submission":
The timesheet will then return to an "Open" status. Employees will want to resubmit the timesheet when it is ready for review.
Approver Notifications
Approving and Reviewing Timesheets From Timesheet View
Approving and Reviewing Timesheets From the Company --> Timesheets Page
Approving and Reviewing Timesheets with Time Off Approvals
Applying Salaried Cost Updates to Time Entries
Default Approvers will be notified that they have timesheets to review via email. The Default Approver can navigate to their employees' timesheets by clicking the Review Timesheet link in the email.
Additionally, the Default Approver will see a notification on the Company --> Dashboard page letting them know there are timesheets waiting for their review.
When the Default Approver clicks Review, they will be sent to the Company --> Timesheets page. By default, the Timesheets page will display all timesheets waiting for the Default Approver's review.
Approving and Reviewing Timesheets from Timesheet View
From the Company --> Timesheets page, the Default Approver can review a timesheet by clicking the "edit" pencil icon next to the timesheet.
The Default Approver will be sent to the Timesheet View page. From this page the Default Approver can review the Clients, Projects, Tasks and hours associated with each time entry by expanding each row. Entries with notes will have a blue bar next to the time entry. Hovering over this bar will display the note or give an option to expand the row to view the note.
The Default Approver can also see notes by hovering over the three dots in the grey notes bar at the bottom of the page and dragging the bar upwards. This will reveal any notes associated with the timesheet.
If the Default Approver accepts the timesheet, click Approve.
After clicking Approve, a dialogue box will appear, where the Default Approver can leave a comment for the employee.
After clicking Approve, the timesheet status will be changed to "Approved".
If the Default Approver realizes a timesheet needed further review before the status was changed to Approved, they can undo the approval. This can be done by clicking Undo Approval.
A dialogue box will appear, and the Default Approver will be required to leave a comment. Once the Default Approver leaves a comment, they can click Undo Approval to change the timesheet status back to "Waiting For Approval".
If the Default Approver finds the timesheet insufficient for approval and needs to be reviewed by the employee, they can reject it by clicking Reject (see more details here)
If the Default Approver prefers to edit the employee's timesheet on their behalf, they can use the Override Function. For more information on Overriding timesheets, click here.
The Print option in the top-right corner will allow you to create a pdf file, to save or print the timesheet. Below that is the Options menu where you can decide which fields should be displayed on the Timesheet page or in the pdf file:
Approving and Reviewing Timesheets From the Company --> Timesheets Page
From the Company --> Timesheets page, the Default Approver can check the box next to the timesheet(s) they want to approve. If your company has time entry completion rules in place, the Complete column will indicate whether the user has met this requirement. A green checkmark, means the requirement is met and a red x means that they have not met the requirement. To read more about incomplete time entry settings, see our article here.
Once the timesheet(s) are selected, the Default Approver can click Approve to approve the timesheet(s). A dialogue box will appear where the Default Approver can leave a comment for the employee.
NOTE: you can also bulk-select, if you want to approve multiple timesheets for efficiency reasons. Simply select the timesheets individually or use the 'select all' toggle at the top of the column and then click 'Approve' as shown here:
After clicking Approve, the timesheet status will be changed to "Approved".
If the Default Approver realizes a timesheet needed further review before the status was changed to Approved, they can undo the approval. This can be done by changing the timesheet status filter to Approved/Locked, clicking the box next to the timesheet, and clicking Undo Approval.
If the Default Approver finds the timesheet insufficient for approval, they can reject it by checking the box next to it and then using the "Reject" option at the top (more details here).
If the Default Approver prefers to edit the employee's timesheet on their behalf, they can use the Override Function. For more information on Overriding timesheets, click here.
Approving and Reviewing Timesheets with Time Off Approvals
Companies that are using Approval Required Leave types may see Timesheets with a "Waiting for Time Off Approval" status. More details on Time Off Requests and Approvals can be found here.
They will also see this status appear in the "Timesheet Status" Filter options as well:
If a timesheet is in this status, it means there is a waiting Time Off Request, so there is still time that needs to be added to the timesheet. The Time Off Approver (or local Administrator) must approve (or reject) this request before the Timesheet can move to the "Waiting for approval" status and be reviewed
Please be aware that no further actions can be taken regarding a Time Off Request for this timesheet without rejecting (or un-submitting) the timesheet.
Applying Salaried Costs Updates to Entries
Premier and Enterprise accounts will also see an additional "Adjust Salaried Costs" option on the Company --> Timesheets page.
Complete instructions for how to add/apply/use Salaried Costs can be found in this article.
The option to "Adjust Salaried Costs" will become available if you select "Approved" timesheets:
You must also see the dollar sign icon next to the hours, which indicates that employee has been given a Salaried Cost (versus the standard estimated hourly cost).
If the dollar sign is in bold, that means the Costs have already been adjusted:
If the dollar sign is not in bold, that means there are Costs to be adjusted:
Select the timesheets and click "Adjust Salaried Costs", which will display a page where you are asked to confirm your changes before they are applied:
The screen will show you a confirmation message when the adjusted rates have replaced the hourly costs.
Please Note: In order for someone with Manager access to ClickTime to "reject" a timesheet, someone with Administrative access will need to update the "Security Settings" section of the Company --> Preferences page to "allow managers to unlock-un-approve timesheets and expense sheets when they also have permission to lock/approve them":
Rejecting Timesheets from the Company --> Timesheets page
If the Default Approver is able to see that the timesheet is incomplete or requires edits, they can reject one (or more) timesheets from the Company --> Timesheets page by clicking the box next to the timesheet(s) and then the "Reject" option at the top.
This will open a dialogue box where the Approver is required to enter a comment.
After doing so, they can click "Reject", which will send an email to the employee with the comments that have been added. The employee can then log in, make the necessary changes, and re-submit the timesheet for approval.
Rejecting Timesheets from Timesheet View
If the Default Approver reviews the timesheet from the Timesheet View page and decides the timesheet needs additional edits, they can use "Reject" option here:.
After doing so, a dialogue box will appear, and the Default Approver will be required to enter a comment for the employee. After entering a comment, they can click Reject.
This will notify the employee via email that their timesheet is rejected and will include the Default Approver's comments. The employee can then log back into ClickTime, update the timesheet as needed, and then re-submit for approval.
Organizations with the Timesheet Approvals features can use our Timesheet Attestation feature. Organizations who were already ClickTime customers will need to set this up initially, whereas new customers since this feature was released will have it enabled automatically with default text.
This feature gives Administrators the ability to display their organization's custom attestation to employees at timesheet submission. When combined with our Audit Trail Module (more details here), this feature provides an additional layer of internal control and compliance to our already-robust digital timestamps and historical record.
Organizations that activated ClickTime after this feature was released can use the default attestation language, as well as enter their own attestation text to appear on timesheet submission. Organizations that were already ClickTime customers when the feature was released will need to add their own text in order for the text to display.
To view/edit the language, an Administrator will need to go to the Company --> Preferences page and scroll down to the "Timesheet and Expenses" section of the page.
Admins can edit the attestation text, as well as remove the text and save the empty field if they wish to remove the attestation text.
This attestation statement will appear in all interfaces in which users are submitting their own timesheet (specifically the Timesheet View page, the Week View page for organizations with a weekly timesheet model, as well as when submitting time via the Mobile Application).
Please note that the text will not appear if another user is submitting the timesheet on behalf of another user.
By submitting their timesheet, employees agree to the text specified by their admin, without having to go through multiple additional steps. This attestation flag will appear in the timesheet history, vertical timesheet report, and the Audit Log.
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