Approving Timesheets is a way of checking and confirming that all the information (clockings, rates, overtime, shifts etc) is correct before being processed by payroll. How many levels of approval you use will depend on the needs of your own company. 

For example, in a large organisation, a team leader has to check and approve their team’s timesheets (Level 1) before their line manager does (Level 2). Finally, the accounts department needs to approve all Timesheets before running payroll (Level 3). Alternatively,  smaller or differently structured businesses may only require a single level of approval.

This guide will look at:

• Turning On Timesheet Approvals
• Setting Approve Levels
• Allocating Approve Levels to Users
• Timesheet Approvals in action

Turning On Timesheet Approvals

1. Select ‘System’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select ‘System’ from the System Tree.
3. Select ‘System Setup’.
4. Select the ‘Timesheet’ tab.
5. In the ‘Parameters’ section, tick ‘Timesheet Approvals’.

Next, you need to decide on the levels of approval and whether Timesheets can be approved in bulk.

Setting Approve Levels

1. Still in System Setup>Timesheet>Parameters, set the number of ‘Approve Levels’ to meet your requirements. You can select up to 3 levels of approval that are required before a Timesheet is ready for payroll processing. By allocating different levels to different Users, you create a bottom-up approval hierarchy. 
2. Ticking or unticking each level in ‘Bulk Approve’* determines whether Users can approve multiple Timesheets at the same time via the Payroll Report.

* Bulk Approvals is the ability to mass approve timesheets from within the Payroll Report, rather than visiting each employee's timesheet individually.

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Once the levels have been set, it’s time to determine which Users are responsible for approving Timesheets and at what level.

Allocating Approve Levels to Users

1. Select ‘System’ from the Menu Bar.
2. Select ‘Users’ from the System Tree.
3. Select the User who you wish to allocate an Approve Level to.
4. Select the ‘Timesheet’ tab.
5. In the ‘Edit’ section, tick ‘Timesheet’.**
6. In the ‘Action’ section, tick ‘All’.**
7. Select the ‘Approve Timesheet’ levels.
8. Save.
9. Repeat the above process if you require other Users with other Approve Levels.

** As a minimum requirement, a User must be able to Edit and Lock Timesheets in order to Approve Timesheets. However, if a User’s restrictions are set to Lock Timesheets only (ie. they can lock but not unlock Timesheets), they will not be able to make any changes once a Timesheet has been approved and subsequently locked.

Timesheet Approvals in action

Image 1: The unlocked timesheet is checked and any required edits made (showing blue).

Image 2: Approval level is changed from Unapproved to Approved Level 1.

Image 3: Timesheet is automatically locked once approved.

Additional information

There is no requirement to have Timesheet Approvals turned on. The system is purely there to assist with Timesheet checking, should you require it.

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