Approving Timesheets

Time Approvals allow approvers within your organization to approve or reject users' timesheets (or partial timesheets if interim approvals are enabled) for a particular period. In order to implement an approval process, a Sheet Approval Plan must first be created. Within the Sheet Approval Plan, approvers must be assigned. Then the Approval Plan must be assigned to users, who will submit their timesheets at the end of the period. After user submission, the timesheet enters the approval process and the designated approvers have approval/rejection authority over the timesheet. This section specifically discusses approving or rejecting completed timesheets that have been submitted by users. The same process applies to interim submissions of partial timesheets that occur before the end of a timesheet period. Approvals Plans can be created under Management-->Approval Plans. For more information about creating and managing Sheet Approval Plans, please see the Approval Plans section of this manual.

If you have approving authority for particular users' timesheets, you can see a summary of what is awaiting your approval in the Approvals menu (see figure 26.1). Time Approvals is also located under Approvals-->Time Approvals (see figure 26.2).



Figure 26.1. Menu Approvals section



Figure 26.2. Approving Timesheets


From this screen, you are able to approve and reject completed timesheets and partial ("work in progress") time submissions that are in your queue. You can also reopen timesheets that have been submitted or approved if you have Administrator authority. You must first specify the search criteria for the users that you wish to approve or reject timesheets for. You also have the option to filter for submitted, rejected and approved sheets, sheets awaiting your approval, sheets awaiting your backup approval or all sheets, with the addition of user and date filters as well. When finished specifying the search criteria, click the Search button. The search results will be displayed underneath the criteria. To approve timesheets, select the timesheets and click the Approve button. To reject timesheets, select the timesheets, specify a rejection reason, and click the Reject button. To reopen timesheets that have been submitted or approved, select the timesheets and click the Open button. When a sheet is reopened, the approval process gets completely reset. Once a sheet is reopened, anyone who has the ability to enter time for the employee (the employee, timekeepers) will be able to modify the records just as if the sheet had never been submitted for approval. The sheet reopen process does not maintain the original records that were submitted or approved and the sheet must be submitted for approval again. This option is only recommended when the correction requires that the original record be completely removed from the database. You can also view a user's timesheet before approving or rejecting it by clicking the respective date link under the Period column. Similarly, you can view the Rate Report for that user's timesheet by clicking the respective link under the Period column.

Time Approvals can be used exclusively or in combination with Project Approvals, which allow project managers to approve time/expenses/custom entries logged to specific projects on an entry screen. For more information on Project Approvals, including information regarding use of Time Approvals concurrently with Project Approvals, please see the Using Time Approvals with Project Approvals section of this manual. NOTE: If an approver is approving a timesheet and is also the designated project approver for a project/projects on the timesheet, the approver will automatically approve the project approvals when approving the timesheet. The approver will not need to go to the Project Approvals screen to approve the projects separately. The same automatic project approval process applies to approving expenses and custom entries.

Approving Expense Sheets

Expense Approvals allow approvers within your organization to approve or reject users' expense sheets for a particular period. In order to implement an approval process, a Sheet Approval Plan must first be created. Within the Sheet Approval Plan, approvers must be assigned. Then the Sheet Approval Plan must be assigned to users, who will submit their expense sheets at the end of the period. After user submission, the expense sheet enters the approval process and the designated approvers have approval/rejection authority over the expense sheet. This section specifically discusses approving or rejecting expense sheets that have been submitted by users. For more information about creating and managing Sheet Approval Plans, please see the Approval Plans section of this manual.

If you have approving authority for particular users' expense sheets, you can see a summary of what is awaiting your approval in the Approvals menu (see figure 26.1). Expense Approvals is also located under Approvals-->Expense Approvals (see figure 26.3).



Figure 26.3. Approving Expense Sheets


From this screen, you are able to approve and reject expense sheets that are in queue. You can also reopen expense sheets that have been submitted or approved if you have Administrator authority. You must first specify the search criteria for the users that you wish to approve or reject expense sheets for. You also have the option to filter for submitted, rejected and approved sheets, sheets awaiting your approval, sheets awaiting your backup approval or all sheets, with the addition of user and date filters as well. When finished specifying the search criteria, click the Search button. The search results will be displayed underneath the criteria. To approve expense sheets, select the expense sheets and click the Approve button. To reject expense sheets, select the expense sheets, specify a rejection reason, and click the Reject button. To reopen expense sheets that have been submitted or approved, select the expense sheets and click the Open button. When a sheet is reopened, the approval process gets completely reset. Once a sheet is reopened, anyone who has the ability to enter expenses for the employee (the employee, expense keepers) will be able to modify the records just as if the sheet had never been submitted for approval. The sheet reopen process does not maintain the original records that were submitted or approved and the sheet must be submitted for approval again. This option is only recommended when the correction requires that the original record be completely removed from the database. You can also view a user's expense sheet before approving or rejecting it by clicking the respective date link under the Period column.

Approving Custom Entry Sheets

Custom Approvals allow approvers within your organization to approve or reject users' custom entry sheets for a particular period. In order to implement an approval process, a Sheet Approval Plan must first be created. Within the Sheet Approval Plan, approvers must be assigned. Then the Sheet Approval Plan must be assigned to users, who will submit their custom entry sheets at the end of the period. After user submission, the custom entry sheet enters the approval process and the designated approvers have approval/rejection authority over the custom entry sheet. This section specifically discusses approving or rejecting custom entry sheets that have been submitted by users. For more information about creating and managing Sheet Approval Plans, please see the Approval Plans section of this manual.

If you have approving authority for particular users' custom entry sheets, you can see a summary of what is awaiting your approval in the Approvals menu (see figure 26.1). Custom Approvals are located under Approvals-->Custom Approvals (see figure 26.4).



Figure 26.4. Approving Custom Entry Sheets


Custom Approvals is also located under Approvals-->Custom. From this screen, you are able to approve and reject custom entry sheets that are in queue. You can also reopen custom entry sheets that have been submitted or approved if you have Administrator authority. You must first specify the search criteria for the users that you wish to approve or reject custom entry sheets for. You also have the option to filter for submitted, rejected and approved sheets, sheets awaiting your approval, sheets awaiting your backup approval or all sheets, with the addition of user and date filters as well. When finished specifying the search criteria, click the Search button. The search results will be displayed underneath the criteria. To approve custom entry sheets, select the custom entry sheets and click the Approve button. To reject custom entry sheets, select the custom entry sheets, specify a rejection reason, and click the Reject button. To reopen custom entry sheets that have been submitted or approved, select the custom entry sheets and click the Open button. When a sheet is reopened, the approval process gets completely reset. Once a sheet is reopened, anyone who has the ability to enter custom entry for the employee (the employee, custom entry keepers) will be able to modify the records just as if the sheet had never been submitted for approval. The sheet reopen process does not maintain the original records that were submitted or approved and the sheet must be submitted for approval again. This option is only recommended when the correction requires that the original record be completely removed from the database. You can also view a user's custom entry sheet before approving or rejecting it by clicking the respective date link under the Period column.

Approving Project Entries

Project Approvals allow approvers within your organization to approve or reject users' submitted time, expense, and custom entries for specific projects. This type of Project Approval Plan based on projects can be used concurrently with Sheet Approval Plans that allow assigned approvers to approve/reject entire timesheets, expense sheets, and custom entry sheets. For example if a user has been assigned to an Sheet Approval Plan, his/her timesheets, expense sheets, or custom entry sheets will go through that approval process. If the user logs time, expenses, or custom entry to a project that has been assigned a Project Approval Plan, those entries will go through a separate project approval process. Hence it is possible to be part of two approval processes, one for the sheet and another for the project. However, keep in mind that if an approver rejects a time entry for a project, the sheet approver will be required to approve any changes. Likewise, when a sheet approver rejects a sheet, the project approver may be required to approve changes if they affect the project in question. It is possible to force rejection for all approvers on a level if a single approver on the level rejects. Please see the next paragraph for more details.

Approval Plans for users' sheets run independently from project Approval Plans except when sheets that are in multiple approval plans require approval by all approvers on each level prior to proceeding to next level. This feature exists under System Settings-->Approval Plans. If a user's sheet is assigned to multiple approval plans, this option will require approval at each tier within each approval plan before proceeding onward to the next tier of approvers. Hence, all primary approvers must first approve the sheet before it can proceed to the secondary approvers, and so forth. If an approver rejects a sheet on a particular level, it will be removed from all approvers' queues on the same level.

If you have approving authority for project entries submitted by users, you can see a summary of what is awaiting your approval in the Approvals menu (see figure 26.1). Project Approvals is also located under Approvals-->Project Approvals (see figure 26.5).



Figure 26.5. Approving Project Entries


From this screen, you are able to approve and reject time, expense, or custom entries that have been logged against the project. You can also reopen entries that have been submitted or approved if you have Administrator authority. You must first specify the search criteria for the users that you wish to approve or reject project entries for. You also have the option to filter for sheets awaiting your approval, approved sheets, approved tracks, rejected tracks or all sheets, with the addition of user and date filters as well. When finished specifying the search criteria, click the Search button. The search results will be displayed underneath the criteria. To approve project entries, select the entries and click the Approve button. To reject project entries, select the entries, specify a rejection reason, and click the Reject button. To reopen project entries that have been submitted or approved, select the project entries and click the Open button. When an entry is reopened, the entire sheet is reopened and the approval process gets completely reset. Once a sheet is reopened, anyone who has the ability to enter time, expenses or custom entry for the employee (the employee, timekeepers) will be able to modify the records just as if the sheet had never been submitted for approval. The sheet reopen process does not maintain the original records that were submitted or approved and the sheet must be submitted for approval again. This option is only recommended when the correction requires that the original record be completely removed from the database.