Submit and approve timesheets before payroll
With approval on, a day reaches payroll only once someone has checked it. Whoever signs the crew out submits the shift’s timesheet when everyone is out; it locks, and the approvers approve it or send it back with a reason. It is off until you turn it on.
Step 1: Turn it on, and choose who approves
Open Menu → Payroll and tap Edit.
- Under Timesheet approval, turn on Timesheets need approval before payroll.
- Who approves: People who run payroll (suggested), The department’s manager, The manager, then payroll, or People you choose (at least one).
- Remind the approver after: 4 hours to 3 days (1 day to start). Then tap Save changes.
The owner and admins, or whoever can change the rules, change it. A department with its own Timesheets before payroll rule (Menu → Departments → Approvals) follows that rule instead.
Step 2: Submit the shift’s timesheet
When everyone is signed out, open the shift’s Timesheet. Submit for payroll is under the table.
- Ready to submit, with the people, hours and overtime. Check the hours.
- Tap Submit timesheet, then Submit to payroll.
Until then it says Not ready to submit, with what is left: someone still on shift, someone not signed in (sign them in or mark a no-show), or extra time waiting for an OK. Whoever signs the crew in and out at that job site submits it, and so does the shift’s crew lead.
Step 3: While it waits
It locks, and the approvers are told. The timesheet says Submitted. Times are locked while payroll checks it.
- Waiting for payroll (or Waiting for approval), and who was told. You get a notice when it is approved or sent back.
- Found a mistake? Tap Take it back to fix it: it opens again, and the approvers are told.
Step 4: Approve it, or send it back
Approvers get a notice and a red count on the Timesheets tab.
- Waiting for your approval lists each timesheet, with who submitted it. Open one.
- Worth a look: extra time and who approved it, no-shows, late sign-ins, notes, and punches sent from a phone with no signal. Tap a name to fix a time yourself: you are asked why, and it is kept in the history.
- Approve makes the hours final, and payroll counts the day. Send back asks what to fix, and opens it again for the submitter.
Step 5: Sent back: fix it and submit again
- Sent back to you, with who sent it back and why. Tap a name to change a time.
- Then tap Submit again, under the table.
It goes back to the approvers, from the first step.
Good to know
- The owner and admins can always approve. Submitting a timesheet you may also approve counts as approving that step: with The manager, then payroll, a manager’s own submit goes straight on to payroll.
- Approvers only see and decide the timesheets of the departments and job sites they reach. The card and the review show names, times and hours, never pay.
- While it waits, only its approvers, the owner and admins change a time, with a reason kept in the history. Once it is approved, payroll, the owner or an admin can still change a time, with a reason.
- Until a shift is approved, the payroll summary and Download timesheets leave its hours out and list it. On the last day of a pay period, the people who run payroll are told about timesheets still waiting.
- Workers see Waiting for approval or Approved on each day they worked, in Pay, and are told when their hours are approved. Clients you share timesheets with see the same two words, never who submitted it or why it was sent back.
- Turned off, payroll counts each day as soon as it is done. Every plan has it, and Chief of Staff can tell you what’s waiting for your approval.