Timesheet Approval
Overview:
This is the standard screen for approvers to do their weekly review and approval of each person's timesheet in their group(s). Most approvers should use this method, but administrators will find Timesheet Administration has more options available.
Employees will only be shown if you have the appropriate authorities given to your user. Your system administrator can configure the visible columns in Grid Management.
This screen has been enhanced with additional columns to show missing timesheets, employee number, etc.
Please Note: You cannot approve your own timesheets, even if you are the primary approver of your own Timesheet Group.
Screen Guide:
Initial List:
You can modify the default filters if needed (e.g. to review a past timesheet of a particular person), but the standard filters will show the current week. You can sort the columns by clicking on the column title - for example, if you want to see all completed timesheets first, click on the Completed column title to reorder the rows.
If the employee has not started a timesheet, their line will be marked as Missing. If the employee has created a timesheet but not entered all of their hours, you can see their Total in the last column.
Clicking on the person's name will navigate you to the detail of the selected timesheet.
Timesheet Detail:
The detailed timesheet header begins with the employee's name and employee number, and also contains a Choose Person field allowing the supervisor to search for a specific person.
Week Ending Date is the last day of the week of the selected timesheet. The arrow keys can be used to navigate forward or backwards by one week to review other timesheets for the same person.
Timesheet Day allows the selection of a single day, changing the view of the timesheet body. This is useful in situations where there are many lines, and you want to focus on a single day at a time.
Complete tickbox means that the timesheet has been marked as finished for entry, generally by the employee, and is ready to be approved. Completing a timesheet locks the timesheet for editing.
Approved is the tickbox that must be ticked in order to approve this timesheet for payroll processing. The timesheet must be completed before being approved, and you cannot approve your own timesheets.
Approval on Hold is a way to show that you have reviewed the timesheet, but are not ready to approve it pending questions or corrections. This will prevent the timesheet from being processed by payroll while showing them that the timesheet has been reviewed.
The body of the detailed timesheet shows the individual lines that have been entered. As the supervisor, you need to ensure that the employee has coded the lines correctly to match the desired work breakdown structure.
Tran Date is the transaction date of the individual line. There can be multiple lines per transaction date.
Fin Co is the Financial Company that the employee has used. This is only used in situations where there are multiple financial companies and can be hidden in Grid Management if not being used.
Job Code is the Job that the employee has designated that they worked on.
Activity is the Activity Code representing the type of work done, leave taken, or disbursement earned.
Time Code is a cost modifier and is usually required if visible, depending on how the activity was set up. This is commonly used for Normal Time, Double Time, Allowances, etc.
Work Centre is one of the Job's available areas of work. Only the Work Centres that have been assigned to the Job will be visible.
Quantity is the number of hours or allowances entered. A small blue pencil will appear to the left of the quantity when comments have been left for that time entry.
Duplicate creates a copy of the selected line to assist with rapid entry of timesheet lines.
The Bin icon is used to tick which lines are to be deleted, then clicking Save. You can select multiple lines for deletion at once.
Manager Approved is only used in conjunction with the Daily Approval feature. If the Job Manager has approved the employee's time on their job for each day, a tick will appear in this column. This should be hidden if not being used to avoid confusion.
Total Hours vs. Standard Hours represent the hours that were entered in this timesheet versus the standard hours for each day that were assigned in Users when creating this employee.
Variance is the difference between total and standard hours; giving a quick reference for hours that may have been missed or duplicated. The general idea is that the variance should be zero at the end of the week, unless there is overtime or other circumstances.
Print will produce a standard report for this employee's current week, which can be saved, emailed, or printed. The upwards arrow offers additional formats for the report.
Prev and Next will take you to the previous or next employee in the original list of employee timesheets to approve. This helps save time navigating backwards to the list, and allows you to go from one employee to the next to complete your week's approvals. The buttons will be grayed out if there is no previous or next employee.
Attachments is a place for the employee to attach various files for you to view, such as reports, emails, pictures, or medical notes. Clicking on this button will bring up the list of attachments.
Messages is an excellent place to communicate between yourself and the employee, keeping a log of communication within Workbench itself rather than by phone or email.
Copy Timesheet is a way to copy a previous timesheet into a new week, but it can only be used by administrators or the employee.
New Line allows an administrator to create a new line in the employee's timesheet, but is unavailable for primary approvers.
Save will commit the data entered to the system. If data is missing or is incorrect, an error will be displayed in red and the document will not be saved. You must save the timesheet after ticking Complete or Approve.
Back will return you to the Timesheet Approvals screen. If you have unsaved data, the system will prompt you to stay and save before changing screens.
Next Steps:
Once you have finished approving your group's timesheets for the first week, you may need to navigate to the next week if you have a fortnightly payroll.
Remember to approve any Expense Claims for employees if your company uses them.