Timesheet Approval Process - 6.5.7

Owned by Noopur Varshney [AIO Tests]
Last updated: Oct 21, 2023 by Nisha Shantilal
4 min read

Reports and Timesheets for Jira and Appfire Timesheets for Jira add-ons, allow organizations to setup approval workflow for timesheets.

 

Enabling Timesheet Approval Process

  1. To enable Timesheet approval, go to Administration → Time Tracking Settings → Timesheet Approval

  2. A Jira Administrator can check the “Enable timesheet approval” checkbox and click on “Save” button to save the settings

    1. Duration after which approved timesheets cannot be reopened: specify the number of weeks after which no one can re-open the approved timesheets. If left blank, there will be no locking

    2. Allow users to re-open submitted timesheets, if the timesheet is pending approval: check this box if users in your organization can recall submitted timesheets before they are approved. If this isn’t checked, users cannot re-open their timesheets until it is rejected by the approver

    3. Allow users to ‘auto-approve’ their timesheets, if a timesheet approver is not assigned to them: check this box if you have users that will not have an approver but will still be submitting time (e.g. executives, vice-presidents, etc.)

Setting up Timesheet Approvers

After enabling timesheet approval, a new tab will appear on the Administration screen - "Timesheet Approvers".

  1. Add users who can approve timesheets by using the “Add Timesheet Approver” button

  2. Assign time entry users for those Timesheet approvers using the “Add users” button for each approver

  3. Add a backup Approver for situations like vacations or sick days using the “Add a backup” link. A backup approver will see the same submitted timesheets as the main approver and thus can approve on behalf of them

  4. Define timesheet administrators who can view timesheet status for all users under My Area → Timesheet Approval Queue → Team Status (useful for project managers, executives with no direct teams but would like an overview regarding how many users have submitted time and how many are still remaining)

There is also an organizational view, using which you can perform all the above actions.

Submitting Timesheet for Approval

After timesheet approval is enabled, users will see a button on the “My Timesheet” page to submit the timesheet for approval.

The button is displayed in the weekly view. Timesheets can be submitted for approval, one week at a time.

Once the timesheet is submitted for approval, it gets locked and cannot be edited by the user anymore.

If the setting for “Allow users to re-open submitted timesheets, if the timesheet is pending approval“ is enabled and the timesheet hasn’t been approved yet, then users can recall their timesheets using the “Withdraw submission” button.

A user can view the history of his timesheet submissions/withdrawals by clicking the history button.

Approve/Reject/Forward the Timesheet

The Timesheet approvers can approve or reject the timesheets from My Area → Timesheet Approval Queue. They can also forward the timesheet to some other user for review and approval. If a timesheet is rejected, it gets unlocked for the user to edit the time and re-submit for approval.

Once a timesheet is approved, it gets locked and cannot be edited via Appfire Time Entry interface.

  • The Past Approvals tab shows timesheets approved by the logged in user in the last 8 weeks

  • The Team Status tab shows status of timesheets for the selected period, overall team status and the direct reports status of the logged in user

Reporting on Timesheets

Once timesheet approval process is enabled, new fields related to timesheets will appear in the report designer under “Time Tracking (Worklogs)” section. These fields can then be added to the reports for reporting purposes.

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