Importance of Timesheet Approval

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Recording and approving work hours for employees is a significant process for every organization. Previously, people used old school methods like spreadsheets, punch cards, or paper documents. But these methods had their own disadvantages and were time-consuming.

Today most of the businesses have started using a Time tracking software. Using an efficient software for tracking employees time, helps to record accurate work hours, and smoothens the payroll processing. It also has its own benefits like accurate time tracking, tracking progress for projects, improved work transparency, and a smooth approval process.

Timesheet Processing:

The below image shows the timesheet lifecycle:

 

1. At a given point in time, a user may work on different projects.  After finishing the work for the day, the user fills up the timesheet by selecting the project they have worked on, the work details, and the number of hours.
2. At the end of the week, the user submits the timesheet to the supervisor/manager.
3. The supervisor validates the timesheet by checking the work details, the number of hours worked, and project completion status.
4. After validation, the timesheet is either approved or rejected and further sent for payroll processing.

Apart from filling up a timesheet, approving timesheets is also very crucial for invoicing clients and compensating employees properly.

Why is Timesheet Approval important?

 

• While working on a project, it is crucial to keep an eye on what your employees are working on.
• A proper approval process is a must to compensate employees accurately. Additionally, without an appropriate approval process, things would go wrong with incorrect billing to clients, the improper record of time entries, project completion, and work allocation.
• A company also invests in projects and employees. In the absence of an efficient approval system, the employees will be either overpaid or underpaid. In addition, the billing to clients may not be accurate, which will amount to huge losses to the company.
• An approval process is also important to find out work discrepancies. During approval process, if the managers find that a task is taking too much time or a project is not on the right track, then they can allocate more resources or labor to complete that project on time.

How does the Approval process in timesheet work?

While setting up the timesheets, the Administrator sets up the automated routing or the workflow process. It is organized is such a way that when the user submits the timesheet, it is automatically routed to the managers inbox.

Typically a manager can see the list of all the timesheets in their inbox with a Submitted status.

Timesheet submission: Every organizations have guidelines where users are suppose to fill up the timesheets everyday with the projects and work details. At the end of the week, they need to submit the timesheets to the concerned manager.

Approve or Reject Timesheets: The managers can see the submitted timesheets in their inbox. Once they verify the work details, they can approve or reject the timesheets.

Approved timesheets are sent further for payroll processing, while rejected timesheets are routed back to users with comments from the managers. After making necessary corrections, the user can again resubmit their timesheets for further processes.

Who approves the Timesheets?

Generally, the manager, supervisor or team leaders are the people who approve the timesheet for their team members.

How long does the Timesheet approval take?

Once the workflow is set the submitted timesheets are directed in the manager’s inbox. So typically approving timesheets should not take more than one day.

Why should the employees get the timesheets approved?

Most of the employees payroll depends on the number of hours logged in the system, overtime and on the number of time offs they have taken. Unless these number of hours are validated, the timesheet will not move forward for payroll process.

Apart from payroll processing, getting timesheets approved will give the managers an overview of number of hours spent on a project, project status, employee performance and productivity.

Why use Online Timesheet software?

Nowadays, there are multiple Online Timesheet software available that automate most of your work process.

Using a timesheet software will help to:

• Keep track of what your employees are working on.
• Record accurate work hours spent by employees on a project.
• Increase accuracy in billing and invoicing the clients.
• Automate the timesheet approval process.
• Reduce paperwork and waste of time.
• Analyze project actuals and budget, and employee work summary with Reports.
• Evaluate team performance and determine employee efficiency and productivity.
• Identify discrepancies while working on a project, accordingly managers can take corrective actions to speed up work.

How OfficeClip will help to create a workflow for Timesheet Approvals?

The Timesheet approval automation process needs to flow smoothly to save time and get validation for timesheets quickly.

OfficeClip Timesheet has a multi-level workflow process for approval, where the approver validates the timesheet entries and makes a decision on whether to approve/reject the timesheets.

This process ensures that the work is carried out as per the company policy and also ensures proper invoicing and billing.

OfficeClip has two types of routing:

Manual Routing: In this routing, users can submit the timesheet to any concerned authority in the organization. When the user submits the timesheet, they have to select an approver from the dropdown list and submit it.

Automated Routing: This  type of timesheet approval routing is set up by the Administrator and has up to three levels of automated routing.

Once the user clicks on the submit button, the timesheet is automatically routed to the approver. If it is a two-level routing, when the first approver approves the timesheet, the timesheet is automatically routed for the final approval.

Rejected Timesheets are routed back to the user with the comments.

The Administrator can also set up the communication options, where the user will receive notification for approved or rejected timesheets.

The benefits of the OfficeClip Timesheet automated approval process are:

• Multi-level approval system.
• Accurate billing of Invoices.
• Reduces payroll errors.
• The approver can review the timesheet details within no time, and approve or reject the timesheets.
• There is a feature to add comments while approving or rejecting timesheets. In case of rejected timesheets, the employees can discuss the matter with higher management. 
• Timesheets can also be created, submitted, and approved/rejected through a Mobile app.
• The users can also view their timesheet approval history through Reports.
• Users receive notifications for approval or rejection of timesheets.

With changing times, it is essential to automate some of the processes to save time and money. If you are looking for a solution to accurately manage employees’ time accurately and automate workflow approval process, then get started with OfficeClip Timesheet.

Other Recommended Articles:

• Timesheet everything you need to know
• What are the best practices for tracking time?
• How will a Time-tracking software increase productivity?

 

Note: This blog was originally published in 2020, and has been updated.