Project Tracking (Timesheets)
The Timesheet and Timesheet Settings modules are used to track time spent on clients, projects, subprojects, and/or tasks.
Timesheet Settings Module
Use the Timesheet Settings module to configure the formatting and behavior of users' timesheets.
The Timesheet Settings module allows you to define the behavior of your employees' timesheets, reminders, approval workflow, etc., and to activate SOX reports or DCAA compliance.
The module can be found in the Settings screen, but you can also use it on individual company or employee pages if they require a unique configuration.
Tracking Time and Submitting Timesheets
You can record hours on a desktop using the daily, weekly, or monthly view. Depending on your company's timesheet settings, you may use the timer, enter a start and end time, or enter a duration. To submit a timesheet click the button "Send for approval".
Please check our other documentation pages to read more about tracking and submitting time on a desktop and on a mobile device.
Approving, Rejecting, and Locking Hours
Timesheets are approved, rejected, locked or unlocked with the Approval module. The module is available to administrators, team leaders, and project managers by default.
Administrators can approve, reject, or lock anyone's hours.
Team leaders can approve or reject the hours of anyone on their team.
Project managers can approve or reject any hours tracked on the projects that they manage. A project manager with no projects assigned to them will be able to approve or reject hours on any project.
Only administrators can lock and unlock hours.
NOTE: Absences requested using the Time Off module will also appear here and can be checked and approved or rejected in the same way described below. Check our documentation for more information about tracking time off.
Click on the date range shown at the top of the module to modify the visible timeframe (week, month, quarter, year, or a custom timeframe). Click the arrows to move backward and forward in time.
Hours are organized into tabs based on their status: Draft, Submitted, Approved, Rejected, and Locked. If a tab doesn't appear it means there are no hours currently with that status.
Click the arrow to the right of a person's name to see an overview of their hours. Click on the grid icon to get a more detailed view. The customer, project, task, total hours, billing total, and billing rates will be displayed.
In the case of multiple currencies, amounts will be consolidated to the currency configured for that user's company.
Companies, projects, and rates are all clickable and will lead you to the respective pages.
Select the people, dates, groups, etc. that you want to apply an action to using the checkboxes on the left hand side. In this way, you can approve, reject, lock, or unlock hours for a single person or multiple people at once. To apply an action to all people, check the box at the top of the module.
Submitted hours can be approved or rejected using the "Approve" and "Reject" buttons. Submitted or approved hours can be locked and unlocked using the "Lock" button. This is a useful feature if you want to prevent hours that have already been billed from being edited.
If you have email notifications activated in your Timesheet Settings module:
When an employee submits hours an email notification will be sent to the administrator, team leader, or project manager who is responsible for approving them.
When hours are rejected an email notification will be sent to the employee. When rejecting hours, you can add a comment or reason for the rejection, which will be included in this email.
You can also use the Approval module to send reminders, update costs and billing of hours, mark hours as non-billable, and submit timesheets on behalf of others.
To send email reminders to employees to submit their timesheets, select the employees from the Draft tab and click on the "Reminder" button. You can also configure automatic email reminders in the Timesheet Settings module.
Sometimes there may be a change in a billing rate or cost after an employee has already recorded or submitted hours. To apply an updated billing rate or cost to existing hours, select the hours and then click the "Update billing" or "Update costs" button. The "Non-billable" button will set the billing rate on the selected hours to 0. Billing and cost information and totals will be automatically updated, including in reports and exports. You cannot change the rate or cost of locked hours.
Finally, if you have the necessary permissions, you can submit hours on behalf of an employee. Just select the hours in the Draft tab and click the "Submit" button.
How to Motivate Your Team to Submit Their Timesheets
Here are our top tips for encouraging employees to consistently track their time
Team Overview of Time
Administrators and team leaders can use the Team Calendar module to get a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly overview of all hours tracked by their team. The module can be added to the home screen by clicking "Customize" in the top right corner and dragging and dropping the module anywhere on the screen.
For team leaders, the module will show all members of their team by default. People can be added to the module using the dropdown menu and removed by clicking the "X" beside their name. Clicking on a person's name will take you to their page.
You can change the time period shown by clicking on the date in the top left corner. Hover over a box in the calendar to see more detailed information about the hours tracked by that person on that day.
Downloading Timesheets
You can download timesheet data by clicking Download your data in the Account module, available in the Settings screen. Just use the dropdown menu labeled "Download the list of..." and select the type of data you would like to download. Our settings documentation contains more information about downloading your data, including audit trails.