Overview of Reviewing and Approving or Rejecting Time

When a time sheet is submitted, time approvers must review and approve its lines. One time sheet can have different approvers for different lines.

When all the lines on a time sheet become approved, the time sheet status is Approved and the time sheet is available for post-approval processing (freezing and closing). If any lines are rejected, the resource who entered the time must rework those lines and resubmit them.

This section details the procedures that managers and designated approvers use to approve time. Approvers can take the following actions for time sheet lines they are authorized to approve or reject:

  • Review time sheet lines on submitted time sheets. Reviewing a time sheet line leaves its status as Submitted.

  • Approve submitted time sheet lines so that they can be frozen and closed. Approved time sheet lines have a status of Approved.

  • Reject submitted time sheet lines so that they can be returned to their resources for edits or other types of rework. Rejected time sheet lines have a status of Rejected.

Note: Administrators with the appropriate access grants can configure time sheet policies that allow time to be approved automatically when it is submitted. For more information, see the Time Management Configuration Guide.

Determining Time Approvers

Time Management determines (derives) the approvers of the time sheet lines on a time sheet whenever the time sheet is saved (or saved and submitted).

Only people who are identified as time approvers (or their delegates) and who also have the Time Mgmt: Approve Time Sheets access grant can approve a time sheet line representing a work item. Default time approvers can be configured for individual resources (users), as described in the Time Management Configuration Guide. In fact, time approvers are determined several ways, depending on the work item type, and they are derived according to priorities described in the Time Management Configuration Guide in connection with configuring resources.

Whenever multiple approvers can approve submitted time (for example, when the resource's time approver is a resource group, or when a delegator and the associated delegate can approve a resource's time), only one of the approvers needs to approve or reject the submitted time.

For information about viewing all approvers and the transaction history for a time sheet, see View approvals/transactions details.

Delegation

Time Management has the concept of delegation, where one person, the delegator, temporarily assigns his or her own duties and responsibilities to another person, the delegate. Typically, people in management positions delegate review and approval authority for their time sheets to others, with specific start and end dates (for example, to cover upcoming vacations).

If a delegate has the correct licenses and access grants, which are not inherited from the delegator, the delegate can do the following on behalf of the delegator:

  • Create, edit and submit time sheets

  • Approve and reject submitted time

  • Freeze and close time sheets

Note: The delegate of a delegate cannot act on behalf of the delegator. For example, if resource A is the delegator of resource B, and resource B is the delegator of Resource C, then only resource B can act on behalf of resource A. Resource C cannot act on behalf of resource A.

A manager has implicit delegations, such as the ability to edit the time sheets of direct reports, if the manager has the Time Mgmt: Edit Time Sheets access grant.

Resources for whom a delegate logs time must have licenses for Time Management.

After a delegate is specified, the delegator can still perform all the same actions as the delegate.

When you search time sheets, Time Management presents the time sheets that meet your filter criteria and for which you are the delegate of a resource, as well as other time sheets as described in Searching Time Sheets.

For more information about delegation, see the Time Management Configuration Guide.