What's the difference between timesheet approval and project authorisation?

TimeSite Pro supports two important timesheet management workflows:

• Approve a timesheet; and
• Authorise work performed on a Project.

Timesheet Approval

Timesheets can be reviewed and approved typically by a manager or team supervisor, or by a payroll manager or accountant. This approval is to ensure that the timesheet is an accurate accounting of the work performed by the employee during the week or payroll cycle. The approver is normally checking to see that all client-related work performed, leave taken and other staff activities such as training are recorded in the timesheet, that the duration specified is reasonable, and that employee time recording obligations are met. 

For companies that invoice based on timesheet records, it is particularly important that client-related work is accurately recorded with regard to both actual time taken to perform a task and the billable time to be used for invoicing. The approver may also be checking that comments are complete and sensible particularly if they form part of the supporting details that accompany the invoice. 

If any of these details is not accurately recorded, then the approver has the option to return the timesheet to the employee and request that it be corrected and resubmitted. 

In some cases, the employee getting paid in part of in full may depend on receiving an accurate timesheet that can be quickly approved. 

Timesheet approvals are considered to be a business-internal process. The timesheet approver will have secure access to TimeSite Pro to complete this approval workflow. 

Many companies will specify that only approved timesheets can be used for payroll and invoicing purposes. Therefore the approval status of the timesheet will be visible at the point at which these details are transferred to the payroll system or used to create an invoice. 

Authorisation of Work Performed on a Project

In some organisations, project managers and site supervisors may be required to authorise work performed for their project or on their worksite. These people may be staff working for a client or third party. In addition, they are only interested in timesheet information relating directly to their project or site. 

TimeSite Pro's Authorisation workflow enables an email to be sent to a nominated individual with details of work performed by each timesheet resource user. The recipient can then log into TimeSite Pro and use the Authorisation screen to indicate their authorisation (or otherwise) of this work. If there is any question or problem with the timesheet information provided, the project manager can also contact the employee submitting the timesheet or their manager to request a correction. 

The timesheet approver is aware of the status of all pending authorisations and may decide delay approval while all authorisations are received or questions sorted out. In other situations, the timesheet may be approved for payroll purposes, but invoicing delayed while the outstanding authorisation followed up.