Time Approvals

 
Default Account Permissions: Account Administrator, Report Viewer with Cost, Report Viewer, or Project Lead

Overview

With Kantata's time approval functionality, members with Project Lead Account Permissions (or higher) can access the Time Approvals page where they can view and approve time. Who can approve time is dependent on Project Permission levels, Access Group permissions, project settings, and account member settings.

From the top-right corner of the page, you can choose in the Group By drop-down whether you would like to look at timesheets for specific Projects or Personnel. The people and projects that appear will vary based on whether you are a time approver, a manager with time approval access, or someone with Report Viewer (or higher) Account Permissions. For more information, see Which Timesheets Appear on the Time Approvals Page.

When grouping by Personnel, the Time Approvals page allows you to view Submitted, Unsubmitted, and Rejected timesheets from tabs with the corresponding names. Depending on the state of the submission, you can view the timesheet, private message a user who submitted time, and either approve or reject the timesheets. You can also directly message those who still need to submit time, reminding them to do so.

On the Time Approvals pages, you can search for specific people or projects and use the following filters to narrow your view:

• Only Pending—Shows only timesheets that are pending approval.
• Your Approvals—Shows only the time that you’re responsible for approving based on being a designated approver in a project or a manager that is allowed to approve time.
• Include Archived Projects—Shows archived projects as well.
• Filter by Group Name—Visible only on the Project view, shows timesheets for projects included in a group.

Who Receives Time Approval Notifications

To receive time approval notifications, you must opt in on the Notification Settings page. Once opted in, a specific hierarchy determines who receives a timesheet approval notification.

Notifications are sent to people based on their roles in the following order:

• Managers—A direct manager receives the notification if they are responsible for approving time for that individual. These notifications are sent whether they can approve all time for their direct reports or they are only allowed to approve time for specific projects.
• Designated Time Approvers—If no manager is allowed to approve the submitter's time, notifications are sent to the designated time approvers listed in the project settings.

• Project Administrators—If there are no managers that can approve time and designated approvers are not listed in the project settings, the notification is then sent to all Project Administrators in the project.

  Note: Unless Designated Time Approvers is activated on the Early Access page, people with View or Edit Financials Project Permissions will also be notified about time approvals when Project Administrators would be notified.

While people with Account Administrator, Report Viewer, and Report Viewer with Cost Account Permissions can approve time—whether or not they are participating in a project that is open to them—they will not receive notifications for time approvals unless any of the criteria above is also met. For more information on time approval access for these Account Permission levels, see Designate Time Approvals.

Which Timesheets Appear on the Time Approvals Page

While anyone with Project Lead Account Permission can access the Time Approvals page, the information that appears there depends on the following:

• Account Permission—Report Viewers and Report Viewers with Cost can view all projects that they're participating in, as well as projects that are Open to Organization Members or Open to All Account Members. Account Administrators can view projects that they're participating in, projects that are Open to Organization Members or Open to All Account Members, and projects that are Open to Admin Only. For more information, see Designate Time Approvals.

• Project Permissions—People with View Financials and Edit Financials Project Permissions can view timesheets for those projects.

  Note: When the early access feature Designated Time Approvers is activated, people with View and Edit Financials are not able to view those projects, unless they have time approval access via another method.

• Manager Settings—Managers can view projects for their direct reports if they are allowed to approve their time for those projects. They may be allowed to approve all time for their direct reports or they may be allowed to approve time only for specific projects from within the project settings.

  Note: When grouping the Time Approvals page by Personnel, all of your direct reports that you are allowed to approve time for will appear when you select the Your Approvals checkbox, whether they have submitted time for the project or not.
• Project Settings—People who are designated approvers on projects will see those projects. If a project allows managers to approve time for their direct reports in that project, managers will also be able to view those projects.

Anyone with Report Viewer (or higher) Account Permissions can select the Your Approvals checkbox to filter to only the projects and personnel that they are responsible for approving time for. Once selected, they will only see projects where they have been added as designated approvers or projects that their direct reports are in (if they are allowed to approve their time).

How to Approve Submitted Time Entries

1. Hover over Time & Expense on the left navigation and select Time Approvals.
2. On the Time Approvals page, use the Group By drop-down menu to select whether you want to view time submissions by Personnel or Project.
   
3. Click the forward (“   ”) and back (“   ”) arrows, or click the Calendar (“   ”) icon to view past and future time. You can return to the current week by clicking the Today button.
   
4. Use the Search field to look for a particular member or project and filter by group name (depending on how the time entries are grouped via the Group By menu).
5. Select the corresponding tabs to view Submitted, Unsubmitted, and Rejected time entries.

6. You can send a private message (“   ”) to the member who submitted time, view the timesheet, and either approve (“   ”) or reject (“   ”) the time entry using the associated buttons to the right of a pending time entry.

   TIP: When you group Time Approvals by Project, you can send private messages to users who have not submitted time by clicking the Message (“   ”) icon in the Actions column of the Unsubmitted tab.

7. If you have more than one timesheet to approve, you can quickly approve them all at once by clicking the Approve all on this page button.
   

   Note: The Approve all on this page option is only available when Personnel is selected in the Group by drop-down. If you don’t have permission to approve your own timesheets and any appear in this list, they are not approved when you click Approve all on this page.
8. Submitted time will also appear in the project Activity Feed and can be approved or rejected from there. If you would like to see the original time entry from the Activity Feed, simply follow the blue timesheet hyperlink.
   

How to Edit or Delete an Approved Time Entry

Once time is approved, it is considered locked and ready to add to an invoice. If you need to edit or delete an approved timesheet, you can reject it to make it editable again. There are two ways to reject approved time entries:

• Group the Time Approvals page by Project, and click on the project that contains the time entry you're rejecting. Find the time entry and click the Reject Approved Timesheet (“   ”) icon in the Actions column.
  
• Hover over the top-right of the notification in the project Activity Feed and click Reject this approved timesheet when it appears.
  

After the timesheet is rejected, it can be deleted, edited, or resubmitted.