Designate Time Approvals

Overview

Kantata expedites the time approval process by allowing the following people to approve time:

Account Administrators have the ability to approve time for projects that they're not participating in and that are Open to Admin Only.

When approving time from the Time Approvals page for projects they’re not participating in, Account Administrators are automatically added to the project as a Project Administrator. To prevent this action from occurring, you need to make the project private in project settings by selecting Invite Only in the Privacy section.

If you want Account Administrators to be notified about time approvals, you can add them as time approvers in projects. To automatically make Account Administrators time approvers in new projects, create a custom Access Group with the Project Administrator permission selected for Designated Time Approvers. For information on setting up these permissions, see How to Automatically Add Project Participants as Designated Time Approvers.

They will also receive time approval notifications for their direct reports if they are a manager with time approval settings selected. For information on selecting these settings, see How to Allow Managers to Approve Their Direct Reports’ Time on a Specific Project or How to Allow a Manager to Approve All of a Direct Report’s Time.
 

Report Viewers and Report Viewers with Cost can approve time for projects that they're not participating in and that are Open to Organization Members or Open to All Account Members.

When approving time from the Time Approvals page for projects they’re not participating in, Report Viewers and Report Viewers with Cost are automatically added to the project as a Project Administrator. If they are a manager and the Manager approves time setting is checked for their direct report in the Account Member side panel, the manager is added to the project at the Edit Financials permission level when time is submitted. To prevent these actions from occurring, you need to make the project private in project settings by selecting Invite Only in the Privacy section.

If you want Report Viewers and Report Viewers with Cost to be notified about time approvals, you can add them as time approvers in projects. To automatically make Report Viewers and Report Viewers with Cost time approvers in new projects based on their Project Permission level, make the desired selections in the Report Viewer and/or Report Viewer with Cost default Access Groups. For information on setting up these permissions, see How to Automatically Add Project Participants as Designated Time Approvers.

They will also receive time approval notifications for their direct reports if they are a manager with time approval settings selected. For information on selecting these settings, see How to Allow Managers to Approve Their Direct Reports’ Time on a Specific Project or How to Allow a Manager to Approve All of a Direct Report’s Time.

Managers are always notified about time approvals if they have access to approve all time for a direct report or just access to approve their time in specific projects. When a manager's direct report clicks Submit for Approval on a timesheet and the manager has time approval access, the manager is automatically added to the project.

To approve all time for their direct reports, managers must be given Manager approves time access in the account member settings. For information about granting this access, How to Allow a Manager to Approve All of a Direct Report’s Time.

If managers should only approve time for specific projects, they should not be given access via account members settings. Instead, the Allow managers to approve time option in the project settings should give this access to all managers in the project. For information about granting this access, see How to Allow Managers to Approve Their Direct Reports’ Time on a Specific Project.

Account Administrators can also choose in the time & expense account settings whether managers are allowed by default to approve time on projects for their direct reports. Project Administrators can modify the project setting if desired.

Backup approvers can be designated to approve time during a specified date range, which can be useful if the original approver is out of the office. They also are added to a project if a timesheet is submitted during the period they are designated as a backup approver.

For information about adding backup approvers, see How to Schedule Backup Approvers.

Project Administrators can always approve time for their project members, however, these timesheets will not appear when the Your Approvals filter is selected on the Time Approvals page and they will not receive time approval notifications unless there are no designated time approvers for a project or managers that have permissions to approve time.

You can automatically add Project Administrators as designated approvers via the Designated Time Approvers Access Group permissions. If a Project Administrator has an Account Administrator Account Permission, they will need to be given this permission in a custom Access Group. For information on setting up these permissions, see How to Automatically Add Project Participants as Designated Time Approvers.

You can choose specific project members to approve time in a project. Having more than one person responsible for time approvals guarantees that your workflow won’t grind to a halt if one time approver is unavailable.

To automatically add people as designated approvers based on their Project Permission levels or if they are a Team Lead, use the Designated Time Approvers Access Group permissions. For information on setting up these permissions, see How to Automatically Add Project Participants as Designated Time Approvers.

When Designated Time Approvers is not activated on the Early Access page, project members with View or Edit Financials Project Permissions can approve time for their project members, however, these timesheets will not appear when the Your Approvals filter is selected on the Time Approvals page. They also will not receive time approval notifications unless there are no designated time approvers for your projects or managers that have permissions to approve time.

When Designated Time Approvers is activated on the Early Access page, people with View or Edit Financials permissions cannot approve or reject timesheets. You can still grant time approval permissions by automatically adding project participants with those Project Permission levels as designated approvers via the Designated Time Approvers Access Group permissions. For information on setting up these permissions, see How to Automatically Add Project Participants as Designated Time Approvers.

When deciding who should be responsible for approving time, you should assign people who have a comprehensive understanding of the work that is being tracked. For example:

• If a user tracks time across multiple projects, their manager may have a better understanding of the work they are doing.
• If a user is tracking time against a single project, then the Team Lead may be the best person to approve time. This is because the Team Lead is generally also the project manager and these individuals commonly understand the project requirements.

When time is submitted, the Your Approvals box on the Time Approvals page allows each designated time approver and manager who can approve time to view all time that they are responsible for reviewing. For information on approving time, see Time Approvals.

If you don't designate a time approver in the project settings, managers who can approve time and Project Administrators may still receive a notification and can take action when time is submitted. For more information on the hierarchy for time approval notifications, see Time Approvals.

Designated Time Approvers [Early Access]

Previously released in January 2026, the Designated Time Approvers feature is now available on the Early Access page. This feature will remain on the Early Access page for several months before it generally releases, giving you an adjustment period to adopt new processes before time approval permissions are removed from people with View or Edit Financials Project Permissions.

When this feature is activated, the only people who can approve time are Time Approvers, Project Administrators, or managers with time approval access. To avoid disruption with your time approval processes, make sure that approvers are set using one or more of the following methods:

• Project Settings—Add Time Approvers
• Access Group Settings—Automatically add Time Approvers based on Project Permissions
• Account Member Settings—Allow a direct report’s manager to approve all of their time
• Project Settings—Allow a manager to approve time for their direct reports only on specific projects

When this feature is activated, account members with Project Lead Account Permissions can also select the Your Approvals checkbox on the Time Approvals page. When this feature is not activated, only account members with Report Viewer (or higher) Account Permissions can select this checkbox.

How to Allow a Manager to Approve All of a Direct Report’s Time

This time approval method allows managers to approve time for all projects their direct report is participating in. To allow manager approval only for specific projects instead, see How to Allow Managers to Approve Their Direct Reports’ Time on a Specific Project.

1. Hover over Settings in the left navigation and select Members.
2. On the Account Members page, select the member you’d like to assign a Manager to.
3. In the Account Member side panel, select the Organizations tab.
   

4. Select an option from the Manager drop-down menu. Your selection automatically saves.
   

   Note: To be a manager, an account member must have Report Viewer (or higher) Account Permissions.
5. Select the Manager approves time checkbox. Your selection automatically saves.
   

How to Allow Managers to Approve Their Direct Reports’ Time on a Specific Project

This time approval method allows managers to approve time for their direct reports only on specific projects. If desired, Account Administrators can even select an account setting that allows this checkbox to be selected by default for newly created projects. To allow manager approval for all of a direct report’s time instead, see How to Allow a Manager to Approve All of a Direct Report’s Time.

1. Hover over Projects in the left navigation and select a project.

   Note: You can also follow this same process when creating a project. Instead, click the Add (“   ”) icon in the left navigation, enter a Project Name, and jump to step 3.
2. In the project workspace, click the Actions (“   ”) icon located to the right of the project name and select Settings.
   

3. On the Project Settings page, scroll down to the Approvals section.

   Note: If you don't see the Approvals section, scroll to the Financials section and make sure that the Time entries must be approved before invoicing setting is activated.
4. Select the Allow managers to approve time checkbox.
    
5. When finished, click Update Project in the top-right corner of the page.

How to Allow Specific Project Participants to Approve Time

This time approval method allows Project Administrators to add project members with View Financials (or higher) Project Permissions as time approvers. For information on automatically adding people based on their Project Permission level, see How to Automatically Add Project Participants as Designated Time Approvers.

1. Hover over Projects in the left navigation and select a project.

   Note: You can also follow this same process when creating a project. Instead, click the Add (“   ”) icon in the left navigation, enter a Project Name, and jump to step 3.
2. In the project workspace, click the Actions (“   ”) icon located to the right of the project name and select Settings.
   

3. On the Project Settings page, scroll down to the Approvals section.

   Note: If you don't see the Approvals section, scroll to the Financials section and make sure that the Time entries must be approved before invoicing setting is activated.

4. Select the Time Approvers from the drop-down menu.
   

   Note: When the Designated Time Approvers feature is not activated on the Early Access page, people with View and Edit Financials Project Permissions cannot approve time without being added as a Time Approver. Project Administrators can approve time by default, whether or not they are set as a Time Approver. To be added as a time approver, an account member must have View Financials (or higher) Project Permissions.
5. When finished, click Update Project in the top-right corner of the page.

How to Automatically Add Project Participants as Designated Time Approvers

This time approval method allows Account Administrators to automatically add people as designated time approvers in their projects using the Designated Time Approvers Access Group permissions. Approvers are set when Access Group members are added to the Provider side of projects based on their Project Permission level or if they are set as the Team Lead.

1. Hover over Settings in the left navigation and select Access Groups.
2. On the Access Groups page, select the default Access Group or the custom Access Group that you’d like to modify.
3. Scroll down the Time Management set, then select Edit.
    

4. In the Time Management Access Group set, scroll down to the Designated Time Approvers section and select the checkbox for each Project Permission level that you would like to be added as designated time approvers:

   • Project Administrators
   • Edit Financials
   • Edit Financials and Provider Lead
   • View Financials
   • View Financials and Provider Lead

   

5. When finished, click Save in the top-right corner of the page. Moving forward, Access Group members will be automatically added as Time Approvers in the project settings when you create new projects, add people to existing projects, or make changes to the Project Permissions of existing projects.

How to Schedule Backup Approvers

This time approval method allows an Account Administrator to designate one or more backup approvers to approve time during a specified date range, in the event the original approver is out of the office.

1. Hover over Settings in the left navigation and select Members.
2. On the Account Members page, select the member you’d like to assign a backup approver for.
3. In the Account Member side panel, select the Organizations tab.
    
4. In the Timesheet Backup Approvers table, select an approver from the list.
    
5. In the from and to fields, enter the date range that the backup approver should be approving time, then select Add. The backup approver appears in the table, showing the date range that they will be an active backup approver.