Delaying payroll payments and timesheet approvals


With timesheet approvals, you can require your employees to submit their timesheets for approval before payroll runs, as well as delay your payroll for your team.

Note: Hubstaff’s timesheet approval feature is only available on Team plans and up. For more information on the differences between each plan type, click here.

Table of Contents


Delaying payroll

You can now delay automatic payroll. This will give you more time to review your employee’s work hours and approve or deny their timesheet before payroll is processed.

Step 1

To set your timesheet approval settings, go to your organization’s settings by clicking on Settings & Policies on the left sidebar, then select Features from the drop-down menu.

Settings Features

Step 2

Click on the Payments tab, then, you’ll need to specify the number of days you want the payroll to run by the end of the pay period (i.e. how many days you want to delay the payment) then hit Save.

As an example, if you’ve set a 2-day delay on your payroll, and the payroll is scheduled to run on April 19, the payroll payment would be processed on April 21st, at 9:00 pm UTC.

settings features payments 2


Setting up pay periods and requiring timesheet approval

When timesheet approval is enabled for your team, you’ll be required to review their timesheet before their payroll is processed. To enable this feature for members in your organization, follow this guide:

Step 1

Navigate to People > Members on the sidebar.

menu people members

Step 2

Under the payment column next to the member’s name, click the pencil icon. Alternatively, you can also click on the member’s name.

Delay1 020920236 1

Step 3

First make sure that the user has pay period, type, and rates set by following this guide. Toggle the Require timesheet approval setting to enable it, then hit Save Changes.

people members require timesheet approval 1

Alternatively, you can set this up when inviting a member into the organization. To do this:

Step 1

Go to the Invites page by clicking on People > Members and then selecting the Invites tab.

menu people members

Under the payment column next to the member’s name, click the pencil icon as shown below:

people members invites payment

Step 2

In the payment pop-up, set up the user’s Pay rate(1), Pay period (2) then toggle the Require timesheet approval setting to enable it, then hit Save.

members invites edit payment etails

Once timesheet approval is enabled for your users, payment details (pay periods, pay type, and pay rates) will sync with payroll automatically. If you haven’t set up automatic payroll in your organization, then here’s a guide that will help you set that up.

Timesheets are generated at 9am UTC based on the work week start day specified on the organization settings page.

Viewing, approving and denying timesheets

timesheets approvals menu

Team member timesheets can be found on the Approvals page, under Timesheets, located on the left sidebar. You’ll see how much time was logged and the corresponding activity levels within a specific pay period. There’s also a status column that will help you identify when a timesheet is open, submitted, approved, denied, or paid.

You’ll see the Actions button right next to a user’s timesheet which lets you view, approve, or deny the timesheet.

timesheet approvals actions menu

You can also deny or approve a timesheet while viewing it. Likewise, from the timesheets view, you can switch to a different user’s timesheet, by clicking on the previous timesheet or next timesheet buttons.

You can also click under the Screenshots column to see activity tracked during the pay period.

timesheet screenshots

When a timesheet includes a pending Time Off request, you’ll see an alert as shown below, in which case the PTO needs to be approved first before approving the timesheet:

timesheet pending pto

Once timesheets are approved or denied, they can no longer be edited.

Members can view additional detail on who can approve their timesheets, the history of their timesheets, and who submitted their timesheets by clicking on the Actions button right next to a user’s timesheet, which lets you view, approve, or deny the timesheet as shown above. Clicking on the View button and then selecting Details.

timesheet approvals details

You can toggle between the Approvers tab, which shows the members that can approve the timesheet, and the History tab, which has information on the actions performed on the timesheet.

approvers history

You can also view the name of the timesheet approver via the Approved tab, under the Approved by column as shown below:

timesheet approved by

Hovering over the approved by column will also display the date/time the timesheet was approved.

approved by time date

Team leads cannot approve their own timesheets – only users with either Owner or Organization Manager roles can approve them.

Submitting & un-submitting timesheets

To submit your timesheets, click on approvals, under timesheets, located on the left sidebar. Press the actions button to expose the submit or the un-submit (if applicable) button.

Organization owners, managers, and team leads (when timesheet approvals are enabled) can submit timesheets in behalf of users.

Submitting Timesheets

timesheet approvals actions submit 1

Un-submitting Timesheets

timesheet approvals actions unsubmit 1

 

Timesheets that are not approved will not get paid through payroll.
A user’s timesheet will get paid through payroll, without approval, when ‘require timesheet approval’ is not enabled on the members page.
When a timesheet is already approved or submitted, the user will no longer be able to log more time for that pay period.
When users delete screenshots, timesheet status changes to Open.
You can also view and export past timesheets by going to the timesheet approvals report.
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