Delaying payroll payments and timesheet approvals in Hubstaff

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.

Table of Contents

• Managing timesheets
  • Delaying payroll
  • Setting up pay periods and requiring timesheet approvals
  • Viewing, approving, and denying timesheets
  • Adjusting timesheets
    • Adding new timesheets
    • Editing past timesheets
• Submit timesheets
  • Submitting & un-submitting timesheets

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.

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.

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 21, at 14:00 UTC.

Setting up pay periods and requiring timesheet approval

When you create an organization, you’ll be asked for the default setting for timesheet approvals as shown here:

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 of your organization, follow this guide:

Navigate to People > Members on the sidebar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Another option would be via the Settings page:

Navigate to Settings > Features > Timesheets.

Go to Timesheet approvals. On this page, you can change the default organization setting to require timesheet approvals and set the pay period, or change individual settings.

Viewing, approving, and denying timesheets

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.

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.

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:

Members can view additional details 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.

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.

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

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

Adjusting timesheets

Adding new timesheets

To add new timesheets, follow the instructions below:

Navigate to the People > Members menu on the sidebar, then under the payment column next to the user’s name, click the pencil icon.

Toggle the Require timesheet approval button, choose a Pay Period, and then hit the Save Changes button.

Click on the Create past timesheets button.

You’ll be shown the past pay periods that the system will automatically create for you. Click the Submit button to continue.

Once done, you’ll see the timesheets created under the Timesheets > Approvals section.

Editing past timesheets

Navigate to the People > Members menu on the sidebar, then under the payment column next to the user’s name, click the pencil icon.

Click on the Edit timesheets button.

Define the start and end dates for the timesheet you wish to create. The system will show you one or more timesheets that will be created (or changed) based on your defined dates and pay period type. Click the Submit button to continue.

You’ll receive a message that the timesheets were successfully generated and they will be visible under the Timesheets > Approvals section.

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.

Submitting Timesheets

Un-submitting Timesheets