Reviewing time entries

Timesheet vs time entry

A Time entry is a distinct block of time recorded against a timecode for a project.

A Timesheet is a collection of time entries by an individual, against one or many projects as well as their leave and holidays in a period of one week. Timesheets reflect the effort that an individual has put in towards a project or projects, and may contain mixture of billable and non-billable time entries.

Both time entries and timesheets can be reviewed or approved independently. The reviewing of time entries being a PM function, and timesheets more of an HR function. These can be done by different people.

Reviewing time entries

Because time entries on a timesheet are typically used as the basis of invoicing a client, it is valuable to be able to review the entries to ensure the correctness of data entered. A typical use case is a Project Manager having access to review time entries for the projects they are managing, or a line manager reviewing time entries against internal meetings. However, access to review time entries can be added to any role.

You can add a column to show if an entry has been reviewed or not from the Hide/show/group selector.

To access the review function either navigate to any of the time entries screens either in the main Time section, a project, a person as well as the timesheet itself. If you have been granted the access to mark time entries as reviewed you may do so in the three horizontal dots as well as using the bulk action checkboxes..

Project > Time Entries

Time Entry Review Project time entries location-1

Time > All Timesheets

Time Entry -Timesheet

Time Entries > Bulk Action

Time Entry -Bulk

Obviously only do this if the time entry appears accurate - marking a time entry as reviewed will prevent that entry from being edited by anyone - the entry is essentially locked and cannot be changed on a time sheet.

If a time entry needs to be changed it can simply be marked as NOT reviewed, edited, then marked as reviewed again.

Tip: Use the date picker and group by function to sort the data in the way that makes most sense. A great use case is to select "last week" and then either group by person or project.

 Tip: Use the group show/hide/group option to organise the time entries on a screen to make it quick to review them. You can even group the time entries into reviewed and not reviewed.

 

Administrators:

By default, the review time entries option has been enabled for the Admin and Project Manager user roles in your environment. To edit the ability to review time to a role, go to: Settings > Users > Access Levels

Select the role you are wanting to edit and tick or untick “Can mark as reviewed” against the Time project setting.

Troubleshooting

If you don’t have access to review time entry make sure the appropriate access level has been granted. There’s three different levels to allow or prevent access to review time entries:

  • All projects

  • Organisation projects

  • Assigned (project manager) project settings

These settings follow a hierarchy where All Projects trumps Organisation Projects, which in return trumps Assigned Project.

Additionally, access can be configured to only review direct reports' time entries rather than everyone’s.

In other words if you do not have access to review time entries that you expect, it is worth checking what your configured access level is and adjust appropriately.