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Time Log Approval

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Birdview Support
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Overview

Time log approval is a feature that employs a structured workflow for submitting, reviewing and approving time entries logged by project members.

The workflow includes consequently changing statuses of a submitted time log, selection of approvers, rejection handling and in-app notification indicators, all this to ensure that no time entry reaches  payroll or integration systems without proper sign-off.

The approval process involves three basic actors: time tracker/submitter, reporting manager (approver 1), project-level approver (approver 2). 

Actors involved

The table below summarizes actors involved in the time log approval process.  

Actor Definition Available actions 
Time tracker1 Any user assigned to project tasks with time-logging permissions. Log time, submit timesheet, correct and re-submit after rejection.
Project-level approver2 User selected in a project custom field, dropdown type (to be created in advance if not available, see a section below). Review, approve, or reject project time. Un-approve on request.
Reporting manager3 Assigned in the Reporting Manager field of each user's profile. Review full timesheet, approve or reject, un-approve if needed
1)
A project member who enters and submits time.
2)
Project member authorized to approve time on behalf of project management.
3)
As assigned to a time tracker in their user profile.

Time log statuses

Status Description Who can edit
Draft Initial state. Entry created but not yet submitted for approval. Time tracker
Submitted Awaiting approver's review. Time Tracker can no longer edit. Manager (Approve / Reject only)
Approved All required approvers have signed off. Entry is fully locked. Locked (Manager can unlock on request)
Rejected Both approvers have rejected the entry. Reason must be indicated. Entry is editable again. Time tracker

Approval workflow

Step 1 - Time entry created (Draft)

When a Time Tracker logs time on any task, the system creates an entry in Draft status. The user can freely edit or delete it at this stage.

Step 2 — Submission

When ready, the Time Tracker clicks Submit. As a result:

  • All Draft and Rejected entries are assigned the Submitted status.
  • Submitted time entries are locked for editing by the Time tracker.
  • Approvers are assigned: project-level approver (from the project's custom field, see below) and the reporting manager (from the user's profile).
  • The first approver is notified by email (sequential approval) or all approvers (initial or parallel).

Step 3 — Manager's review

The manager opens the Time Logs History page and selects the necessary filters, for example:

  • Status: Submitted
  • Approver: Current user

Step 3a — Approval 

Scenario How the system behaves
Initial or last approval (parallel or sequential)
  1. Entries are marked Approved. 
  2. The Time Tracker is notified. 
  3. Entries are locked for editing.
First of two approvers
  1. Entries remain Submitted. 
  2. Current approver is checkmarked, e.g.
  3. Next approver is notified.
Other approver already rejected
  1. No entry is approved. 
  2. No status change.

 

Step 3b - Rejection

When the manager clicks Reject, the system:

  • Prompts the manager for a mandatory rejection note.
  • Moves entries to Rejected status and stores the reason (message, manager name, timestamp).
  • Unlocks entries for the Time Tracker.
  • Notifies the Time Tracker via blue dot (top-right corner).

Important

Rejection cannot be done without a comment by the approver stating the reason for rejection.

Step 4 — Correction and Re-submission

The Time Tracker reviews the rejection reason, edits the entry, and clicks Submit again. The approval cycle restarts from the beginning for that entry.

Step 5 — Edit Request for Approved Entry

The step includes the following stages:

  • Manager changes the requested entry's status to Submitted
  • Time Tracker changes the entry from Submitted to Draft
  • Time Tracker edits the entry and re-submits.

Status workflow

As the time tracker or approver takes action time logs involved acquire new a status with a certain effect. E.g. when all approvers have clicked "Mark as approved" the time log get marked accordingly, its status changes to Approved and it is no longer available for editing. The table below summarizes status workflow and effects of action involved.       

From To Action Actor Effect
Draft Submitted TT submits time log Time Tracker Time log is locked for TT. Approvers are notified. 
Submitted Approved Both approvers approve time log Approver  Time log is fully locked. 
Submitted Rejected Time log is rejected Approver Time log is editable. TT is notified. 
Rejected Submitted TT edits and re-submits time log Time Tracker Approval cycle is restarted
Approved Draft Approver grants edit permission at TT's request Approver Time log is unlocked. Approval cycle is restarted.

Approver Assignment Rules

The table below presents that approver assignment patterns available for approval workflow.

Assignment pattern Result
PA and RM are specified as two different persons. 

Sequential  approval: the order is specified in the settings

Parallel approval: in any order  
PA and RM are the same person  Single step approval
Neither PA nor RM is specified Time log is marked as approved automatically

Time Log Approval Setup Sequence

1. Enabling

The approval workflow is turned on/off by a system-wide toggle in Company Settings.

To enable time log approval:

  1. Click through Company settings > Account settings > Advanced settings > Time tracking policy
  2. Select approval mode: Initial, Parallel, or Sequential.
  3. Select the approvers: 
    1. Reporting manager. See Company settings - Users (II) 
    2. User selected in a designated project dropdown custom field, see below.
  4. In case of sequential approval mode, the order of the approvers can be modified using drag-n-drop. Use the handle (Custom_field_handle_drag.png) for drag-n-drop.  
approvers_order_sorting.png

 

Note

When the toggle is off, time entries do not go through any approval process and the Draft / Submitted / Approved / Rejected statuses are not applied.

2. Create the project-level approver custom field

Birdview supports two types of approvers. 

  • Reporting Manger - an officer who supervises the work of the time tracker and specified in the TT's user profile
  • Project-level Approver - a senior member of a project for which the TT  logs time.

While Reporting Manager is a native field in the user's profile, the project-level approver requires a custom field of the project level and of the dropdown type. 

To create a global custom field, please refer to Company settings - Custom fields. For space custom fields, please see Spaces - Settings.

Once created, the field will appear in the project details and an approver can be selected for each project. In the example below the field is called Senior Project Manager. Erica Henderson will be the project-level approver for this project (for all project members), the other being reporting manager (their own for each project member). 

approvers_project-level.png

Note

Birdview will read the value of this field for each project to determine who is to receive notifications and act as project-level approver for time logs belonging to the project. 

3. Assign the project-level approver

To ensure approval works for every project, respective project managers (or an officer with access) assign a project-level approver, using the following steps:

  1. Open the project details.
  2. Locate the custom field to be used for selecting project-level approver. See the previous subsection.
  3. Click the field and pick a project member to act as approver. 

Important

If a project has no value set in this field, the system will treat the project as having no project-level approver and will only require Reporting Manager approval (or auto-approve if RM is also unavailable).

4. Assign Reporting Manager to each user

As the next step, a Birdview administrator assigns a reporting manager for each users whos time logs require approval. 

To assign a reporting manager:

  1. Click through Company settings > Users.
  2. Select a user profile.
  3. Click the Reporting manager field and pick a user to act as one.
  4. Click elsewhere. All changes are saved automatically. 

Note

Reporting Manager is a nominal position with no special access level attached to it. To be able to approve time logs, a user acting as reporting manager needs appropriate permissions.  

Submission procedure

With time approval enabled, to submit draft time logs, the time tracker takes the following steps:

  1. Open Weekly Time Logs.
  2. Add a timesheet as described here.
  3. Click Submit.

Note

Only draft time logs for the current week are submitted. To submit time logs of a particular week, navigate to that week using the week selector.    

Approval procedure

Depending on the type of approval selected―Initial, Parallel and Sequential―the approver takes the following steps:

  1. Upon receiving time approval notification, open Time Logs HIstory.
  2. Locate the filter Approvers. Enable it if not available.
  3. Select yourself on the filter to quickly filter out time logs to be approved.
  4. Use other filter as appropriate.
  5. Click multi-select_button.png to enable selection mode.
  6. Select the logs you wish to approve.
  7. On the batch operation panel above, click Mark as Approved > Mark as Approved.

Rejection procedure

Depending on the type of approval selected―Initial, Parallel and Sequential―the approver takes the following steps:

  1. Upon receiving time approval notification, open Time Logs HIstory.
  2. Locate the filter Approvers. Enable it if not available.
  3. Select yourself on the filter to quickly filter out time logs to be approved.
  4. Use other filter as appropriate.
  5. Click multi-select_button.png to enable selection mode.
  6. Select the logs you wish to approve.
  7. On the batch operation panel above, click Mark as Approved > Reject with message.
  8. Type in a reason for rejection.
  9. Click Reject.

Unapproval procedure

An approved or rejected time log can be reverted back to submitted by an approver at the submitter's request or some other reason.

To unapprove a time log:

  1. Click multi-select_button.png to enable selection mode.
  2. Select the logs you wish to unapprove.
  3. On the batch operation panel above, click Mark as Approved > Mark as Unapproved.
time_approval_batch_menu.png

 

Notifications

Notifications is a key element of time log approval. For one, when sequential approval is on, it is important that the approvers be notified in the same order they are listed in the approval settings, e.g. Reporting Manager first then the project-level approver. If the order is broken, approval will not go as expected as Birdview will not allow the last to approve before the first.

The table below summarizes who is notified and when:

 

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