Locking Employee's Timesheets for Payroll

Give chosen admins the ability to approve and lock days on employee's timesheets, so they are ready for payroll and cannot be edited.

Amir Elharar avatar
Written by Amir Elharar
Updated over a week ago

One of the advantages of using our powerful Time Clock is that you can accurately track your employees' working hours and know exactly what you are paying them for. Having a proper payroll approval process helps ensure payroll accuracy, monitor labor costs, and offers peace of mind when doing payroll.

Furthermore, while using our powerful Time Clock, specific admins can be given the ability to lock days on the timesheets. Meaning you are requiring them to go over the hours and approve them by locking those dates.

A locked day means that an admin with the relevant permission went over the hours for that day and approved them for payroll. Locked days cannot be edited unless first unlocked by an admin with unlocking permissions.

In this article we will cover:

How to Enable Locking Under the Time Clock Settings

Let's break it down into a few simple steps! In order to enable day locking in your timesheets, simply:

  • Step 1: Head over to the relevant Time Clock and click on "settings".

  • Step 2: Under the settings, head over to the "General" tab and toggle on "enable day locking".

  • Step 3: Select which admins you wish to grant the ability to lock days in the timesheets and which admins you wish to grant the ability to unlock days in the timesheets.

GIF of adding admins to timesheet locking in the Time Clock on Connecteam's admin dashboard

Please note: Locking days permission and unlocking days permission aren't the same thing. You can assign different admins to be able to lock days, and different admins to be able to unlock days. These permissions are controlled separately, so you can give team managers the ability to lock and approve dates, but keep the unlocking permissions for admins who deal with payroll.

How to Lock Days Through the Time Clock in the Dashboard

After enabling day locking in the settings, you can head over to the Timesheet's tab under the Time Clock and access an employee's time card.

After accessing a time card, you can choose either to:

  • Lock individual days

  • Lock days in bulk

Locking Individual Days

To lock specific days, simply hover above the relevant day, a lock symbol will appear and you'll be able to lock that day.

GIF of locking day in a timesheet in the Time Clock feature on Connecteam's admin dashboard

Locking Days in Bulk

Don't have the time to lock each day individually? You can lock entire timeframes in bulk! In order to do so, simply access the relevant time card, select the relevant days you wish to lock at the top of the screen.

Next to your set dates, a lock will appear, simply click on it and you're good to go! You've locked the whole timeframe with a single click.

GIF of locking days in bulk in the Time Clock feature on Connecteam's admin dashboard

How to Lock Days Through the Admin Tab

Admins with permissions can also approve and lock days from the admin tab on their mobile phones - meaning you can review users timesheets on the go!

On mobile, enter the admin tab and access the Time Clock. Under the "Timesheets" view and lock days individually or in bulk. Let's go over these steps below.

Locking Days in Bulk

To lock in bulk, enter the time sheets and select the relevant user.

Then set the relevant date range you would like to lock, select the 3 dots in the upper right corner and a menu will appear - simply select lock all days.

GIF of locking days in bulk in the Time Clock feature on Connecteam's mobile app

Locking Individual Days

To lock specific days, enter the time sheets and select the relevant user.

Select the day which hours you would like to lock and then select the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner, a menu will appear, select lock day and press confirm.

GIF of locking a day in the Time Clock on Connecteam's admin dashboard

How Locked Days Appear From the User's Point of View

Once the current day/period has been locked, the employee won't be able to clock in again until the next day.

Furthermore, users cannot submit edit requests for locked days.

Screenshot of how locked day appears for a user in the Time Clock on Connecteam's mobile app

Summary

In this article we've went over the optional ways for admins to lock employee's days in their timesheets, in preparation for payroll.

Want to learn more about preparing for payroll? You can learn all about it here!

Need more guidance? 🙋 Our LIVE support team (at the bottom right corner of your screen) replies to ANY question.

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