Connecteam's Timesheet Approval process provides peace of mind by offering a more structured approach to payroll, making hectic and typically stressful days much more manageable. In this article, we'll detail some errors admins may encounter when they approve or have approved their employee's timesheets.
The types of errors you can have while approving timesheets are:
Error 1 - Payroll Period Isn't Over Yet
The first type of error you may encounter during the timesheet approval process is a pop-up warning that says "Pay period isn't over yet".
This means that you are attempting to approve your user's timesheet before the payroll period has ended. The warning informs you that once the timesheet is approved, the employee will be unable to clock in, and you will be unable to make any changes to it during the remaining payroll period unless you decide to reopen their timesheet.
You can either choose to Approve anyway or Cancel the approval of the timesheet and leave it open until the current payroll period comes to an end.
Error 2 - The Option to Approve Timesheets Does Not Appear
The second type of error that may be encountered is that you can't see the option to approve a user's timesheets, or it may be greyed out and unavailable. There are two possible reasons to explain and solve this: (1) you don't have admin permission to approve timesheets and/or (2) you are on a custom date.
Admin Doesn't Have Permission to Approve Timesheets
To quickly check if this is the reason why the option to approve timesheets does not appear, ask one of the account owners to do the following:
Access the Time Clock feature from the left sidebar
Click on Access clock
Then click on the Settings from the top right corner and navigate to the Payroll tab
In the payroll tab, you will find the "Timesheet approval" section. Make sure to review the sections Who can approve timesheets and Who can reopen timesheets and ensure that all relevant admins are selected.
Once the selection is made, click on Save Changes
Please note: only owners can change this setting.
Admin Is Viewing the Timesheets on a Custom Date and not a Payroll Period
If you have selected and are viewing the timesheets on a custom date, the "Approve Timesheets" option will not appear. Admins can only approve their user's timesheets if they are within the specific dates of the payroll period. Take a look at the images below to understand the difference.
On a Custom Date:
On the Payroll Period:
Error 3 - I Can't Edit My Employees' Timesheets
If you, as the admin, can't edit your employees' timesheets as usual, it may be because they have already been approved or the day has been locked. This is the third type of error you may encounter.
The timesheet has been approved - in this case, the approve button will be greyed out, but you can quickly fix this by reopening their timesheet. To reopen a user's timesheet, click on the three dots next to the "Approve" button and select Reopen, then an explanatory pop-up will appear, click on Reopen again.
You can now make all the edits you wish!
The day is locked - in this case, you can unlock it to edit it by hovering over the lock icon on the left side of the entry, clicking on it, and then clicking on Confirm unlocking.
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