Approving Timecards

Time Entry supervisors use the Time Entry approval page to process timecards for employees on a departmental basis. From the approval page, you can:

• List the daily total hours entered by employees in a selected department.

• Approve employee time based on your supervisor approval level.

• Reverse approval of an employee's time if you found an error.

• Access an employee's detailed timecard record for the week.

• Update your account password if needed.

Menu Path:  Human Resources > Entry & Processing > Time Entry > Time Entry > enter your Employee Number and Time Entry password > click OK

Time Entry Approval Levels

Time Entry supports a nine-level approval system where 1 signifies the lowest level and 9, the highest. Depending on your approval procedures, you might not ever see how these levels affect the overall process. However, if you do use a multiple level approval system, you should understand a few key points regarding how approval levels work.

Approval levels are assigned in two places: pay code records and your employee record. The pay code settings determine the approval levels needed for timecard approval. Your employee record setting determines the approval level you are able to apply to timecards during the approval process.

During timecard approval, the system compares your departmental approval level to the approval levels for pay codes from an employee's timecard. When you mark an employee's entries as A for approved, the system checks to see if your approval level is greater than or equal to the highest pay code approval level in the timecard.

If so, the timecard is fully approved. If your approval level is lower than any of the pay code levels, the system marks the employee's A/P field with your approval level number. In this case, the timecard is partly approved and still requires review from a higher level supervisor.

Example: Suppose your site uses a three-level approval process for timecard entries. The pay codes all have an approval level of 3. Meanwhile, you are assigned an approval level of 2 for the Time Entry department ADMIN.

When you access the ADMIN department for a pay week, you see several employees have already gone through the first level of approval. These employees have a 1 in the A/P field. You review the entries for an employee and replace the 1 with an A for approved.

In turn, the system compares your approval level to those stored in the timecard's pay codes. Since your approval level is lower than 3, the system places a 2 in the employee's A/P field. This indicates to the next supervisor that the employee passed the second approval level.

Recording approval decisions for a department's employees

1. Select Human Resources > Entry & Processing > Time Entry > Time Entry.

2. Enter your Employee ID and Password, and then click OK. If you are a Time Entry supervisor, the Time Entry approval page displays.

3. In the Department field, select the appropriate Time Entry department.
   If you are responsible for several departments, you might be able to access all employees through a single department code that links the smaller sub-departments. This depends on how your site's Time Entry Department table is set up.

4. In the Week Starting field, enter the date when the pay week began.
   Be sure to select the date based on the day of the week your site uses as the weekly starting day for Time Entry timecards.

5. Click OK. The Timecard Summary Information section lists the employees in the selected Time Entry department.

6. Review the employees' entries for the week in either Summary or Detail format:
   Summary - The Timecard Summary Information section shows each employee's total hours worked for each day in the pay week.
   Detail - To display an employee's timecard entries in Time Entry timecard page, access the employee's A/P field, and then click Employee Detail. The page displays entries for the pay codes selected by the employee and provides a detailed breakdown of the hours entered. You also can access any notes the employee may have saved by clicking Add/View Notes. To return to the Time Entry approval page, click Back.

7. Use the A/P field for each employee as follows:

   • Enter A (for approved) if the employee's entries are acceptable. If the employee requires a higher level of approval, the system displays your approval level.

   • If the employee's time was already approved at a lower level, the appropriate number displays in the A/P field. To record your approval, replace the number with an A.

   • To reverse approval for an employee's un-posted entries, refer to Unapproving Employee Time procedure below.

   • An A/P field entry of P (for posted) indicates the employee's time was already posted to a pay run.

8. When you are ready to save, click OK.

9. Select Yes in the confirmation dialog.

Reversing approval of an employee's timecard

1. Select Human Resources > Entry & Processing > Time Entry > Time Entry.

2. Enter your Employee ID and password, and then click OK.

3. In the Time Entry approval page, access the A/P field for the appropriate employee.

4. Remove the existing entry in the field, and then press <Tab> to display the Unapproval Codes page.
   The term unapproval refers to the act of reversing approval of an employee's timecard before it is posted to a pay run.

5. This step depends on the Unapproval field in the Time Entry Profile.

   • If the Profile field is set to C - Unapproval Codes, select a code in the Unapproval Code field. The reasons for reversing the approval default to the Reason 1 and Reason 2 fields from the Unapproval Code table.

   • If the Profile field is set to R - Specify Reasons, you cannot access the Unapproval Code field. In the Reason 1 and Reason 2 fields, enter the reasons for the reversal, using up to 50 characters in each field.

6. To save the reversal, click OK.

7. In the Save Unapproval Reason dialog, click Yes.

8. Notify the employee that the timecard must be corrected.

9. To print the timecard along with your unapproval comments, select Human Resources > Reports > Time Entry > Print Timecards.