Submit time & expenses for approval

Users can submit their weekly, monthly and semi-monthly timesheets and expenses for approval. As an Admin/Team manager, you need to review these submissions to verify billable hours and project expenses before approving them for client invoicing. 

To submit expenses for approval, you need to activate Expense tracking in the workspace settings. This way, when you submit tracked time for the approval, tracked expenses will also be submitted for that time period and vice versa. 

Submit time for approval #

Regular users #

Regular users can submit their time via Time tracker or Timesheet.

To submit time in Time Tracker:

1. Open the Time tracker page
2. Choose pending entry you’d like to submit for approval
3. Click Submit for approval
4. Click Submit to complete the action

To submit time in Timesheet:

1. Open the Timesheet page
2. Choose time period you’d like to submit for approval
3. Click Submit for approval at the bottom right corner of the page
   
4. Click Submit in the pop-up window to confirm the action
   
5. Click Submit to complete the action

Edit pending requests #

If a timesheet or expense request is already submitted and is still Pending, you can modify existing entries or add new ones for that same date range without needing to submit a new request.

Add time entry to pending request (Timesheet) #

If you add new time entries or expenses to a period that has already been submitted for approval, you can choose whether to include these new items in the existing pending request or keep them separate.

1. Go to the Timesheet page
2. Click Select Project to add a new task
3. Enter the duration on the day column
4. Click Submit Changes

The existing request will be automatically updated to include the new entry.

Add time entry to pending request (Time Tracker) #

To add new time entry to a pending request in the Time Tracker page:

1. Go to Time Tracker
2. Shift to manual mode by typing m or clicking the note icon (above the timer)

3. Add the task description, project, date, start time and end time
4. Click Add
5. Scroll down to the time range of the new entry
6. Click Submit changes
7. Click Submit to confirm the action

The new time entry should have a light orange checkmark just like the other pending items.

Edit rejected entries #

You can edit rejected entries in Timesheet or Time Tracker and submit the changes or save them for later.

1. Go to Timesheet or Time Tracker
2. Edit the rejected entry
3. Click Submit for approval
4. Click Submit on the pop-up window

Admins & Team managers #

If you’re an Admin or Team manager, you can also submit time in Approvals page. 

Do that in the following way:

1. Go to Approvals page
2. Choose Unsubmitted tab 
3. Click on three dots and Submit
   
4. In Submit for approval popup click Submit to confirm the action

Submit expenses #

Added expenses appear in the Expenses page.

To submit expenses for approval: 

1. Click the Submit button above the Expense label you have created 
2. Submit for approval confirmation screen appears with the specified timeframe and the expenses
3. Click SUBMIT

Submitted expense that has not been approved yet has a Pending approval tag.

If you hover over the Pending approval tag, you’ll see the name of the user who submitted the Expenses. By clicking on Withdraw pending, you can withdraw the approval. If you do that, an Admin or Manager won’t be able to approve time and expenses unless you send it again.  

Admins can edit pending expense approvals. Team managers can perform this action for their team members.

Add expense to pending request #

You can add a new expense to a pending expense request.

1. Go to Expenses
2. Click Add Expense
3. Enter the details of your expense
4. Click Create
5. Click the Submit changes link at the top the table
6. Click Submit on the confirmation window

Your new expense should now be added to the other expenses previously submitted for approval.

Bulk submit for others #

Submit multiple unsubmitted timesheets from other users at once and improve the approval process.

To bulk submit timesheets for others:

1. Go to the Approval page and choose the Unsubmitted tab
2. Check the boxes next to the timesheets you’d like to submit
3. Check the box at the top of the column to select all timesheets in that submission period
   
4. Click Submit to confirm the action in the popup window

Withdraw approval request #

In case a mistake, or correction is needed, you can withdraw the submission.

To withdraw your approval request:

1. Go to Time Tracker
2. Click Withdraw pending
3. Click Withdraw to complete the process

Locked dates

• CAN submit timesheets
• CAN’T edit time since entries become permanently locked once approved

Owner/Admin

• Submit timesheet for any user 

Team manager 

• Submit timesheet for their team members 

Submit time on mobile app   #

You can also submit time on the mobile phone via Clockify’s mobile app.