Approving Time Sheets - DOL

To access other employee's time sheets, the user can select one of the following options from the navigation screen. 'Review Time Sheet' or 'Employee Time Sheets'.


Or

 

Select a Time Entry Location

A screen similar to the one shown below will be displayed:

Choose a 'Time Entry Location' from the drop down arrow.  A Central Payroll Officer (CPO) also has the option of selecting a specific employee to directly open the time sheet.   

Click 'Continue'. 


 

Approving Time Sheets  

No employee will be able to approve their own time sheet.  An agency Central Payroll Officer (CPO) or Approver will not see their time sheet displayed in the time sheet review.  Employee time sheets will need to be approved weekly for processing.  Week 1 approval is to provide time sheet information for DOL to import time and receive data.  Week 2 approval is for payroll processing to send time sheets to SCO. 

An approver may have employees that are in more than one TEL and require multiple approvals.  The employee's time sheet will remain as awaiting approval by approver until the last TEL with an outstanding approver has taken action on the time sheet.

 

To approve or disapprove a time sheet, click    or   above the employee's name.  There is also the option to Approve and Disapprove from within the time sheet.

Approve - will route the time sheet to the Central Payroll Officer (CPO) to await Week 1 or Week 2 processing for the current pay period.

Disapprove - will open a comment box that requires comments from the Approver or Central Payroll Officer (CPO) before sending the time sheet back to the employee for corrections.  If time permits, Disapprove should be used, however, if it is close to the time deadline or the employee is not available, the Approver or Central Payroll Officer (CPO) can make corrections on the time sheet.  When a time sheet is disapproved the following message is displayed 'The time sheet was disapproved and an e-mail has been sent.' Use this link for more details on the e-mail notify.

Create/View Time Sheet -To view the time sheet in detail or to make changes, click on the Create/View Time Sheet.  This will open the employee's time sheet where it can be viewed in detail or edited.  If no time has been entered for an employee and the Create/View is selected, a blank time sheet will open and time can be entered for the employee.

 

Inside the Time Sheet

Corrections or changes can be made to a time sheet until it is approved.

If the time sheet is not completed by the employee, the approver will see the navigation bar below:


 

If the time sheet is submitted by the employee, the approver will see the navigation bar below:

 

When 'Edit' is clicked, 'Comments' are required and the navigation bar below will be displayed:


Save - Saves what has been entered.  The time sheet can be re-opened for additional entries.

Submit - Submit the time sheet as it is and send to the Approver, Reviewer or the Central Payroll Officer (CPO).  After a time sheet has been submitted the employee will still be able to make changes until the review is completed or the time sheet has been approved. If someone other than the employee submits the time sheet on behalf of the employee the time sheet will have to be signed by the employee before they can move to the new pay period.

Reset - Will not save any current changes it will reset the time sheet to the last time it was saved.  If a time sheet has never been saved the time sheet will return to its original blank form. If the edit has been pressed the Reset will not put the signature back on the time sheet, it must be processed as if it had not been signed.

Approve – Approvers and Central Payroll Officers (CPOs) have the option to approve time sheets for the current pay period.  When a time sheet is approved it will be processed.  If the Approver approves a time sheet without the employee's signature, the employee must sign that time sheet before they can enter time for the next pay period.

Disapprove - Opens a dialogue box where comments are entered by the Approver or Central Payroll Officer (CPO) and sent to the employee for time sheet corrections.  If time permits Disapprove should be used, however, if it is close to the time deadline or the employee is not available, the Approver or Central Payroll Officer (CPO) can make corrections on the time sheet.  When you disapprove a time sheet you will get a pop up box that tells you 'The time sheet was disapproved and an e-mail has been sent'.  Use this link for more details on the e-mail notify.

Comments - Allows a user to add comments to the time sheet.

Edit - Allows a user to make changes to a signed time sheet.  A comment must be added before the time sheet can be edited.  The signature will be removed and the time sheet will have to be signed by the employee before they can move to the new pay period.

Cancel - Redirects the user to the screen/view they were previously on.

 

When the Approver or CPO creates and approves a time sheet on behalf of an employee, there must be a paper copy of the time sheet maintained at the agency for audit purposes with an employee's signature on it.  In the employee signature portion of the form it will say 'Signed by ##### - XXX on behalf of ##### - XXX with the date and time stamp'.

Approved time sheets.

After time sheets have been signed they will show Signed by "your name" and the date and time.

The status of these documents will show awaiting completion by the Central Payroll Officer (CPO). These time sheets are then ready to be processed for payroll or week 1.

 

Possible error messages during approval:

Approval failed! Activity code XXXXXX is not allowed for cost center XXXXX, entered on row X. Please edit time sheet and select new activity code.

This edit will display when Approve is clicked and only when the time sheet is not in edit mode. The approver or CPO will receive this message when an employee has coded time to an activity code that does not exist on the SQL tables for the employee's cost center. This situation would happen if the employee filled out their time sheet and submitted it for approval, but then DOL completely erased the cost center/activity code combination the employee had already submitted time in.

Approval failed! Time for activity code XXXXXX, entered on row X, is beyond the activity code's end date. Please edit time sheet and select new activity code.

This edit will display when Approve is clicked and only when the time sheet is not in edit mode. The approver or CPO will receive this message when an employee has coded time to an activity code after the activity code's end date. This situation would happen if the employee filled out their time sheet and submitted it for approval, but then DOL changed the end date of the activity code to an earlier date and now the employee's time is coded to an activity code after its end date.

Approval failed! Time for activity code XXXXXX, entered on row X, is before the activity code's start date. Please edit time sheet and select new activity code.

This edit will display when Approve is clicked and only when the time sheet is not in edit mode. The approver or CPO will receive this message when an employee has coded time to an activity code before the activity code's start date. This situation would happen if the employee filled out their time sheet and submitted it for approval, but then DOL changed the start date of an activity code to a later date and now the employee's time is coded to an activity code before its start date.

Use the links below for additional Information on:

Employee Time Entry- DOL

Correcting Time Sheets

Corrections after Time Sheets are Uploaded

Other Information:

I-Time User Roles

Reporting