Approving Time Sheets
How owners and managers review and approve team member time entries before payroll.
Approving Time Sheets
Before running payroll, owners and managers can review and approve their team's time entries. Approved hours are locked from editing until an owner or manager explicitly unapproves them.
Professional Plan Feature
Time entry approvals are available on the Professional plan and above.
How It Works
Simple Time uses a straightforward three-step approval model:
- Workers log time — via the weekly grid, clock in/out, or the mobile app. No extra "submit" step is required. All logged time is automatically visible to managers.
- Managers approve — select employees and a cutoff date, then approve completed payroll clock entries through that date.
- Owner confirms payroll — after paying employees, mark those entries as permanently locked.
The approval totals use payroll clock hours. Job-time rows are excluded, and unpaid breaks are deducted.
Approving Time Entries
- Navigate to Approve Time Sheets in the sidebar.
- In Step 1 · Approve time sheets, review each employee's completed entries, total payroll hours, work-date range, and any unusually long clock entry warning.
- Set Approve work through to the last day of the pay period.
- Check the box next to each employee you want to approve. Use Select All to approve everyone at once.
- Click Approve selected.
All completed, unapproved time entries for the selected employees up to that date will be approved.
What Happens After Approval
- Approved entries move to Step 2 · Approved — awaiting payroll.
- Approved entries are locked from editing.
- Owners and managers can select an employee and choose Unapprove to send those entries back for corrections.
- Owners can confirm selected employees after payroll is complete.
Making Corrections
If you spot an error in an approved entry:
- In Step 2, select the affected employee.
- Set Apply to work through to include the entry.
- Select Unapprove.
- Correct the employee's timesheet.
- Approve the corrected entries again.
Tip
Review timesheets regularly — ideally at the end of each pay period — so corrections can be caught before payroll runs.
Approval States
| State | Grid Indicator | Who Can Edit | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unapproved | (none) | Worker, Manager, Owner | Time has been logged but not yet reviewed |
| Approved | * | Nobody until unapproved | Reviewed and waiting for payroll |
| Confirmed | Lock icon | Nobody | Payroll confirmed — permanently locked |
Activity Log
The bottom of the approval page records approval and payroll-lock batches. Each event shows who performed the action, the employees included, work-date range, clock-entry count, total hours, and any unusually long entry warning.
Next Steps
Once time sheets are approved, you can confirm payroll to permanently lock those entries after your team has been paid.