Approving and authorising time
The difference between approving and authorising time, who may do what, and how the Approve/Authorise page works.
Time reported in Kleer goes through two steps before it becomes invoicing basis and a basis for salary: it is approved and it is authorised.
Approve and authorise
A time report has one of three statuses:
- Open. The time is saved but not approved. Only open time can be changed.
- Approved. The time is ready for authorisation. The employee approves their own week, and the line manager and project manager can approve it too.
- Authorised. The time has been reviewed and is locked.
Approving means that the time is ready. The employee does it with Approve on the week under Time records > Report time, see Time reporting for you as a user.
Authorising means that the time has been reviewed and may be used. Only then:
- does billable time become an invoicing basis, see Invoicing basis
- does the time become a basis for salary, when it is authorised per user
- is revenue booked on a fixed price project.
Whether time may be authorised before it is approved, and whether you may authorise your own time, is controlled by company settings that your Kleer consultant helps with, see Restrictions.
Who may do what
| Who | Approve | Authorise | Unlock authorised time |
|---|---|---|---|
| The employee | Their own time | No | No, but can unlock their own approved week |
| Line manager with access to time reporting | The time of their direct reports | Only with the role Manager | Only with the role Manager |
| Project manager | Time on their projects | Time on their projects, in the Projects tab | No |
| Roles with write permission on all time, for example Administer projects | All time | All time | Yes |
The line manager is set on the user under the Organisation tab, and the project manager on each project. The roles are described in Permissions in Kleer for companies.
The Approve/Authorise page
You reach the page under Time records > Approve/Authorise. The number next to the menu item shows how many time reports are waiting for authorisation. The menu item is visible to project managers, line managers and anyone with permission to see all time.
The tabs
- User. One row per person and period, with absence time, internal time, external time and total time, scheduled time and deviation, and whether the time is approved.
- My team. The same view, but only your direct reports. Visible to managers.
- Projects. One row per person and activity, grouped by project. This is where the project manager authorises the time on their projects. The tab only shows time that you may authorise.
A check mark next to the time shows that it is authorised. Hold the pointer over it to see who authorised it. To see the time report in detail, click the name and the personâs week opens.
The filters
Select a period, for example Previous week or Current month, or enter a start and end date. In the User and My team tabs you also choose whether the rows are shown per day, week or month.
You can also filter by project manager, project, group manager, customer, activity and name. If you have subcontractors there is also User type. The filters are kept in the address of the page. You can therefore save a filtered view as a bookmark or send the link to a colleague, who sees the same selection if they have permission to it. The back button takes you back to the selection you left. Clear all filters clears only the page you are on. If you switch company, the filters are cleared.
Approve, authorise and reject
- Select the rows with the check boxes, or all of them at once with the check box in the header row.
- Click Authorise, Approve or Reject at the bottom.
- Authorise. If there is time that has not been approved by the manager or project manager, you get a warning and can choose to continue.
- Reject. Sends approved time back to the employee, who can change it. If you write a message, it is sent as an email to the owner of the time report.
Many rows are authorised in the background, and you can see how far it has come. When it is done, you see how many time reports were authorised and whether any failed.
Unlock authorised time
Authorised time can be unlocked, so that it becomes open and can be changed again. This can be done by anyone with write permission on all time, and by a manager with the role Manager for their direct reports. Project managers cannot unlock.
- One week: open the week and click Unlock.
- Several time reports: go to Time records > Registered time, select them and click Unlock. If you write a message, it is sent to the employee.
Time that is already on a customer invoice, and time that is a basis for salary in a period where the salary is approved, is not unlocked. You get a message about what was skipped.