Timesheets

Finance → Timesheets is where a manager runs the week: everyone's hours and where each week stands, whether or not the person has submitted it. Whether approval is also the gate for billing is your choice: under System → Finance settings → Time and expenses → Invoicing time, time can be invoiced once it is approved (Approved time only), or as soon as it is logged (Any logged time). A client can have its own choice — see Which time can be invoiced.

Where time comes from#

People log time throughout AspirePro — against tasks, tickets, and projects — and submit their week from My work. Once a week is submitted (or approved), it is locked: nothing can log more time into it — not a form, the timer, a ticket status timer, a calendar event, or Prox — until a reviewer rejects entries or reopens the week.

A timer that is still running holds its week open: the week can't be submitted or approved until the timer stops. Stopping or pausing a timer always works — if its week was locked in the meantime, the time is kept as an entry logged after submission, which the reviewer sees on the week. A manager can also stop someone's timer from their week (Stop {name}'s timer); the person is told. A timer still running 24 hours after it started is stopped automatically at the 24-hour mark (one entry is never longer than a day), and its owner is told to correct it.

An overnight entry (10:00 PM to 6:00 AM, say) belongs entirely to the day it started, so it counts in that day's week. If the next morning falls in a week that is already submitted, that week doesn't change and the entry still goes on the earlier week. The review grid shows these entries with a +1 day tag, and flags an overnight entry that overlaps the next morning's work even when that morning is in the next week.

People and weeks#

The default view is a grid: one row per active person, one column per week (the last four by default — switch to 8 or 12, and step back and forth with the arrows). Each cell shows the hours logged that week and where it stands:

Filter by person (search), team (team membership, from System → Teams) and state. Click any cell to open that person's week — submitted or not. Click a name to open their latest week shown.

Status list is the second view: one row per submitted week, filtered by status (waiting approval, changes requested, approved, all), person and week range.

Approving several weeks at once#

Tick the weeks you want — in the grid, Waiting approval cells have a checkbox; in the status list, the waiting rows do — and choose Approve N weeks in the table header. Only weeks that are waiting are approved. Anything else is skipped and the message says why: your own week (see below), a week with a timer running, or one that is no longer waiting. Each approval is audited and the person is notified, exactly as if you had approved it on its own.

To see the hours themselves rather than the weeks — every entry, submitted or not, by stage, with what is ready to invoice — use Time entries. You can approve or reject submitted entries from there too.

Reviewing a week#

A week opens on the same grid the person sees on My work → Timesheet: one row per piece of work, one column per day, with the expected hours from their work schedule. Every entry whose day falls in the week is listed — including one logged after the week was submitted. Expand a row to see its entries; click one for its detail (time, duration, deductions, overlaps, notes, whether it is billable and whether it is already on an invoice). Entries saved twice (same work, start and length) are badged Duplicate? and time dated after the person's today is badged Future date; long days show in amber over 12 hours and red over 14.

Days and times are the person's own: each entry sits on the day it started in their time zone, and its start and end show in that zone (the header names it). See My work → Times and days.

Use the arrows beside the status to step to the person's previous or next week.

What you can do#

Which buttons appear depends on the week's state and your permissions (see Permissions).

• Approve week — approves every entry in the week that isn't rejected and locks it. Add an optional note for the person. For a week that was never submitted, Approve week submits it for them and approves it in one step. Entries logged after the week was submitted can only be approved by someone with Manage timesheets; with Approve timesheets alone, the person resubmits first.
• Reject — select entries (or open one) and send them back with a reason. With Reject selected, the rest of the submitted week is approved; rejecting a single entry from its detail leaves the others as they are. The week becomes Changes requested and the person is notified. An entry already on an invoice can't be rejected — remove it from the invoice first.
• Approve an entry — from an entry's detail. The week closes as approved once every entry in it is.
• Submit for them — submits a week the person never submitted, on their behalf. The same rules as their own submit apply: an empty week can't be submitted. A week with a rejected entry can't be submitted or approved for them — the fix is theirs to make. They are told, and so are the other approvers.
• Reopen week — unapproves an approved week, with a reason the person sees. Every approved entry goes back to open so they can change it and submit again — except entries already on an invoice, which stay approved (the dialog lists them). If every entry is on an invoice there is nothing to reopen. If a payroll export already covered the week, the dialog says when and asks you to confirm — reopening changes approved hours after payroll.
• Remind to submit — sends the person a notification: "Please submit your timesheet for the week of Sep 22." (or, for a week with changes requested, to fix and resubmit). One reminder per person, week and day.

A week with changes requested#

A week can't be approved while any of its entries is still rejected — approving it used to leave those entries stuck, rejected inside a locked week. The page lists what is outstanding and Approve week stays disabled. The person fixes the entries and resubmits (or you can remind them); then you approve.

Your own week#

You can't approve, reject or reopen your own week unless your role has Approve your own timesheet — another approver reviews it. A one-person firm, or an owner with nobody above them, gives their role that permission (the built-in Admin role has it).

Permissions#

Manage timesheets includes Approve timesheets, which includes View all time.

People with View all time and Manage time workflows (included with Manage timesheets) also see a Time workflows button at the top of this page. It opens the rules that remind people who haven't logged time and tell the right person when time is logged or edited. See Time workflows.

Notifications#

People are notified when their week is approved, when entries are rejected, when a manager submits or reopens it for them, and when they are reminded to submit. Approvers are notified when a week is submitted. Each can be switched off under Account → Notifications.

Every action on someone else's week is written to the audit log with who did it and for whom.

What approval unlocks#

For a client that bills approved time only, approved billable entries that haven't been invoiced yet (and that the client's agreement doesn't cover; see Time an agreement covers) become work in progress (WIP) — the unbilled value you'll pull onto an invoice. That is why time can be missing when somebody goes to bill such a client: Quick invoice only offers its approved hours, and says underneath how many are still waiting on you — approve them and they appear.

For a client that bills any logged time, billable time is WIP from the moment it is logged, approved or not. Timesheets still work alongside: people submit, you approve, and payroll still counts approved hours only.

Non-billable time is approved too (it matters for utilization and reporting) but is never charged for. If you switch on no-charge lines, it can go on an invoice as a $0 line so the client sees the work was done.

Rejected time is never invoiced, whichever rule a client follows.

Time that is already on an invoice#

An entry can be invoiced before its week is approved when its client bills any logged time. It stays in its week:

• The review grid badges it Invoiced, and it can't be rejected — the client is being billed for it. To send it back, remove it from the invoice first.
• Approving the week approves it as normal.
• Reopening the week leaves it approved.
• Nobody can edit or delete it while it is on the invoice. Removing its line from the invoice, or voiding the invoice, unlocks it again.

If Timesheet Approvals is switched off#

With Timesheet Approvals off (System → Features), nothing can be approved, so any logged billable time can be invoiced — the Invoicing time setting shows Any logged time and is locked until the feature is back on.

One deliberate exception: Profitability counts time as soon as it is logged, not when it is approved — a margin that only appeared after Friday's approval run would be permanently a week stale. Rejected entries never count. The computation-basis panel on the Profitability page says how many hours in the window are still awaiting review, so you can see how much a margin could still move.

On your dashboard#

The Timesheet status widget shows last week and this week: how many people haven't submitted (and their hours), how many weeks are waiting approval (and their hours), and how many are approved. Each line opens this page filtered to that week and state. It is part of the Team Utilization and Profitability Watch templates, and a new dashboard for an approver starts with it while Timesheet Approvals is on. See the metrics catalog.