---
title: "Timesheet software with manager approval workflows — Clock Clerk"
description: "How timesheet approval works in Clock Clerk: monthly filings, a queue scoped to each manager's clients and projects, send-back with a reason, locking, the backlog of missing sheets, and reminders. Limitations and plans included."
url: "https://clockclerk.com/features/timesheet-approvals"
---

Timesheet approvals

# Timesheet software with manager approval workflows

Approval is the step that makes hours billable and payable. In Clock Clerk a manager approves each person's month, sees only the work they are responsible for, and the approved hours cannot be changed underneath them.

[Start free trial](https://app.clockclerk.com/signup) Which plan includes it

Thirty days of the Team plan, no card.

The problem

## An approval that does not lock is only a suggestion

In many time trackers approval is a status on a week: anyone can still edit the hours, a manager sees everybody's time whether they manage them or not, and a week that crosses a month end is approved once for two accounting periods. Approval workflows also tend to sit on a higher plan, priced for every manager who uses them.

Meanwhile the real work is chasing. Somebody has to know who has not filed, remind them, and not remind the person who was on leave or had not started yet.

How Clock Clerk handles it

## Approve a filing, not a person

### A filing per person, per month.

People fill in a week at a time and submit it; the sheet files by calendar month, so a week that straddles a month end is two filings with their own status. The approvals screen shows them as a pipeline, from draft to approved or sent back.

- **Approve or send back**, one at a time or the clean weeks in bulk. Sending back reopens the month with the reason on the sheet and emails it to the person.
- **Approved hours are locked.** Days in an approved month cannot be changed, moved or deleted until it is reopened.
- **An empty week can be filed** as "I did not work", and is flagged so it is not approved in bulk.

Every plan, Free included

### Each manager sees their own people's work.

A manager reviews the lines on the clients and projects they were granted; lines on anything else are withheld. Finance and administrators review everyone. Behind the queue, a backlog counts what is pending and who is missing.

- **Nobody reviews their own week.** Only an administrator approves their own, because nobody ranks above them.
- **Missing means expected.** People before their start date, after their end date or not yet signed in are not counted.
- **Remind all** is one press on any plan; Team adds scheduled Friday, month-end and Monday backlog emails, and a weekly digest for reviewers.

Limitations

## What it does not do

The workflow is deliberately simple: one reviewer decides each filing. These are the things it does not do.

- #### One approval step

  A filing is approved once. There are no multi-level chains, such as a lead and then a partner. Contractors' months have a second step: a countersignature and finance approval.
- #### Monthly filing only

  People submit week by week, but approval is by calendar month. Weekly or fortnightly pay periods cannot be configured.
- #### No email when approved

  A person is emailed when a filing is sent back, not when it is approved; the sheet shows the approval.
- #### Approvals stay out of the audit log

  Each week keeps its own trail of submissions and send-backs, and who decided it and when. The organization's audit log records sign-ins and changes to access and settings, not timesheet decisions.

Plans

## Which plan includes it

The approval workflow is not a premium feature: the queue, the backlog, send-back and locking are on every plan, Free included, and approvers are never charged.

| What is included | Free | Starter | Team | Enterprise |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $0 | $3 per filer / month | $6 per filer / month | Talk to us |
| Approvals per filing, with send-back reasons | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Backlog of pending and missing filings, and Remind all | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Reviewers, administrators and finance readers | Free, within the 3 | Free | Free | Free |
| Friday, month-end and backlog reminders | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Weekly digest for reviewers | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Contractors: monthly protocols, countersigning and payment | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |

Reviewers, administrators and finance readers are free on every plan; Starter and Team charge only for the people who log hours that month. [Compare plans in full](https://clockclerk.com/pricing.md)

Questions

## Asked while evaluating

**Do managers and administrators cost more?**

They cost nothing. Only the people who log hours in a month are billed, and at one price whatever their role. A manager who approves, an administrator who runs the organization and a finance lead who only reads the reports are free, however many you have.

**Can someone fix a mistake after approval?**

Their reviewer reopens the month, the person corrects it and submits again. An hour that is already on an issued invoice or a contractor's submitted month cannot be reopened until that document is voided or returned, and the refusal names it.

**What happens at a month end mid-week?**

The week is cut where the month is. Each part has its own status and its own submit, and locking follows the days, so the new month stays typable while the old one is being approved.

## Sign off the month and know it stays signed

Thirty days of the Team plan, no credit card required. When the trial ends, your data stays and stays readable. Start with your work email and set a password from the link we send you.

[Start free trial](https://app.clockclerk.com/signup) [See the whole product](https://clockclerk.com/index.md)

Evaluating something else?

[Project time tracking](https://clockclerk.com/features/project-time-tracking.md) [Engineering firms](https://clockclerk.com/solutions/engineering-firms.md) [Timesheet invoicing](https://clockclerk.com/features/timesheet-invoicing.md) [Active-filer pricing](https://clockclerk.com/pricing/active-filer.md)