Edition: Business, Enterprise
User-level: System Administrator
Timesheet approvals will assist you in keeping track of the time and expenses that your staff enter against projects. It also gives you the ability to ensure that everything is correct when it is entered, this ensures everything is correct when it comes to invoicing.
Unapproved timesheets will not contribute to WIP, which may result in stages or transactions appearing as having no WIP on draft invoices.
Enabling timesheet approvals
From Side Navigation, click your organisation > Organisation Settings > Organisation > Timesheet Approvals.
Select 'Enable Approvals' at the top of the screen.
Save in the top right.
Note: Enabling approvals does not affect previously submitted or approved timesheets from prior weeks or months. However, for the current week, any timesheets that were previously submitted or approved will need to be resubmitted for approval.
Enable timesheet auto-approvals
From Side Navigation, click your organisation > Organisation Settings > Organisation > Timesheet Approvals.
Select 'Enable Approvals' at the top of the screen.
Check 'Auto Approvals'.
Tick the boxes for the criteria staff timesheets must meet to be automatically approved.
Enabling Expense-Only Approvals
From Side Navigation, click your organisation > Organisation Settings > Organisation > Timesheet Approvals.
Select 'Enable Approvals' at the top of the screen.
Check the 'Approve only expenses' checkbox.
Save in the top right.
Submitting timesheets for approval
Once approvals have been enabled, staff will be required to submit their timesheets.
They can do this by selecting 'Submit' in the top right hand corner of their timesheet screen.
Editing submit timesheet message
Customise the message your staff members will see when they submit their timesheet
From Side Navigation, click your organisation > Organisation Settings > Organisation > Timesheet Approvals.
Click into the ‘Submit message' tooltip and either overwrite or edit the text.
Click on the save button to save changes.
Who can approve timesheets?
When a staff member has submitted their time and expenses to be approved a notification will be sent to their 'Reports to' in Synergy, this can be edited in the staff details screen. Staff with System Administrator access will also be able to approve timesheet
Approving timesheets
You can check which timesheets are pending approval through the timesheets and timesheet summary screen.
From the timesheets screen:
From Side Navigation, click Time & Expenses > Time.
Click into the staff selector. This is the circle with initials or a staff photo next to the date range
Names with a blue dot beside them have timesheets waiting to be approved. Clicking on the name will take you to the timesheet so it can be approved.
Select 'Approve' in the top right
From timesheet summary:
From Side Navigation, click Time & Expenses > Summary.
Open 'Direct reports' to see all staff that report to you.
Click on the staff name to open their timesheet entries for the current month. Any weeks not approved will have an 'Approve' button to the right-hand side.
Timesheet approval chat
What is the timesheet approval chat and why use it?
Timesheet Approval Chat allows you to discuss timesheet entries, cash, and travel expenses directly within Synergy. Every message sent notifies the recipient, making communication smoother and more efficient.
Anyone with access to a user's timesheet can comment, triggering notifications for the user, their manager, and the commenter.
Timesheet Owners: Messages are sent to your manager.
Viewing Someone Else’s Timesheet? Your message goes to them.
How to start a timesheet approval chat:
From Side Navigation, click Time & Expenses > Time.
Open the timesheet week you want to start a timesheet chat for
From the Timesheet screen, and next to the Approve button you will see the chat icon.
Click the chat icon and a chat panel will appear.
Write your comment here, and click send (or hit the enter button).
A notification will now go to the relevant parties, and communication can continue as required
Bulk approve timesheets
To approve large quantities of timesheets or transactions, use the Transactions List. You can view and filter pending approvals by project, stage, and date range to ensure accuracy.
From Side Navigation, click Projects > Project List.
Open the project you need to approve transactions on
Click the Transactions tab.
Change the drop-down in the top right to 'WIP'
Open the filters (magnifying glass) and change All WIP to 'unapproved WIP'
Select (tick) all the transactions you want to bulk approve.
Click on the bulk menu triple vertical dot top menu and select 'Approve WIP'.
Managing Locked Timesheets
If a timesheet entry is locked and marked as "WIP auto approved," you can unlock it by following these steps:
Approve the entire timesheet week, which will lock the week.
Click the padlock icon to unapprove the entire week.
Once the week is unapproved, the individual entry will also be unapproved and become editable.
Best Practices for Approval Timing
To approve unapproved WIP from a previous period without affecting current timesheets:
Choose a time when staff are not actively entering times, such as after hours or on a weekend.
Enable approvals temporarily.
Approve all necessary historical WIP, avoiding approvals for the current week.
Disable approvals again once the process is complete. This minimizes disruptions and ensures that current entries are not mistakenly included.
Reporting on unapproved timesheets
Use the 'Missing timesheets' reports to see all unapproved time per project or staff member. It can be used before an invoicing run to confirm there's no time outstanding that will need to be included on an invoice.
Unapproved timesheets will not appear in WIP or draft invoices, so ensuring all timesheets are approved is crucial for accurate reporting.