Last updated November 6, 2026
A timesheet approval process for a project firm has four steps: the person submits the week, the approver checks the lines, the approver accepts it or sends it back with a reason, and the approved week is locked for billing and reporting. In a small firm, one weekly deadline and one named approver per person is enough.
Who should approve timesheets in a project firm?
In a project firm, one named person should approve each employee's timesheet, normally whoever knows most of that person's work. People who work across several jobs are the awkward case, and these are the workable arrangements:
| Situation | Who approves | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Person works mainly on one lead's projects | That project lead | The simplest arrangement |
| Person works across several leads | Line manager, who asks leads about doubtful lines | One approver stops weeks falling between two people |
| Firm under about 10 people | One director or office manager for everyone | Fine, as long as someone checks that person too |
| The approver's own timesheet | Another director or the bookkeeper | Nobody approves their own |
| Approver is away | A named deputy | Decide this in advance |
Avoid having each project lead approve only their own lines. It sounds thorough, but it means a timesheet is never complete until everyone has looked at it, and in a small firm that week will still be waiting at month end.
What does a weekly approval timetable look like?
A weekly approval timetable sets a fixed time for each step, so that approved hours are ready before invoices go out. Here's an example to adapt:
| When | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | Everyone | Logs hours |
| Monday 10:00 | Everyone | Submits last week |
| Monday 15:00 | Approver | Reminds anyone who hasn't submitted |
| Tuesday 17:00 | Approver | Approves, or sends back with a reason |
| Wednesday 12:00 | Employee | Corrects and resubmits |
| Wednesday 17:00 | Approver | Final approval, and the week is locked |
| First working day of the month | Finance | Invoices from locked weeks only |
Plan for month end. A week that spans two months should be split, so the last few days can be approved and billed with the month they belong to. Without this, hourly clients get a bill that's always a week behind and everyone has to explain why. These deadlines should match the ones in your timesheet policy.
What should an approver check on a timesheet?
An approver should check that a timesheet is complete and correctly coded, and should leave the hours themselves alone. Work down the same short list every time:
- Does the total make sense? Compare it with contract hours, approved leave and public holidays.
- Is each line on the right project and task? Watch for vague internal lines.
- Is the billable flag right? One wrong flag either loses revenue or bills a client for something they shouldn't pay for.
- Could a client read the description? This only matters for lines they'll see.
- Is any job running past its budget? Flag it to the project lead, and leave the hours as logged.
Here's an invented week showing why this pays. Ben is contracted for 40 hours, and bills at €95 an hour on hourly jobs.
| Line | Hours | Billable? | Approver's finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| P-114 Drawings | 18.0 | Yes | Fine |
| P-118 Drawings | 10.0 | Yes | Fine |
| Internal: "misc" | 6.0 | No | Actually P-118 client revisions |
| Admin | 3.5 | No | Fine |
| Total | 37.5 | 2.5 short of contract |
Asked about the gap, Ben remembers a site visit on P-114 and adds it. That puts 8.5 more hours on hourly jobs: the 6.0 recoded and the 2.5 added. At €95, that's €807.50 that wasn't going to reach an invoice, found in a few minutes. Those hours then go on the invoice.
The check to resist is reducing hours because a job is over budget. Doing so hides the overrun from the people who need to see it, and gives you a false number to quote from next time. If you decide not to bill some hours, record that decision separately as a write-down, and leave the logged time as it was.
How do you send a timesheet back?
To send a timesheet back, name the line, say what looks wrong and give a time to fix it. A vague "please check this" comes back with the same errors. This is wording to copy:
Ben, I'm sending back week 23. Line 3 (6 hours, "misc") looks like P-118 revisions, so please recode it. The week also totals 37.5 against 40 contracted, so add what's missing or note why it's short. Back to me by Wednesday 12:00, please.
For a timesheet that hasn't arrived:
Your timesheet for week 23 wasn't in by 10:00 today. Please submit it by 15:00 so that P-114 can be billed with everything else.
Keep these messages about the timesheet. If someone is consistently late, talk to them in person instead of sending sterner reminders.
How do you handle corrections after approval?
Corrections after approval go through a change log, so the approved figures stay trustworthy and the history stays visible. Once a week is locked, nobody edits it directly. A short log kept beside the timesheets is enough:
| Date | Person | Week | Line | Was | Now | Reason | Approved by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jul | Ben | 27 | P-118 Drawings | 8.0 | 6.0 | 2 hours belonged to P-114 | Elin |
| 14 Jul | Ben | 27 | P-114 Drawings | 4.0 | 6.0 | Moved from P-118 | Elin |
If the hours have already been invoiced, a change to the timesheet doesn't change the invoice. You'll need to correct the invoice properly as well, with a credit note or a new document, depending on your country's rules.
To lock a week in a spreadsheet, keep a status column reading Draft, Submitted, Returned or Approved. Then protect the approved range: both Excel and Google Sheets can restrict who edits a range. It isn't tamper-proof, but it stops accidents, and for a firm this size that's what you need.
The process breaks down in predictable ways. An approver who approves only totals misses all the coding errors. Approving only at month end means nobody remembers what "misc" was. A single approver without a deputy turns into a hold-up on the first holiday. If approval takes longer than a few minutes per person, the descriptions are usually the problem, so fix those at the source.
Approving timesheets alongside ERPFlow
ERPFlow doesn't have a timer or timesheets today. Time tracking, including converting tracked time into invoices, is coming soon. ERPFlow has no timesheet approval step either, so run this process in a spreadsheet using a team timesheet template.
The approved hours then reach ERPFlow by hand. On an invoice, a line is a quantity times a price, so you enter the approved hours as the quantity and your rate as the price, often from a service with its price already set. Once issued, an invoice is final, so check the locked week before you issue it.
Don't confuse this with Vacations, which does have requests and approvals, for time off only. It's useful here because an approver can check a timesheet's leave lines against what was approved there.