How do I approve employee timesheets?

You can review your employees’ timesheets at any point in the pay period, but you must approve timesheets at the end of the period.  You will receive a notification email from EmpCenter when approvals are due. 

Please note, if you have hourly and salaried employees their timesheets have different approval windows.  See the Timesheet Deadlines page for more details.

Access your employees’ timesheets to review for approval by clicking on Approve Time Sheets from the Supervisor Dashboard or clicking on a name in the Timesheet Submissions box:

supervisor dashboard showing approve timesheets link and timesheet submissions box

Note: if you don’t see all the options listed under Time Entry, click on the arrow to expand the list.  The arrow is circled in the image below

time entry options arrow to expand list

Approve Time Sheets Overview

approve time sheet overview options on page labeled

Note: you can click on any of the column headings (e.g., employee id, name) to sort the employees by that column.

  1. Employees Active On: the Approve Time Sheets page defaults to the current period and shows employees with timesheets for the current period.  To change the date, check the box next to As of Current Period and select the date from the calendar.
  2. Assignments: employees that are assigned to you.  Typically this list will only include your employees (notated by your name); if you have been delegated employees from another supervisor you will see that supervisor’s name listed.  Click on the name to display the employees.
  3. Save Approvals: click to save changes made on the page.  EmpCenter will warn you if you try to move away from the page before saving changes.
  4. Find: search for an employee by name, id, supervisor id, or assignment description.
  5. Show: options are All Time Sheets (default) and Amended Time Sheets Only.
  6. Current Time Sheet – separated by pay period end date - the order will change based on the current date (e.g., on 3/11 hourly timesheets will be listed first since the open salaried pay period for that date ends on 3/31).
    1. Timesheets for 1st to end of month timesheet employees.
    2. Timesheets for 16th-15th timesheet employees.

    If a timesheet was amended during the pay period, it will also be listed on this page. See the Amending Timesheets FAQ for more details.

  7. Employee details: employee’s OSU id and Name. 
  8. Assignment details: the employee's assignment (includes job title, position number, timesheet org, and termination date if terminated) and policy profile (determines how they use EmpCenter and controls leave types, pay codes, and time recording)
  9. Timesheet Details:
    • Total Hours: total hours for the month.  This is calculated by adding Regular Hours, OT Hours, and Leave Hours.  See Appendix B in the Supervisor User Guide for a complete list of pay codes included in each column.
    • Regular Hours: regular hours for the month.  This number includes all work performed at straight rate including clock time, worked hours, and stand by pay. 
    • OT Hours: if the employee earned overtime during the month, the hours will be listed here.  This includes additional hours worked, comp time earned, and exchange time earned. 
    • Leave Hours: if the employee took any type of leave during the month, the hours will be listed here. 
    • Exceptions: No means there are no exceptions on the employee’s timesheet, Yes indicates there are exceptions.  The column will also be color coded with the highest level exception (white = informational, yellow = warning, red = error).  Red exceptions must be corrected by you or the employee before payroll processing. 
    • Submitted: No means the employee has not submitted their timesheet, Yes indicates they have submitted their timesheet.  You can approve a timesheet even if the employee has not submitted it yet.
  10. Approval details:
    • Approval Check box: check the box to indicate your approval of the employee’s timesheet.
    • History: click on the scroll to open a new window with the approval history of the timesheet – includes actions taken by the employee and the supervisor.
    • Reject: click to reject the timesheet and send it back to the employee for correction.

Approving Timesheets

  1. After clicking Approve Timesheets on the dashboard, select the group of employees you would like to review:
    click on the assignment group to see the timesheets you can approve
    Note: if you clicked on an employee name in the Timesheet Submissions box on the dashboard, the appropriate assignment will already be listed and you can skip this step.
  2. You will see all of the employees for the assignment selected listed, separated by pay period end date (end of month and mid-month employees):
    display of selected=
  3. Click on an employee’s row to view their timesheet:
    click on employee row to view timesheet
  4. The timesheet will open in a new window:
    timesheet for employee selected=

    You can edit the timesheet from this screen if needed.  The process and functions are the same as changes made when viewing the timesheet from the Edit Employee Time page or Enter My Hours.  See Editing Employee Time for more information. 

  5. If no changes were needed, select Close Time Sheet to close the window and return to the Approve Time Sheet page:
    close timesheet button to close timehseet if no changes made
    If changes were made, select Save and Close to save your changes and close the window to return to the Approve Time Sheet page:
    save and close button to close timesheet if changes were made
  6. To approve the timesheet, check the box next to Approve in the Approval column:

  7. approve timesheet by clicking in approve box
  8. Click Save Approvals to save your changes:
    save approvals button on approve timesheets page
  9. You’ll receive confirmation that your changes have been saved:
    confirmation that changes were saved

    Note: you can continue to review and approve timesheets before saving approvals; the system will warn you if you try to move away from the page before saving your changes.
    warning for unsaved changes