Time keeping approvals allow your customers to approve & reject time and expenses as needed through a simple approvals workflow.

This article will discuss:

Turning on Approvals: To start using the approvals feature, you must turn on approvals in Timekeeping Settings. You will see there is an option to enable approvals. You can choose whether approvals are optional or required. If optional, only job orders with a time approver listed will be routed for approvals. All other time and expense entries that are submitted will route automatically to 'Approved' in the Time Keeping Center.

**Please Note** You cannot turn on required approvals if you have active assignments using the temp hire recruiting type.

Approvals required: If yes, this means that you are requiring all jobs to have an approver, and each time and expense will go through the approval workflow. If approvals are not required, then only job orders with Time Approvers set will go through the approval workflow. If no Approver is set on the job order, then all time and expense entries submitted will automatically route to 'Approved' in the Time Keeping Center.

Approvals Due On: Here you can choose when the approvals are due. Choose the option that matches your internal workflow the closest. Notifications will be determined based on this due date.

Approvals Due on Time: Here you can choose what time of day the approvals are due. Notifications will be determined based on the time that you set.

Once you have turned on approvals, you need to set up approvers on your jobs that are eligible for timekeeping.

Contact Type: Navigate to a contact record of a contact that you would like to be an approver. Select the contact type drop-down and then select the Time Approver Contact Type. You will want to do this will all contacts that you want to be approvers for in the system. Contacts may be more than one Contact Type and still be a Time Approver.

Contact Linking: At the time the first approval email gets sent, Crelate automatically creates a user for this approver. You will see this linking happen on the contact record if you navigate to a contact profile and then Deliver | integrations. There is no action necessary here, but it is good to be aware of which contacts have successfully been linked.

If you want to link them before the first-time card is submitted, you can send the approver a welcome email. Once the approver clicks the hyperlink in the email, then they will be linked in Crelate.

Set Approvers on Job Orders: Next, Navigate to a job order to find the Time Card Approver field by selecting Edit. Select which contact you would like to be the approver on this job. All assignments created from this job will have this person as the approver.

Approval Email: Once your workers start submitting their time cards and expenses, your approver will receive an email to approve.

Approvers simply need to click on the link that says "Go To Approval Center" and it will route them to approve or reject time and expenses that have been submitted. From this email, your approvers can also update their notification preferences.

Approving Time and Expense:

When the approvers select the email link, they are routed to the Approval Portal. Here they are able to approve or reject time and expenses. If rejecting, there is an option to leave a note, so the employee can fix their time and resubmit it. Once each item has been approved or rejected, users can close the portal and will get a new link when there are additional items to approve.

Note: This is a log-in free experience, and there is no need to save the link as approvers will get a new link each time there are items to approve.

With your Time Card Approvers created, you'll be ready to setup Time & Expense Categories. Also, check out our full Master Guide that services as a one-stop-shop for all things Crelate Deliver!