---
title: Timesheet Approval
description: "Managers and payroll administrators approve each person's hours for a pay period before payroll runs; changed hours are flagged."
url: "https://theasst.com/docs/timesheet-approval/"
updated: "2026-11-04"
category: Human Resources (HR)
---

# Timesheet Approval

**Timesheet Approval** lets a manager confirm each person's hours for a pay period before payroll is run. If someone's hours change after you approve them, the approval is flagged so nothing slips through unnoticed.

Find it under **Accounting/HR > Timesheet Approval**.

## Who can approve

- **Payroll administrators** (those with permission to modify personnel payroll) can approve anyone.
- **Managers** can approve their **direct reports**: the people whose **Manager** is set to them on the employee's Payroll tab. A manager also needs permission to view personnel time.
- Anyone else sees a message that approving isn't available to them.

![Timesheet Approval page listing each employee's hours with approved, not approved and changed since approved statuses](https://theasst.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/timesheet-approval.webp)

## Approving

1. The page opens on the period of your most recent [pay run](https://theasst.com/docs/pay-runs/). Change **From** and **Through** and click **Show** to look at another period. Approvals belong to an exact period, so use the same dates as the pay run.
2. Each person is listed with their hours for the period. These are the same reconciled hours payroll uses (the [Timesheet Report](https://theasst.com/docs/timesheet-report/)). People whose list shows *(manual time)* have hours that clock punches don't cover, so they are worth a look first.
3. Click **Approve all** to approve everyone who is not yet approved, or check some people and click **Approve checked**.

An approved row shows who approved it and when.

## When hours change

Each approval remembers the hours that were approved. If the hours are different later (a time entry was added, corrected or removed) the row reads **Changed since approved** in red, with the hours that were approved. Approve it again to accept the new hours.

## Removing an approval

Check the people and click **Remove approval**. Once a pay run covering the period has been approved, approvals for that period can no longer be removed, so the record stays true to what was paid.

## Pay runs

Payroll administrators see a checkbox, **Pay runs warn about timesheets that have not been approved**. When it is on, a pay run's list of things to check includes a line for each person with hours whose timesheet is not approved, or whose hours changed after approval. These are warnings only: they never stop you from approving a pay run.