All articles

Approve Timesheets by Project

Last updated on

Wrike Documentation Team

Wrike Documentation Team

TL;DR

Use project approval to approve or decline time entries  for a specific project, folder, or space. An Admin must still approve the full timesheet to lock entries and mark them ready for export. Wrike tracks project approval statuses across overlapping timeframes.

Table 4. Availability

Free Team Business Pinnacle Apex
Availability: Pinnacle, Apex. ; Unavailability: Free, Team, Business;

Overview

Project approval lets you approve or decline time entries  for a specific project, folder, or space, instead of reviewing an entire timesheet at once. Use this option if you oversee project hours, but don't approve the team member's overall timesheet. 

A manager, team lead, or HR representative must still give final approval to close the complete timesheet. Approving the full timesheet locks its entries and marks them ready for export.

How to Enable Approve by Project

  1. Click your profile picture 1 in the sidebar.Screenshot_1.png
  2. Select Settings 2 from the menu.
  3. Under Account Management, click Time tracking 3.
  4. Toggle the Approve by project 4 switch to enable or disable the feature.

How to Enable Approve Timesheets by Project for User Types

  1. Under Account management, go to User Types 1.
  2. Select Time tracking 2 from the categories.
  3. Turn on Approve timesheets by Project 3 for each user type that can make project-level approval decisions.

Approve or Decline Time by Project

  1. Under More 1 in the sidebar, open the Timesheets 2 tab.
  2. Select Approvals by projects 3.
  3. Project or folder 4: Allows you to search for and select your target space, project, or folder.
  4. Confirm the project/folder that you want to select.

Note

The first time you open Approvals by projects, you'll see a blank state until you select a location: project, folder or space.

You can change your selection anytime from the filter toolbar. Wrike saves your filter presets, so you don't have to set them up again. If you clear your selection, you'll return to the blank state.

  1. When a user submits a timesheet with time entries linked to the selected project, folder, or space, their timesheet slice appears. Click Details to review its time entries.
  2. Click Approve time entries or Decline time entries 5 to approve or decline the time entries.

Note

  • You can approve a timesheet slice only if the full timesheet hasn’t already been approved or declined.
  • If a task exists in multiple locations, approving or rejecting it in one location automatically updates it in the other. 

Your decision applies to every eligible day in the current timeframe. Doers and approvers see the same status chips in the timesheet detail view.

Important

  • Approving or declining a project doesn't close the full timesheet. The final approver still needs to approve the full timesheet before its entries are locked and marked ready for export.
  • If at least one task in the project slice is declined, you can’t approve the entire timesheet. You can either decline the timesheet so the assignee can update and resubmit it or leave it unchanged.
  • You won’t receive a notification when a new slice requires your decision. Check the list manually for new slices.

Track Project Approval Status in My Timesheet

After you submit a timesheet, you can follow its project approval progress from the My timesheet tab. Wrike adds three columns to each row:

  • Approval status 1
  • Decision by 2
  • Decision on 3

The Approval status column shows one of the following statuses:

  • Pending approval (default)
  • Approved
  • Declined

If a project's time is approved, every row with tasks that belong to that project shows an Approved status chip. If a project's time is declined, those rows show a Declined status chip. If time entries have mixed statuses, the overall status appears as:

  1. Declined if at least one entry is declined.
  2. Pending if no entries are declined and at least one is pending.
  3. Approved if all entries are approved.

Decision by shows who made the decision. Decision on shows when they made it.

Note

  • Entries stay locked while the full timesheet is pending approval, no matter their project approval status. If the final approver declines the full timesheet, all its entries become editable again.
  • If you need to adjust or modify a submitted timesheet, you can withdraw it by clicking the Cancel Approval button or the approver can cancel the approval process.

How Wrike Chooses Who to Display

When more than one project manager approves projects that share a task, Wrike shows the approver who set the current status. If that approval is undone, Wrike updates the displayed approver accordingly.

Project Approval With Overlapping Timeframes

If your account uses flexible cadence, the same time entries can belong to overlapping weekly and monthly timesheets. Wrike accounts for this when it calculates and updates project approval status, so you always see the correct status for what still needs action, what's approved, and what's declined.

How Statuses Carry Over Between Timeframes

If you use weekly and monthly timesheets, project approval status doesn't automatically carry over between them, with two exceptions:

  • A monthly row shows the weekly approver and date only if every week in that month has the same status.
  • A weekly row shows the monthly approver and date only if that week fits entirely inside the approved month.

Note

If you change a value that defines a project row, such as its category or a time entry, Wrike detects the change right away. The row's status resets to Pending approval, and Wrike clears the Decided by and Decided on values.

When you make a decision, Wrike applies it to every day in the selected period.

How Wrike Calculates Status

For a task the project approval status is calculated based on the decision for the days in the period using below logic:

  • If any eligible day is Declined, the project status is Declined.
  • If any eligible day is Pending, the project status is Pending approval.
  • Otherwise, the project status is Approved.

If no eligible days remain, Wrike uses every day in the timeframe to calculate the status.

How Wrike Applies Your Decision

When you approve or decline a project:

  • Wrike updates only the eligible days in that timeframe.
  • If no eligible days remain, Wrike shows an error message and doesn't apply your decision.

What's Next?

Timesheet Approvals

Was this article helpful?

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Top

Related articles