1. Projects
  2. Project Management
  3. Managing Time and Expenses for Project Resources
  4. Approving Time and Expenses for Projects

Approving Time and Expenses for Projects

Approve resource time and expense transactions recorded against a project to process payroll and bill customers for billable charges. When you use the Project Management and Time Tracking features, a project manager or designated time approver can approve time transactions entered against projects. The employee's supervisor or expense approver can approve expenses.

Note:

Project time approvers can only approve time for projects in which they are assigned a role with project time approval permissions.

For example, an employee is selected as the project manager for a project but not designated as the employee supervisor for any of the resources working on the project. When project resources report the time worked on the project, the employee can approve time transactions that require approval. The employee cannot approve any employee expense report items charged to the project.

Identify default approvers for employee time and expense reports on the Human Resources subtab on the employee record. If an approver is not designated, then the supervisor for the employee must approve any expense reports. Project time can be approved depending on how project time approval preferences are enabled. See Entering Human Resources Information for an Employee.

Project time approvals are dependent on project resource roles. On the project resource role record, the Project Time Approver preference determines if project resources assigned the role can approve time. The Own Time Approval preference enables time entered using this role to be automatically approved. The Project Manager resource role has both preferences enabled by default.

To add project time approval permissions to a project resource role:

  1. Go to Setup > Accounting > Project Resource Roles.

  2. Click Edit next to the role you want to update.

  3. Check the Project Time Approver box.

  4. Check the Own Time Approval box to automatically approve any time tracked on projects by employees with this role assigned for that project. If you clear this box, any time entered toward a project by a resource with this role will need to be approved by the resource’s manager or a project level approver.

  5. Click Save.

Note:

When you edit a project resource role to add project time approval permissions, you do not need to update project role assignments on your projects. Any employee with the edited role assigned now has project time approval permissions for the project in which they are assigned the edited role.

After you have enabled project time approval for your roles, you can also select who has approval privileges for each individual project.

To set time approval preferences by project:

  1. Go to Lists > Relationships > Projects.

  2. Click Edit next to the project you want to update.

  3. Click Preferences.

  4. In the Time Approval field, select one of the following options:

    • Approve time automatically – Project time is approved automatically when entered from the Employee Center or a time restricted role.

    • Default Time Approver – Project time can be approved only by each employee’s supervisor or time approver defined on the employee record.

    • Project Time Approver – Project time can be approved only by project resources with project time approval permission defined on the project resource role.

    • Project Time Approver or Default Time Approver – Both project time approvers and default time approvers can approve project time. This option is selected by default.

  5. When you have finished, click Save.

Important:

The Time Approval preference does not override roles with full time permissions. Any role that has full time permissions and unrestricted employee permissions will be able to approve and reject time entries for any employee regardless of the selection made in this field. In addition, automatic approvals are not available for a role with full time permissions. Any time entered with a full time permissions role must update the Approval Status field on individual transactions or submit a weekly timesheet for time to be marked as approved. For more information about permissions, see Customizing or Creating NetSuite Roles and Setting Employee Restrictions.

The default selection in the Time Approval field is Project Time Approver or Default Time Approver.

Since billable project time must be approved before you can bill your customers, review the Time Approval page on regular basis. Time reported in Time Tracking is used to calculate the actual time worked on project tasks whether it is approved or not.

Project Time Approval Permissions

When you use project-based time approval, the way time is approved for each resource depends on how you set up your approval preferences on both your project resource roles and each individual project.

Any project resource role that does not have the Project Time Approver box checked cannot approve any time transactions. See the table below for information on how approval permissions are affected based on your resource role and project preferences.

Selected Project Time Approval Preference

Approve and Receive Notifications

Approver for Roles with Approval Privileges

 

 

On

Off

Approve time automatically

N/A

Automatically Approved

Automatically Approved

Default Time Approver

No

Default Time Approver

Default Time Approver

Project Time Approver

Yes

Automatically Approved

Other Project Time Approver

Project Time Approver or Default Time Approver

Yes

Automatically Approved

Default or Other Project Time Approver

To approve time related to a project:

  1. Go to Transactions > Employees > Approve Time.

  2. Select an employee or All.

  3. If you use Time Tracking, check the Approve box for time you want to approve. Click Submit.

    For more information on time approval with Time Tracking, see Approving or Rejecting a Time Transaction.

    Note:

    If you use Time Tracking and enter time for your employees, then you can alternately check the Supervisor Approval box when entering time entries.

To approve employee expense for a project:

  1. Log into the Employee Center.

  2. Go to Expense Reports > Approve Expense Reports.

  3. Select the name of the employee who submitted the report.

  4. Check the box next to the expense report you want to approve.

  5. Click Save.

    For more information about approving expense reports, see Approving an Expense Report.

Related Topics:

General Notices