🎯 For Admins or Schedule managers with access to relevant departments in order to approve timesheets on Planday web.
What are Timesheets?
The Timesheets feature in Planday helps schedule managers and admins see important information about employees' working hours, breaks, overtime, and leave all in one place.
With the timesheet approval process, managers can compare an employee's scheduled hours with the actual hours they worked. They can also see if an employee was scheduled for paid or unpaid breaks, as well as any overtime. If a shift is in conflict with any predefined rules in your Planday setup, such as Working time rules or Punch Clock deviations, the admin is prompted to make an informed decision to assign the appropriate Shift type or split the shift as needed before sending it to payroll.
Note: Timesheets will only handle split shifts if they haven't been approved in the Schedule or via the app. Learn more in our section how to view or modify the Shift type, including split shifts.
Where can you find Timesheets in Planday and what information can you see?
You can access the Timesheets approval page from the pending actions widget on the Home dashboard or via the top menu in Planday > Timesheets.
On this page, you can see all the pending shifts that are waiting for approval.
1. You have the following options to customise what you see:
Interval — You can choose a specific period to review such as day, week (default), or month.
Departments — You can view timesheets of employees from all departments (default) or select a specific department for approval.
Employees — You can view timesheets for a particular employee or gather data for all employees (default) in the selected department(s).
Status — You can filter shifts by status 🟠 Pending (default), 🟢 Approved or All shifts. If you approved shifts from the schedule, or approved leave requests, you can see them on the timesheet by changing the status to Approved or All.
In addition, you’ll be able to see the following in the Timesheets list view to assist with review:
2. Paid hours — This column reflects the total number of hours the employee worked, minus any unpaid hours (e.g. unpaid breaks), resulting in the total number of paid hours the employee will receive.
3. Highlights — Any timesheets which have one or more of the following will be flagged with an information icon:
Comments
Split shift suggestions
Working time rule
Missing punch-out time
4. Manage columns — In addition to the 5 default columns, you can customise your timesheet list view by selecting up to 3 columns to display based on your approval criteria, such as:
Paid hours
Breaks duration
Punch time
Scheduled time
Department name
Employee group name
Breakdown of a timesheet entry
When you click on a timesheet, you will see a detailed breakdown of the hours involved, including:
1. Basic shift information — This includes the date, time, location and status of the shift.
Scheduled time: The planned duration of the shift as per the schedule.
Punch time: The actual clock-in and clock-out times recorded from the Punch Clock.
2. Suggested time — The difference between scheduled time and punch time which will be displayed as a split in the shift through a normal shift type and overtime shift type(s).
Suggested times will vary depending on whether one or more of the following is set up:
Punch Clock deviation rule
Contract rule
Working time rule
3. Summarised timesheet hours — The bottom of the timesheet will show a consolidated summary of the following:
Total hours
Unpaid hours
Paid hours
How to approve a timesheet entry
Note: The timesheet status cannot be reverted to the pending state once approved. Therefore, it is crucial to review the shift data carefully before marking it as approved.
Go to Planday > Timesheets.
If needed, you can refine your approval scope by selecting an interval, department or employee and setting the status to Pending if not already selected.
Click on any of the timesheet entries to view the shift details.
Review the shift information and make any modifications if required, such as adjusting punch time, or applying a specific overtime shift.
Press Approve to review the next entry in your selected interval.
Note: If an employee worked in more than one department, and a manager approves their timesheet entry there, it will show up as previously approved for Admins. Also approved leave requests will appear under pre-approved timesheet entries.
How to bulk approve timesheets
To approve multiple timesheet entries using the bulk approval feature:
Select the timesheet entries needing approval by clicking the checkboxes.
To approve all the selected timesheet entries, click the Approve selected button displayed next to the drop-down boxes at the top of the screen.
Note: When approving all only the current page of timesheets are approved.Review the notifications displayed and action as needed, then click on Approve when ready.
How to view or modify the Shift type, including split shifts
To view or modify the Shift type of a timesheet entry:
Click on the day displaying the shift you need to view or modify.
To modify the shift type, click on the drop-down located under the heading Shift type.
Select the new shift type.
Where split shifts are suggested such as in the case of Overtime:
Click on the day displaying the shift(s) you expect to see split shifts suggested.
The shift(s) that have been split based on Contract rules and Working time rules will show the breakdowns between the Normal and Overtime shift types.
For the suggested ‘Overtime’ shift types, these can be updated to another shift type as needed*.
* Note: If you’ve enabled an award in Planday, you’ll need to ensure you select the appropriate shift type as needed to ensure you meet your award compliance requirements. Refer to the Award for more information or alternatively contact the Fair Work Ombudsman to discuss in more detail.
How to edit the shift time
To edit a shift’s scheduled time:
Click on the day displaying the timesheet you need to edit a shift’s clocked-in time.
Enter in the new time(s) in the start and/or end time fields.
How to manage breaks in timesheets
To view, add or edit a break:
Click on the day displaying the shift you need to view, add or edit a break.
Under the section titled Break action the following:
View if the break is paid or unpaid, start and end times and duration of the break.
Add in a break by clicking on +Add, select either the Paid or Unpaid value and set the start and end times to generate the duration.
Edit a break to be Paid or Unpaid, or update the start and end times as needed.
How to edit approved timesheets
To edit an approved timesheet:
Change the filter Status to show Approved timesheets.
If needed, you can refine your approval scope by selecting an interval, department or employee.
Click on the day displaying the timesheet you need to edit.
Navigate to and click on the Edit button
Update the timesheet field(s) as needed. Click Save.
Preview payroll entries
To see what data export and reporting options are available, you can utilise the following:
Planday payroll export — Health check where you can Filter shifts by their status under the Advanced export options.
Timesheets report where you can get an overview of punch clock entries, shift times along with approved hours.
See related articles:
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