🎯 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

You can approve a flagged timesheet by editing the entry and reviewing the information.

4. Manage columns — Customise your view by clicking the settings icon and selecting the columns that suit your approval needs.

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.

To approve a single timesheet entry:

Go to Planday > Timesheets page.
If needed, refine the entries by selecting an Interval, Date, Departments or searching for a specific employee.
Review the information on the list and make any necessary modifications, such as adjusting the Shift type or correcting the Approved time. Repeat this step for all the entries you want to approve.
Select the reviewed entries and press Approve selected to finalise.

If a timesheet entry cannot be selected, it may be due to missing information that needs review.

If possible, you can correct an entry's missing information right from the list or edit the timesheet in detail and then approve it individually.
Click on the edit icon, review any missing information or rule violations, then press Approve.

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:
1. View if the break is paid or unpaid, start and end times and duration of the break.
2. 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.
3. Edit a break to be Paid or Unpaid, or update the start and end times as needed.

How to edit an approved timesheet

To edit an approved timesheet:

Go to the timesheets page and switch the status filter to Approved.
Locate the entry you want to modify and press the edit icon.
You will see a locked entry. Click the Edit button to make it editable.
Press Save to confirm your changes or Cancel to discard.

Show me

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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