How to set up hour approvals
Turning on hour approval is not just “having a queue”. The administrator sets who submits, by when, whether the week goes up on its own at the deadline, and which emails chase a late submission or a stuck approval.
Without this screen, the team member does not see Submit for approval and the manager has no inbox. Day-to-day for whoever submits is in how to submit hours; for whoever reviews, in how to approve submitted hours.
💡 Plan: the approval flow is part of Ultimate. Whoever configures it is an administrator. Reminders on this screen also require the reminders feature.
Who it is for
Administrator — turns the flow on, picks the deadline, decides whether submission is automatic, and who enters the list. Also turns on deadline and stuck-queue reminders.
Manager and team member — do not configure. They feel the effect: the submit button, the email before the deadline, the week that goes up on its own, the pending-approval note.
Where to configure
Timesheet approval settings
Settings > Hour approvals
The screen is called Hour approval settings. Save with Save settings at the end — flipping a switch without saving does not count.
Turn the flow on
The first control is Enable hour approval flow.
Off, the rest of the screen disappears. Nobody submits a week, there is no deadline or queue. Turn it on to configure the rest.
What submission locks
Submission is by week. Whoever submits (or automatic submission) closes that period — the week the deadline refers to — not the whole account.
While the week is in approval or already approved, the team member no longer logs on those days: they do not create a time entry, do not edit, and do not delete what was already there. The following week stays free.
The period only unlocks if the submission is undone (Undo submission, by the team member or the administrator) or if the manager rejects. It is worth telling the team this before turning on the flow or automatic submission: after submit, time entry for that week stops.
The step-by-step for whoever submits is in how to submit hours for approval.
Weekly submission deadline
With the flow on, set the week slice:
- Weekday — Sunday through Saturday (the default is Friday).
- Time — on the hour, in the account clock format.
- Period — the week being asked for: last week or current week.
The card summary looks like: By Friday at 17:00, for last week.
That time is the clock for automatic submission and for reminders before and after the deadline. Align it with the team’s real close (agency Friday, Sunday, invoice cut-off day).
Automatic submission
The Automatic submission switch sends the week on its own at the end of the deadline, without the team member’s click.
- Off — each person submits in Time tracking. Anyone who did not submit stays out of the queue until they send (or until the manager forces the submission).
- On — on the deadline day and time, Rabbiit submits the week of everyone on the list. That period locks the same way as a manual send. The team member still needs to leave the time entry right before the time: automatic does not invent hours.
With automatic submission on, the after-deadline reminder disappears. That makes sense: the week will already have been submitted at the agreed time. The useful reminder becomes the before-deadline one.
Reminders on this screen
These three emails live here, not under Time-entry reminders. That other screen chases capacity (empty day, week goal). This one chases the submission deadline and the manager’s queue.
They appear when the flow is on and the account has the reminders feature.
Reminder before the deadline
Notifies whoever has not yet submitted, X hours before the deadline. Example: Friday 17:00 deadline and 8 hours before → the email goes out Friday morning.
Use it so the team closes the grid with room, not at the last minute.
Reminder after the deadline
Notifies whoever still has not submitted, X hours after the deadline. You can check Also notify manager.
It disappears when automatic submission is on — the week was already sent at the deadline.
Pending approvals reminder
Notifies managers when a week has been in the queue for X hours with neither approval nor rejection. It is the stuck-inbox note, not a late team member.
Highlighted message
On each of the three you can customize the highlighted message (optional). The text enters the email before the button — the operations note (“include project X”, “close by Friday”). You can preview the email before saving.
Who must submit
People who must submit their hours for approval — people and/or teams.
Only whoever is on that list (directly or via a team) sees the week submit. Empty list = nobody submits.
It is not the same as the Manager field on the profile. The list says who submits; the profile manager says to whom it goes. Without a registered manager, the team member cannot submit — the administrator sets that on the person’s record.
Check after saving
- Save the settings.
- Ask someone on the list to open the week’s time entries: the Submit for approval button needs to appear.
- If you turned on automatic submission, say the deadline out loud with the team — the week goes up at that time, even without a click.
- If you turned on reminders, the first cycle shows whether the email arrived. The send also enters the approval history.
When not to turn it on yet
If the account is one person, or the team is still learning to log every day, the flow becomes bureaucracy. Start with time-entry reminders (capacity) and only then turn on approval with a deadline.