Work detail approval

To control authorization of time at a more granular level, you can enable work detail approval. Work detail approval supports the case where an employee works at two separate work locations and the manager of each location is responsible for approving only the time worked at their particular location. Consider this example:

  • Employee Esther is a permanent member of the IT team. Occasionally, Esther also performs work for the Support team.
  • Nicola, as manager of the IT team, is responsible for approving any time Esther charges against the IT team.
  • Carol, as manager of the Support team, is responsible for approving any time worked against the Support team.
  • Neither Nicola or Carol is permitted to approve time that is charged to the other's team.

A day is authorized only when all work details that consist of the day are in an authorized state. If one or more of the details are unauthorized, the day must be unauthorized too.

Example: Esther works 4 hours on IT team and 4 hours on Support team

Using the example above, assume Esther records 4 hours against the IT team and 4 hours against the Support team. When Nicola tries to authorize the day:

  • The details that are associated with the IT team are authorized.
  • The details that are associated with the Support team remain unauthorized as Nicola lacks permission to approve that time.
  • The overall authorization state of the day remains unauthorized.

If Carol then tries to authorize the day, the details that are associated with the Support team are authorized. As all work details in the day are now in an authorized state, the entire day is authorized.

When work detail approval is enabled, users with sufficient permissions can also set the authorization status of individual work details. In this case, the system records the authorization status of each detail on a day and sets the day's overall authorization status accordingly. Using the example above, Nicola can authorize the individual work details of the IT team. Carol can authorize the individual work details of the Support team. When Nicola and Carol have both authorized the individual work details for their respective teams, the entire day is authorized.

Example: Esther works all day on IT team

In this example, assume Esther records all her work time against the IT team. When Nicola tries to authorize the day, all the details on the day are authorized, which in turn authorizes the day itself.