Timesheet approvals
Route: /org/timesheets-approval · Permission: Approve Timesheets
Module: task_manage
1. What this screen is
The approver's side of My Timesheets: submitted weeks waiting for a decision, with the submitter's hours, an approval timeline and a comment thread.
It carries one feature no other approval surface in Orbit has: a simulation mode that runs your decision through the approval workflow and shows what would happen, without doing it.
| This screen | My Timesheets | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose weeks | Other people's | Yours |
| Can edit hours | No | Yes, while draft |
| Decides | Yes | No |
| Permission | Approve Timesheets | mytimesheet.manage |
2. How a decision flows
3. Approving — step by step
Step 1 · Choose a tab
| Tab | Holds |
|---|---|
| PENDING | Awaiting your decision |
| HISTORY | Already decided |
With nothing waiting, the screen reads Approver Cockpit Ready.
Step 2 · Open a submission
The detail pane shows the submitted hours, an approval timeline, and the comment thread — your own comments aligned to one side.
Empty thread: no comments yet.
Step 3 · Write a comment — this is mandatory
Approve, reject and comment all refuse to run on an empty comment box:
Please provide a comment/reason before Approve
The cursor is put back in the box. There is no way to approve silently, and no setting to relax it.
Step 4 · Decide
| Button | Effect |
|---|---|
| Approve | Timesheet Approve successfully |
| Reject | Returns it to the submitter to correct |
| Comment | Adds to the thread and leaves the state alone |
After approving or rejecting, the selection clears and the queue refreshes. After commenting, the submission stays open with the thread reloaded.
Step 5 · Or simulate first
With verify mode on, a decision runs as a simulation: the workflow is evaluated and a
Simulation Result modal shows the outcome — Workflow simulation complete — and nothing is
written.
A Simulation Only badge marks the mode while it is active.
The simulation runs the same approval workflow the real action would, so it answers "who does this go to next" and "does this complete the chain" without committing.
Especially worth it on a multi-step approval, where the second approver is not obvious.
The simulation panel itself has two tabs — prediction and settings.
4. Field reference
| Control | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| PENDING / HISTORY | Which queue |
| Queue list | Submissions, selectable |
| Timeline | Every step taken so far |
| Comment box | Required for every action |
| Approve | Requires a comment |
| Reject | Requires a comment; returns it to the submitter |
| Comment | Requires text; no state change |
| Verify mode | Simulates instead of acting |
What a rejection does
It returns the week to the submitter, who can edit and resubmit. The comment you were forced to write is the reason they see.
Where the approval steps come from
The approval workflow — not this screen. Timesheet approvals run on the shared approval engine, so who approves, in what order, and whether more than one step exists are all configured in Organization Settings → Approval Workflows.
5. The admin contract
| Prerequisite | Without it |
|---|---|
| Approve Timesheets | No access |
| An approval workflow for timesheets | Submissions have no route |
| Reporting lines | The workflow cannot resolve an approver |
| Submitted timesheets | An empty Approver Cockpit Ready screen |
6. Downstream
| Effect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Approved hours | Feed Timesheet Analytics and Resource Bills |
| Rejected week | Becomes editable for the submitter again |
| Comments | Kept on the submission permanently |
| Timeline | Every action is recorded with its comment |
7. Don't confuse this with…
| Screen | What it approves |
|---|---|
| Timesheet approvals (this page) | Weekly timesheets |
| Expense approvals | Expense claims |
| Service request approvals | Orbit Resolve catalog requests |
| Approval Workflows | Organization Settings — where the chains are defined |
| Module State Management | State machines for other modules |
8. Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
Please provide a comment/reason before Approve | The comment box is empty — always required |
| Nothing happened after approving | Verify mode was on; it simulated |
| Approver Cockpit Ready and nothing else | Nothing is pending for you |
| A submission never reached me | The approval workflow does not route to you |
| A submitter cannot fix their week | It must be rejected before they can edit |
| Approved hours are missing from a bill | The bill was generated before approval |
Related
- My Timesheets — the submitter's side
- Project timesheet settings — the rules on the underlying logs