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Getting Started: Timesheets

How to view, approve, unlock, and edit timesheets in Tanda.

Updated over 2 weeks ago

This help guide will help you get started using Timesheets in Tanda.


Who Can Edit and Approve Timesheets?

By default, Admins can edit and approve all timesheets.

Managers can edit and approve timesheets for any employees who work in their teams (i.e., any teams they're nominated as managers of). To control which teams someone manages, navigate to the 'Teams' tab of their staff profile (ensuring they are first nominated as a 'Manager' from the Permission levels tick box).

Should you wish to amend this for any reason (either to restrict access from a manager or to grant someone else access), you can do so via our Advanced Permission Settings. Navigate to Settings > Permissions > Show Advanced Settings > Customise access & roles here and look for the Timesheets heading. See our Customise Permission Settings help guide for further context.


How Can I Manage my Timesheet Settings?

You can manage your Timesheet settings by navigating to Settings > Timesheets > View all timesheet settings.

Please see our Configuring Organisational Settings help guide for a detailed explanation of what each setting means.


How to Approve Timesheets

We recommend that it is best practice to approve timesheets at the end of each shift using the Daily timesheet view. Please see the FAQs below for a more detailed explanation as to why.

To approve your daily timesheets, navigate to Time & Attendance > Timesheets (Daily):

Daily timesheets are filtered by status. As you approve each shift, it is moved automatically to the Approved tab.


Timesheet Approval Options

You can either approve each timesheet individually or approve all daily timesheets at once.

Approve Timesheets Individually

To approve an individual shift, simply click the approve button. You may first have to approve any variances between rostered and clocked times.

When approving shifts individually, each time a shift is approved, it will move to the approved tab automatically. This makes it easy to identify which shifts still require your attention.

Approve All Daily Timesheets

To approve all daily timesheets at once, simply click the 'Approve all' button in the top left corner of the page.

When approving all shifts at once, all timesheets will move to the Approved tab. Shifts that are incomplete or contain errors will remain pending, with the errors highlighted.


Things to Check When Approving Timesheets

1. Check that the correct employee clocked in. Hovering over the clock-in photo reveals both the clock-in and clock-out photo.

2. Check the Timesheet contains start and finish times. A start and finish time is the minimum information required to approve a Timesheet.

3. If break(s) should apply throughout a shift, check that they include a total time. Alternatively, if you record the start and finish times of breaks, check that they contain both a start and a finish time.


Adding Additional Shifts

To manually add a Timesheet for an employee who didn't record their hours using the time clock, click +Add Shift in the top right corner of the daily Timesheets view.


Additional Timesheet Details

Note: The 'R' rostered time will only display rosters that have been published.


Editing Locked Timesheets

Once a timesheet has been approved and exported, it will become locked for managers to edit. At this point, you require Admin permissions to unlock an exported timesheet.

To unlock and edit a locked Timesheet, use the More Actions menu and select 'Unlock timesheet.'

Once the changes are complete, timesheets can be locked again by using the More actions menu and selecting 'Lock all approved timesheets.'

Timesheets can also be unlocked individually by opening the timesheet of a single employee.


Manually Creating a New Timesheet

To manually create a timesheet for an employee, navigate to Time and Attendance > Timesheets and select +New Timesheet.

Then, click New Timesheet beside the employee's name, ensuring you have selected the correct Pay Period from the dropdown menu.

A new blank timesheet will be created where you can manually enter shifts for the employee.


FAQ's and Troubleshooting

What do orange highlighted shifts mean?


Shifts entered manually by an employee are highlighted in orange. Employees can only enter times manually if you have the employee permission 'Allow staff to add times to their own timesheets' turned on. A manually entered shift is one that was entered by the employee directly into their timesheet.

How is the 'shift team' applied to timesheets?


When the setting 'Automatically place shifts in teams' is enabled, the team assigned to the rostered shift applies automatically on the Timesheet.

If the shift is unrostered (or rostered without a team selected), the employee's default payroll team applies instead. You can manage an employee's Default Payroll Team via the Teams tab of their staff profile.

What causes a shift to have the "Uncategorised" team applied?


Shifts are marked as Uncategorised when the employee clocks in using a Time Clock set to a different location than the location on their rostered shift.

The exceptions to this scenario are:


(a) If an employee's Default Payroll Team is also in the location of the Time Clock used, the team will default to the employee's Default Payroll Team.
(b) If the employee is a 'member of' only one team in the location of the Time Clock, that team will apply on the timesheet.
(c) If the address in the location of the time clock and the rostered shift location match exactly.

Why is it 'best practice' to approve timesheets daily?


The benefits of approving timesheets daily are:

  • Reduced workload at the end of the timesheet period.

  • It's easier to remember what happened during the shift if you need to make any corrections.

  • More accurate cost reporting as any errors will be corrected each day.

Who can edit timesheets once approved?


Approved timesheets need to be unapproved before times can be edited. Managers and Admins can un-approve the timesheets of teams they manage.


After an approved timesheet has been exported to Payroll or locked, it will be locked for managers' editing, and all costs will be locked. Only Admins can unlock an exported timesheet.

How can you see who made changes to a timesheet?

The Timesheet History details who made changes to Timesheets and when those changes were made.

The Timesheet History is visible to Admin users.

To view an employee's Timesheet History:

  1. Navigate to the timesheet for a period for a particular employee

  2. Click Timesheet History located at the foot of the timesheet to expand the timesheet history as shown below:

The Timesheet History displays all actions on a timesheet, including:

  • Action: What type of action was made (e.g. create, update, delete).

  • User: Who made the change.

  • Time: When the change was made, including date and time.

  • Change: What was specifically changed. The first column (in italics) shows what the timesheet displayed before the change. While the second column shows what the timesheet displayed after the change was made.

In the above example, the history shows the employee clocked in at 10:32am on February 11 2020, using the Time Clock. The manager, Kaitlyn, then manually updated the start time from 10:32am to 10:30am


For more information on Timesheets, see:


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