Timecard and payroll approval workflow

Approving project worker timecards and payroll is permission based.

To approve project worker timecards and payroll, your account must have one of the following roles enabled:

• Role: Company Admin, Company Manager, or assigned Project Coordinator

• Custom role with: Projects, People & Approvals/Project management - Full access, or Manage; Payroll & Financials/Timecards - Full access, or Create and manage, or Approve only

Overview

The Timecards tab on your Approvals dashboard is where you review, manage, and approve worker timecards submitted for a project. From here, you can evaluate individual timecards in detail, approve or deny submissions, and bulk-approve multiple timecards at once. This article walks you through everything on the Timecards tab and how to take action.

Note: To learn how to configure your project's timecard approval workflow, see Approval workflows.

How to access timecard approvals in Wrapbook

Team members that are part of the timecard approval workflow can approve worker timecards from their Approvals dashboard.

1. In the left-side navigation, click the dropdown menu and select the project

2. In the left-side navigation, click Approvals

3. On your Approvals dashboard, click the Timecards tab

Understanding the Timecards tab

Filters

At the top of the Timecards tab, you can use the following filters to narrow down the timecards displayed:

• Week ending – Filter by the week-ending date of the timecard

• Requester – Filter by the worker who submitted the timecard

• Request date – Filter by the date the timecard was submitted

• Status – Filter by the timecard's current approval status (see Approval status below)

• Pending approval from – Filter by which approver still needs to act on a timecard

To apply a filter

• Click any filter dropdown and select your desired option. The list updates automatically.

To clear all filters

• Click Clear filters in the top-right of the filter bar

Timecard list columns

Each row in the list represents one worker's timecard. Here's what each column shows:

Sortable columns

You can sort the list by clicking the column header for:

• Week ending

• Worker

• Gross

• Batch

• Department

• Job title

• Created on

Approval status

Each timecard displays a status indicating where it stands in the approval process:

Started

The approval workflow is in progress. The timecard is moving through the required steps but hasn't been fully approved yet. By default, the Approvals dashboard filters to timecards in this state since they need attention.

Waiting on Approval

The timecard is at a specific step and is waiting for action from a particular approver.

Ready for Paymaster (union payroll projects only)

The timecard is awaiting review by the Paymaster before the approval process can continue.

Ready for Approval (union payroll projects only)

The Paymaster has completed their review and the timecard is ready for the next approver to act on.

Approved / You've Approved

All steps in the approval workflow have been completed.

Option 1: Bulk approve from the dashboard

You can approve multiple timecards at once directly from the Timecards tab on your Approvals dashboard.

1. Check the box to the left of each timecard you want to approve. To select all visible timecards, check the box in the column header row.

2. A dark action bar appears at the bottom of the screen showing how many timecards are selected

3. Click the Actions button on the right side of the bar

4. Select Approve from the menu

Option 2: Review and approve an individual timecard

For a closer look before taking action, open the worker's full timecard.

1. Click the View button on the right side of any timecard row. This opens the worker's individual timecard.

2. Review the wages, hours, allowances, and any alerts at the top of the page

3. When you're ready to act, click the Approve or Deny button in the top-right corner of the timecard

What happens when you approve a timecard

When you approve a timecard, it moves to the next step in your project's approval workflow. If you’re the final approver, the timecard status updates to Approved.

What happens when you deny a timecard

When you deny a timecard, it is sent back to the worker with your reason for denial. The worker will be notified and can make corrections before resubmitting.

Denying a single allowance

If a timecard contains an allowance you want to deny — without denying the entire timecard — you can deny it individually from the timecard detail view.

1. Open the individual timecard by clicking the View button from the Timecards tab

2. In the Allowances section, click the three-dot menu (⋮) to the right of the allowance you want to deny

3. Select Deny

4. In the Deny allowance dialog, enter a reason in the text field

5. Click the Deny allowance button to confirm

The denied allowance is moved to a separate timecard so it can be tracked and approved independently. You'll see a confirmation message: Allowance has been denied and moved to another timecard.

Viewing approval details

To see a full record of where a timecard is in the approval workflow — including which steps have been completed and who still needs to act — open the individual timecard and use the Actions menu.

1. From the Timecards tab of your Approvals dashboard, click the View button on the timecard you want to check

2. On the timecard page, click Actions in the top-right area of the timecard row

3. Select View approval details from the dropdown. This will open the Approval details drawer.

Using the Approval details drawer

The Approval details drawer gives you a snapshot of where a timecard stands in the workflow and who still needs to act on it.

At the top of the drawer, you'll see:

• Approval status – The current status of the timecard

• Remaining approvals – How many approval steps are still outstanding

• Submitted by – The worker who submitted the timecard

Below that, the drawer has two tabs:

• Progress – Shows each step in the workflow, the approvers assigned to that step, and how many have approved so far (e.g., "0 of 1 approved"). A clock icon next to an approver's name means their approval is still pending.

  • From the bottom of the drawer, you can also take action directly — click the Approve or Deny buttons without navigating back to the full timecard view

• Activity – Shows a timestamped log of all actions taken on the timecard, such as when the worker created the approval request. You can also leave a comment directly from this tab:

  1. Use the Send to dropdown to choose who will see your comment — select Approvers only to limit visibility to approvers, or choose another option to include the worker

  2. Type your message in the Add comment field

  3. Click the send icon to submit your comment