The Approvals section is for Managers and Admins who need to review and approve (or reject) submissions from their team.
This section is for: Managers and Administrators only
⚠️ If you are an Employee, you do not have access to the Approvals queues. Your timesheets and leave requests are reviewed by your Manager.
Overview — The Two Approval Queues
WorkRoster has two separate queues — one for timesheets and one for leave requests.
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ APPROVAL QUEUES │
├────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┤
│ TIMESHEET APPROVALS │ LEAVE APPROVALS │
│ │ │
│ Timesheets → │ Leave → │
│ Approvals Queue │ Approvals Queue │
│ │ │
│ Review daily hours │ Review holiday, sick, and │
│ submitted by staff │ unpaid leave requests │
│ │ │
│ Approve ✅ or │ Approve ✅ or │
│ Reject ❌ with notes │ Reject ❌ with notes │
└────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘
How to Access the Queues
- Timesheets queue: Click Timesheets in the sidebar → then Approvals Queue (or the orange Pending Timesheets card on your Dashboard)
- Leave queue: Click Leave in the sidebar → then Approvals Queue (or the orange Pending Leave card on your Dashboard)
Part 1 — Reading the Approval Queue
When you open either queue, you see a summary at the top and a list of pending items below.
Summary Cards
┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ 7 │ │ 52.5 hrs │ │ 4 │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ Pending │ │ Total Pending│ │ Employees │
│ Timesheets │ │ Hours │ │ Requesting │
└──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘
These give you an instant overview of how much work is in the queue before you start.
The Pending List
┌──────────────┬──────────────────┬─────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┐
│ Employee │ Project │ Hours │ Date │ Actions │
├──────────────┼──────────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┤
│ James Patel │ Acme Office │ 8.5h │ 19 Jun 2026 │ ✅ Approve │
│ │ │ │ │ ❌ Reject │
├──────────────┼──────────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┤
│ Sarah Lee │ City Council │ 9.0h │ 19 Jun 2026 │ ✅ Approve │
│ │ (1.0h overtime) │ │ │ ❌ Reject │
└──────────────┴──────────────────┴─────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┘
Part 2 — Approving a Submission
Approving is quick when everything looks correct.
Quick Approval (1 click)
- Look at the entry — check the employee name, date, hours, and project
- Click the green tick (✅) button on the right
- The entry is immediately approved and removed from the queue
That is all! The employee is notified and the hours are confirmed for payroll.
Before You Approve — What to Check
Take a moment to review these things before clicking Approve:
| Check | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Correct project | Billing wrong hours to a client creates invoicing errors |
| Reasonable hours | 8–9 hours is typical; 12+ hours may need a quick query |
| Notes make sense | Vague notes (e.g. "worked") may mean the time wasn't actually logged accurately |
| No duplicate dates | Check for accidental double entries on the same day |
| Leave balance (for leave) | Employee should have sufficient remaining balance |
Part 3 — Rejecting a Submission
If something looks wrong, you can reject the entry and send it back to the employee with an explanation.
You click Reject
↓
A comment box appears
↓
You type an explanation
(e.g. "Please correct the project — should be City Council, not Acme")
↓
You click Reject to confirm
↓
Employee sees the rejection with your comment
↓
Employee corrects and resubmits
How to Reject
- Click the red cross (❌) or Reject button on the entry
- A comment box will appear — this is required
- Type a clear explanation of what needs correcting
- Click Reject
⚠️ You must write a comment when rejecting. The employee sees your comment and uses it to fix their submission. Without a reason, they will not know what to change.
Tips for Writing Good Rejection Comments
| Too vague | Clear and helpful |
|---|---|
| "Wrong" | "Please change the project from 'Acme Office' to 'City Council Substation'" |
| "Fix this" | "The break duration looks incorrect — a 2-hour break was listed but your shift was only 7 hours" |
| "Incorrect" | "Please split the notes into the morning task and afternoon task so we can bill accurately" |
Part 4 — Searching and Filtering
If you have a large team, you can search and filter the queue to find specific entries:
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ Search by name or email... │ │ Date range ▼ │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘
- Search box: Type an employee's name or email to show only their entries
- Date range filter: Narrow down to a specific period (e.g. "last week" or a custom date range)
Part 5 — Leave Approvals in Detail
The Leave Approvals queue works the same way, but you are reviewing days off rather than hours worked.
┌──────────────┬────────────┬────────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ Employee │ Leave Type│ Start Date │ End Date │ Days │ Actions │
├──────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ Maria Garcia │ Annual │ 23 Jun │ 27 Jun │ 5 │ ✅ ❌ │
│ Tom Wilson │ Sick │ 19 Jun │ 19 Jun │ 1 │ ✅ ❌ │
└──────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘
Before Approving Leave — What to Check
- Sufficient balance: Does the employee have enough annual leave days remaining?
- Team coverage: Will the team be adequately staffed during this period?
- Timing conflicts: Are multiple people already off on the same dates?
- Reason given: Does the reason make sense for the leave type requested?
💡 Tip: Before approving leave, open the Calendar page in a separate tab to see who else is off on those dates. This helps you avoid approval conflicts.
Part 6 — Using the Calendar to Plan Approvals
The Calendar is your best tool for spotting leave clashes before you approve a request.
How to Use the Calendar for Approvals
- Click Calendar in the left-hand sidebar
- Navigate to the month when the requested leave would fall
- Look for amber (pending) leave entries and blue (approved) entries to see who is already off
┌───────────── JUNE 2026 ─────────────────────────────────┐
│ Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri │
│ │
│ 22 23 24 25 26 │
│ 🔵Maria 🔵Maria 🔵Maria 🔵Maria 🔵Maria │
│ 🟡Tom req. ← Tom is ALSO requesting this week │
│ │
│ ⚠️ Two people away same week — check team coverage first │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
See the Calendar guide for full details on reading the calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: An employee submitted hours for the wrong project. Should I reject it? Yes — reject it with a clear comment explaining which project to use. The employee will correct it and resubmit.
Q: Can I approve part of a timesheet (e.g. 7 hours out of 9)? No — approvals are for the full entry. If only part is correct, reject it and ask the employee to resubmit with the correct total.
Q: An employee submitted leave but does not have enough balance. Will the system stop it? Yes — WorkRoster prevents Annual Leave requests that exceed the available balance. If you see an annual leave request in the queue, the employee has sufficient balance.
Q: I approved something by mistake. Can I undo it? Once approved, an entry is locked. Contact your Administrator — they have tools to adjust records if a genuine error occurred.
Q: How do employees know their submission was approved or rejected? Their submission status changes on their Timesheets/Leave page (Pending → Approved/Rejected), and the status shows immediately when they next log in. For rejections, your comment is displayed to them.
Next: Administrator Console →