Timesheets & Approval

Overview Back to top

The Timesheets module lets your team submit logged hours for approval and gives managers a clear way to review and approve them. The entire workflow runs inside the WorkHub plugin for Jira.

Here is how the process works at a high level:

1. An admin sets up approval rules that decide who approves whose timesheets.
2. An employee picks a time period, reviews their worklogs, and submits a timesheet.
3. An approver reviews the submission and either approves or rejects it.

Approved timesheets lock the underlying worklogs so they cannot be changed. When both Approval Enabled and Lock on Approval are active in Settings, worklogs are also locked while the timesheet is pending review. Rejected timesheets unlock them so the employee can make corrections and resubmit.

Configuring Approval Rules Back to top

Before anyone can submit a timesheet, an admin must create at least one approval rule. Rules are configured in Settings › Timesheet Access.

Rule types

There are two types of rule, listed from most specific to broadest:

How the system picks an approver

When someone submits a timesheet the system looks for a matching rule in this order:

1. Per-user rule — is there a rule for this exact person?
2. All-users rule — is there a catch-all rule?
3. Admin fallback — if no rule matches, any app admin or Jira site administrator can approve.

The first match wins. If nothing matches and no admin exists, the submission fails with an error asking an admin to add a rule.

Submitting Timesheets Back to top

Employees submit timesheets from the Timesheets view. Select a period, review your worklogs, and submit for approval.

1. Select a period — use the period picker to choose a week or month. The period end date must not be in the future.
2. Review your worklogs — verify that all worklogs for the period are correct. Once you submit, worklogs are locked.
3. Submit — click Submit. The system picks the right approver automatically based on the configured rules. Your timesheet moves to Pending Approval.

Timesheet statuses

Every timesheet moves through a set of statuses:

Reviewing & Approving Back to top

If you are an approver you will see pending submissions that require your action. For each submission you can see the employee name, date range, total hours, and number of worklogs.

Pending Approvals

This view shows a list of submitted timesheets waiting for your action. For each submission you can review:

• Employee name and avatar
• Date range and total hours
• Number of worklogs
• Status history showing all past transitions

Taking action

From the pending submissions view you can:

• Click Approve to accept the timesheet and lock the worklogs.
• Click Reject and enter a reason (at least 10 characters) explaining what needs to change. The employee's worklogs are unlocked for correction.

Approval History

The Approval History view lists every timesheet you have acted on. You can filter by status, employee, and date range.

Reopening an approved timesheet

If a timesheet was approved but later needs corrections, an approver or admin can reopen it:

1. Find the approved timesheet in Approval History.
2. Click Reopen and enter a reason (at least 1 character) explaining why.
3. The employee's worklogs are unlocked. They can make corrections and resubmit.

Timesheet Layout Back to top

The Timesheets view is organized into four sections in the left sidebar: User Timesheets, Project Timesheets, Progress, and Approvals. Each section contains several report modes that slice worklogs and capacity data from different angles.

All views share the same toolbar at the top: a period picker (Current Week / Current Month) with navigation arrows and a Today button, filter tabs (Team / Users and Projects) with tag-based selection, and an Export Excel button.

Period Picker

The period picker at the top controls the time range displayed:

• Weekly — shows one week at a time with daily columns (Sun–Sat).
• Monthly — shows one month at a time with weekly columns.
• Navigation arrows — move forward or backward by one period.
• Today button — jump to the current period.

Filters

Use the filter tabs to narrow data by Team / Users or Projects. Selected filters appear as removable tags beneath the tabs and persist while you switch between views and navigate periods.

User Timesheets Back to top

User Timesheets show logged hours grouped by person. Three sub-views provide increasing levels of detail.

Summary

A flat table with one row per person. Each row shows the person's avatar, a progress donut chart with percentage, a total SUM H (hours logged in the period), and daily columns showing hours per day. A Total row at the bottom sums all users.

by Project

An expandable tree grouped as Person → Project. Each person row expands to show which Jira projects (and allocations) they logged time against, with project keys and names. Daily columns show hours per project per day.

By Item

The most detailed user view. Grouped as Person → Issue/Allocation. Each person row expands to list every individual issue (with key and summary) and allocation they logged time against. Shows the worklog description text alongside daily columns.

Project Timesheets Back to top

Project Timesheets flip the hierarchy: data is grouped by project first, then by person or issue. Two sub-views are available.

Summary

A flat table with one row per project (or allocation). Each row shows the project key, icon, and name, with total hours and daily columns. Functions the same as User Timesheets Summary but grouped by project.

By User

An expandable tree grouped as Project/Allocation → Person. Each project row expands to show which team members logged time against it, with their avatars and names. Daily columns show hours per person per day.

Progress Back to top

The Progress section contains three capacity-focused views. Each answers a different question about your team's time. All three group users by team with Subtotal rows per team and a Total row at the bottom.

Required Hours in these views represents the user's available capacity for the period, calculated from their assigned capacity scheme minus holidays and approved leave. This ensures the progress percentages reflect realistic expectations.

Timesheet Progress

Question it answers: How much of their required capacity has each person logged?

How to use: Run this at the end of each week to check who hasn't finished logging. If someone's bar is well below 100%, they may have unrecorded work.

Resource Utilization

Question it answers: How does planned work compare to available capacity?

How to use: Use this during sprint planning to check if the workload is balanced. If someone is over 100%, they are overbooked.

Planned vs Actual

Question it answers: How does actual logged time compare to what was planned?

How to use: Run this after a sprint or at month-end to compare estimates versus actuals. If logged hours consistently exceed planned, your team may be underestimating.

Related Pages Back to top