09) Hours/Expense/Travel Approval (Admin Menu)

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Hours/Expense/Mileage Item Approval

Your site can optionally be configured such that hours/expense/mileage entries must be approved by a team lead before they can be included in an invoice or reimbursed. If this option is inactive, then items would be reviewed within an invoice or reimbursement report.

Watch our YouTube video about Hours/Expense/Mileage Item Approval at https://youtu.be/rwNJ7RB20OU
(if this link is broken because we’ve posted a new version, go to our channel at https://www.youtube.com/SMMware to get to the new video)

When active, Team Leads (or admins) can approve items by navigating to
Admin->Hours Expenses Mileage Approval

They then use the filter to generate a listing of items to review and approve.

By default, the listing is only items which have yet to be approved, and the items disappear from the list as they are approved.

Once an item is approved, it cannot be edited, but you can unapprove an item if it needs to be edited. To unapprove items, check the button “Include Already Approved items”.

At this point, approved items can be unchecked. When you click “Update Items” any already approved items are not altered regarding who approved them, you are not taking responsibility for all checked items on the listing, only ones you are just now approving.

When this feature is active, there is an additional child setting, “Strict” or “Cooperative”.

When set to “Strict”, team leads will only see jobs they are team lead for.

When set to “Cooperative”, team leads can approve any item from any job. This is appropriate in an organization that is either smaller or has a higher level of trust. The advantage is that Team Leads can cover for each other.

Under either “Strict” or “Cooperative”, admins can see everything and can cover for an absent Associate. The system still tracks exactly who made the approval (An admin still approves as themselves, as opposed to impersonating the Team Lead).

Note that once an item is part of an invoice, it cannot be unapproved unless it is first removed from the invoice. See the Invoice Manager section below regarding how to release items for corrections.

On the homepage (The Daily Snapshot), if this approval feature is active and if you are a Team Lead or Admin, a new section will appear, “Hourly & Expense Items Needing Approval”, which tells you how many items are in the system for you to approve.

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