What do I need to know about approving time cards via email?
Line managers receive a system generated email when a direct report submits a time card or absence request. The timecard approval email subject line is “Action Required: Approval of Payroll Time Entries for [Employee Name] from [Pay Period Dates].”
Time Card email notifications include the following five sections and related information:
- Header: Employee Name, Pay Period Dates and Person Number (Empl ID)
- Person Information: Assignment Number, Manager Name, Job Title, Position Description, Assignment Location and HR Department ID
- Time Card Details: Time Card Status, Any applicable overtime information, Any comments added with time card resubmission, if applicable and any comments originally submitted with the time card.
- Reported Time by Entry Date: Dates, Quantity of Hours, Time Reporting Code(s) and Costing information which includes Fund, Department, Cost Center, Supplemental or Project. You will only see costing information on the time card and email notification if the employee manually typed in the costing information. Normally, these fields are left blank unless an employee needs to enter costing information for specific work they are completing (usually tied to sponsored programs or grant related work).
- Approval History: the name(s) of all approvers.
Approvers should pay close attention to the Assignment Number and Reported Time by Entry Date to confirm accuracy of information entered.
What actions can approvers take on submitted time cards?
After reviewing the time entry details, approvers can either Approve, Reject or Request More Information through the email notification.
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- Approve: This will approve the time card and it will be routed to Payroll for processing.
- Reject: This will reject the time card. Please note, comments are required when rejecting a time card.
- Request Information: This will pause the time card. The time card submitter will receive an email with the information requested and can provide additional information or edit their time card as needed. Once the time card is edited or additional information is submitted, the approver will receive a follow-up notification prompting them to review the information and take action on the time card.
After selecting an action, you must select “Send” on the email response that generates. If you don’t send the email, the submission will stay in your approval queue.
The employee will receive a system generated email with information about the action taken. If you request more information, the employee will need to edit and resubmit the request for you to review and approve before the entries route to payroll for processing.