Time and leave

Employees submit weekly timesheets and leave requests against their own employee record. A timesheet covers a week and has an approver and total hours. Its entries show the date, hours and category, with an optional project or cost center. A leave request records the leave type, dates, reason, approver and current decision. HR and Payroll Admin can read the approved work before a payroll cycle.

The time record is useful only if its approvals mean something. Submitted hours are still awaiting a decision. Approved hours can be distinguished from rejected or posted ones. The same distinction applies to leave: a submitted request is separate from approved absence, and a request marked Taken records an outcome beyond the earlier approval. Keep the approver named on each record so a delayed decision has a clear owner.

• Week. The timesheet groups one employee’s entries between its week start and week end.
• Day. Time entries specify hours and the regular, overtime, double-time or on-call category.
• Absence. Leave types define accrual settings; requests and balances show the decision and available context.

Leave types may differ by country and employee class. They hold the accrual method, rate, carryover cap and documentation rule. A leave balance ties a type to one employee with accrued, taken and pending amounts as of a date. HR Business Partner should set those rules before inviting employees to request time off. A request should be judged against the balance for the appropriate type and date, rather than a generic total.

Confirm the start of the workweek, the cut-off for submissions and who approves a manager’s own hours. Decide how overtime is identified and reviewed. Check that pay calendars and time categories align with the firm’s payroll practice. For leave, agree how country, class and documentation requirements are applied. When a request spans a payroll boundary, decide which pay period owns each day.

Employee enters timesheets, time entries and leave requests. Payroll Admin reads submitted time and leave results. Admin sets the approval access for the employee named on each record, then checks a submitted request with that approver before the first live pay period.

A recruiter records a normal week and an overtime entry for one day. The timesheet goes from Draft to Submitted with its daily entries attached. The named approver checks the hours and moves it to Approved. Payroll Admin sees the approved weekly total and can inspect the category that produced the overtime amount. If the entry was wrong, the correction path should retain which week and date changed.

The same employee requests two days of leave. They choose the applicable leave type and start and end dates, then submit. The reviewer checks the balance and any required documentation, records the approval decision, and the request appears on the leave schedule. A rejected request remains distinguishable from an approved one, so workforce planning and payroll do not count it as absence.

• My weekly timesheets — An employee’s own submitted, approved and draft weeks.
• Leave approval inbox — Submitted absence requests awaiting a decision.
• Leave schedule — Approved absence dates and the employees affected.

See the time and leave process and the payroll process.