A useful approval process answers three questions: what work was done, who is authorised to confirm it and which hours are ready for billing. Start with clear responsibilities rather than a complicated chain of reminders. The steps below suit a small contractor business or agency using weekly timesheets.
1. Decide who reviews each contractor
Choose the person who can actually verify the work. That might be an internal manager or an authorised client contact. Record the reporting line and confirm their account access before the first submission. Avoid sending every week to a shared inbox where nobody owns the decision.
In TymTrack, manager visibility follows the employee’s reporting line. Email review links still require sign-in and the right permissions. Receiving a link is not permission to see someone else’s hours. Test one review with the intended approver so a missing account or reporting line does not become a month-end surprise.
2. Set up clients, tasks and rates
Create consistent client and task names before contractors log time. A clear task name makes a timesheet easier to review and a monthly invoice easier to understand. Agree what belongs in a billable task and where internal or non-billable work should go.
Admins can set assignment pay and bill rates. Managers work with assignments for their direct reports. Keep pay and bill rates distinct: one is a worker-cost input, the other is the client charge. Setting either rate does not run payroll. See our pay rate vs bill rate guide for a worked example.
3. Agree the submission and review rhythm
Choose a regular weekly submission deadline and a realistic review deadline that suits the client. These are process decisions for your business, not deadlines prescribed by this guide. Tell contractors who to contact if the approver is away.
The contractor logs hours against the correct client and task, checks the week, then submits it for review. Encourage useful work context in the timesheet where needed, but do not treat the monthly client invoice as a substitute for the detailed review record.
4. Review the work, not just the total
Check the dates, client, task and any exceptions before approving. Look for hours allocated to the wrong task and work that should not be billable. A weekly total can look reasonable while still being assigned to the wrong client.
If something needs correction, use the rejection and resubmission workflow and make the reason specific. “Please move Tuesday’s two internal-training hours to the non-billable task” is more actionable than “incorrect”. Approval should mean that the reviewer has checked the work record, not merely acknowledged an email.
5. Hand approved hours to invoicing
An admin can generate monthly client invoices from approved billable hours. Keep the approval decision separate from the invoice decision. In TymTrack, the optional inclusion of submitted or draft hours tags them pending approval; it does not approve the underlying timesheet.
If your business uses that option, agree who checks pending hours before sending the invoice. For a straightforward default process, invoice approved hours only and follow up outstanding submissions or reviews separately.
A small rollout checklist
- Confirm each contractor’s reporting line and the approver’s access.
- Check client/task names and billable settings.
- Agree submission and review deadlines with the people involved.
- Run one sample week through correction, resubmission and approval.
- Check the resulting monthly client invoice before rolling out to everyone.
Explore TymTrack’s approval features, compare plans, or start with the free Solo plan. A small pilot is usually more useful than writing a long policy nobody has tested.