Projects · Daily operations · 8 min read

Log, approve and post time and expenses

Record hours and expenses against a project, get them approved by someone else and post them to the ledger.

Before you begin

The project must be open. Team members need a cost rate and a bill rate (see Build the project team). Approving time needs project.resource.assign; approving expenses needs project.budget.approve. Nobody approves their own time or expenses.

Steps: log time

1. Open the project, Costs tab, Timesheets, and press Log Time.
2. Choose the Team member. Leave it blank for yourself.
3. Choose the Task (optional) and the Date.
4. Enter the Hours: more than 0 and at most 24 for one entry.
5. Leave Billable ticked if the customer pays for the time. Enter a Bill rate only to override the member's rate.
6. Describe What was done and press Save.
7. Press Submit on the row.

Cost is hours x cost rate and value is hours x bill rate. Eight hours at AED 75 cost AED 600.00 and, at AED 150, are worth AED 1,200.00.

Steps: add an expense

1. Open the Expenses list on the Costs tab and press Add Expense.
2. Enter the Description, the Kind (travel, accommodation, meals, fuel, equipment, materials, permits, consumables or miscellaneous), the Date and the Amount in AED.
3. Enter the Vendor as free text and tick Billable to customer if it goes on the customer invoice.
4. Press Save, then Submit.

Steps: approve

1. A different person opens Projects > Execution > Timesheets (or Expenses) and filters by Submitted.
2. They open the row and press Approve, or tick several rows and press Approve selected.
3. Reject sends the entry back so its owner can correct it (Back to draft).

If you try to approve your own entry you see 'Somebody else approves your time.' or 'Somebody else approves your expense.' In a bulk approval, the entries before your own row are approved and the process stops at yours.

Steps: post to the ledger

1. Open the project, Costs > Cost summary.
2. Press Post approved time & expenses (needs project.budget.edit), or use Post on a single row.

Time posts as a debit to Labour cost and a credit to Project Cost Clearing. An expense posts to the cost code's account, or to Project expenses, against expense clearing. Both journals carry the project, branch, department and cost centre. If Post time and expenses when approved is on in Project Settings, approval posts at once. Pressing the button again posts nothing twice: 'There is no approved time or expense waiting to post.'

What happens next

Approved time and expenses count in Actual cost immediately, before posting. Billable approved entries wait for the next time-and-material invoice. See Bill the customer.

Good to know

• A submitted entry is locked: 'Submitted time is changed by its approver only.' Reject it to edit.
• Hours outside the range are refused: 'Enter between 0 and 24 hours.' The check is per entry.
• Expense tax is stored for information; it is not posted or billed.
• On a closed project every change is refused: 'A closed or cancelled project is read-only. Reopen it through an authorised correction first.'