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⏱️ Time Reporting – Manager’s Guide to Review and Approve

A quick guide for managers to review and approve employee time reports in Aboard’s time tracking system.

Irene Itimad Parkinson Sánchez avatar
Written by Irene Itimad Parkinson Sánchez
Updated today

🧑‍💼 Your Role as a Manager

When time tracking is active, you're in charge of reviewing and approving your team's weekly reports. This ensures:

✅ Accurate payroll
📊 Proper project tracking
📅 Compliance with working time policies


🔄 The Approval Workflow

  1. Employees log their time

  2. They submit their report at the end of the week

  3. You receive a notification

  4. You review it and approve or reject

  5. Approved time is locked


📍 How to Find Time Reports

Option 1: Approval Requests section

  • Go to Approval requests

  • Filter by Changes on → Time report

  • Filter by Awaiting approval from → Me

Option 2: Notification bell

  • Click the 🔔 icon to access time approval requests

Option 3: Email notification

  • When an employee submits their time report, you’ll get an email notification: "You have a new time report for (employee name) to review." It will directly take you to Aboard

Option 4: Dashboard widget

  • Add the Approval Requests widget to your dashboard to easily see what’s awaiting your review


📊 Reviewing the Report

You’ll see:

  • Employee info and week dates

  • Total hours, overtime, and project list

  • Daily breakdown (start/end time, assigned projects)

What to check:

  • Are hours realistic?

  • Are projects correct?

  • Any unexplained overtime or missing entries?

Watch out for:

  • Time on the wrong projects

  • Very long workdays (e.g., 14+ hours)

  • Gaps or unsubmitted days


✅ Approve or ❌ reject

To approve:

  • Click Approve — time is locked and cannot be edited

To reject:

  • Click Reject

  • Add a clear comment

  • The employee will revise and resubmit the timesheet

Examples of rejection comments:

  • "Missing Tuesday—please add"

  • "Overtime needs to be approved first"

  • "Wrong project selected"


🛟 Troubleshooting

Not seeing requests?

  • The employee might not have submitted their report

  • Check if you’re their listed manager

  • Review your filters

Employee can’t submit?

  • They may still have an active timer

  • They might not be assigned to a project


💡 Key Tips for Reviewing Time Reports

  • Add the "Approval requests" widget to your dashboard for quick access to pending time reports.

  • Set a weekly reminder to check for submissions—Friday afternoon or Monday morning works well.

  • Use filters on the Approval requests page to find only what's waiting for you.

  • Give clear, constructive feedback when rejecting a report—this saves time for everyone.

  • Watch for patterns like recurring overtime or missed entries, and follow up during 1-on-1s.

  • Talk to your team about expectations around time reporting—especially deadlines, project accuracy, and overtime rules.

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