Explains how to approve timesheets from iBE or email inbox. There are multiple ways to approve stuff in iBE:
- Email (one message per project & task) including links to approve/reject. Emails are not automatically deleted if you approve the same timesheet via one of the other methods. Message can also be customized
- iBE inbox - while it displays one message per project & task you can approve multiple messages at once. You can also view and approve messages from the message feed or buzzBoard in iBE
- iBE phone - our iOS and Android apps allow you to approve time, expenses or anything else from the buzzBoard or phone inbox
- Time Admin is an app where authorized users can open, edit, approve or reject other people's timesheets
Approving Time from Email
If your email is marked as preferred and you are the approver, you will receive an email each time a timesheet etc. is submitted for approval, looking similar to the message shown above. You can see the "approve" or "reject" links highlighted (link text may vary according to how your workflows are setup). You can either click on one of these links or click on "Show timesheet in iBE" to open an iBE browser session to view/edit and approve/reject this timesheet.
Note: your system administrator or iBE support consultant can customize the approval message layout for all users
Approval Confirmation
Once you approve or reject time you will get a confirmation message similar to the one shown above. If there was a problem - typically for example because the timesheet was already approved by you or someone else earlier - then you will get an error message. If you get the error above you can ignore/delete the email because the timesheet is already approved.
Email approval does not currently support the entry of rejection comments. Use one of the online approval methods (mobile phone iBE app or iBE inbox or time admin) to enter rejection comments.
Approving Time from iBE Inbox
If you go to HOME > INBOX you will see all your approval messages or workflow actions, typically in reverse date order (most recent at the top). From here you can:
- Sort the inbox by date received, sender, message category (workflow, message, system etc.)
- Show or hide columns for total number of hours in timesheet
- Click on any of the action column icons (such as approve or reject) to approve or reject a timesheet project
- Group the messages by timesheet allowing you to quickly approve all projects in a single timesheet in one click
- Click to select a row and then use Cntrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple rows. Click on the mass approval action button anotated above to do a mass approval or rejection. Note: clicking the mass action button will perform the default action (e.g. approve) with other actions (e.g. reject) available from the button menu
- Double-click on a row to open that particular timesheet
- Workflow messages are automatically "pushed" to your browser provided that it supports push-notifications. If you do not see a recent message in your inbox click on the reload inbox toolbar button
Approving Time from Buzzboard
On any app in iBE other than the inbox you can click on the messages icon to show the message feed or buzzBoard. This is a compressed view of your inbox as shown above allowing you to:
- Click on any of the action links below each message to approve to reject the timesheet project
- Double-click to drill down to open that particular timesheet (it is possible for your system administrator or iBE support consultant to customize the drill-down action)