Lock Timesheet Periods

1. Click TIME/EXPENSE...TIMESHEETS from your navigation bar.

2. Click the GEAR icon near the top right corner of your window.

3. Toggle the switch next to the phrase LOCK EACH TIMESHEET PERIOD to ON


Several options will populate. Let’s go through them, moving left to right.

Lock Period

Click on the red arrow under LOCK PERIOD and a short picklist will populate with these options: weekly, monthly, quarterly.

You can choose to lock your timesheet submission by one of these options instead of a submission period (which is found near the top of your window).

 

Grace Period

You can choose to add a grace period, which is an additional amount of time tacked onto your timesheet submission period during which staffers can still submit time. This will give your staffers a few more days to enter and submit time once the timesheet period closes. The number you enter will keep the timesheet period open for that number of days. 

The Next Lock Date

Your timesheet Lock Date is calculated based on your timesheet submission period (which can be weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, or quarterly). This field will display the next date that your timesheets will be locked, which is calculated based on the grace period and lock period set in the previous two fields. 

Your timesheets will lock by midnight of the next lock date. If you're set up with financial admin permissions, this timesheet lock date won't apply to you. However, users without those permissions will automatically be barred from entering time prior to the next lock date once that date has passed. This date is automatically generated by BigTime, and you can’t update it manually. However, if you change the lock period selection from quarterly to monthly, for example, you’ll notice that the next lock date changes. 

To clarify how this feature works and what you can do with timesheet locking, let's take a look at how it could work in a real world scenario.

Timesheet Period Locking in Action

Let's say your firm wants to lock timesheets to a specific period. You've set up your SUBMISSION PERIOD as "Weekly", and your FIRST WEEKDAY is "Monday". Let's also say today's date is Thursday, December 7th, so the start date for your weekly time submission this week will be Monday, December 4th. 

If you turn on timesheet locking and set the LOCK PERIOD as "Weekly", any time entries prior to 12:00 AM on December 11th will be locked. You'll see this reflected in the THE NEXT LOCK DATE IS field.

However, if you have a grace period set up, your timesheet lock settings will add the number of days in grace period to your next lock date. 

Imagine you set your grace period as 2 days. Going forward two days from your lock date of Monday, December 11th  takes you to Wednesday, December 13th. 

After setting up your timesheet lock settings, click UPDATE TIMESHEET FORMAT in the top left corner of your screen to save your changes.

Unlocking Timesheet Periods

If you're a system admin and you'd like to unlock timesheets for all your staffers, doing so is simple: just open the timesheet configuration screen as explained above, and toggle the LOCK EACH TIMESHEET PERIOD switch to OFF. 

It's important to note that doing this will unlock timesheets for everyone at your firm. There may be circumstances where you need to unlock the timesheet for one staffer, but want to keep them locked for everyone else. In situations like this, that staffer would need to ask you (or your firm's system admin) to submit their timesheet for them. This is because timesheet locking doesn't apply to users with system admin permissions.

If you are still confused about how timesheet locking periods work, you can always contact BigTime Support for additional help.

Unsubmitted Time Notification Persists for a Locked Period

This notification appears when a user has saved time entries that were never submitted, and the timesheet period those entries fall in has since been closed. Because time cannot be submitted once a period is locked, the notification keeps appearing until a System Administrator either submits and approves the time or deletes it. This is an administrator-only action and cannot be resolved by the end user alone.

Symptoms

• A user continues to see a notification for unsubmitted time in a period that is already locked.
• The time entries cannot be submitted because the timesheet period is locked.
• Refreshing the page or waiting does not clear the notification
• The user is unable to resolve the notification without administrator help

Resolution Steps

 Have a System Administrator determine whether the unsubmitted time is needed. If it is valid and should be kept for billing or payroll, continue to Step 1. If it was saved in error and is not needed, skip to Step 4.

• Step 1: If the time should be kept, a System Administrator can temporarily unlock the timesheets.
• Step 2: Once the Timesheet is  unlocked, submit the time entries.
• Step 3: The system Administrator should then re-lock the Timesheets. 
• Step 4: If the time is not needed, locate the saved but unsubmitted time rows in the closed period and have a System Administrator delete them. Deleted time cannot be recovered, so confirm the entries are not needed before deleting.
• Step 5: Confirm the notification has cleared. If it persists, check for additional unsubmitted rows in the same or other closed periods.

Best Practices

• Encourage staff to submit time before the accounting period closes, so this notification does not occur
• Have System Administrators check for unsubmitted time before closing a period each cycle
• Confirm whether saved time should be kept or deleted so administrators can act quickly when the notification appears

Expected Outcome

Once the unsubmitted time has been either submitted and approved, or deleted, the notification clears and will not reappear unless new unsubmitted time is left in a period that later gets closed.