For every security group you create in BigTime, you’ll have the ability to add or remove certain user rights that control what members of that security group can do. To edit or add security group user rights, first go to MY COMPANY…USER RIGHTS from your main navigation bar. Then, either create a new security group or click on a pre-existing security group. You’ll see a list of all the user right categories, which you can click on to expand and see each individual user right grouped within that category. One of these categories is labeled REVIEW & APPROVAL. In this article, we’ll define each user right in this category, and explain what aspects of the BigTime user experience they each control.
View Management Review/Approval
With BigTime, you can grant certain staffers the ability to review and approve time or expenses submitted by other staffers. This user right is the most baseline permission needed to access the reviews and approvals screen. When it’s turned on, users who are granted this permission will see a PENDING APPROVALS option located under the MY COMPANY tab in their navigation bar. The PENDING APPROVALS screen is where all your firm’s submitted time, expenses and invoices can be reviewed and/or approved.
This permission alone won’t give your staffers the ability to review, approve or reject time and expenses. But if you want to give staffers review/approval authority, you’ll need to have this permission turned on first.
User Has Review/Approval Authority
You have options when it comes to choosing which of your staffers can review and approve time/expenses in BigTime. Depending on your firm’s pricing package, you can designate a staffer to handle approvals or set up multiple levels of approval. If you want to grant certain staffers the authority to review and approve time/expenses, you can turn this permission on. However, keep in mind that, depending on your firm's approval style, those staffers may need to also have either "team lead" status on a project to approve time and expenses logged toward that project. If you want staffers to approve time and expenses for a certain department, they may also need to have management authority over that department. To learn more about setting up reviews/approvals authority, take a look at this article.
View/Edit Invoice Details
A submitted invoice that has moved to the reviews and approvals stage can still be edited after the fact. If you want your staffers with review/approval authority to be able to view and make edits to submitted invoices, you’ll need to grant them this permission. With this user right, staffers can edit line item descriptions and amounts on invoices. They will also be able to access the TIME and EXPENSES tabs of invoices.
Approve Personal Time/Expenses
Usually, BigTime users won't be able to approve their own submitted time or expenses, even if they're set up with management and review/approval authority. If you want members of a security group to have the ability to approve their own time and expenses, you can give them this user right.