QuickBooks Time approvals: approve, undo, or reject a locked timesheet
Approved timesheets lock in QuickBooks Time until an approval is reversed. Here is how the approval screens work and where the traps sit.
The same problem resurfaces on QuickBooks forums every pay cycle. A manager approves a week of timesheets, the hours lock, and then a missed break or a duplicated shift turns up before payroll runs. Reversing the approval is possible on every plan that offers it, but the button that grants one and the switch that removes it live in different places. One option on the Time side also approves far more than its name suggests, and that is where most of the trouble starts.
An approval is a lock, not a signature
In QuickBooks Time, approving hours does more than record a manager’s sign-off. Approved time locks, so payroll draws fixed numbers instead of a moving target. That design protects the run, and it also means any late correction stalls until the approval is removed. The telltale sign is a timesheet that will not take a correction. The hours are sitting right there, the figures are wrong, and nothing will save until someone strips the approval that froze them.
Approval tools exist in two spots: the Time app itself and QuickBooks Online. They work over the same records, so a manager who searches the wrong application will conclude the feature is missing when it is simply elsewhere.
No approvals showing up in the queue?
Approvals only appear if team members can submit their hours in the first place. That permission is switched on in QuickBooks Time, not in QuickBooks Online. If the approvals screen sits empty while staff insist they filed their time, the submission setting is the usual culprit. Turn it on, have the team resubmit, and the pending hours will surface for review.
Approving hours in QuickBooks Online
Approvals sit under All apps, then Time, then Approvals. The screen accepts a date range, a status filter, and a search by team member, so a single missing sheet is easy to isolate. Set the status filter to Unapproved and the pending hours surface. Selecting Approve next to a person’s hours confirms the choice, and Approve and lock hours finalises it. Anyone who prefers to read the entries first can open the team member’s name, check the detail, and approve from there.
The screen is available on QuickBooks Online Standard, Plus, and Advanced, on the Accountant edition, and on the Payroll Premium and Elite tiers. The entry-level plan does not carry it, which explains why some subscribers simply never see the option.
Running approvals inside QuickBooks Time
The Time app handles the same job through a report. Open Approvals, pick the report dates and the team members, then run the report. Totals appear as decimals by default; selecting HH:MM switches them to hours and minutes, which reads more naturally when a shift ends on the half hour and 8.50 looks like a typo. From there, select all unapproved entries or tick individuals, choose Approve Selected, and confirm. A single approval next to a name works the same way.
What does Approve displayed hours actually approve?
This is the step that catches people. The option to approve displayed hours approves and locks every time entry up to and including the report dates, not only the rows visible on screen. Used deliberately, it closes a pay period in one action. Used carelessly, it sweeps older unapproved time into the lock along with the current week. Check the report dates before touching it, particularly when late submissions from earlier periods are still outstanding.
Taking an approval back, or rejecting a sheet
The reversal runs through the same screens. In QuickBooks Online, change the status filter to Approved, find the hours in question, and remove the approval. The hours drop back to unapproved, which unlocks them for editing; once the correction is in, the sheet can be approved again. Rejection works from the same list: the sheet returns to the unapproved queue so the team member can fix it and resubmit. QuickBooks Time offers the identical flow through its approvals report.
Timing matters here. Pulling an approval after payroll has drawn the locked hours means the run was built on figures that have since changed. The cleaner habit is to review approvals before the payroll close, so a reversal happens before anyone processes a pay run.
One report, one correction
The approvals report is not only for sign-offs. It can also add a missing timesheet, edit hours, or delete a duplicate without leaving the screen. For a manager racing a deadline, that single view tends to settle the whole problem: unapprove, correct, approve again, and the run proceeds on clean numbers. The workflow asks for one thing in return, which is attention to the report dates, because in approvals the dates you choose decide how much time you are really locking.