MANAGERS and TIME and ABSENCE APPROVERS - VALIDATE and APPROVE A TIMECARD
This guide is intended for managers, project managers (PM), and time and absence approvers (TAA) who are responsible for validating, approving, requesting modifications, or rejecting a timecard with errors.
This guide also outlines the process for notifications and reminders related to employee timecards.
RESPONSIBILITIES – TIMECARD APPROVER
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Employee and contingent workers timecards must be submitted by Friday before 5 PM. local time. In the absence of timecards, please ensure the deadline is respected.
- Each timecard must be validated and approved without errors to ensure the correct allocation of billable and non-billable hours worked.
- Timecard approval must be completed by Monday at 10:30 AM. local time, the Monday following the end of the period.
For billable projects identified as “AUTOAPPROVE”, the manager, the project manager and time and absence approver do not need to approve timecard entries for their contingent workers.
1. Management Tool : report – Alithya – delinquent time card report detailed
1.1 Utility of the report
- The report titled ALITHYA - Delinquent Time Card Report Detailed lists the overdue timecards for a specified period.
This management report includes :
- Unentered timecards
- Unsaved timecards
- Unsubmitted timecards
- Unapproved timecards
and this applies to periods that are fully or partially within a given timeframe.
- The report can be generated using variables to allow for dynamic date ranges.
1.2 Automate report reception
- You can configure the ALITHYA - Delinquent Time Card Report Detailed to receive it by email on the Alithya IT Portal: How to schedule the execution of an AlithyaHUB report.
- We strongly recommend scheduling this report three times a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. This will allow you to track the progress of approvals from your managers or submissions from your employees and send them reminders until all timecards are approved.
1.3 Read the instructions (Sheet 3)
2. View submitted timecards
There are two ways to view your submitted timecards :
a. Email notifications
b. Notifications accessible through the notification's menu in AlithyaHUB
These notifications will appear as soon as one of your employees submits their timecard.
To access them, click on the bell icon at the top right.
These notifications will appear as soon as one of your employees submits their timecard.
To access them, click on the bell icon at the top right.
Next, your list of notifications will appear.
Then, click on the timecard you wish to approve.
3. Approving project time entries
Once you have clicked on the notification, either via email or via AlithyaHUB, an approval window will appear. This window contains several information sections, as well as buttons to approve or reject.
These sections are explained in detail below.
In order for your team members to become as familiar as possible
with the non-billable categories and tasks,
you can specify the particularities of your department in the template below
and share it with your team members.
Template Activity by Department.xlsx
4. View employee information
This section provides you with information about your employee, such as:
- Manager’s name ;
- Position held (job and title);
- Physical location;
- Department.
5. Timecard details
This section provides an overview of the total number of hours worked. It also details paid leave hours, regular hours, and, if applicable, hours eligible for overtime.
6. Time totals
This section provides an overview of the total hours worked.
It also details paid absence hours, regular hours, and if applicable, hours eligible for overtime.
7. Absences and statutory holidays
This section provides an overview of the leave taken and holidays during the period.
8. Reported time by entry date
This table shows the time logged by date and the number of hours recorded by calendar entry date.
9. Calculated time by earned date
This table shows the time calculated by earnings date, after the reported time has been processed to identify overtime hours.
10. Manage timecards through email
a. Approve a timecard through email
When an employee has submitted their timecard, you will receive an email notification.
After reviewing it, you can approve the timecard by email.
To do this, simply click on Approve.
After clicking on Approve, an email will open.
Then, simply click on Send without writing a comment, and the timecard approval will be recorded.
b. Reject a timecard through email
After validating your employee’s timecard, you want to return it to them for adjustments or corrections.
To do this, you can click on Reject.
After clicking on Reject, an email window opens, allowing you to write a mandatory comment to justify your rejection (for example, asking for more details about a day, or requesting a modification of the timecard, etc.).
You can also support your refusal with any documents you deem necessary.
Then click on Send.
11. Manage timecards through AlithyaHUB
a. Approve a timecard through AlithyaHUB
If you wish to approve the timecard after reviewing it, click on Approve at the top right of the window.
A window will open.
Then click on Submit.
Note that it is possible to write a comment, but it is not mandatory.
After submitting your approval, the window will close automatically, and you will be redirected to the AlithyaHUB homepage.
Once approved, a notification is automatically sent to the concerned employees to inform them.
b. Reject a timecard through AlithyaHUB
If you wish to reject the timecard after completing your review, you must first click on Reject at the top right of the window.
After clicking on Reject, a window will open, allowing you to write a mandatory comment to justify your rejection (for example: asking for more details about a particular day, or requesting a modification of the timecard, etc.).
You can also accompany your rejection with any documents you deem necessary.
Then, click on Send.
A notification is automatically sent to the concerned employee to inform them that their timecard has been rejected and that they need to resubmit it, taking your comment into account.
c. Ask for information
If you have a question about a timecard or if you want to ask the employee to make a modification without rejecting the timecard, you can send them a comment.
To do this, click on Actions at the top right of the window.
Then select Request information.
A window will open with the employee’s name already pre-filled.
Then enter your information request in the comment box.
Next, select Return to Me in the return options and click Submit.
Your employee will receive a notification informing them that an information request is required for their timecard.
12. Automated notifications and reminders
Notifications are automatically sent in the following three (3) situations:
- When a timecard has not yet been submitted ;
- When a timecard has been submitted but rejected by one of the approvers ;
- When a timecard has been submitted.
A reminder is sent every 24 hours. If no action is taken within 3 days, the approval request is escalated to the immediate supervisor of the approver.
a. When a timecard has not been submitted
A reminder notification will be sent by email to the employee every Friday at 3 PM (Eastern Standard Time, EST) for the current weekly period.
Their manager, project manager, and time and absence approver will be copied on this email.
Then, starting from Monday at 10:30 AM (Eastern Standard Time, EST), reminders will continue until the timecard is submitted and/or approved for the given weekly period.
- For the project managers:
An approval notification is sent for each entry on a billable project, internal corporate initiatives, business unit initiatives, or non-billable tasks upon submission, except for timecards of contingent workers who report hours against projects identified as “AUTOAPPROVE”.
The internal project manager for a non-billable project will not receive any approval notification.
- For the time and absence approvers:
An approval notification is sent to the TAA for all timecards assigned to them, except for the timecards of contingent workers who report hours against projects identified as “AUTOAPPROVE”.
b. When a timecard has been submitted but rejected by one of the approvers
When a timecard is rejected, all approvers will receive a notification requesting approval of a new timecard submission.
c. When a timecard has been submitted
When an employee submits their timecard, a notification is sent to all their approvers.
13. Delegate a timecard approval during your absence
When you plan to be absent, you must temporarily delegate timecard approval to ensure continuity of processes in your absence.
To do this, follow the steps described in the documentation on Alithya’s IT Portal to set up a vacation rule: Delegating your approval tasks in case of absence - Timecard, Expense Reports, and others.
14. Consult team time cards
In "Team time cards" tile in My Team, a filter is applied by default, showing only the previous two weeks. Even if you click on “clear” to remove the filter, the result remains the same. This can give the impression that there are no other timesheets. However, the filter is still active, even if you can't see it.
To view all FDTs, enter the desired dates manually.
15. Search for people in my department
Start by accessing your team's timecards by clicking the tile below.
In the main search tab, enter the name of a person who is in the department you want.
Start by conducting a search by Department. Then, enter the name of your department, select it, and press the Enter key on your keyboard.
Delete the name of the person you initially entered. You can save your search with this icon 
.
