Timesheet policy defines the rules and permissions in relation to the submission and approval of timesheets in Keka PSA. In most cases, the resources working on each project submit regular timesheets which indicate the total hours they have spent working on the assigned projects and tasks. 

The timesheet policy that has been assigned to each employee will define how many hours they can log each day including minimum and maximum hours. The policy will also establish rules that may enable or disable the daily submission of timesheets, submission of past timesheets, and more. 

Let us look at how you can create new timesheet policies and manage the various settings related to timesheet submissions by your employees. 

To create or manage timesheet policies, go to Project (1) from the left navigation pane and then go to the Policies and Settings tab (2). Select the Timesheet Policy tab (3). Ensure you're on the Timesheet Policies tab (4) here. 

Adding a new timesheet policy

You will see the various timesheet policies currently configured here. You can add a new timesheet policy by clicking on +Add Timesheet Policy. 

On the Create Timesheet Policy window, enter a Policy Name and a Description if required. Also select the Timesheet Period Start Date from the drop-down. Once you have entered these details, click on Add Policy.

You can now configure the timesheet policy according to your needs. To do this, find the timesheet policy you have added from the left pane titled Timesheet Policies. Click on the Edit Icon next to Timesheet Policy Settings in the Settings tab.

The Update Timesheet Policy window will open up. Here there are 2 sections that will help you configure the timesheet policy. You will be on the Hours Settings section of the page. Here, you can enter options that will govern how many hours can be logged by each resource. 

In the Per Day Timesheet Restrictions section, enter the Minimum and Maximum number or hours a resource can enter in a day. 

You can also set these limits on a weekly basis. Select the Minimum and Maximum Hours per Week.

You can also choose to show the total hours that the employee was logged in for each day from the attendance capture system that you are using in the system. You can choose if you want to display the Gross Hours or Effective Hours. 

Enter these details and then click on Continue to move to the Submissions Settings section of the page.

The Submission Setting section will help you define how the timesheets can be submitted. The first question to deal with is what to do with previous timesheets. Say you have resources who have not submitted timesheets for a particular period. 

You can choose if these resources have to submit timesheets for these previous time periods before they can submit the timesheet for the current period. Choose Submit pending timesheets prior to current period option if you want in this case. If they can log timesheet entries irrespective of whether they have submitted timesheets for previous periods, select Allow submitting current timesheets even if past timesheets are not submitted.

There are a few other options to consider here. 

The Allow Daily Timesheet Submission checkbox will enable the submission of daily timesheets by your employees. If this option is unselected, the employees will be able to submit timesheets for a whole week only and not for selected days. 

You can also restrict resources from submitting timesheets for past or future periods. Let's say you want to restrict resources from submitting timesheets that are more than a month older. In this case, select the Limit timesheet submissions older than __ weeks and enter the 4 in the field. This will restrict employees from submitting timesheets older than 4 weeks.

Similarly, you can restrict timesheet submissions for future periods. In case you want to allow employees to submit the timesheet for one week in the future but not more than that, then select the Limit submission of future timesheets to __ weeks and enter 1 in the field.

You can enable attaching documents to timesheets submitted by selecting Allow attachment while submitting a timesheet. 

Finally, you can restrict employees from submitting timesheet entries for holidays, weekly offs, or leave. If this option is selected, the timesheet submissions for off days will be restricted. 

Project managers, reporting managers, and admins can still submit timesheets on behalf of employees even on their off days irrespective of what you choose here. 

Enter the relevant details on this page and then click Update to save these settings.

You are now ready to assign this timesheet policy to the employees. You can edit the configuration of any policy by following the above steps. 

You can view the various timesheet periods that are created based on this policy from the Timesheet Periods tab. 

You can also view employee assignments or assign this timesheet policy to employees in the Employees Assigned tab.

To view the changes that have been made to a timesheet policy, go to the Activity tab. Here, you can see the latest changes that were made to this policy and you can also view important information such as who made the changes and when the changes were made. To view more details about an activity, click on Changes. 

Editing or deleting a policy

You can edit or delete a policy to change any of the information configured here such as the name or description. To edit the details of a particular policy, select the policy from the left pane on the Timesheet Policies page and then click on the three dots in the section with the details about the policy. Select Update Details from the drop-down. 

On the Update Timesheet Policy window, you can change the Policy Name and the Description as required. Click on Update Policy after you have made the necessary changes to save it.

To delete a timesheet policy, click on the Three dots icon and then select Delete from the drop-down. 

Click on Delete from the confirmation window to delete the policy.

Policies with acticve employee assignments cannot be deleted. Remove these assignments first before attempting to delete the policy. 

Assigning the policy to employees

You can assign the timesheet policies you have created to the various resources that have been added to projects. To assign a policy to an employee, select the policy and then go to the Employees Assignment tab. Click on Assign Employees.

You will be taken to the Timesheet Policy Allocation tab. You can navigate to this page directly too. 

Here, you can assign the policy or change the current assignment. Select the employees you want to assign a new policy to or edit the assignment for. If you are assigning a policy to an employee with no timesheet policies currently assigned, select the employee or employees using the checkboxes and then click on Assign/Change Policy. 

 On the Timesheet Policy Assignment window, select Assign Policy. Select the new policy to assign using the Timesheet Policy drop-down. You can also select the timesheet period from which this assignment should be valid using the Timesheet Period drop-down. 

Once you have selected these details, click Save. The new timesheet policy will now be assigned to the selected employees. 

To change the assignment, select the employee(s) and click on Assign/Change policy. Select the Change Policy option on the Timesheet Policy Assignment window.  You can now select the Timesheet Policy and the Timesheet Period from which this assignment will be active. Click Save to change the assignment.

You can disable timesheets for selected employees from this page. Select the employee you want to disable timesheet for and then click on the Disable Timesheet button. 

That's the end of this article on creating, managing, and assigning timesheet policies. More questions? Talk to our product experts today!