What’s the difference between timesheet and project approvals?

Understand the difference between approving employee timesheets and project hours

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Jibble has two approval workflows designed for different purposes. Timesheet approvals let you review and approve an individual’s hours for a pay period, making them suitable for payroll. Project approvals let you review and approve the hours tracked to a project for a specific date range, making them useful for client billing and project costing.

You can use either workflow on its own or use both together, depending on how your organization manages time.

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How timesheet and project approvals differ

Timesheet approvals are person-based and primarily used for payroll. You approve an individual’s hours for a pay period, including relevant payroll calculations. Once approved, their time entries are locked and can’t be edited unless the pay period is reopened.

Project approvals are project-based and designed for reviewing project hours. You approve the hours tracked to a project for a selected date range, making it easier to use approved hours for client billing and project costing. Unlike timesheet approvals, approved project hours remain editable, but if changes are made afterwards, Jibble marks the affected date as Modified so you can review it again.

Timesheet approvals Project approvals
What you approve A person’s hours for a pay period A project’s tracked hours for a date range
What it is used for Payroll Client billing and project costing
Period Your pay cycle: weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly or monthly Any date range
Hours counted Payroll hours, including overtime, paid time off, and deductions Tracked hours logged to the project
After approving Time entries are locked Time entries remain editable, and changes are flagged
Who can approve Owners, Admins, and Managers for their managed members Owners and Admins
Where to find it Timesheets Activities & Projects

For more information, see our guides on approving timesheets and approving project hours.

When to use each approval workflow

Choose the approval workflow that best matches what you’re reviewing and why you’re approving it.

Use timesheet approvals for payroll

Timesheet approvals are a good fit when you need to approve each person’s hours before running payroll. Use timesheet approvals when:

  • You run payroll on a fixed cycle and need each person’s hours approved beforehand.
  • You need approved hours to remain fixed, with time entries locked until the pay period is reopened.
  • Managers need to approve hours for the people in their groups.
  • You need overtime, paid time off, and break deductions to be included in the approved total.

Use project approvals for billing and project costing

Project approvals are useful when you need to review and approve the hours tracked to a project separately from your payroll cycle. Use project approvals when:

  • You bill clients by project and need to approve hours before invoicing.
  • Your review cycle doesn’t match your pay cycle, such as reviewing a project weekly or at the end of a project phase.
  • You want to see when hours change after approval without preventing your team from correcting their time entries.
  • You want billable rates to be recorded as they were at the time of approval, so later rate changes don’t affect hours you’ve already approved for billing.

How to use both approvals together

You can use both approval workflows at the same time. The same time entries are used by both workflows, but each approval records its own figures, and approving one does not approve or change the other.

For example, a team working on a project might:

  1. Review and approve the project’s hours every Friday for client billing.
  2. Approve each employee’s full pay period at the end of the month for payroll.

An employee could have 40 hours in their timesheet for the week, with 30 hours tracked to Project Alpha and 10 hours tracked to other activities. You could approve the 30 project hours for billing at the end of the week, then later approve the employee’s full 40 hours as part of their pay period.

This allows you to manage project billing and payroll separately, even though both workflows use the same underlying time entries.

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