Time card approval: Best tools & tips (2024 guide)

Time card approval is the process where a manager or supervisor verifies an employee’s time card information for accurate payroll processing.

Depending on your company’s needs, time cards can be approved daily, weekly, or monthly.

But the real question is: how do you go about timecard approval?

In this article, we’ll dive into the time card approval process and understand why you need to automate it. We’ll then highlight six useful tools and provide two simple tips for effectively managing the timecard approval process.

This article contains:

(Click on the links below to jump to specific sections)

What is Time Card Approval and How Does It Work?
Why You Should Automate Time Card Approval
Top 6 Tools for Easy Time Card Approval
2 Smart Tips for Managing Time Card Approval Process

Let’s go.

Looking for a time card template?
Here are some free Google Sheet templates you can use today.

What is time card approval and how does it work?

A timecard or an employee timesheet is a log of work hours that employees update every day when they clock in and clock out.

It may also include which tasks they did and how long they worked on each task.

An employee’s time card displays the number of hours they worked. When it is completed, it’s submitted to a manager or supervisor for approval.

The manager or supervisor then checks those time entries and confirms the employees’ pay based on the agreed rate and time worked. At this time, the employer also factors in bonuses, overtime pay, and penalties.

Traditionally, employees check a time card into a time clock that stamps their start time and the time they leave work. Admin staff then collects all of the time cards to process them and mark their approval status as approved or rejected.

With automated time card approval, this process is streamlined with time card software.

When employees clock in and track their time, the information is sent directly to a manager, who can get in-depth information on their productivity.

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of using time card software.

Why you should automate time card approval

Let’s take a look at three common benefits of automating the timecard approval process:

1. Generate accurate payroll

The traditional timecard approval process is prone to calculation errors and time theft. These errors can lead to either overpayments or underpayments.

While overpaying can cause significant losses, underpaying can leave employees disgruntled and impact productivity.

Fortunately, you can automate processing with timecard approval apps to eliminate factors like human error — resulting in accurate payroll.

2. Save time & increase productivity

The time taken to fill, verify and approve a timecard can take away valuable time and human resources from employees and managers – which otherwise they could’ve spent on critical tasks.

Modern timecard approval software automates these admin tasks.

Not only does this make the process streamlined, but features such as reports offer added insight into employee productivity. And if needed, you can take corrective measures to boost it.

3. Maintain proper records

A good and ethical business always thrives on keeping the ledgers up to date. That’s why you need to maintain a standard bookkeeping practice.

However, unintentional inputs, lost paperwork, and mistakes can land a business in hot water with their respective tax collecting authority.

A business can be assured of a well-kept accounting department when the timesheet is accurate with the help of a timecard approval software.

Now that we understand why automating timecard approval is essential, the only question is: which is the best tool for your needs?

Let’s find out.

Top 6 tools for easy time card approval

We’ll look at six of the best timecard approval tools along with their key features, pricing, and user ratings:

1. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a powerful employee time tracking and performance management tool used by major companies, like Verizon and Ericsson, and small businesses, like Thrive Market, to boost productivity across the board.

Time Doctor makes employee time tracking and timesheet approval a piece of cake.

How?

All you need to do is use its advanced time tracking functionality.

Time Doctor automatically converts the tracked data into time card entries and comprehensive reports for accurate payroll management.

Key features

Here’s a detailed look at some of Time Doctor’s features:

A. Time tracking

Time Doctor’s time tracking feature supports both manual and automatic tracking.

In manual time tracking or the Interactive mode, an employee just has to:

Create a task they would like to track.
Add it to a project.
Press play to track time.
Press stop to pause or stop tracking time.

Time Doctor also offers a silent version for automatic time tracking that starts tracking time when an employee starts their PC.

It has little impact on employees’ everyday routines and lets them continue to work normally while also providing companies with data on their productivity to improve their performance.

Note: Time Doctor prioritizes employee privacy and doesn’t have any keylogging functionality.

B. Work schedules

Time Doctor’s work schedules feature helps managers create shifts for each employee.

To create an employee schedule in Time Doctor, simply:

Export as a CSV file with all the users and a date range.
Add all the relevant information like employee name, email, ID, unique identifiers, and a date range.
Import the CSV file back into the system, and the schedule will be loaded.

How do you edit a schedule?

Follow that same process mentioned above, make your changes, and then import back to the system.

C. Reports

Time Doctor generates different reports that offer valuable insights into how employees spend their time.

Let’s take a look at these comprehensive reports:

Attendance report: Displays employee’s current status such as present, absent, late, or partially late.
Hours tracked report: Indicates total hours an employee logged for any specific date range.
Web and app usage report: Gives insight into your employees’ sites and apps usage during working hours.
Custom export report: Allows you to export reports with all the necessary data you need in a single report.
Timeline report: Shows when an employee was working and on break.
Projects and tasks report: Displays how long they spent on a specific project.
Activity summary report: Shows the active minutes, unproductive, and mobile time for a specific date range.

D. Payroll management

Managing payroll becomes easier with Time Doctor’s payroll feature.

Here’s how you can configure payroll in the Company Settings:

Click the payroll button under the Configuration.
Add your payment methods, including Paypal, Wise, Gusto, and ADP.
Select all the users you would like to pay.
Choose a pay period for those users.
Select the appropriate currency for each user.
Add in each user’s pay rate.
Confirm the payment method for each user.

You can then export the payroll as a CSV file and upload it to the appropriate payment method for batch payments.

E. Productivity ratings

Productivity ratings allow managers to mark websites and apps based on their relevance to work.

You can mark them as:

Productive.
Unproductive.
Neutral.
Unrated.

For example, you can rate social media sites like Facebook as ‘unproductive’ and business tools like Microsoft Excel as ‘productive.’

Pricing

Time Doctor’s plans start as low as $7/month. A 14-day free trial is also available (no credit card required).

User ratings

G2: 4.4/5 (250+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.5/5 (380+ reviews)

2. ADP Workforce Now

ADP Workforce Now is a work management software that offers time tracking, attendance management, and payroll integration.

To approve time cards, in the upper right-hand corner of the time card, click the “Employee Approval Required” link, review the information, add supplementary earnings if applicable, and simply click approve.