Approving time and month-end

A timesheet is approved by someone who did not write it. Accountants call this segregation of duties: when one person records a transaction and another checks it, an error or a padded figure needs two people to slip through instead of one. BizBooks360 holds to it without exception for ordinary members: You cannot approve your own timesheet.

Who approves depends on Settings → Timekeeping → Rules and certification → Approvals for each timesheet:

Each tier must be a different person. A member whose permissions include Timesheet Review for everyone may also approve where nobody is named. Summit Gear Repair uses one tier, so Casey's timesheets go to Alex, Casey's manager.

Three of the fields on that card are reminders and deadlines a manager should know about, and Summit Gear Repair leaves all three blank:

• Lock each period N days after it ends locks every period automatically. Leave it blank and periods stay open until someone locks them. Timesheets not yet approved come in late. Section 4 shows what a lock means.
• Floor check every N days: once that many days pass with no floor check recorded, a reminder says one is due (the Floor Check report, Chapter 12.4).
• Ask for the policy again every N months: each person acknowledges the timekeeping policy again that many months after they last did. Blank means they are asked only when the policy changes.

Where the books run under government contract controls, the lock and the floor check cannot be left open-ended: the page then says, for example, a period locks 10 days unless you set fewer.

The task. Casey was invited in Chapter 12.1 but has not signed in yet. Casey filled in paper time cards for the period: eight hours a day, except Tuesday, October 27, when a rush repair kept them for nine and a half. Alex, as Casey's manager, will type the cards in.

1. 1

   Open Casey's time

   My Time, then in Whose time pick Casey Lin and press Open. A blue band says whose time it is and that every change asks a reason.

2. 2

   Type each day, with a reason

   The reason box opens for every cell, with Manager correction already chosen. Alex wrote "Casey's paper time card for Oct 19; Casey has no login yet, entered by their manager." and so on for each day. A manager's reason follows the same rule as the employee's: at least 10 characters in their own words (Chapter 12.1).

3. 3

   Look at the whole period

   Press Period. The books worked out the overtime themselves: the second week holds 41.5 hours, and the 1.5 hours over 40 are moved to overtime on the last day worked.²

1. 4

   Submit for Casey

   Casey cannot submit, so Alex used Submit for Casey Lin from the timesheet's review page. The dialog asks Why Casey cannot submit it; Casey reads this after the word "because" when they acknowledge. Alex wrote "Casey's paper time cards for Oct 19-30; Casey has not signed in yet." The answer: Submitted for Casey Lin. Casey will be asked to acknowledge it.

Timekeeping → Review lists every timesheet of a period that you may see, with its status, hours, timeliness and flags. Use the arrows or Today to change period. This is how the queue looked just before Casey's submission:

Pressing a row's arrow opens the timesheet's review page: a summary of what to decide, the hours read-only, the full change log, and the approver statement at the foot. Open next for me jumps to the next timesheet that waits for you.

Alex opened their own submitted timesheet. The review page shows everything a reviewer needs and, at the foot, refuses:

Alex has nobody above them. For a one-person office the books provide a narrow way out: the sole-approver exception. Only the owner can switch it on, it applies only to the owner's own timesheets, leave and expense claims, and every approval made under it is labeled and listed on the Timesheet Status report and the Audit pages.

1. 1

   Switch on the exception

   Settings → Timekeeping → Rules and certification, the Sole-approver exception card. Tick the box and press Save the exception.

1. 2

   Approve with the statement

   Back on the review page, read the approver statement, tick I have reviewed this timesheet and certify the statement above, and press Approve. Under the exception the foot adds a line saying the approval is recorded as a sole-approver exception.

After approving, the page moves on to the next timesheet in the queue: Casey's. The green line at the top belongs to the approval just made; the chip shows Casey's own state.

1. 1

   Check, tick, approve

   Alex compared the grid with Casey's paper cards (81.5 hours), ticked the statement and pressed Approve. As Casey's manager this is an ordinary tier-1 approval, not an exception. The page returned to the queue with Approved. Payroll can use these hours.

After the second approval Casey's row still reads Awaiting acknowledgement, and the counts stay at Approved 1 and Awaiting acknowledgement 1, as in the picture: Casey's timesheet is approved (the Timesheet Status report gives its approval date, Chapter 12.4) and still waits for Casey's acknowledgement. The approval is complete; the acknowledgement is Casey's confirmation that what was entered for them is right, and stays open until Casey signs in.³

Where government contract controls are on the acknowledgement is not a formality. A timesheet submitted for someone is held: its review page says Held: waiting for the employee to certify. Payroll and labor costing skip it until Casey acknowledges it. If the person truly cannot sign (they have left, or have no way to sign in), the owner of the books, and nobody else, may press Waive the acknowledgement... on that banner. The dialog asks Why the employee cannot acknowledge (Employee separated, No access to sign in or Other), a Reason of at least 20 characters and the day the waiver ends (Waive until); Waive and release to payroll sends every held timesheet of that person on, and the waiver is recorded in the audit trail. Summit Gear Repair does not use those controls, so Casey's approved timesheet is not held.⁴

Approved hours are a count. The general ledger needs dollars. Timekeeping → Labor costing turns approved hours into a journal entry, by class (direct, overhead, G&A and so on), project and person; by default one entry for each month. How an hour is priced is set once per fiscal year in Settings → Timekeeping → Accounting:

When Alex set this up on November 1, Summit Gear Repair did not yet run payroll in BizBooks360 (Volume 11 switches it on and pays Casey afterwards), so there were no paychecks to spread; under the first method the page would have had nothing to post. Alex chose Standard rates, which costs the hours now and lets payroll settle the difference later. The last procedure of this chapter shows that difference arriving.⁵

How often to post. Under standard rates the same Accounting page adds Post labor cost: Once a month (the default, which Summit Gear Repair keeps) or Each pay period, before the month ends. Under standard rates the hours can be posted as each pay period is approved; the batches still belong to their month. Under the wages-actually-paid method the choice is not shown and labor posts once a month (Posting by period is for the standard method.). The procedures below use the default: one Post October 2026 for the month, and one true-up when payroll has paid it.

1. 1

   Mark the owner as unpaid for hours

   Alex owns a sole proprietorship and takes draws, not wages. On Alex's own person page (Timekeeping people → Alex Morgan) Alex cleared Paid for their hours: Off for an unpaid owner or a volunteer: hours only, never dollars. Alex's 80 hours stay on record but cost nothing.

2. 2

   Give each paid person a cost rate

   On Casey's page, Cost rate an hour 24.00, then Save.

Changing a labor category. When a person moves to another category (from technician to senior technician, say), choosing it opens a Category from date: The first day worked under the new category. Hours before it keep the category they were worked under. Summit Gear Repair has no categories yet, so the field does not appear in these pictures.

Training. At the foot of the person page a Training card keeps the trainings the person attended on timekeeping and charging. Record training... asks the date, the topic, the trainer and a note; a record made in error is voided with a reason, never deleted. The records are evidence for an auditor and are listed on the Policy Acknowledgements report (Chapter 12.4).

1. 3

   Choose the method and the accounts

   In Settings → Timekeeping → Accounting Alex chose Standard rates and pressed Change the method. Under Labor accounts, each picker has + New account, which opens the usual new-account dialog (Chapter 5.1). Alex made Shop Labor (an expense) for Overhead labor, because OH-GEN is an overhead code, and Accrued Labor (a liability) for Accrued labor, then pressed Save accounts.

1. 1

   Open the month

   Timekeeping → Labor costing, Month Oct 2026, Show. Read it top to bottom: what payroll put into clearing, who is still waiting for approval, the lines the posting will make, and the journal preview.

Checking the figure. 81.5 hours × $24.00 = $1,956.00. Alex's 80 hours add nothing, because Alex is not paid for hours. The overtime hours are costed at the same standard rate; the premium for overtime has its own account (Overtime premium), left empty here.

The mistake caught. The post button did nothing: No account for labor clearing: set it in Settings > Timekeeping > Accounting. The books want the clearing account set even under standard rates, so that payroll can later close the difference against it.

1. 2

   Set the clearing account

   Back in Accounting, Labor clearing → + New account: Labor Clearing. The picker for this line offers expense types. Save accounts.

1. 3

   Post

   Return to Labor costing for October and press Post October 2026. The page reloads with the batch listed.

Posting labor locked the period Oct 18 - Oct 31 at once. A manager can also lock a period by hand with Lock this period... on the Review page, giving a reason; a locked period can be unlocked the same way, also with a reason. If Lock each period is set in Rules and certification (Section 1), the books also lock each period that many days after it ends without anyone pressing a button.

In a locked period nobody types into the timesheets. A later correction is recorded as an adjustment in the current period, so the posted October figures are never rewritten. If a posting itself was wrong, Undo last batch on Labor costing reverses it.

After the October posting, the shop ran its first payroll in BizBooks360 (Chapter 11.2): paycheck 1001 paid Casey for Oct 18 - Oct 31, dated 11/06/2026, gross wages $1,974.00. Under the standard method that paycheck does not replace the October posting; it settles it. Open Labor costing for Oct 2026 again.

Where the 18.00 comes from. The paycheck paid Casey 80.00 regular hours at $24.00 and 1.50 overtime hours at $36.00, time and a half:

The standard method costs every hour, overtime included, at the person's cost rate, and the Overtime premium account was left empty in Section 3. The extra half-rate on the overtime hours, 1.50 × $12.00 = $18.00, is therefore the whole difference between what Casey was paid and what October was charged. In these sample books the page books it to Labor rate variance, because of the way paycheck 1001 was made (Chapter 11.2, Problem 1).⁶

The mistake caught, again. The true-up entry moves the paycheck's $1,974.00 out of Labor clearing, reverses the $1,956.00 accrued in October, and debits the $18.00 difference. But Labor rate variance was also left at None in Settings → Timekeeping → Accounting, so the page holds the posting back: No account for labor rate variance: set it in Settings > Timekeeping > Accounting.

1. 1

   Set the variance account

   In Accounting, under the special accounts, choose (or make with + New account) an expense account for Labor rate variance, and press Save accounts.

2. 2

   Post the month again

   Back on Labor costing for Oct 2026, Post October 2026 posts the three-line entry shown in the preview. October's clearing tile, which now reads 1,974.00 in / 0.00 out / 1,974.00 open, then nets to zero.

In the sample books Alex has not taken these two steps yet, so the pictures in Chapter 12.4 still show October's clearing open and the difference unexplained.

• [x] Every timesheet of the month's periods is submitted; on-behalf ones carry a clear reason.
• [x] Every timesheet is approved by someone other than its owner, or under a labeled exception.
• [x] Each paid person has a cost rate (standard method) or payroll has run (actual method).
• [x] Labor costing shows Nobody is waiting and a balanced journal preview.
• [x] The month is posted, and the journal entry appears in Journal Entries.
• [x] Once payroll has paid the month, the variance is posted too: Labor rate variance (and Overtime premium, if used) are set, and October's clearing nets to zero.
• [x] Outstanding acknowledgements are followed up with the people concerned.