Submit or approve timesheets in HR Self-Service

Guidance for staff and managers

Participants

A pilot is underway to manage timesheets in HR Self-Service. Participants include:

  • Faculty of Classics (Humanities) - excludes Examiners
  • Department of Physics (MPLS) - Casual Lab Demonstrators only

If you are not part of the pilot (or are a TSS worker), please continue to follow your current process for submitting the hours you have worked or to claim holiday hours.

Guidance for staff

The following guidance is available to help you submit a timesheet or claim holiday hours in HR Self-Service:

For general guidance on using HR Self-Service, see the Employee Self-Service How-To Guide.

Monthly timesheet deadlines are set by your department. Please contact your manager or HR administrator for details.

It is important to meet the deadlines set to ensure timely payment. In addition to the monthly deadline, you are advised to submit timesheets as soon as possible after each week worked. This allows your approver time to review your timesheets in advance of the monthly payroll deadline. 

Late submissions

Where necessary, it is possible to submit timesheets for work undertaken up to the last four months. If you need to claim hours worked beyond this period, please contact your HR administrator.

In most cases, your manager will approve your timesheets and holiday claims. Your manager's name is displayed under the My Profile (Contracts) menu in Employee Self-Service. If you have any queries about this, please contact your HR administrator.

You can complete a timesheet in stages and save your progress as many times as you wish. Once you are ready to submit your timesheet for approval, follow the steps outlined in the How-To Guide, available from the right hand menu.

Yes, separate timesheets can be submitted for the same week, if required. For example, you may wish to submit one timesheet for hours worked on the Monday and Tuesday, and a separate timesheet for the remaining days of that week.

Hours must be recorded against the day and week worked. For example, if you worked 20 hours over three weeks, you will be required to submit three separate timesheets. 

Before you enter your hours, please check you have selected the correct week from the menu. For guidance, follow the steps outlined in the How-To Guide available from the right hand menu.

When completing a timesheet in HR Self-Service, you are required to select an appointment ID from the drop-down menu. There will be an appointment ID for each role that you hold. You can view the details of each appointment ID under My Profile > Contract > Salary, to make sure that you are selecting the right appointment when recording your hours.

Timesheets must only be submitted for appointments held with the pilot groups listed at the top of this page.

Timesheets cannot be processed for work undertaken outside of the pilot groups. If you hold additional appointments elsewhere in the University, please follow your usual process for submitting those timesheets.

Your approver will receive an email notification when a timesheet has been submitted for approval. It can take up to 15 minutes for your approver to receive a submitted timesheet. If the timesheet isn't received after 15 minutes, please check that you have followed the steps to submit your timesheet (rather than save).

For guidance, please refer to the How-To Guide available from the right hand menu.

It is possible for your manager to submit a timesheet or claim holiday hours on your behalf, in exceptional circumstances. Please contact them (or your HR administrator) to discuss this. 

Holiday entitlement for casual workers and variable hours staff is calculated in hours. For information on how your holiday is calculated, please refer to your letter of engagement (casual workers) or employment contract (variable hours employees).

Once a timesheet has been approved, the holiday hours accrued will appear under the Balance tab. For guidance on how to claim holiday hours, please refer to the How-To Guide, available from the right hand menu.

Guidance for managers

The following guidance is available to help you approve timesheets in HR Self-Service:

For general guidance on using HR Self-Service, please refer to the ​​Manager Self-Service How-To Guide.

 

 

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Timesheet deadlines are set by your department. Please contact your HR administrator for details.

It is important to meet the deadlines set to ensure timely payment. In addition to the monthly deadline, staff are advised to submit timesheets as soon as possible after each week worked. This allows you, as approver, time to review the timesheets in advance of the payroll deadline. 

Late submissions

Where necessary, it is possible for staff to submit timesheets for work undertaken up to the last four months. Hours worked beyond the past four months must be submitted manually. Please contact your HR administrator for guidance.

If you need to approve timesheets and do not currently have access, please contact your HR administrator for assistance. 

You are able to approve (and complete) timesheets and holiday claims for the teams (work groups) listed in the My Team tab of your Manager Self-Service dashboard. For assistance, follow the Manager Self-Service How-To Guide, available from the right hand menu.

If a work group needs to be updated, please contact your HR administrator.

It is possible for a colleague to approve timesheets and holiday claims on your behalf. This can be set up using one of the options below. 

1. Assign an additional Self-Service Manager to your team

Self-Service Managers can view information about their direct reports in Manager Self-Service such as:

  • Basic personal details (eg name, title and emergency phone numbers);
  • Employee Personnel Number;
  • Contractual details (eg job title, FTE, length of service, salary and allowances);
  • Team structure (eg who reports to whom).

Where it is appropriate for a colleague to have access to the information listed above, they can be designated as an additional Self-Service Manager for your team. In doing so, this individual would also be able to approve timesheets and holiday claims where needed.

To set up an additional Self-Service Manager for your team, please contact your HR administrator.

2. Assign 'Shared Responsibility' to a colleague
This option is not available to NDM staff.

Shared Responsibility is where time approval permissions are shared permanently with another colleague. This can be assigned to specific work groups (teams) as appropriate.

The colleague who has been assigned Shared Responsibility will be able to perform the same time approver tasks as the manager. However, they will not have access to the additional information available to the Self-Service Manager (listed above). 

To set up Shared Responsibility, please contact your HR administrator.

3. Assign a Backup Timesheet Authoriser 

You can delegate timesheet approval permissions to a Backup Timesheet Authoriser to cover this responsibility for set periods of time (eg to cover annual leave). There are two steps to this process:
1. First, contact your HR administrator to nominate a suitable colleague to be a Backup Approver when required.   
2. Once the request has been fulfilled, the manager can assign these permissions to the Backup Approver when required, in Manager Self-Service. 

Please note:
- If you are responsible for multiple teams (work groups), the backup approver will receive access to approve timesheets for all teams. 
- Delegation must start on a future date (rather than today's). Once assigned, the Backup Timesheet Approver can access all historical requests (both approved and outstanding).

If a member of your team (work group) also manages a team, you’ll be able to view details about their team members in your Manager Self-Service dashboard. However, you will not be able to view or approve requests for these individuals unless you have been delegated as an approver for that team. 

As a timesheet approver, you can submit a timesheet or holiday claim on behalf of a staff member, where necessary. In order to do this, the individual must be part of your team (work group). See FAQ: Who can I approve timesheets for? 

For guidance on how to complete a timesheet for a staff member, please refer to the How-To Guide available from the right hand menu.

Please note that Backup Timesheet Approvers are unable to complete timesheets or holiday claims. See FAQ: Can a colleague approve timesheets on my behalf?

It can take up to 15 minutes for a submitted timesheet to be visible to the approver. If the timesheet doesn't appear after 15 minutes, please check that:

  1. The staff member has submitted the timesheet (rather than saved)
  2. The staff member is allocated to the team (work group) for which you are an approver. See FAQ: Who can I approve timesheets for?
  3. The request hasn't already been approved. When a request is submitted, all approvers with permissions for your team (work group) will receive an email notification. If the request is not displayed in your Manager Self-Service dashboard, it may already have been approved. You can check this by viewing the 'Approved' claims in the Timesheet Manager Summary screen. For guidance, please follow the steps outlined in the How-To Guide available from the right hand menu.

When a submission is rejected, it is returned to the staff member to amend. They will receive an email notification that the status of their timesheet has changed to 'Rejected'.

Holiday entitlement for casual workers and variable hours employees is calculated in hours. For details of how holiday is calcuated, visit the University's HR website. 

As an approver, you can view the number of accrued hours in the Workforce Management screen, or by viewing the employee's profile.

Team members cannot currently see each other's holiday claims. The team calendar is visible only to the time approver. We are planning some improvements to the system which may make this possible in the future.

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If your query isn't answered here, please contact your HR administrator for help.

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