Configure Time Approval

Projector supports a number of time approval scenarios to accommodate different organizational needs. I'll outline them here and you can choose the one (or ones) that most accurately model your organization. As hinted in the previous sentence, you don't have to pick just one approval method. Some projects may bet set to auto-approve while another requires project manager approval. You can even configure projects so that your clients do the approvals. 

On every project info tab in Projector there is a dropdown called Time Approvers. It provides the following approval options:

• The project's acting PM team

• Engagement Manager

• Project Manager

• Project Manager for team, engagement manager for PM

• Resource-based approvers

• None (automatically approved)

• Find Approver

Before we get started looking at each of these in turn, a note about approving your own time. You can only approve your own time if your resource profile allows it. The setting is called Resource may approve their own time.

What do you do when nobody can approve a time card?

The following choices are available for who can approve time on a project.

The PM team consists of the engagement manager, project manager, and anyone marked Can Act as PM. Fallback approval can be triggered if your "team" consists of only one person (one person is the EM, PM, and nobody Can Act as PM). 

Only the engagement manager. Fallback approval is triggered when the EM submits their own time.

Only the project manager. Fallback approval is triggered when the PM submits their own time.

The project manager approves all time except their own. The engagement manager approves anything submitted by the project manager. Fallback approval is triggered when the engagement manager submits time.

If you choose this option, you'll get a search dialog. From the dialog, pick the single user who should make all approvals. Fallback approval is triggered if the single users submits time.

The approvers consist of the following people:

• Users with the cost center permission Approve Reported Time Off and Time on Projects with Cost Center-Based Approval. Useful when a time approver is for all resources in an entire cost center.

• Users marked as the Time Approver on the resource's profile. Useful when a time approver is for specific people.

The idea behind these mechanisms is that your approvers either manage an entire cost center of resources, or that they are assigned to individual resources. 

If you choose this option, time cards are immediately approved upon submission.

We don't get into this here, please see our help page Configure Clients to Approve Time.

You can manage automatic approval separately for project time and time-off entries at the resource level.

This enhancement provides greater flexibility in controlling how time cards are reviewed and approved. In earlier versions, a single checkbox controlled both project time and time-off approvals. Starting with the November 2025 release, these options are split into two independent settings:

– Automatically approve timecards on projects using the designated time approver for the resource or cost center.
– Automatically approve reported time-off for non-billable entries such as vacation, sick time, or holidays.

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If the auto-approval setting was previously enabled, both new options are now active by default — ensuring continuity with your existing approval workflows.

If the auto-approval setting was not previously enabled, both options remain off by default, allowing organizations to configure them if desired manually.

To configure auto-approval:

1. Open the Resource Info tab in the Resource Editor.

2. Select one or both of the following checkboxes:

   • Automatically approve timecards on projects using “Designated time approver for resource or cost center.”

   • Automatically approve reported time-off.

3. Click OK to save your changes.

Time off is approved by the following users:

• Users with the cost center permission Approve Reported Time Off and Time on Projects with Cost Center-Based Approval. Useful when a time approver is for all resources in an entire cost center.

• Users marked as the Time Approver on the resource's profile. Useful when a time approver is for specific people.

Time off requests do not use any of the approval options discussed here. Requests are handled by the specific cost center permission Approve and Maintain Scheduled Time Off.

Missing time presents an interesting problem. It is different from all other time in that it is defined by what it is not. It has no associated project. As there is no project we default to the people who are the resource's managers. The following users are expected to make sure that his or her people are at a minimum entering their time.

• Users with the cost center permission Approve Reported Time Off and Time on Projects with Cost Center-Based Approval. Useful when a time approver is for all resources in an entire cost center.

• Users marked as the Time Approver on the resource's profile. Useful when a time approver is for specific people.

You can only approve your own time if you have the checkbox Resource may approve their own time ticked. This setting is found in the Resource Editor. If you are turning this feature on, you probably want to go to the history tab and enable it for the past as well.

Being able to approve your own time only occurs when you are the natural approver for that time. For example, the project is set to PM Approval and you are the PM. You don't get to approve all your own time automatically.

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