Timegrid resource
Timesheet Approval Best Practices for Staffing Firms
How to reduce missing timesheets, simplify client approvals, and keep billing moving without creating more administrative work. For staffing firms, timesheet approvals are a critical handoff between contractors, client managers, payroll, and billing. When that handoff works, hours are submitted on time, managers know what needs approval, and your team can prepare invoices with confidence. When it doesn't, recruiters and operations staff spend time chasing hours, correcting entries, locating approvers, and resolving old questions. The solution isn't necessarily more software or process. It's a clear, repeatable workflow with defined responsibilities, sensible reminders, and reliable records.
Establish a clear submission and approval schedule.
Every assignment should have a defined workflow before the contractor starts. Document the submission deadline, approval deadline, primary client approver, authorized backup approver, and exception contact.
For example, a weekly cycle might request contractor submissions Sunday evening, approvals Monday afternoon, and resolution of exceptions before payroll and billing cutoffs. Timing must match each firm's agreements and deadlines, not this example.
Practical takeaway: Make submission and approval expectations part of contractor and client onboarding.
Make approving timesheets as easy as possible.
Client managers are busy. Approval delays become more likely when managers must search emails, locate spreadsheets, remember unfamiliar credentials, or ask staff for help. Make it easy to identify pending timesheets; review worker, assignment, dates and hours; approve or flag an issue; and retrieve past records. Minimize friction without compromising security or accountability.
Practical takeaway: Walk through the approval process as a client, count the steps and find where a busy manager might get stuck.
Build an exception process before you need one.
Missing timesheet: identify the worker, follow up promptly, track submission.
Incorrect hours: flag, correct and resubmit with documentation.
Disputed hours: keep pending until authorized parties resolve the issue; never treat disputed time as approved.
Unavailable approver: route to an authorized backup.
Post-approval correction: retain original approval history and document what changed, who authorized it and when.
Practical takeaway: Maintain a visible exception list with owner, status and next action.
Automate reminders where possible—but make them useful.
Reminders should identify the pending action and make the next step obvious.
Illustrative weekly cadence: Sunday worker submission reminder; Monday morning client pending-approval notification; Monday afternoon follow-up for outstanding approvals; Tuesday escalation to operations contact or authorized backup. This is an EXAMPLE, not a universal schedule; align it with payroll, billing and client expectations. Do not send repeated reminders after completion.
Practical takeaway: Review the volume and patterns of manual reminders each week to find friction.
Preserve a reliable record of every approval.
Records should identify worker/assignment, dates and submitted hours, who approved, when approval occurred, corrections and which version was approved. Restrict access appropriately; follow applicable agreements and legal retention obligations. Records should be retrievable without depending on one employee, inbox or software vendor.
Practical takeaway: Find an approved timesheet from several months ago and measure how quickly you can retrieve its approval history.
Protect the approval experience when technology changes.
Staffing firms change ATS, payroll and accounting platforms. Ask whether approved records can be exported in usable formats, clients will need new accounts/instructions, historical approval evidence remains available, and reconciliation work will increase.
Practical takeaway: Evaluate client approval continuity before major staffing technology decisions.
A simple timesheet operations checklist.
Every worker knows how/when to submit.
Every client has primary/backup approvers.
Deadlines documented.
Missing/disputed timesheets have owners.
Reminders stop on completion.
Approvals/corrections traceable.
Outstanding approvals visible.
Historical records retrievable without searching inboxes.
Continuity considered when changing systems.
If several are difficult to answer confidently, the process may have more friction than expected.
Find out where your staffing operation can improve.
Timegrid's free Staffing Operations Health Check evaluates financial efficiency, client approval experience and technology flexibility through 12 questions, giving an immediate snapshot and practical recommendations without requiring email.
The Timesheet ROI Calculator estimates administrative hours and labor-capacity cost from user-provided assumptions.
Built from firsthand experience running a staffing business.
Use the Staffing Operations Health Check to review your own process, or try the Timesheet ROI Calculator with your assumptions.