How confirmation and approval work#
For: Manager | Admin You’ll need: Nothing.
Worked hours move through two steps before they reach payroll: someone confirms the hours are correct, then a manager approves them. This article explains who does each step, and how the two company-wide modes differ.
The two modes#
The mode is set once in Company settings → Time approval — see How to choose the time approval mode. It applies to the whole company.
Manager approval only. A manager confirms the hours (or they’re recorded automatically) and approves them. One person signs off. This is the simpler workflow.
Employee confirmation + manager approval (dual approval). The employee confirms their own hours first — they’re telling you “yes, these are the hours I worked.” Only then can a manager approve. This is the four-eyes control: the person who worked and the person who pays both sign off.
Note
New companies start in the mode that fits their country. Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and France default to dual approval (the law makes the employer responsible for recording each person’s hours, and employee self-declaration is the customary way to meet that). Italy, the UK, and the US default to manager approval only. You can switch anytime.
Who confirms#
The employee, for their own hours. The most common way is the kiosk: when a worker clocks out at the tablet, that clock-out is their confirmation — see How a worker uses the kiosk. On the web, a worker can confirm their own finished shifts from their timesheet.
A manager, on the employee’s behalf. A manager can confirm any row in their locations — use this when someone has left, is off sick, or simply can’t get to a device. The row records that you confirmed it (not the employee), so on-behalf confirmations stay visible. This is the escape hatch: a row is never stuck waiting on a confirmation that can’t happen.
What confirmation does#
Confirming a row, in either mode:
Records the worked hours. If nothing was clocked, Shiftavo fills them from the scheduled times (“worked as scheduled”).
Triggers leave and time-compensation accruals — see Leave requests and Time compensation.
Sets the status to ‘Confirmed’.
If the hours are within your auto-approve tolerance, the row is approved automatically — see Auto-accrual of night-work credit.
The approval gate (dual approval only)#
In dual-approval mode a manager cannot approve a row until it’s confirmed. There is no “approve without confirmation” shortcut — the only way past the gate is a real confirmation, by the employee or by a manager on their behalf. Until then the row shows ‘Awaiting confirmation’ and the ‘Approve’ action is disabled. In manager-approval-only mode there’s no gate — you confirm and approve as you always have.
Warning
Editing a row’s clock times clears its confirmation — the row must be confirmed again before it can be approved. This keeps the sign-off honest: nobody can change the hours after they were confirmed without someone re-confirming.