What a locked row looks like on the timesheet

What a locked row looks like on the timesheet#

For: Manager You’ll need: Nothing.

You’ll learn how to spot locked timesheet rows and how to unlock them when you really do need to make a change.

How locked rows look#

A row locks the moment its time entry is approved:

  • The row’s ‘Confirm’, ‘Undo confirmation’ and ‘Edit’ actions are gone. Managers with the right to approve see ‘Unapprove’ instead; for everyone else the row offers no action.

  • If you reach the edit page another way, a banner at the top reads ‘Timesheet locked’ — who approved it and when, and the hint “Unapprove the timesheet to edit.” — and the breaks are listed without links.

  • Saving a change is refused with a warning that starts “Locked —”, for example when the row was approved while you had the edit page open.

  • Bulk actions skip locked rows and say why: ‘Approve’ with “Timesheet was already approved.”, ‘Confirm’ usually with “Timesheet was already confirmed.”, and ‘Undo confirmation’ with “No eligible change.” See How to use bulk actions on the timesheet.

Why approved rows lock#

Approval signs a time entry off as payroll-ready, so Shiftavo freezes it to keep payroll running against a stable snapshot. There’s no period to close — the row locks the moment it’s approved and unlocks the moment it’s unapproved.

How to unlock a row#

  1. Find the approved row on the timesheet.

  2. Click ‘Unapprove’ on the row, optionally type a reason, and click ‘Unapprove’ again — see How to unapprove a time entry.

  3. Make your changes.

  4. Approve the row again when you’re done. Nothing approves it again on its own.

The manager review queue lists only rows that still need a confirmation or an approval, so the app can unlock a row only right after you approved it:

  1. Tap More in the bottom bar, then ‘Manager’, then ‘Timesheets’.

  2. Tap the row you’ve just approved — its badge reads ‘Approved’.

  3. Tap ‘Undo approval’, optionally type why in the ‘Reason (optional)’ field, and tap ‘Undo approval’ again. The badge drops back to ‘Confirmed’ and the row is actionable again.

  4. Tap the row and ‘Approve’ once you’re done.

A manager can’t edit someone else’s clock times in the app, and rows approved earlier aren’t in the queue: unlock those on the web. Employees can correct their own unlocked rows from More → ‘Timesheets’ → ‘Correct times’.

On an employee’s own ‘Timesheets’ list a locked row offers no actions — there’s no banner, and it opens only to show its recorded breaks, if it has any.

Warning

Unapproving is an audited action. Do it only when you have to — payroll exports that already included the row may need to be re-run after your changes.

Verify it worked#

After unapproving, the row offers ‘Edit’ again (in its kebab menu (⋮) next to ‘Approve’), and its edit page shows no banner.