How do I know if my timesheet was approved?
Timesheets carry a status that moves through the review process, and the audit trail records each transition with its previous and new value. A submitted sheet sits in the approvals queue until somebody reviews it. The administration view also groups sheets by status, so the state is visible rather than inferred.
A status exists because the alternative is asking. Twenty people asking one reviewer whether Friday went through is a worse system than a field.
It also separates two failures that look identical from the outside. A sheet nobody reviewed and a sheet somebody sent back both leave you without an approval, and the state is the only thing that distinguishes them.
The audit trail makes the history durable. A transition is kept with what the field held before and after, so a later question about when something moved has an answer.
That matters most when a queue has grown. A reviewer working through a large backlog cannot recall which sheets they already handled.
Three views help here, and they answer different questions. By user shows whose sheets are outstanding. By project shows where the hours landed. A needs-attention view flags the ones the screen thinks are worth a look.
The status also makes a quiet failure visible. Hours entered and never handed over look exactly like hours nobody entered, once a total is drawn. The state is the only thing that separates them.
Check yours before the week closes. A sheet sitting in draft has not reached anybody, whatever it contains.
A queue that has grown large stops being a review in any real sense. Somebody approving dozens of sheets in one sitting is confirming that hours exist, not checking them. Weekly submission keeps each batch small.
Submit at the end of the week rather than waiting to be asked. A sheet still sitting in draft has not entered the queue at all, whatever hours it contains.
Related questions
Who reviews the queue?
Whoever holds the relevant permission, which the role model decides. Different companies put it with project leads, line managers or a central operations team.
Can a sheet be changed after submission?
That depends on the permissions and the status it has reached. Any change that does happen keeps its before and after values in the audit trail.
What does the needs-attention view show?
Sheets the administration screen flags as requiring a look, as a separate view from the by-user and by-project breakdowns.