Approve shifts

Approving shifts is an essential part of the Rostering and Payroll processes because it connects the two, allowing managers to review and approve their rostered shifts, which then helps generate accurate payslips.

We recommend that managers make reviewing and approving shifts a daily routine to maintain precise records and ensure correct payroll processing.

Key benefits of using Approve Shifts include: 

• Comparing roster, worked (clocked) and approved times
• Allows for reporting on attendance issues
• Ensure your employees are paid correctly for hours worked
• Review any comments, questions or photos captured
• Add/ approve weekly allowances and reimbursements

Approve Shifts can be accessed from 4 places:

• From the quick menu -  Navigate to Time & Attendance > Approve Shifts.

  • This will show all available shifts for the current week. Use a filter to narrow your search or choose a different period. 

    

• Directly from any day on the roster - By selecting the ellipsis at the top of each day.

  • You will be directly navigated to a filtered view for the specific day and roster you have selected. 

    

• Directly from any employee on the roster - By selecting the ellipsis next to the employee's name.

  • You will be directly navigated to a filtered view for the specific employee and roster you have selected. 

    

• Directly from an approved/ worked shift - Once a shift has been worked or approved, it can only be updated from Approve Shifts. If you attempt to edit them from the roster, you will be prompted to navigate to Approve Shifts. 

  • You will be directly navigated to a filtered view for the specific day and roster you have selected. 

    

Shifts in Approve Shifts

Shifts flow into the Approve Shifts menu through various methods, making sure that all shifts, regardless of their generation method, can be reviewed from a single central location.

For your managers, the process of reviewing, editing, and approving will be the same for all shift creation methods. 

The different methods shifts flow into Approve Shifts, include:

• Publishing a roster - Once a roster has been published, shifts will automatically flow through to Approve Shifts. You can still make any edits to shifts from your roster, up until the shift has been clocked.

• Employee submitted - Employees using the submit shift feature can create and submit new shifts directly from the Employee App. These will flow directly to Approve Shifts for review.

  

    Hot tip: Shifts submitted by an employee are marked by the person icon in the Worked column.  

• Unassigned shifts - If an employee is called into work, they can create an unassigned shift by clocking on, which means a shift will appear in Approve shifts that hasn't been published on the roster beforehand.
  
  These shifts are created when an employee begins their shift and are automatically added to Approve Shifts. They are unique because they need to be edited afterwards to include details such as the employee's position and the roster before they can be approved.

  

• Manually added - We generally recommend building shifts from the roster as part of your regular practices. However, adding shifts from Approve Shifts is handy when troubleshooting or making any updates before processing payroll. 
• Salaried employees - Employees with positions who have 'Salaried basis' selected when rostered, their shifts do not appear in Approve Shifts. Their payslips are created from a different process. You can learn more about it here. 

Daily Dials and Icons

Many tools and features of the Approve Shifts page can assist you in managing your approvals for the week in an organised fashion. In this section, we will discuss the following:

• Using the daily dials to track Approval progress throughout the week
• Understanding the shift icons that may appear on individual shifts

The Daily Dials

The colours of the dials will change depending on your daily progress for approving daily shifts. To correctly manage your shifts, we encourage:

• Addressing all shifts daily. Aim for each dial to reach 100% by the end of the day or first thing the next day.
• And all dials to 100% for the week ending.

Here is a brief overview of the colours of shifts. These will assist you in understanding the status of these shifts. You can also hover over individual shifts to see the status.

• Approved Shifts - The time you approve here will be paid to the employee.
• Declined Shifts -  A declined shift will not be paid.
  • For example, if someone does not attend work, you may decline their shift and enter a reason such as 'no show', and the employee will not be paid.
• On Leave Shifts - Shifts that have leave applied to the entire shift. Shifts with both leave and working hours approved (partial days) still display as green Approved Shifts.  
  • For example, if a permanent employee does not attend work due to being sick, you apply personal leave to the shift. This will then display as purple.
• Unassigned Shifts - You will come across this when an employee has started a shift that has not been rostered. 
• Unapproved Shifts - These shifts are still awaiting review or have not yet been worked.
  • At the end of each week, you need to have dealt with all blue shifts and either approved or declined them.

  Hot tip: You can use the Shift Status filters to filter for specific shifts. This is handy if you just need to view your Unassigned or Unapproved shifts only. 

Shift Icons

When reviewing shifts, you will notice that each shift line has a column called 'Additional', which contains icons. These icons indicate whether any additional items have been applied to the shift.

This can include items such as photos captured, comments, allowances and much more.

Each icon is as follows:

  Hot tip: If you use the Supervisor sign-off feature, the Clock In/Out Photo icon will be replaced with the signature icon. You can learn more about this feature here.

When an additional item has been applied to the shift, the icon will highlight in blue. You can then hover over it for a snapshot of their details or select them to open the relevant menu. 

When reviewing an employee's shift, there are four columns displaying recorded times alongside the employee's actual hours, allowing for comparison of rostered and worked hours. Examining these columns carefully ensures employees are paid correctly for all hours worked and assists in tracking their total hours. These columns are:

• Employee - This displays the total hours and leave approved for your pay period, listed separately.
  
    Hot tip: The hours displayed in these columns will include any approved hours across all Operations and Rosters.
• Worked - This field records the hours your employee has worked, though there may be slight variations depending on the method used.
  • If your employees clock in for their shifts, this displays the employees' clocked times and shift duration. This field cannot be edited for compliance purposes. 
  • If you use the submit shifts feature, it will instead show the submitted hours and shift duration. 
• Rostered - This field displays the shift times and duration of the rostered shift at the time of publishing.  
  
    Please note: For unassigned shifts or submitted shifts, this field will be blank. Once the shift is approved, the Approve time data will be applied. 
• Approve - This is the main column to focus on, and the only field that can be edited. It shows the hours that need to be approved and paid to your employees. The times here will update automatically based on when your employees clock in or out, so any early starts or late stays will show up in this column.

From each of the Worked, Rostered and Approved columns at a glance, you will see a summary of the shift, including:

• Shift start time
• Shift end time
• Total shift duration
• Total paid breaks and total unpaid breaks

For a more detailed summary, hover over the column, and you can see a breakdown of the shift, including all breaks.

In the image below, we can see the overview of the shift showing a shift from 9 am - 5 pm, totalling 7 hours and 30 minutes. When we hover over it, we can see a breakdown of all breaks applied. 

Additionally, the Worked column will provide additional information about how the employee has clocked for their shifts. 

• None - If the end time for a shift is listed as None, this means no end time for the shift has been recorded. This can occur when the employee has forgotten to end their shift or is currently working.
  
  

• Clocking Method - When you hover over the times, you can then see which method the employee has used to clock their shifts and breaks. 
  • Clock app - The employee has used the iPad or Browser clocking methods. 
  • Employee app - The employee has used the Employee App method. 
  • Employee submit shift - The employee has used the Submit Shifts feature. 
  • Imported - The shift's clock times have been added using the CSV import. 

• Clock Location - If your employees use the Employee App to record their shifts, their clock locations are captured. You can view the exact spot on a map by selecting View clock locations.
  
    Hot tip: This will also appear as a location icon from the overview. If the app is unable to track their location, it will be shown as an orange icon with a 'Location unknown' status.

  

   

Reviewing Shift Data

In addition to reviewing shift times, other data can be captured when an employee starts or ends their shifts. Reviewing this information can be key as it is the main method by which your employees can communicate with you about their shifts from the platform. The below information flows into the Employee Communications drawer.

Information to review includes:

• Any comments left by the employee
• Clocking early/ late reasons
• Clocking without a rostered shift
• Employees responding to the clocking questionnaire, if you use this feature
• Photo capture (iPad clocking only)
• Signatures captured (Submit Shifts with Shift verification only)
• Document uploads (Submit Shifts only)

  Hot tip: You may want to filter your Approve Shifts page to view 'Only shifts with questionnaire comments'. To do so, use the tickbox in the top filter bar of the Approve shift page. You can also export these answers using the CSV Export option.

When a comment is recorded, you can hover over the comment icon to get a preview. Alternatively, you can select the comment icon to open the Employee Communication drawer, which displays all comments and clocking photos for this shift. 

This stage is crucial in the Work, Time & Attendance workflow as it directly affects how employees are paid. We strongly recommend reviewing your shifts in Approve Shifts daily; this way, you won't have to backtrack on your payroll day.

When reviewing and approving shifts, you have 3 key tasks to perform. These are:

• Confirm the shift details and approve shifts that you wish to be paid
• Edit any shifts to add additional details, such as leave or allowances
• Decline any shifts not worked

  Please note: Before approving shifts, check if any award positions have minimum shift hours, as those will be paid for a set number of hours regardless of actual hours worked, including paid or unpaid leave. Review your Position & Pay Rules or ask your manager if you lack access to Awards & Agreements. 
 

Approving Shifts

Approving a shift is the process of reviewing a shift and confirming that its details are accurate. Once a shift is approved, it will automatically update the relevant draft payslip. 

  Hot tip: Set a weekly reminder to notify admins about unapproved shifts, applicable per roster. A setup guide is available here.

To approve a shift:

1. Apply any filters to customise your view and locate your employee. 
2. Review the shift data. This can include:
   • Worked times and breaks
   • Rostered times and breaks
   • Approve time and breaks
   • Review any warnings
   • Any additional items such as comments, questionnaires, etc. 
3. Select the Approve button (tick icon) on the shift you want to approve. The shift will turn green once approved.

  Hot tip: If you accidentally approve a shift, you can select the undo icon to restore the shift to an unapproved status. 

Pre-approving Shifts

For most platforms, the ability to approve shifts in advance is off by default. This means that when you make any edits to a future shift, you will only have the option to save, and the shift won't automatically approve. 

If you want to process pay early due to upcoming public holidays, you'll need to enable the Pre-approval setting. Remember, once a shift is approved, the approval times won't update when the employee clocks in. Any further changes will require editing the shift or adjusting the payslip, if pay has been generated. 

  Hot tip: If the shift hasn't ended yet (or it's in the future), it will be marked as 'Pre-approved' and shown in white. Once the shift's end time has passed, it will automatically change to a green 'Approved' shift. 

  To learn more about pre-approving shifts in your platform, read here.

Editing Shifts

When reviewing your shifts, you may need to add or edit items in your Approve column from time to time. This can commonly happen when:

• The employee has forgotten to clock out and has finished late/ early
• Updating unassigned shifts
• To add notes, allowances or cost codes

The items you can edit in a shift include:

• Adjusting the start or end approval times
• Add additional paid or unpaid breaks
• Update the break start or duration
• Add an allowance to the shift
• Change the employee's position
• Change the roster for a shift
• Add additional cost codes/ purchase orders
• Add a shift note to the shift
• Apply leave and attach a supporting document

  Hot tip: You can apply edits even after a shift has been approved or declined, so you can fix any issues and then approve it again. You can keep doing this until the shifts are locked for payroll or have already been paid.

To edit a shift:

1. Apply any filters to customise your view and locate your employee. 
2. Select the Edit button (pencil icon) on the shift you want to edit. This will open a drawer containing the shift's details. 
3. Apply your updates:
   • Roster - For rostered shifts, this will be applied by default. You can update by selecting the roster name, then choosing a different option from the dropdown list. 

   • Include worked hours - Turn this toggle off to exclude worked hours. This is useful when you only need to apply an allowance and not include any ordinary or overtime hours. 
     
       Hot tip: If you have disabled this toggle, the shift times will still appear in Approve Shifts, however they will be crossed out. 

     

   • Start time - Update the approved shift start time. 
   • End time - Update the approved shift end time.
   • Position - Select the relevant position.
4. The following options, when selected, will open an additional drawer where you can apply your updates.
   • Breaks - In this field, you can either:
     • Edit the break start time, duration or type for any breaks already listed.
     • Add a new break by selecting Add another break or Add break, then providing the details. 
   • Leave - You can add multiple leave types and upload documentation such as a medical certificate. The way you add leave to a shift can vary depending on whether the employee has worked a partial day or not.
     
       When adding leave to a shift, please refer to the complete guide on this process here. 
      
   • Shift notes - Add a shift note, then select if it is visible to the employee to review in the Employee App. 
   • Allowances - To add an allowance, select Add an allowance and choose the relevant allowance from the dropdown list. 
     
     Hot tip: Weekly allowances will be available to select in the dropdown list. Additionally, some allowance types, such as cents per kilometre allowances, will ask you to specify the quantity of the allowance. 
   • Shift cost codes/ purchase orders - By default, the shift will apply the cost code set for the roster. You will only need to update this field if you need to override the existing code or add additional code. 
     
       This process is the same as updating cost codes on a rostered shift. For full details, please refer to our guide here. 
5. To apply your changes, you can either:
   • Save the shift - To do this, disable the Approve shift upon saving toggle, then Save shift.
   • Save and approve the shift - This option is only available for shifts whose end time has passed. Select Save and approve xxx hours to update.

In the example, Gemma created an unassigned shift by clocking on when he wasn't on the roster. His shift has not yet ended (clocked off). The admin must update details like roster, position, and end time before approval.

There will be instances where shifts are published that you do not wish to pay the employee for. Common use cases where this can occur include:

• An employee doesn't attend work for the day
• A casual employee calls in sick and does not work (no personal leave)
• An employee does not work a shift because someone covers for them
• A shift is published that was never used (no one works it)

In all of the above instances, you will want to decline the shift so that the hours will not be paid. Additionally, this can help your payroll team by ensuring every shift has been accounted for. 

  Hot tip: Declining shifts, particularly for your casual employees, allows you to keep a record and report on when and why the shifts are being declined, allowing you to keep track of repeat offenders. 

To decline a shift:

1. Apply any filters to customise your view and locate your employee. 
2. Select the Decline button (x icon) on the shift you want to decline.
3. From the Review Shift screen, update the following: 
   • Shift Details - Any worked hours, allowances or leave added to the shift will be presented with each item listed separately, showing their declined status. You can update these individually to approve them if required. 
   • Reason - Select the Reason for declining the shift.
     
      Hot tip: You also have the option to customise and add extra attendance codes to fit your business needs better. For further reading, refer to our article here.
      
   • Comment - Provide further information as to why you are declining the shift. These comments, as well as the reasons captured, will flow through to the Performance & Attendance report.
4. To apply your changes, select Accept Changes. The shift will turn red once declined.

To expedite your approval process, you can approve, decline, or adjust shifts in bulk. This can be applied to all shifts on a specific roster for a particular day.

There are 2 methods in which you can approve shifts in bulk:

• Selecting all shifts on a specific roster by using the 'Select all Shifts' button
• Selecting specific shifts on a roster using the tickboxes next to the employee's name

  The ability to approve, decline or edit shifts in bulk is an optional feature. If you do not require this as part of your business processes, then it can be updated from the Time & Attendance settings. For more information, refer here. 
 

Approve or Decline Shifts

Once you've checked the shift details and made sure they're correct, approving or declining multiple shifts at once can help streamline your workflow.

Just keep in mind that any changes you make will apply to all the selected shifts.

To approve or decline shifts:

1. Review the shift data on the roster and apply any edits. This can include:
   • Worked times and breaks
   • Rostered times and breaks
   • Approve time and breaks
   • Review any warnings
   • Any additional items such as comments, questionnaires, etc. 
2. Select the relevant shifts:
   • For all shifts - Select the 'Select all shifts' button.
   • For specific shifts - Select the checkboxes next to the employee's name. 
3. Once you have chosen your shifts, a taskbar will be available at the bottom of your screen. From here, you can either select:
   • Decline
   • Approve 
4. Once selected, a modal will appear and summarise how many shifts have been selected.
   • When declining shifts, provide a comment and a reason for declining. 
5. Select Approve/ Decline xxx shifts. 

  Hot tip: To help you get shifts approved, you can set up a weekly reminder. This reminder will automatically be sent to specific admins when a roster contains shifts that have not yet been approved. You can find a guide on how to set it up here.

Adjusting Shift times in bulk 

Another way to use the bulk shifts feature is to quickly update multiple shifts at once—whether it's changing the start or end times. You can easily move all shifts earlier or later, or set specific times for start or end.

To adjust shift times in bulk:

1. Review the shift data on the roster. This can include:
   • Worked times and breaks
   • Rostered times and breaks
   • Approve time and breaks
   • Review any warnings
   • Any additional items such as comments, questionnaires, etc. 
2. Select the relevant shifts:
   • For all shifts - Select 'Select all shifts' button.
   • For specific shifts - Select the checkboxes next to the employee's name. 
3. Once you have chosen your shifts, select Adjust from the taskbar. 
4. From the Adjust shift time drawer, choose if the change applies to the Start time, End time or the Entire shift.  
5. Apply your changes by choosing from the following options: 
   • Earlier by - This will move all shifts forward by the number of hours specified. 
   • Later by - This will move all shifts backward by the number of hours specified. 
   • To start at - This will apply the same start time for all shifts.
   • To end at - This will apply the same end time for all shifts.
6. Select Save xxx adjustments. 

The Shift Approvals Import allows you to view a report of the shifts for approval, make changes, and import the report back in. You can then approve the shifts by updating the Shift Status in the report.

Key benefits of using the Approve Shifts Import include:

• The Shift Import is easy to export and send to different managers and teams to make changes and approve.
• It can also be sent directly to Clients for shift Approvals.
  • For example, if you work in Labour Hire and do not wish to add your clients as users in the foundU system, this report can be used for your clients to approve the Shifts worked (you'll need to import the report once they have emailed the changes back).

  Please note: This report allows you to Approve, Edit or Decline any Unapproved or Unassigned shifts; any shifts already approved or declined cannot be updated using this import. 

  For the complete guide on using the Approve Shifts import, please refer to our guide Shift Approvals Import. 

Before adding a shift directly in Approve Shifts, make sure to check the 'Unassigned' section at the top of the roster approval area. Even if an employee doesn't have a rostered shift, when they clock onto a shift, one is created for them. 

That said, there are situations where you might need to add a shift directly into Approve Shifts. You should only do this if:

• The employee wasn't on the roster
• The employee didn't clock on

To add a shift into Approve Shifts:

1. Locate the specific roster you would like to add the shift to. If the roster you are looking for has no shifts, it may be hidden. Select and apply the 'Hide empty rosters' filter to see all rosters. 
   
   
2. From the appropriate roster, select 'Create shift' at the top.
3. Complete all the shift details, including:
   • Shift start
   • Shift end
   • Breaks
   • Position
   • Employee
4. Add any additional details such as any allowances, comments or leave required for the shift.
5. Select Save shift (to approve later) or turn on the toggle to 'Approve shift upon saving' and Save and approve xxx hours (to save and approve at the same time).

In addition to shifts requiring approval, 2 other items can be added and reviewed from the Approve Shifts page: 

• Weekly Allowances
• Weekly Reimbursements

Weekly allowances are different from other types of allowances because they don't appear as part of a shift. Instead, they are shown as a separate item on the roster. The same applies to reimbursements, since both are weekly items.

  Hot tip: To streamline your view and see employees with existing weekly allowances or reimbursements, select 'Weekly Allowance' or 'Weekly Reimbursement' from the filter options.

These can be added to Approve Shifts in 2 ways:

• Using the Submit Shifts feature (including salaried employees)
• An admin manually adds them in

Once added, these weekly items will be visible on the roster, regardless of the selected day, and they will require approval.

  Permission Reminder: An admin user requires the 'Authorise reimbursement requests' permission to create reimbursements; this permission does not apply to weekly allowances.

To add a weekly item:

1. Navigate to Time & Attendance > Approve Shifts and apply any filters to customise your view and locate your roster.
2. Select the '+ Weekly item' button. This will open a modal, where you can choose to either Add Allowance or Add Reimbursement from the corresponding tab.  
3. Complete the following details:
   • For an Allowance
     • Roster - This should pre-fill with the selected roster. 
     • Employee - Select the required employee. 
     • Position - Add the required position. This will filter your allowance results. 
     • Allowance Type - Select the name of the allowance.
     • Allowance Rate - Select the pay rate of the allowance. 
   • For a Reimbursement
     • Reimbursement Type - Select the reimbursement.
     • Reimbursement Date - Date the reimbursement occurred. 
     • Amount - Enter the dollar amount to be reimbursed. 
     • Roster - This should pre-fill with the selected roster. 
     • Position - Add the required position.
     • Employee - Select the required employee. 
     • Document - Upload a document such as a receipt for reimbursements. This is a mandatory field. 
4. To save, select Add allowance/ reimbursement.
5. Once added, the weekly item will require approval. 

Exporting from Approved Shifts provides a wealth of data points that can be used for various purposes. With so many benefits, you should be utilising this export to report on weekly, fortnightly or even monthly data.

This export can export up to 3 months' worth of data in one go!

The Approve Shifts page pulls data from various places, including:

• All published rosters, including comments
• Clock data when employees clock in and out
• Submit Shifts
• As well as all information managed and edited from the Approve Shifts page itself.

Once you have a combination of export options that you prefer, it's a good idea to save this export as a template for future use.

To do this:

1. Under Export Options > enable the 'Save as template' toggle > Name your export description.
2. Make all of your relevant selections for the template, then select Export CSV. 
3. Your CSV will export, and the template will be saved in the same action.

  To see the Approve Shifts Export in action and learn more about it, please refer to our detailed guide.

When a casual employee calls in sick, why do I need to decline their shifts? Leaving it as Unapproved doesn't impact their pay.

Managing and reviewing all shifts is essential for your platform, ensuring accurate payment for work done and supporting your HR and Payroll teams.

• Your HR team can keep track of attendance using the Performance & Attendance Report, helping them identify patterns and reasons behind employee absences.
• Before payroll processing, your payroll team reviews all shifts to confirm everything's accounted for, preventing issues caused by missing shifts.

I am trying to edit a shift using the 'Approve Shift Import' feature. Why isn't the shift listed?

The Approve Shift import lists all shifts that are either unapproved or unassigned. After a shift is edited or declined, it will no longer appear in the Import.

Why doesn't my salaried employee show in Approve Shifts?

Salaried employees automatically get their draft payslips created weekly based on their hourly wage and work pattern set in their primary position.

Because of this automation, there’s no need for an approval process to create their payslips. So, even if they have shifts on the roster, they won’t appear in the Approve Shifts.

What happens if I accidentally approve a shift?

If you accidentally approve or decline a shift, you have 2 options:

• If the shift has already been worked, you can select the edit (pencil) icon and then approve or decline the shift.
• If the shift has not yet been worked, you can select the undo icon, which will restore the shift to an unapproved state.