Entering and Submitting Time
The TIME area is where employees log hours to projects, track PTO, and submit timesheets for approval. This article covers how to enter time, use time-saving features, and submit time for approval if your firm requires it.
Entering Time
Accessing the Time Entry Grid
Go to TIME > Enter Time. If you don't see certain menu options, it may be due to your user permissions.
Logging Billable Project Time
Click the search box at the top left of the grid. You can scroll through available projects or type any part of the client name, project name, or project number — Factor filters as you type, even from the middle of a name.
Select a project. The project and billing phase populate automatically.
If tasks are available for that phase, a task column appears where you can select one.
Click the cell for the day you want to log time. In the expanded view you can enter hours, add a description (may be required depending on project settings), and select a billing role (typically pre-selected based on your user settings).
Click Save.
If you don't see a project, check that:
The phase status is set to In Progress
The phase is not marked as an expense phase
The project has time entry enabled
You have permission to log time to projects you're not assigned to
Adding Multiple Entries
To log time to a different phase on the same project — hover under the previous phase row and click the plus button, then select the new phase.
To log time to a different task on the same phase — hover under the previous task row and click the plus button, then select the new task.
To make more than one entry for the same phase and task — click the copy button in the expanded cell and adjust the details as needed.
Logging Internal / Non-Billable Time
Use the search box to find your firm's internal projects (e.g., "Team Meetings" or "Admin"). These are non-billable phases where time is tracked but not invoiced.
Logging PTO
PTO types you have an accrual or allowance for appear automatically on your timesheet. Enter hours on the appropriate day. Factor shows your remaining balance and any future requests. Time logged in the future (e.g., upcoming vacation) is tracked separately and shown alongside time logged to date.
Holidays
Holidays are added to your timesheet automatically - you do not log them. For each holiday on your firm's Holidays list, employees who receive holiday pay get 8 hours on the holiday's date, shown in the Holidays section of TIME > Enter Time. Holiday hours cannot be edited.
Time-Saving Features
Scheduled projects preload automatically — Projects assigned via the Resource Scheduler appear on your timesheet without searching. If scheduling was done at the phase level, phases are pre-selected too.
Copy from previous week — Load time entries or just the projects and phases from your previous week (can be hidden by firm settings).
Copy descriptions — Copy descriptions from previous entries when logging repetitive work.
Partial search — Type any portion of a project number, name, or client name to find it quickly.
Logging Time for Other People
With the appropriate permissions, go to TIME > Review Time, click to add a time entry, and select the employee you want to log time for. The entry will appear on that person's timesheet.
Removing a Row
Use the trash can icon to remove a project row you added by mistake (only works if no hours have been logged). On reload, only rows with logged time, scheduled projects, or PTO types with a balance will appear.
Submitting Time for Approval
Time submission is optional — your firm may or may not require it.
How Submission Works
Log time entries during a time period (e.g., weekly or biweekly).
Review your entries on the Review and Submit tab — verify hours, project assignments, descriptions, and PTO.
Click Submit to send your timesheet for approval.
Your manager reviews and approves or rejects it.
Once approved, your time is locked and cannot be edited.
Timesheet Statuses
Not Submitted — Default state; fully editable
Submitted — Awaiting manager approval; fully editable
Approved — Locked and ready for invoicing; editable only by users with required permissions
Rejected — Returned for corrections; you can edit and resubmit
Approving Time
The Approve Time page is only visible to users with the Approve Timesheets permission. This is configured under SETTINGS > Your Team.
Reviewing Submitted Timesheets
Go to TIME > Approve Time.
You'll see a list of submitted timesheets awaiting review, filtered by time period.
Click on a submission to review the time entries — verify hours, projects, phases, and descriptions.
Approving a Timesheet
Once you've reviewed the entries and everything looks correct, click Approve. The timesheet status changes to Approved, and the employee's time entries are locked for employee modification, and are only editable by users with permissions to modify other people's time.
Timesheets can be unapproved, which placed them back in the Submitted status.
Rejecting a Timesheet
If something needs to be corrected:
Click Reject.
Enter a reason for the rejection — the employee will see this when their status changes back to open.
The employee can then make corrections and resubmit. (The timesheet must then be submitted by the employee, the manager/admin cannot resubmit a rejected timesheet for the user.)
Handling Rejections
If your timesheet is rejected, your status returns to open and you can edit your entries. Review the rejection reason, make corrections, and resubmit. Common rejection reasons include missing or incomplete entries, time logged to an inactive project, missing descriptions, or a discrepancy with expected hours. Contact your manager if you're unsure why it was rejected.
Editing Approved Time
Users with the Modify other people's time entries permission can edit time entries regardless of approval status. All other users cannot edit approved time — if an employee needs a change made after approval, an administrator with this permission will need to make the edit or revert the approval.
Setup and Configuration
Time entry behavior is configured under SETTINGS > Your Firm in the Time Entry Preferences section. The following options are available in the weekly time entry view:
Copy from Previous Week — When enabled, users see an option to load entries from the prior week. Hiding this is useful if your firm prefers employees start fresh each week.
Phase Budget / Remaining Hours — Shows a progress indicator for each phase's remaining budget or hours. Some firms hide this so it doesn't influence how many hours employees log.
Weekends — Saturday and Sunday are shown by default. Hiding them gives a cleaner view for firms where employees never log weekend time.
Hide PTO types that don't have an accrual or allowance? — When set to Yes, only PTO types where the user has an accrual or allowance are shown, preventing irrelevant PTO types from appearing.
Scheduled Hours Indicator — Shows or hides the comparison of logged hours to scheduled hours per project.
Utilization Target Dial — Shows or hides the header dial comparing direct (billable) hours to the utilization target.
Role Selection — When hidden (combined with a permission that prevents selecting unassigned roles), users cannot change their billing role — time is automatically logged to their assigned role. Can be applied selectively per user.
Task Selection — Hiding this removes the task column from time entry. Tasks can still be used in scheduling and historical entries that had tasks selected will retain them — this applies to future entries only.
Requiring Descriptions
Descriptions can be required at the project level, set on the project Overview tab in the Project Status section.
Limiting Time Entry to Assigned Projects
A user permission controls whether employees can log time to any project or only to projects they're assigned to. When restricted, users only see projects in the dropdown where they have been added as a team member.