Business Central time sheets that people fill in and managers approve

How Business Central time sheets work

Time sheets tie to resources. You mark a resource card to use time sheets. You give it an owner, who enters the time, and an approver. An administrator runs the Create Time Sheets action. It makes sheets for the coming periods, one per resource per week.

The owner adds lines by type: resource, project, service, absence or assembly order. Each line holds a quantity per day. When the week is complete, the owner submits it. The approver then accepts or rejects each line. You can pull approved lines into project journals or post them as resource usage.

When a company should move time into Business Central

The signal is duplicate entry. Consultants fill in a spreadsheet. A coordinator checks it line by line. Someone in finance retypes the totals into a journal. By then, three people have handled the same figure. And billing waits for all of them.

Business Central time sheets remove the retyping. They suit companies that bill time, cost internal labor to projects, or need a simple record of where technician time went. You may need shift clocks, break rules or pay calculation. Then a dedicated time and attendance product linked to payroll is the better tool. We will say so.

How we set up Business Central time sheets

First, we agree the approval path. Each resource's own approver can approve time. Or the person in charge of each project can. It is a setting on the Resources Setup page. The choice changes who sees what. So we decide it with your managers before we create anything.

Then we create or tidy the resources and link them to users. Units of measure and work types for overtime or travel come next. Absence causes are defined too. Then we run a full cycle in a sandbox, from entry to posted project ledger entries. Finally, we trim the pages, so each user sees only the fields they need.

What you receive

You get working time entry in the browser and in the mobile app. Sheets are created ahead for every resource. Managers have an approval list that shows submitted lines waiting for them. Accounting has a documented routine to bring approved time into project journals. It uses the Suggest Lines from Time Sheets action.

We add reminders where they help. For example, a Power Automate flow can nudge people whose sheet is still open at the end of the week. We include a one-page guide for entry and another for approval. A short recorded session for new staff comes too.

Mistakes that make Business Central time sheets fail

Time entry fails when it asks for too much. Long task lists, mandatory comments and several dimension fields on every line turn a two-minute job into a chore. Then entries arrive late and rounded. So we keep the entry page short. The project task carries the detail.

The other failure is approval that nobody owns. Approvers change roles or go on leave. Then submitted lines sit untouched and billing stalls. So we set up substitutes. We give finance a view of unapproved time by approver. We also agree a weekly cut-off, so the process has a rhythm everyone can follow.

Business Central time sheets: common questions

Can employees enter Business Central time sheets from a phone?

Yes. Time sheets open in the Business Central mobile app and in any modern browser. The layout adapts to a small screen. We usually trim the page to the fields people need. That makes entry on a phone realistic for field and traveling staff.

Who approves a time sheet?

The approver named on the resource card does. Or, if you switch on approval by project, the person in charge of the project on each line does. A time sheet administrator can also step in when someone is away. So submitted time does not wait forever.

How does approved time reach a project?

In the project journal, the Suggest Lines from Time Sheets action collects approved lines for a date range. After a check, you post the journal. The time then appears as usage on the project ledger. It is ready for costing, and for billing where the task is billable.

Can Business Central time sheets feed payroll?

Business Central has no built-in US payroll. So you pass time to a payroll provider or payroll app. You can export approved time and absence, or send them through an integration. We set up the hand-off that your payroll provider supports. Then we test it with a sample period.

Can a time sheet be corrected after approval?

An approver can reopen an approved line that has not been posted. Then the owner can change it and submit again. Once time is posted, you make the correction with an adjusting entry. That keeps a clear record of what changed and why. Good Business Central time sheets keep that trail.

Related services

Time entry is rarely set up alone. Business Central time sheets usually feed project costing, service work or payroll. So these pages are worth reading alongside this one. Start with the page closest to your own next step. Then ask our consultants how it fits. For the product detail, see Business Central documentation on Microsoft Learn.