Users with Timesheet Manager access maintain escalated approvals, automatic period generation, periods, shifts and timesheet holidays. Before a user can create a timesheet, both a period and a shift must be created

Role: Users with Timesheet Manager, District Manager or Admin roles.

Timesheet Escalated Approval

The Timesheet Escalated Approval grid will display initiated timesheets. The user will be able to singularly or mass approve initiated timesheets directly, bypassing the workflow approval.

View an Escalated Timesheet

If you prefer to view the details of a timesheet before approving it, click on It will open a window containing their timesheet details. Options to Edit, Reject or Approve it are displayed at the bottom of the screen.

• Edit: You may edit the timesheet as long as the approval status is ‘initiated'

• Approve: A pop-up confirmation window will appear providing a note area to optionally enter a reason for the approval. Click Approve. The timesheet will bypass the rest of the workflow and will be updated with an approved status. The originator will be notified that the timesheet has been approved. The originator may open their timesheet to view the ‘Timesheet Approval Trail’ which will include the approver who approved the timesheet, optional notes they entered, and the date/time the timesheet was approved.

• Reject: A pop-up confirmation window will appear providing a note area to enter a reason for the rejected timesheet. Click Reject. The originator will be notified that the timesheet has been rejected. The timesheet will be updated with as a status of ‘rejected’ and displayed in their ‘My Timesheets’ grid . The originator may view the timesheet to click on the ‘Timesheet Approval Trail’ to see the approval trail of who rejected the timesheet, optional notes they entered, and the date/time the timesheet was rejected. The originator also has the option of editing the timesheet, if needed, and re-submitting it for approval.

Automatic Period Generator

This option may be used if your district prefers timesheet periods be created automatically (based upon the settings entered in this option). Fields denoted with a bullet to the right of the field name are required fields. Once the timesheet period(s) are generated, they will be displayed in the Period grid.

Creating Automatic Timesheet Periods

• Automatic Period Generator: Once finished setting up the automatic period generator settings, select ‘true’ to start running the ‘generatePeriodsjob’ batch job. For more details on the scheduled job, please refer to System>Batch Job.

  • Once all timesheet periods inclusive of the Automatic Period Generator are closed, this setting will automatically change to ‘false’ indicating the job no longer has any active timesheet periods - they are all closed.

• Closing Time: Select the Hour/Minute/Period (AM/PM) when a period should be automatically closed.

• Start Date: Select a date you want to start generating automatic periods. For example, you may want the start date to coincide with the start date of a payroll period.

• Available Future Periods: Select the number of future periods to be created.

  • Example: if your start date is 9/16/2025, semi-monthly and you enter 2 future periods, once generated, it will create 3 timesheet periods on the periods grid… the current period plus the two future periods.

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• Timesheet Reminders: Sends a reminder to timesheet employees as to when the timesheet period will close. For example, if you select 3 days, users will receive an email or notification in UI? 3 days prior to the period closing day.

• Duration: Select the duration. This usually coincides with the USPS Pay Plan. You may choose from Biweekly, Semi-monthly and Monthly. Your period ending date options will change based on the Duration chosen:

  • Weekly: Required to entering a ‘Period Ending Day’

  • Bi-Weekly: Required to entering a ‘Period Ending Day’

  • Semi-Monthly: Required to enter a First Period Ending Date and a Second Period Ending Date

  • Monthly: Required to enter a ‘First Period Ending Date’

• Close on non-business day: Option to move the closing date if it happens to fall on a non-business day to a business day. For example, if the closing date were to fall on a Sunday, use this option to move the closing date to the next business day. This option is currently not working ESS-860

• Months to Skip: option to disallow timesheets to be created for a specified month(s)

• Period Closing Day: You have the option of using the pre-defined setting under System>Configuration>Timesheet Period Close Configuration for the closing day or select a desired day to close the period.

Once the Automatic Generation Running is set to true, you will receive the following pop-up notification indicating the automatic period generator is running for the time periods defined in your batch job. You may click ‘Click here to navigate’ and it will take you to the current batch jobs under System<Batch Job to view the results of your scheduled job; or you may ‘close’ this window.

Automatic Period Generator Grid

You may create multiple automatic period generators jobs as long as the timesheets periods defined in the job do not coincide with existing timesheet periods. All automatic periods generator jobs are displayed in the grid. The actual timesheet period(s) created are displayed in the Period grid.

• View the details of the Automatic Period Generator job.

• Edit an existing Automatic Period Generator job.

• Delete an existing Automatic Period Generator job [as long as the job is running (true)].

Automatic Period Generator Example:

District has the above timesheet automatic period generator setup

• The automatic generator will create 2 periods: 8/26/24-9/7/24 and 9/8/24-9/21/24.

  • Once the 1st period (8/25-9/7) closes (on 9/9 at 7 PM), the next period will generate (9/22 - 10/5).

  • Then when the 2nd period (9/8-9/21) closes (on 9/23 at 7 PM), the next period (10/6 - 10/19) will generate, and so on

Period

This option may be used if your district prefers timesheet period(s) be created manually. You may create multiple timesheet periods manually as long as the timesheets periods specified are inclusive of one another. Fields denoted with a bullet to the right of the field name are required fields. Once the timesheet period(s) are generated, they will be displayed in the Period grid.

Create a Period

Click to create a new timesheet period

• Begin: Select the date the period should begin. For example, the begin date may coincide with the start date of a payroll period.

• End: Select the date the period should end. For example, the end date may coincide with the end date of payroll period.

• Close Date & Time: Select the date and time when a period should be closed.

• Description: (optional) Enter a description defining the timesheet period.

Click to save the timesheet period. The period will remain open until it is manually closed.

Period Grid

Periods created either manually or via the automatic period generator will be displayed in the Period grid.

- View an existing period

- Edit an existing period. NOTE: The timesheet period must be opened in order to edit it.

- Delete an existing period. NOTE: You can only delete open timesheet periods.

- Close an open period.

- Open a period.

Shift

Before a timesheet employee can create a timesheet, a shift must be created for their position. You may create a single shift for multiple positions.

Create a Shift

• Name: Enter a Shift Name

• Start Time/End Date: Select a start and ending time for the shift

• Break Time: Enter a break time (i.e. 1.0 for hour break, 0.50 for half hour break, etc).

• Hours in Work Day: Enter the hours in the work day. Currently, the start/end times, break time and hours in work day do not check (balance) against one another.

• Flexible Shift: Currently not implemented

• Select Position for this Shift: Add one or more positions that should be included in this shift.

  • NOTE: It will only display employees who have a user account in ESS and marked as a timesheet employee in USPS

  • ESS-712 will include employee name on position list

After a position has been assigned a shift, when a user creates a timesheet for that position, all shift data will be prefilled for that user’s timesheet.

Shift Grid

View an existing shift

- Edit an existing shift NOTE: The timesheet period must be opened in order to edit it.

- Delete an existing shift. NOTE:

Timesheet Holidays

Timesheet holidays consist of a period of time or specific date where timesheets are typically restricted due to a holiday

Create a Timesheet Holiday

From Timesheet Manager,

1. Click ‘Create’

2. Provide a label for the timesheet holiday.

3. Check the notify managers if you want to send an email to Leave Managers if a timesheet is requested during the holiday date range.

4. Check ‘Enabled’ to activate the holiday.

5. Check ‘Entire Day’ if it applies to the entire day or leave unchecked to select a start/ending time

6. Select start and end dates for your holiday period.

7. If specific leave types should be included in the holiday, select all that apply.

8. You can filter by employee and their position. (or leave blank to include all positions for an employee).

9. If specific employees aren’t selected, you can filter by Pay Group and/or Department Codes.

10. Click ‘Create’ to save your holiday or ‘Cancel' to exit without saving changes.

When a user creates their timesheet, if a holiday is inclusive of the timesheet period, it will automatically denote the holiday item on the timesheet.

Timesheet Holiday Grid Options

The Timesheet Holiday grid allows the user to filter holiday information by entering their search query in the filter row.

• view entire holiday record

• edit an existing holiday record

• delete an existing holiday record