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Timesheets

Timesheets

The Timesheet menu includes the ability to manually create new timesheets as well as view, edit, or recall existing timesheets. If your user account has been granted additional roles (other than the Standard User role), you may have additional options under the Timesheet menu.

My Timesheets

Role: Users with User role

The user’s position in USPS must have the ‘Timesheet Required' check marked under the Position that is required to create a timesheet in ESS. Also, in order for the employee’s timesheet to process through the approval workflow, their position record(s) must have a supervisor defined.

If Positions were selected when creating the Timesheet Automatic Period Generator, once the period is automatically generated, it will also automatically create a timesheet for the specified positions. The employee can then view, edit (if needed), and submit their automatically created timesheet for approval.

Create a Timesheet

The steps provided below are for employees who need to create a timesheet manually:

NOTE: A period and shift must be created for the employee’s position(s) prior to the employee creating their timesheet.

  1. Under My Timesheets, click ‘Create.’

  2. Select the timesheet period and the position that you are creating the timesheet for, and click ‘Create Timesheet’. Both the Timesheet Period and the position are required. NOTE: If a timesheet already exists for the employee, an alert notification will be displayed on the screen, and the employee will be redirected to their existing timesheet.

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  1. The timesheet will be pre-filled with the information from the corresponding period and shift that have been set up.

    1. Click on the Edit icon for a specific row to edit the pre-filled information. You may overwrite any columns shaded gray. Once the timesheet has been exported, the exported column will display a checkmark.

      1. Please refer to Flexible Shift for more information on shifts enabled with the ‘flexible shift’ option.

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b. By default, timesheets will not include weekend days. Select ‘+' to add additional line items to your timesheet (i.e. overtime, exception, additional days). To remove any items, check the box to the left of the item(s) and select '-'.

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  1. If the employee has an approved leave request, inclusive of the timesheet period, the leave request line item will be added to the employee's timesheet automatically after clicking Create.

    1. Leave request items are not editable within the timesheet. After a timesheet is created, the system will automatically adjust the times on the REG line item (or remove it entirely if the leave request covers the full period) to accommodate the approved leave request items. Depending on what leave types are configured for the district, the leave request items may include Calamity, Comp Time, Dock, Holiday, Jury Duty, Military, Other, Personal, Professional, Sick, Unknown, Vacation

    2. When exported leave requests exist for the timesheet period, the leave requests will appear on the timesheet for reference purposes only, but cannot be modified.

    3. Once you enter both a start and end time value, the hours worked field will be updated to equal the number of hours between the start and end time minus the break time value. The hours worked field will be updated whether there is a regular shift, a flexible shift, or no shift.

  2. If the employee would like to copy a Timesheet line item to another line on the timesheet, click the copy function image-20250508-141024.png . This will open another window where you can select which timesheet line items to copy. Click the Copy button at the bottom of the dialog. Click Save to retain these changes or Cancel to return to the grid.

    1. The copy function will NOT work on a line item with a Leave Request; these line items that include a leave will not appear on the copy dialog box.

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  1. Click 'Create’ to add your timesheet to your timesheet grid. Your timesheet will reflect a status of Initiated. The employee can review the timesheet after creation to confirm that leave request(s), inclusive of the timesheet period, are included.

The creation of the timesheet does not submit the timesheet to the workflow process. You must submit the timesheet for approval. See below.

Submit a Timesheet for Approval

You may submit your timesheet for approval one of two ways:

  1. On your timesheet grid, click image-20241120-152540.png icon to submit your timesheet for approval. A pop-up notification will be displayed indicating the timesheet has been submitted.

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  1. Or click image-20240827-172408.png to view your newly created timesheet. Click ‘Submit for Approval’ to submit your timesheet to the approval workflow. Again, a pop-up notification will be displayed indicating the timesheet has been submitted.

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Timesheet Grid

Displays a user’s existing timesheets in a grid format.

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Approval Status indicates where in the approval workflow the timesheet is currently at:

  • Initiated: Originator has created their timesheet.

  • Submitted: Originator has submitted their timesheet for approval.

  • Approved: Timesheet has been through the entire approval workflow.

  • Rejected: Timesheet was rejected at some point during the approval workflow.

  • Exported: Approved timesheet was exported to a CSV (in order to be posted to USPS).

  • Cancelled: N/A.

Grid Options

  • image-20240430-201624.png View - The user may view the details of their timesheet regardless of the approval status. When viewing, the option to generate an Audit Report using Start/Stop dates becomes available.

    • image-20251103-210930.png Audit Report allows an Audit report to be generated using the defined start and end dates.

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  • image-20240828-204523.png Edit - The user may edit their timesheet as long as the approval status is ‘initiated'. Once the timesheet has been submitted to the approval workflow process, the user can no longer edit it.

  • image-20241120-160959.png Submit - The user may submit their timesheet for approval. Once submitted, if the timesheet has not been approved yet (and the period is still open), the user may recall the timesheet in order to make additional changes.

  • image-20241120-161038.png Recall - The user may recall a submitted timesheet (as long as it hasn’t been approved and the period is still open). Once recalled, the timesheet is back at an initiated status for the user to make additional changes. Once the changes are complete, the user will need to resubmit their timesheet for approval.

  • image-20240828-204638.png Delete - The user may delete their timesheet as long as it is in the initiated status and the timesheet period is open.

  • image-20250226-155702.png Print Approval Trail Report - From the grid, the user may print the report called Print Approval Trail Report for their timesheet.

Viewing a timesheet

  • Timesheet Details: includes the information entered on the timesheet. If the timesheet has NOT been submitted for approval yet, the user may edit the timesheet to make any changes. Click on ‘Submit for Approval’ to submit the timesheet to the timesheet approval workflow.

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  • Timesheet Approval Trail: will show the action, user, note, and timestamp information related to the submission of the timesheet.

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  • Timesheet Approval Trail print: Tracks the activity on the timesheet from the original requester to the final approver. May be printed from the Timesheet grid using the Print Approval Trail report button. image-20250226-160555.png

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Supervisor Timesheet

Role: For users with the Timesheet Approver, District Manager, or Admin role.

To approve a timesheet, the supervisor must have the Timesheet Approve role. Supervisors can approve timesheets via the Home screen (under Pending Workflow Tasks - Timesheet Approval) or the Timesheet Approval menu option.

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image-20240523-023424.png Allows supervisors the ability to view their staff’s timesheet information regardless of approval status. An Audit report may also be generated for the Timesheet record.

  • Timesheet Details: includes the information entered on their staff’s timesheets

  • Timesheet Approval Trail: Tracks the activity on the timesheet, from the original requester to the final approver. The ‘Note’ column on the grid will indicate the Group Chain the timesheet is tied to.

  • Audit Report image-20251103-210930.png - allows an Audit report to be generated using the defined start and end dates.

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Approval Status indicates where in the approval workflow the timesheet is currently:

  • Initiated: Supervisor can edit or submit their staff’s timesheets for approval

  • Submitted: Supervisor can recall their staff’s timesheets

  • Approved: Supervisor can view their staff’s timesheets only

  • Rejected: Supervisor can edit or submit their staff’s timesheets for approval

  • Exported: Supervisor can view their staff’s timesheets only

  • Cancelled: N/A

District Timesheet

Role: For users with the Timesheet Manager, District Manager, or Admin role

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  • image-20240523-023424.png Allows the user to view timesheets for anyone in the district, regardless of approval status. Also allows the generation of an Audit report for the record.

    • Timesheet Details: includes the information entered on all staff’s timesheets

    • Timesheet Approval Trail: Tracks the approval activity on the timesheet, from the original requester to the final approver. The ‘Note’ column on the grid will indicate the Group Chain the timesheet was submitted to.

    • image-20251103-210930.png - Audit Report allows an Audit report to be generated using the defined start and end dates.

      • image-20251103-211407.png

  • image-20241120-163228.png Allows the user the ability to delete initiated or approved timesheets.

  • image-20250226-155702.png The user may print the Print Approval Trail Report for their timesheet from the District Timesheet grid.

Approval Status indicates where in the approval workflow the timesheet is currently:

  • Initiated: User can edit staff’s timesheets or submit staff’s timesheets for approval.

  • Submitted: User can recall staff timesheets.

  • Approved: User can view (only) staff timesheets.

  • Rejected: User can edit staff’s timesheets or resubmit staff’s timesheets for approval.

  • Exported: User can view (only) staff timesheets.

  • Cancelled: N/A.

Timesheet Overview Report

This option provides the ability to generate a CSV file containing summarized timesheet data. All timesheets will be automatically included in the report unless you filter by entering a specified period and/or employee(s) located in the filter area in the top half of the screen. On the bottom half of the screen, by default, it will display all existing timesheets unless filtering has been applied, in which case it will only include the timesheets inclusive of the selected filters. You can sort by period start/end dates or employee.

For example, to review all existing timesheets for the 11/1/24-11/15/24 pay period, select the pay period and click ‘Generate Overview Report’. The resulting CSV file includes all timesheet data (regardless of status), inclusive of that period.

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More Information on Timesheets

The timesheet-export.csv file is formatted to be imported via USPS Attendance/Absence Import. Please refer to the import specs for further details. NOTE: Column Q on the CSV file is mapped to the following Pay Types in USPS: REG = REG; OV = OT; EXC = MIS