Tempo Team Leaders can approve own timesheet?

[Daniel Puyau]

Tempo v7.6.3

We have set up our teams and have noticed that if a user is a Team Leader in a group (Call it Group A) they have the ability to Approve/Reject their OWN timesheet even if they AREN'T listed as a MEMBER of Group A.

Example: John Smith is a Senior Developer and the Team Leader of Group A. (He is NOT listed as a member so if you look at the TEAM VIEW of Group A, John is NOT listed.) When John enters his time for the week and clicks GET APPROVAL he is able to submit the time to his manager. However, unlike users who are NOT Team Leaders on any project, his Workflow does not become greyed out and he has the option to Approve or Reject his own timesheet in the USER TIMESHEET view.

Is this a bug, how it's designed, or am I missing a configuration somewhere? Thank you! =)

[Susanne Götz [Tempo] · Accepted solution]

Hi Daniel

this is the behavior as designed, see also https://tempoplugin.jira.com/wiki/display/TEMPO076/Timesheet+Approval+Process (page bottom) for a few statements/ examples to clarify the Timesheet approval.

Kind regards,
Susanne

[Daniel Puyau]

Regarding the following statement, this is where I am confused:

There is also the case where a Team Leader (for example John) approves his own User Timesheet, e.g. chooses himself as a reviewer in the Get Approval dialog.

When Team Leaders click the GET APPROVAL, even if they set the reviewer as their Supervisor, they can STILL approve/reject their own timesheet. This doesn't seem logical? I could understand if they had selected themselves as the reviewer and thusly had those approval options, but the way we have it set up they aren't even showing as a possibel choice to be a reviewer.

Maybe I am missing something, but I can't imagine where any company would want an employee to approve their own timesheets? Especially if said employee is hourly and has the possibility of running up Overtime. If that were the case, then there would be no reason to even HAVE approvals.

[Daniel Carper]

Seems the UI has been updated since then... There is no longer a [get approval] button, and I'm unable to approve my own timesheet for a team that I am leader of and also a member.. Thanks for the help

[Bryan Gintz]

Also seeing this confusing behavior :-/

[Mathy]

This behavior was changed in version 8.10, the latest version it is possible to do this with is 8.9.2

From the release notes:

• To ensure accurate reporting and data transparency, users with the Approve Timesheets permission can no longer approve their own timesheets.

https://tempoplugin.jira.com/wiki/spaces/TT/pages/409206788/Tempo+Timesheets+8.10+Release+Notes

Please make this possible again Tempo... (perhaps through a configurable option if there are people who have issues with this?)

[Bryan Gintz]

This seems to be a very rigid implementation, especially for small companies like mine where I want to track my own time AND don't want to have to create another user just to approve that time.  Are there any plans to make this a permission (e.g. "User has right to approve own timesheet") as opposed to just taking it out altogether?

[Daniel Carper]

Agreed for small teams, it's silly to need a second account to approve your own timesheet... It's an annoyance when it's only me that sees it but it's unprofessional if I wanted to grant a client access to have a real time view, which happens from time to time, some awkward detail that will need to be explained to every single person who touches the system.

A configurable option would be much appreciated, thanks!

[Scott Fischer]

We would love this as well again since the president of our company has historically approved his own timesheet since he is in charge.  Since I am one of the IT people, I have to approve his sheet now.  A little awkward! :)

[IOFlux Finance]

Please a configuration setting to allow a team lead to approve their own timesheets. As stated by many others this is a glaring hole in your product for small teams.

[Jean-Michel Lavarenne]

Obviously when granting the permission to approve timesheet, the user should be able to approve their own timesheets.  The need for an organisation to allow approving all timesheet except your own seems like the odd case, not the default. It shows like of trust rather than "reduce errors". It will require that the approver have another account just to approve timesheets, which is very inefficient. Tempo: you are making me inefficient with this bug!

I feel that it seems like a management decisions from tempo about how I should run my own business.

[Nikola Rendulic]

Please, this is really annoying that not even manager can't self approve his timecards.

[Lasse H]

I'd like to second all of the above insigts.

For smaller teams and/or companies, it's becoming quite frustrating that a designated approver (ie. team lead/manager) cannot approve his or her own timesheet. I really fail to see the logic behind this. At the least it's a sign of distrust in how companies organise their management structure.

[Alex De Winne]

It seems this is STILL not fixed?? Really??

[Susanne Götz [Tempo]]

We will release changes for this behavior in Tempo Timesheets 7.9. Then ist will only be possible for a user to approve his own timesheet if he has the "Approve Timesheet" permission for a Team he is a member of.

[Daniel Puyau]

Thank you Susanne. That seems like a logical enhancement and we look forward to it!

[Daniel Puyau]

Hi Susanne!

I hope this finds you well. We recently upgraded to 7.9. In fact, we are on 7.9.1.2 to be specific. However I do not see a setting that prevents Team Leaders from approving/rejecting their own time as outlined in the above thread. Can you direct me to where this is configured? Thank you! =)

[Sverrir Tynes [Tempo]]

Hi Daniel

I m not able to reproduce this on my test instance. I suggest that we continue this in our support channel where you can share some screenshots in a private support request.
https://tempoplugin.jira.com/wiki/display/TT/Tempo+Timesheets+Support+Home

You can also send a mail to support@tempoplugin.comand we can schedule a web meeting so we can complete this.

Sverrir Tynes
Tempo support

[Sverrir Tynes [Tempo]]

Hi Daniel

If a user has Approve Timesheets permissions he can approve timesheets for all Team members. if he is a team member in a team that he has Approve Timesheets permission he can approve own timesheet. So to prevent a user can approve own timesheet don t give the user this permission in a team that he is a member.

Earlier today we released a fix affecting Timesheet Approval process so I sugest that you upgrade
https://tempoplugin.jira.com/wiki/display/TT/Tempo+Timesheets+7.9.1.3+Release+Notes

Sverrir Tynes
Tempo support

[Daniel Puyau]

Thank you for your response. However you must have missed my original scenario. Our team leaders are NOT members of their groups. JUST team leaders. Yet they can still have the option to approve their own time. And the release notes for 7.9.1.3 don't mention anything that seems to fix the below scenario?

Example from original post: John Smith is a Senior Developer and the Team Leader of Group A. (He is NOT listed as a member of Group A so if you look at the TEAM VIEW of Group A, John is NOT listed.) When John enters his time for the week and clicks GET APPROVAL he is able to submit the time to his manager as designed. However, unlike users who are NOT Team Leaders on any project, his Workflow does not become greyed out and he has the option to Approve or Reject his own timesheet in the USER TIMESHEET view.