Field Timesheet Approvals: A Workflow for Trade Shops

A good field timesheet approval process comes down to four things: techs record time on the job, a supervisor checks it daily against the work performed, only exceptions get escalated, and approved hours flow to payroll and job costing without anyone retyping them. If your shop still collects hours on paper slips or a Friday text message, this guide shows how to move to that workflow without slowing your crews down.

It is written for owners and office managers of 2 to 30 truck plumbing, HVAC and electrical companies, the people who end up chasing hours on Monday morning.

TL;DR

• Field timesheet approval is the review of a technician’s recorded time before it reaches payroll and job costing. The check covers accuracy, overtime and the right job.
• Approve daily or at least weekly, not at the pay period cutoff. Late approvals are almost always a capture problem, not a review problem.
• Let routine time flow through and spend your attention on exceptions: overtime, callouts, hours that do not match the job, missing clock-outs.
• Federal law puts the record-keeping burden on you as the employer, so the approved record has to be accurate and retrievable.
• Pilot the workflow with one crew before you roll it out to the whole shop.

Table of Contents

• What field timesheet approval actually is
• The workflow, step by step
• Who should approve, and when
• What to check before you approve
• Why approvals run late (and the fix)
• Handling late, incorrect and disputed timesheets
• Records, overtime and what the law expects
• Roll it out with one crew first
• How we think about it
• Put approvals in the same app as the job
• FAQ
• Sources

What field timesheet approval actually is

Field timesheet approval is the review and sign-off of what your technicians recorded before the hours are used for anything else: paying people, billing customers or figuring out what a job cost. Procore describes the purpose as making sure hours are accurate, overtime is applied correctly and costs land on the right code.

For a trade shop, that last point matters more than it sounds. A plumber who spends four hours on a water heater swap and two on a service call needs those six hours to end up on two different jobs. If they land on one, your job costing is wrong, your payroll might be fine, and you will not find out until you wonder why a profitable-looking job lost money.

The same logic holds in larger organizations. Deltek’s guidance on approval workflows says approvals can improve timesheet accuracy, reduce billing errors and help make sure time is charged to the correct projects, tasks and labor codes before processing. You do not need enterprise software to get that benefit. You need a defined path and someone who owns each step.

The workflow, step by step

Here is a workflow that fits a shop with a few trucks up to a few dozen. Adjust the names to your org chart.

1. Tech clocks in and out on the job. Time is captured when the work happens, tied to a specific job, from the phone in the truck. Not reconstructed from memory on Friday.
2. Tech adds job context. Notes, photos and materials get attached while the tech is still on site. This is what lets a reviewer tell whether six hours was reasonable.
3. Tech submits daily. A short end-of-day submit takes under a minute and beats a weekly pile-up.
4. Lead or dispatcher reviews. In Procore’s model, field workers submit their own time or a foreman submits crew time, then a foreman or superintendent reviews it for accuracy before a responsible party approves entries for payroll. In a small shop, the lead tech, service manager or office manager fills that review role.
5. Owner or office manager approves. This is the final sign-off before payroll.
6. Approved time moves downstream. Hours go to payroll and to job costing without retyping. If your accounting runs in QuickBooks, this is where the handoff happens.
7. Corrections get logged. If you change a tech’s time after submission, the change and the reason stay attached to the record.

The point of the order is that nothing important is decided at step 5. By the time the owner sees a timesheet, it has already been captured, annotated and reviewed.

Who should approve, and when

In a 2 to 30 truck shop, you rarely have a layer of foremen and project managers. Still, the roles exist, even if one person wears two hats.

Deltek notes that supervisors or department managers commonly approve a complete timesheet, while project managers approve the lines that relate to their projects, and that separate approval steps can be configured for both. For a trade shop, the translation is simple: whoever runs the field day approves the whole sheet, and whoever owns the job number gets a say on the job-specific hours.

Approve by exception

The biggest mistake small shops make is having the owner read every timesheet line. That creates a bottleneck, and it is why approvals slip to the last hour before payroll.

A better rule: clean, routine time flows straight through, and a manager looks only at what breaks a rule you set in advance. Typical triggers for a trade contractor:

• Overtime past your weekly threshold
• After-hours callouts and emergency calls
• A clock-in with no clock-out, or a shift much longer than the scheduled work
• Billable hours well beyond the appointment length on a service call
• Time logged to a job that was not on that tech’s schedule
• Edits made by anyone other than the tech

Pick your own thresholds and write them down. A tech who knows that a 12-hour day will get a question tends to add the note up front.

What to check before you approve

The short list, drawn from the same guidance: confirm entries are complete and accurate, overtime is applied correctly and costs are logged to the right code. In practice, for a plumbing, HVAC or electrical tech, that means asking six questions.

1. Does the time match the schedule? Compare clock times against the day’s dispatch board. Gaps and overlaps show up quickly.
2. Does it match the work? A two-hour drain clearing with eight hours logged needs an explanation. Photos, materials used and the invoice amount usually supply it.
3. Is travel time handled the way you pay it? Decide your policy once, apply it to everyone and make sure the app or process follows it.
4. Are breaks recorded truthfully? More on this in the compliance section below.
5. Is overtime calculated correctly? Check the week total, not just the day.
6. Is the job code right? Warranty callbacks, service calls and installs should not share a bucket if you want honest margins.

Review by crew and job rather than by individual stack of paper where you can. When you look at a crew’s day side by side, a person who logged four hours more than their partner on the same job stands out immediately.

Compare logged hours with typical durations for the type of work, too. A published roof replacement timeline with crew days shows how a trade can frame a job in crew days, and giving your supervisors a similar rule of thumb for your own common jobs makes a reasonable-looking sheet easy to tell from one that needs a question.

Why approvals run late (and the fix)

When timesheets arrive late, owners usually blame the approvers. The cause is almost always upstream. If hours show up late, uncoded and unverified, no amount of reviewing can rescue the pay period. Fix capture and the approval step shrinks to a few minutes.

What that looks like in practice:

• Capture on the phone, on the job. A timeclock tied to the job the tech is standing on removes the end-of-week guessing.
• Work offline. Basements, crawlspaces and new construction often have no signal. If the app cannot record time without a connection, techs go back to scribbling on paper. Time, photos and status should sync when signal returns.
• Set a daily cutoff. For example, submitted by the end of the shift, reviewed by 9 a.m. the next day.
• Send reminders to the tech, not the owner. A text at the end of the day is easier than a Monday morning phone call.
• Define escalation. If a sheet is still open two days after the work, it goes to the office manager, then to the owner. Everyone should know the ladder before they need it.

For a deeper look at tying hours back to what a crew actually costs you, see our piece on labor burden rate, and on how approved time feeds margins see job costing methods for 2 to 30 truck contractors.

Handling late, incorrect and disputed timesheets

Every shop hits these. A written policy beats improvising each time, because the same situation handled two ways breeds resentment.

Late timesheets. Pay the tech for hours worked, regardless. Under the FLSA you owe wages for time worked, and late paperwork is a management problem, not a reason to withhold. Handle the lateness through coaching and the escalation ladder above. If one person is always late, ask whether the tool is the obstacle.

Incorrect timesheets. Do not silently overwrite. Ask the tech, agree the correct time, make the edit, and log who changed what and why. Where your system allows it, keep the original entry visible. A corrected record with a clear trail protects both sides.

Disputed timesheets. Start with the evidence you already have: the schedule, GPS or job timestamps, photos, customer texts, the invoice. Most disputes close in one conversation when both sides look at the same facts. Pay undisputed hours on time and settle the rest in the next cycle. If a dispute involves possible unpaid wages, talk to your payroll provider or an employment attorney before you decide, because the rules differ by state.

Unapproved timesheets at payroll cutoff. Decide in advance what happens. Many shops pay from the submitted time and adjust in the next run. Whatever you pick, write it down and apply it the same way every time.

Records, overtime and what the law expects

Approval is not only an internal control. As the employer, you carry the record-keeping duty. The Department of Labor says the FLSA requires employers to keep records that include the hours worked each workday and total hours each workweek, along with specified wage and payroll information.

Breaks are a common trap. The DOL has stated that a time record showing an unpaid meal break when the employee actually worked through it is not an accurate time record. If your system auto-deducts a lunch, make sure the approver checks that techs on a long emergency call really took it. The same logic applies to rounding: if you round punches, do it by a consistent, neutral rule your payroll provider or attorney has confirmed, not by a supervisor’s judgment on a given day.

How long to keep it all? For employment tax records, the IRS says to keep them for at least four years after filing the fourth quarter return for the year. Your state may have its own timesheet and wage record rules, and union or prevailing wage jobs often add requirements, so confirm with your payroll provider or employment attorney. An approved, searchable digital record is far easier to produce than boxes of paper.

Roll it out with one crew first

Do not switch the whole company on a Monday. Choose one crew, ideally one with a strong lead tech, and run the new workflow for two full pay periods while keeping your old process as a backstop. Use that time to confirm that overtime, travel time and job codes map correctly to payroll, and to learn which exceptions actually show up. Then adjust the thresholds and roll out to the other trucks.

When you move, bring the techs into the why: faster paychecks, fewer corrections, no more reconstructing a week from memory. If your office also retypes estimates into invoices, fix that in the same push. Our guide to the estimate to invoice workflow covers it, and our overview of mobile field service software that works offline explains what to test before you commit.

How we think about it

We built MEPflow because the three of us, a master plumber, a master electrician and an HVAC tech, were tired of the Monday morning scramble. Hours arrived as texts, photos of paper slips and guesses, and someone in the office spent hours turning them into payroll.

Our view is simple: approval is easy when capture is right. If the tech clocks time against the job on a phone that works in a basement with no signal, the office is reviewing real data instead of recollections. That is why timeclock and payroll sit in the same application as scheduling, estimates, invoicing and job costing. The hours a tech logs are designed to be the same hours your job costing sees, with no second entry.

We also run it on our own trucks before anyone else sees it. If a workflow slows down a tech with wet hands and a customer waiting, we find out first and fix it.

And every feature is on every plan. Plans differ only by how many people are on them, so a five-truck shop gets the same tools as a thirty-truck shop.

Jonathan

Put approvals in the same app as the job

MEPflow is field-service software for plumbing, HVAC and electrical contractors, built so the office and the field work from the same data. Timeclock and payroll sit alongside scheduling and dispatch, Good/Better/Best estimates, invoicing and job costing, with a QuickBooks integration. It is mobile-first and works offline, so time, photos and job status sync when signal returns, and the full desktop office side runs the same data. Month to month, no contract, no setup fee, and we import your existing customer and job data for you. See how it fits your shop on the MEPflow home page, and for plan details go to /#pricing.

Ready to try it? Create your company account. Free signup is capped at 5 customers and does not include the trade tools. If you would rather test the full product first, call 866-808-4996 to book a 14-day trial.

FAQ

How often should field timesheets be approved?

Daily review by a lead or office manager, with final approval weekly or before each payroll run, works for most trade shops. Daily review catches missing clock-outs and wrong job codes while the tech still remembers the day. Waiting until the payroll cutoff is what turns approvals into a scramble.

Who should approve technician timesheets in a small shop?

The person who runs the field day should review them, usually a service manager, lead tech or dispatcher. The office manager or owner gives the final approval before payroll, focusing on exceptions such as overtime and callouts. Whoever owns a job’s budget should also see the hours charged to it.

What should I do if a technician disagrees with their approved hours?

Pull the schedule, job timestamps, photos and invoice, and review them together. Pay the undisputed time on schedule, correct the record with a note on who changed it and why, and settle anything unresolved in the next cycle. If unpaid wages may be involved, check with your payroll provider or an employment attorney, since state rules vary.

How long do I need to keep timesheets?

The IRS says to keep employment tax records for at least four years after filing the fourth quarter return for the year. The FLSA also requires you to keep records of hours worked. Your state or a prevailing wage contract may require more, so confirm with your payroll provider.

Sources

• Approve a Timesheet, Procore
• Building Timesheet Approval Workflows, Deltek
• FLSA Compliance Assistance letter, U.S. Department of Labor
• FLSA opinion letter, January 7, 2005, U.S. Department of Labor
• Employment tax recordkeeping, Internal Revenue Service
• Roof replacement timeline, Tampa

Recommended

• No Retyping: Estimate to Invoice Workflow for 2–30 Truck Shops
• How to Track Tools on Jobs in a 2–30 Truck Trade Shop
• Stop Billing Quoted Parts: Work Order vs Invoice for 2–30 Truck Shops
• Estimate Templates That Stop Rekeying for 2–30 Truck Shops