Timesheet Approval with Page Approval for Confluence by Appfire

We tested 4 different scenarios to provide a good representation of how you could get a Timesheet approval in Confluence using Appfire’s Page Approval for Confluence.

This documentation is a detailed breakdown of the 4 processes with one of the apps: Page Approval for Confluence by Appfire. If you are interested in the overview article, please navigate here.

1. Adding a Timesheet Report as an Image and requiring a single approver

We first start by creating a Confluence page with our February Timesheet. In this first scenario, the Timesheet is added as a picture. Then it’s just a matter of getting the approval process started by clicking on the app’s button on the page itself. In this case, we’re trying to get one approver, say our boss, to go over our Timesheet so that the hours can be synced to our HR module with accurate data.

Appfire’s Page Approval for Confluence can be easily accessed from the top of the page. Clicking on the “Request Approval” button will open the module for the approval request. 

From there, it’s just about choosing which approval path we want to define. For this first scenario, we only need our boss, Max, to approve the Timesheet, so we’ll go with a “Standard approval”, which means that all listed approvers are required to approve the page. So in our case, only one person, but if we had a group of five, all five would need to approve the page. 

You can also add a due date and an acknowledger, which is a concept we’ll explore in another scenario. 

Once the approval request has been submitted, our approver will receive an email asking him to review our Timesheet. 

He’ll then be able to approve the page the same way you requested the approval. 

Once the page has been approved, there will be multiple updates sent. For one, you will receive an email update about the approval. You’ll also see comments keeping tabs on all the status changes occurring (this also tags the various users, so you will get notifications in-app as well).

Finally, the Confluence page will also show a green “Approved”. 

Clicking on that button will display more information on the approval.

Now that our page has been approved, we can quickly submit this Timesheet via API or through a .csv to our external HR system so that the hours are now up to date. 

2. Adding a Timesheet Report as a .csv and requiring multiple approvers (approval chain)

In our second scenario, we’ll upload a .csv to the Confluence page and also use the Excel Office Macro to display the file directly on the page (do note that other apps on the Atlassian marketplace will be able to do a better job).

Now, we have a chain of command that we must go through to get the final OK. This could be for example if we need to first get the approval from our team lead, and then get the final seal of approval from our PM, in the context of invoicing a client. 

The process will be extremely similar to scenario one, but this time we’ll do the Approval through a Template. Because having to approve multiple Timesheets and adding many people at once will be annoying, time-consuming, and error-prone. 

To create a template, we’ll first head into the app’s dashboard (by going directly to the app, instead of on a confluence page), and into the Template section. The beauty of templates is that there’s nothing tricky about them and is exactly going through the same steps as what we’ve seen in scenario 1.

In this case, we’ll name the template “Multiple Approvers Chain” and choose the approval type to be “Approval Chain” meaning that there is a set order from the approvers. 

And then you can add an acknowledger if you’d like. For this app, an acknowledger is someone who will review the content and give their OK, but it will not be an approver. For example, this could be our Senior colleague who’s working hand in hand with our team lead. This could be used as a good way to save time for the approvers and act as a good first step in indicating that the content has been reviewed by someone.  I.e: They’re more than welcome to review the content and acknowledge that the content is good to go, but it won’t impact the approval process. 

Once the template is rolled out, it’s just a matter of mimicking the same process as in scenario one: go to the Confluence page and request an approval process. 

Except this time, we will be using the Template we just created. 

Once the approval process is defined, you just have to sit back and wait for all the players to approve the Timesheet. And with the way we defined our Approval chain, Team lead Max will first need to approve the Timesheet before PM Max does. 

Of course, once everyone has approved the page, its status will be reflected as well

Now that the Timesheet has been approved, then we can simply send this Timesheet .csv to the client with the invoice and ask them to pay up!

3. Adding a Timesheet Report as a table and requiring “Partial” approvers (approval quorum)

For our final scenario, we’ll go through similar steps as before, with the main difference being that our Timesheet is going to be uploaded as a Table (again, some apps on the Atlassian Marketplace might improve on the default process). 

While defining the approvers during the approval process, we'll select the “approval quorum” option. This means that while we add a group of approvers, we can choose how many OKs are needed to finalize the approval of the page. In this case, one.

And again, we are at the mercy of the approver's decision. But it should be fairly hard for our approvers to forget about our page: in addition to all the notifications that they get (emails, in-app notifications, mentions, etc.), the approver can see all the pages that need to be reviewed by them by going to their Page Approval Dashboard. 

Once one of the Max approves our table Timesheet, the page will automatically update itself to be approved, even though only one reviewed the content and gave their seal of approval (as defined by the “approval quorum” option. 

And voilà! Page approved, wages paid, invoice sent, and now you know which of the two Maxs to name your kid after. 

4. Rejecting the Timesheet Report

In some cases, the content of the Confluence page might not be up to standards (mistakes, typos, etc.) and will need to be corrected before being approved. 

In other words, you’ll set up your Confluence page and define your approval path, but sadly the approver will reject the Timesheet.  As with everything with the Page Approval for Confluence, you’ll be notified via the comments on the Confluence page. 

And upon further inspection, you’ll be able to quickly see who rejected your Timesheet.

Now, to get the page approved again, you’ll have to make modifications to its content and reset the process (simply making edits will not do anything). 

Back to the grind and hopefully the second time's the charm.