---
key: submit-and-approve-time-entries
title: Submit and approve time entries
audience: staff
section: projects-tasks
routes: ["/work/time-entries"]
permissions: ["work.time_entries.submit"]
features: ["work.time-entries"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Move a time entry from Draft to Submitted, approve or reject it as a supervisor, lock it for payroll, and fix a mistake on a finished entry with a correction or reversal.
keywords: [approve hours, reject hours, submit hours, payroll lock, fix time entry, wrong hours, correction, unlock time]
related: [log-time, start-and-stop-a-timer, submit-and-approve-a-timesheet]
---

In the sidebar, open **Projects & Tasks**, then **Time & Mileage**, then **Time Entries**. The page address is `/work/time-entries`. Every entry moves through statuses: **Draft**, **Submitted**, **Approved**, **Locked** (and **Exported** once payroll has taken it). The row menu at the end of each entry offers only the moves allowed for its current status.

## Before you start

- Submitting needs the **Submit time entries** permission; approving and rejecting need **Approve time entries**; locking and unlocking need **Lock time entries**. Ask your admin if a menu item described here is missing.
- Stop any running timer first. A timer that is still going is not a draft yet.

## Steps

1. Find the entry. Press **Filters** and set **Status** to **Draft** to see what still needs submitting, or **Submitted** to see what is waiting for approval. **User**, **Start From** and **Start To** narrow it to one person or one week.
2. Open the menu at the end of the row.
3. On a **Draft** entry, choose **Submit**. Nova shows **Time entry submitted.** On a **Rejected** entry the item reads **Resubmit**; fix the entry with **Edit** first.
4. On a **Submitted** entry, a supervisor chooses **Approve** or **Reject**. Rejecting asks **Reject this time entry?** with a **Rejection reason** and finishes with **Reject time entry**; the reason stays on the entry.
5. On an **Approved** entry, choose **Lock** once payroll has it. A locked entry cannot be edited. **Unlock** reverses that, and asks you to confirm in **Unlock Time Entry**.

To fix an entry that is already submitted, approved or locked:

1. Open its row menu and choose **Create correction**. In **Create Correction**, type the change in **Delta Minutes** (a plus number adds time, a minus number takes it away) and the reason, then press **Create correction**. Nova adds a linked correction entry rather than changing the original.
2. If the whole entry was wrong, choose **Reverse** instead and confirm in **Reverse time entry?** with **Reverse entry**. The original stays on record and a matching reversal cancels it out.

## What you see

- The **Status** column shows where each entry is. A correction entry shows **Correction entry** at the top of its details, with the entry it corrects and the reason.
- **Discard draft** appears in the menu only while an entry is still a draft or was rejected; after that, corrections and reversals are the only way to change the time.

## If something looks different

- **Submit** is missing from a draft's menu: your role cannot submit time entries.
- **Approve** and **Reject** are missing on a submitted entry: your role cannot approve time entries.
- **Edit** is missing: the entry has been submitted, approved or locked and your organization does not allow edits at that stage. Use **Create correction** instead.
- The correction refuses with a message about a whole-number delta: type minutes as a whole number other than zero, and give a reason.
- Timesheets group entries by person and pay period and are approved separately; see [[submit-and-approve-a-timesheet]].