In cases where a member is set up as an Approver -- often as a Project Admin, a Member's Manager, or a Client Relationship Owner -- but cannot see those items in their approval queue, the Approver lacks the necessary Time and Expense administrative permissions. In order to approve time and expense, a member must have administrative rights to those items, as detailed in the View and Manage Time Entries of Other Members and View and Manage Expense Items of Other Members articles in the Ruddr Help Center.
For more on managing member permissions, please refer to the Security Roles article in the Ruddr Help Center.
In instances where time and expense administrative permissions are granted to a member, there may be time and expense locking scenarios that require elevated permissions to approve time and expense.
Some of the more common locking occurrences include:
Time-Based Locking of Time Entries and Expense Items
Workspaces can specify that time entries and expense items are to be locked based on either the age of the entries / items or if a certain date has passed in the month following the entries / items. These settings ensure that members cannot edit their time entries or expense items after a certain amount of time has elapsed. When this type of "time lock" has been applied, "Pending Approval" time entries / expense items will not be available for approval via the Approvals screen unless the approver has member-level time and expense administrative permissions to those entries / items. Members that have project-level time and expense administrative privileges will no longer be able to approve items locked in this manner.
To view these items on the Approvals screen, you can leverage the Include Locked Items filter (Figure 1). When this filter is set to "Yes", Ruddr will display any locked items that are unavailable for approval.
Figure 1 - Set the Include Locked Items filter to "Yes" to View a List of Locked Items on the Approvals Screen
When viewing a locked time entry either on the Approvals screen or in the Time Detail report (or expense item in the Expense Detail report), you will see a lock icon listed with the time entry (Figure 2). Hovering over this icon will inform you as to the nature of why the time entry is locked.
Figure 2 - Locking Information for a Time Entry on the Time Detail Report
For more on this workspace setting, please refer to Time and Expense Settings in the General Workspace Settings article in the Ruddr Help Center. For more on locking and related permissions, please refer to the Time Entry Locking article in the Ruddr Help Center.
Projects / Project Tasks are Locked
A Lock time and expense setting is available on projects and on individual project tasks. When this setting is applied and it affects time entries on the project / project task, those time entries are locked and will not be available in the approval queue of approvers that lack member-level time and expense administrative permissions. Members that have project-level time and expense administrative privileges will no longer be able to approve items locked in this manner.
To view these items on the Approvals screen, you can leverage the Include Locked Items filter (Figure 1). When this filter is set to "Yes", Ruddr will display any locked items that are unavailable for approval.
When viewing a time entry in the Time Detail report (or expense item in the Expense Detail report), you will see a lock icon to the right of the time entry (Figure 3). Hovering over this icon will inform you as to the nature of why the time entry is locked.
Figure 3 - A Project's Task has had the Lock Time and Expense Setting Applied
For more on locking and related permissions, please refer to the Time Entry Locking article in the Ruddr Help Center.