Approve attendance and lock the month before payroll

Quick answer

#What it's good for

• A clear “done” for each person and month – everyone can see what has been checked.
• A month you have paid stays as it was paid: no late edit, and no recalculation after a schedule or rounding change.
• Branch managers can approve their own people before head office runs payroll.
• One person can be unlocked for a few days without opening the month for everyone.
• The lock history shows who locked what and when.

#Who it's for

#Month-end step by step: approve, then lock

1. To approve attendance, open the Calendar report.

   Go to Table Reports and open the Calendar tab. Check that the month filter shows the month you want to approve – it doesn’t always open on the current one.

2. Add the Approval status row.

   Open the Row types menu and tick Approval status. Under every employee’s hours a band appears: Approve with a dashed border where the days are waiting, or a green Approved where they are done.

   

3. Check the hours.

   Look through the employee’s days before you approve. Missing clock-outs, unusually long days and days without any record are easiest to spot in the Checks report – see Checks (Beta). Fix what is wrong in Scan Details first, because approved days can’t be edited.

4. Click Approve and confirm.

   Click the Approve band. A small window shows the name and the period, and asks: Approve attendance for the selected period? This locks the period for this employee. Click Approve. The band turns green.

   

5. Days still in progress are left out.

   If the employee has a record without a clock-out, the window warns: Ongoing attendance — these days will be excluded from the approval: followed by the name and dates. Those days stay open; approve them later, once the record is closed. Approval covers past days up to today, not the future.

   

6. Approved days are locked.

   In Scan Details, the row menu of an approved or locked day shows only Locked and Open Map. Anyone trying to change such a record sees This date falls within a locked period and cannot be modified. The approval is also written to the lock history in My Company › Locked Periods, marked via approval. See Scan details.

   

7. To freeze the whole month for everyone, add a locked period.

   Once payroll is done, go to My Company › Locked Periods and click Lock your first period (or Add new if you already have one). Under Quick select pick Previous month, Last 2 months, Last quarter, Year to last month or Previous year, or enter the Start Date and End Date yourself.

   

8. Choose Lock or Hide.

   Under Mode:

   • Lock – Data stays visible but frozen — no edits or recalculation in this range. This is the usual choice after payroll.
   • Hide – Data is also hidden everywhere — reports, scans and absences show nothing for this range. Use it for old data that people shouldn’t browse any more.

9. Choose who it applies to and protect it.

   Under Applies to choose All employees or Specific employees. Tick Password protected if changes to this lock should need extra care: Changing this locked period will require re-entering your login password. Click Save.

10. Check the list.

    The tab shows a timeline with a TODAY marker and a list of periods. A hidden period has the Hidden badge. Click a period to edit it.

    

#Unlocking, corrections and history

• Un-approve to make a correctionAn administrator clicks the green Approved band and confirms Un-approve attendance for the selected period? This also unlocks the period. Fix the record, then approve again. Other managers have to ask an administrator.
• Unlock one employee for a few daysMary Walsh’s June needs a late correction, but June is locked. Open the period and choose Unlock employees for a custom period: Open a sub-range for specific people. Everyone else stays locked for the full period. Pick the employee, Unlock from and Unlock to. The preview shows how the lock is split – for example 1 locked record becomes 3 records + 1 open window – with the parts Before, Open and After. Save, then make the correction in Scan Details.

  

• Lock history: what is approved and lockedThe green bands in the Calendar show approvals at a glance. In My Company › Locked Periods, the History button opens the Lock history. Filter by Pinpoint a day or by Employee. Each entry shows the period, who it applies to, the user who made the change and when. Locks created by approving attendance are marked via approval.

  

• Print the month for a signatureIf an employee should sign their hours, print their monthly report as a PDF. See Monthly employee report and PDF for signing.

#Special cases and tips

Branch managers

A Branch Manager approves only the days that belong to their own branches. Days that belong to another branch are shown as a grey band with a lock and that branch’s name; an administrator approves those.

Who can approve

The Owner, Administrators, Manager: Full Access except Company settings and Branch Managers for their branches. Undoing an approval is for administrators only.

Employees aren’t told

The employee gets no message about the approval and sees no approval state in the app.

A mistake found after locking

Unlock the person for the affected days, or edit the period and shorten it. With Password protected, you’ll be asked for your login password.

Locking the current month

You can, but records added later in the month can’t then be corrected. Usually it’s better to lock a month once it has ended and payroll is done.

Absences in a locked month

The lock also protects absences in the web app. Enter or approve absences before you lock the month – see Adding an absence for an employee.

Exports for payroll

Approve and lock first, then export. The exported numbers then match what stays in FreshQR and can’t change afterwards. See Export to Excel and PDF.

#Related

Web app (administrator)Mobile app (employee)