How-To Guides

How to Track and Approve Crew Timesheets in ZartonAI

Have every crew member fill in and hand in their week, approve or send it back with a note, and fix closed weeks with tracked corrections — so payroll gets hours you can trust

Zarton EditorsOct 27, 2026 · 7 min read

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Friday afternoon, payroll is due, and half the crew’s hours live on scraps of paper, in text messages or in somebody’s memory. One tech forgot Tuesday. Another wrote 10 hours but took an hour for lunch. Nobody is sure who worked overtime.

This guide shows you how to use timesheets and hours approval in ZartonAI so every person fills in their own week, hands it in, and a manager approves it or sends it back with a note — before anything reaches payroll. You will see how weeks move from draft to approved, how pay codes split regular time, breaks and overtime, and how to fix a week after it has closed without losing track of what changed.

Why approved timesheets matter for a trade business

For electricians, plumbers, HVAC companies, body shops and contractors, labour is usually the biggest cost on the books. Hours that are guessed, late or never checked cause three problems: people get paid wrong, overtime slips through without anyone deciding on it, and job costs look better than they really were because the time was never recorded.

ZartonAI gives every team member a weekly timesheet and gives managers one place to see what has been handed in. Nothing is “final” until a manager has looked at it, and once a week is closed, changes go through a correction that has to be approved too. That gives the office a clean, checked set of hours for every pay period.

How a timesheet week moves through ZartonAI

Status	What it means	Who acts next
Draft	The person is still filling in the week. They can change it freely.	The team member
Waiting on a manager	The week has been handed in and is in the manager’s approval list.	The manager
Approved	The manager accepted the hours. The week is closed.	Nobody — unless a correction or reopen is needed
Sent back	The manager returned the week with a reason the person can read.	The team member, who fixes it and hands it in again

Each day on a timesheet shows the hours scheduled for that person next to the hours they actually accounted for, so gaps stand out at a glance. Hours are grouped by kind — worked, unpaid, leave and premium — and by pay code, such as regular hours, a lunch or unpaid break, and overtime. The week’s total and the totals per pay code are what the office takes to payroll.

How to fill in, hand in and approve timesheets in ZartonAI, step by step

Check your pay period. In Settings, the workspace has a pay period (for example, weekly). Timesheets are organised by week, and the current pay period shows the total hours across the weeks it covers. Make sure it matches how you actually run payroll before your team starts logging.
Each person opens their own week. Team members open My hours and pick the week. Each day shows what they were scheduled for, so it is easy to spot a day that is still empty.
Fill in each day with start and end times. For each worked stretch, enter when it started and ended. Record the lunch or unpaid break too, so it is counted as unpaid time rather than paid as worked time. If the worked rows ask for a job, pick the job the hours were for — that is what feeds labour cost on the job.
Use the right pay code. Regular time, unpaid breaks, leave and premium time such as overtime are kept apart by pay code. Getting this right on the timesheet is far easier than untangling it at payroll.
Hand in the week. When the week is complete, the person hands it in. Its status changes from Draft to Waiting on a manager, and it appears on the manager’s list of hours to approve.
The manager reviews what was handed in. The approval list shows each handed-in week with its totals and anything flagged that needs a decision first. A manager’s own hours never appear on their own approval list.
Approve, or send back with a reason. If the hours look right, approve the week and it closes. If something is off — a missing day, a break not taken off, overtime nobody agreed to — send it back. Sending back needs a reason, and the team member sees that note on their week.
Handle corrections and reopen requests. Once a week is closed, a person can’t just edit it. They submit a correction, or ask for the closed week to be reopened. Both land on the manager’s approval list next to handed-in weeks, where the manager approves or rejects the correction, or grants or denies the reopen. Rejecting or denying also needs a reason the person will read.

Tips and common mistakes

Deal with flags before approving. If a week is flagged, read why first. Approving with an open flag is how mistakes reach payroll.
Write send-back reasons people can act on. “Wednesday is missing the job and your 30-minute lunch” gets fixed in a minute. “Please fix” gets a phone call.
Don’t leave weeks in Draft. A draft week is invisible to the manager. If someone’s history shows several drafts in a row, those hours are not on anyone’s approval list.
Log breaks as breaks. A day entered as 7:00 to 3:30 with no break is paid as eight and a half worked hours.
Use corrections instead of workarounds. Fixing last week’s mistake by adding hours to this week throws off both weeks and the job costs behind them. A correction keeps the record straight.
Hours by job feed job costing. When worked hours name the job they were for, ZartonAI can show what each job really cost. See our job costing guide for how to require it.

Do it with Claude

ZartonAI works with Claude through the Zarton connector, so team members and managers can check hours in plain language. Claude can read your own week and pay period, and show a manager what is waiting for approval. Approving, sending back, and deciding on corrections or reopen requests reach the team member, so they only work when “Allow actions” is switched on for the connection — and Claude only does it after you say which decision to make. Try requests like:

“How many hours have I logged this week, and is last week approved?”

“Show me my hours for the pay period by pay code.”

“What timesheets are waiting for me to approve? Tell me if any are flagged.”

“Approve Marco’s week.”

“Send back Dana’s week — Thursday has no lunch break taken off.”

Claude reads only your own hours when you ask about “my” week, and it asks you for the reason rather than inventing one when a week needs to go back.

Frequently asked questions

Can a manager approve their own timesheet?

No. The approval list only ever shows other people’s weeks, never your own.

What happens when I send a week back?

The week returns to the team member with your reason attached. They fix it and hand it in again, and it comes back to your approval list.

How do I change hours after a week is approved?

The team member submits a correction to the closed week, or asks for it to be reopened. Either one goes to a manager to approve or reject, with a reason if it is turned down.

What are pay codes for?

Pay codes split a week’s hours into the buckets payroll needs, such as regular hours, a lunch or unpaid break, leave and overtime, so the totals are ready to pay.

Do timesheet hours show up on jobs?

Yes. Worked hours that name a job count toward that job’s labour cost in job costing.