Monthly approvals

This application is an additional feature. You can find the corresponding config set here.

Application

This additional feature implements a workflow for the monthly approval of services, expenses, outlays and absences by the users and their teamleaders.

The process is as follows:

• The users check their recorded services, expenses, outlays and absences as soon as possible for the previous month.
• You open the corresponding approval and check it to approve the controlled month. Once this is set, no services, expenses, outlays and absences can be entered in the approval period.
• The teamleader (or another defined person) can see in their overview which team members have already approved their month and can notify them if they have not already done so.
• The teamleader checks the entries of their team members and releases them as well.
• Human Resources (HR) receives an overview of all approvals from teamleaders and users.
• Project leaders can see before invoicing whether all services, expenses and outlays have been approved on their projects.

Environment

The approvals are automatically created overnight with a scheduled task for the current month and the previous two months. This process can also be triggered manually by right-clicking the scheduled task by an administrator.

The teamleader is always entered as the outsider on the approval. If the user does not have a teamleader, an approval by another person is not required, unless another outsider is manually entered on the approval.

An approval is always valid for a whole month. Start date is always the first, end date always the last of the month.

An approval is created for each user in each month in which standard hours exists. Employee without standard hours (hourly wage) must create their approvals manually.

The system system Block by approvals is automatically activated when the config set is loaded.

The two system settings Blocks apply also to expenses and Blocks apply also to outlays must be set manually. If these settings are not set, expenses or outlays entered are not taken into account in the Monthly overview projects, only the services entered are considered.

User

At the beginning of the month, the users check their services, expenses, outlays and absences using the usual lists in Vertec.

Open the list of your own approvals and put a check mark on the approval of the corresponding month. Either directly in the list or in the single mask:

Once the check mark is checked, the approval cannot be edited. Services and absences as well as expenses and outlays (depending on the settings) in the released period cannot be edited or created.

User has vacation beyond the end of the month

If the user is on vacation (or otherwise absent) beyond the end of the month, they checks their entries at the end of their last working day and confirms their approval for the month.

Create approvals manually

Users without standard hours (e.g. hourly wage) must create their approvals manually. In the Approvals folder, New > Approval creates a new approval.

The user selects the start date of the month they wants to approve. The end date is calculated automatically.

Teamleader

The teamleader finds the approvals of their team members in the Approvals to confirm folder.

Here, the teamleader can see which users have already approved their month. The teamleader now checks the users’ entries and releases them as well.

If a user has not yet made their approvals, you can send them a notification via the button with the bell symbol:

The users see their notifications and can also open the approval directly by double-clicking:

As soon as the option Approved by owner is checked, the notification disappears automatically.

Teamleader has vacation beyond the end of the month

If a teamleader is on vacation (or otherwise absent) beyond the end of the month, they must change the outsider to their deputy beforehand when making approvals for their team for that month:

This process can also be done by the HR team, see below.

The teamleader of a team changes

If the teamleader of a team changes, all existing approvals of the team remain with the former teamleader, including those that have not yet been approved.

If the change does not take place at the beginning of the month, the new teamleader must be set manually for the open approvals of the team (as in the case of vacation absence, see above).

This process can also be done by the HR team, see below.

HR

Under the HR folder, in the list Monthly approvals of users, the HR team members can check which users and teamleaders have already given approvals for which month. They can then send reminders, if necessary.

Legend

	User has not entered approval yet. By clicking on the button, a notification can be sent.
	The teamleader has not yet confirmed the approval of the user. A notification can be sent by clicking on the button.
	Clicking on the button opens the relevant approval. In this release, the HR team can assign another teamleader if the teamleader changes or is absent.
	The approval is OK.

Project manager

From a project management perspective, it is also interesting to know which users have already created their approvals, especially before invoicing. For this purpose, there is a list Monthly approvals in projects in the folder Project management:

For a selected period (three months by default), it shows whether all users who have entered services, expenses, or outlays have approved the respective month.

Clicking on the bell icon will show which approvals are missing and notifications can be sent:

These approvals are taken into account for the project manager view

If the two system settings Blocks apply also to expenses and Blocks apply also to outlays are not set, entered expenses or outlays are not taken into account for this evaluation, but only entered services.

Example: User A entered expenses on project 1 in November, but no services. User B entered services on project A in November. The system setting “Blocks apply also to expenses” is not set. User A has not yet created an approval for November, but user B has. This shows the project as fully approved because user A’s expenses are not included.

Requirements and download

Before importing the config set, we recommend you to read the article Key information about the additional features. Config sets modify data in Vertec, which can overwrite existing data.

The exact import process is described in Articles about the config sets.

You can download the additional feature with the following link:

The following objects are created by importing the config set: