Another valuable tool that Office Timesheets includes is bi-directional communication via employee and employee manager notifications. Customized employee and employee manager notifications can be set up in two different areas of Office Timesheets: for reporting periods, and through the approval process. The current status of a timesheet can be conveyed to both employee managers and employees, so everyone stays up to date. The text within the notifications is customized to fit your company’s procedures, and every email notification can be personalized to each employee or employee manager.Here are a few scenarios when notifications would be sent:

• An employee and/or employee manager are notified when the employee's timesheet is due
• An employee and/or employee manager are notified when the employee's timesheet is overdue
• An employee is notified when his/her timesheet has been submitted for approval
• An employee manager is notified when each of his/her employees submits their timesheet for approval
• An employee and/or employee manager are notified when the employee's timesheet has been rejected
• An employee and/or employee manager are notified when the employee's timesheet has been approved

Most Office Timesheets users will find it useful to enable reporting periods for their time and expense sheets, and because multiple reporting periods can be set up for different time periods and assigned to different employees, timesheet due dates for both employees and managers can be easily forgotten. To avoid any misunderstanding and overdue timesheets, Office Timesheets can be set to send email notifications to both employees and employee managers to alert them of when timesheets are due and overdue. When and if email notifications are sent for reporting periods are defined when the reporting period is created; the notifications will be sent on the same day that a timesheet is due or overdue in the reporting period to each employee and/or employee manager assigned to that reporting period.

For example, a monthly reporting period can be defined with timesheets due one day after the reporting period ends (the first day of the new month), and overdue two days after the reporting period ends (the second day of the new month).

Notifications can be turned on or off, which means they can be created and saved for future use if necessary. Also, because employee managers are in charge of several employees’ timesheets, an employee manager can be sent multiple reporting period notifications; depending on how many employees he or she oversees and which employees are in their reporting period.

Email notifications are also available for alerting employees and employee managers of timesheet approval statuses. Depending on how many steps are created in your approval process, the possibilities for notifications in the approval process can be even broader than with reporting period notifications. Email notifications in Office Timesheets can be sent only to employees, only to employee managers, or both; for every single step in the approval process.

For example, your approval process might include submission, rejection, re-submission and approved. The reporting period has ended, and the approval process begins with the submission of the employees’ timesheets. For our example, both the employee manager and the employee are set to be notified when the employee’s timesheet is submitted and approved; only the employee will receive a notification if his or her timesheet is rejected; and only the employee manager will receive a notification if the timesheet is re-submitted. The stages of notifications would be as follows:

• Employee submits his or her timesheet and the status of the timesheet is changed to “submitted.” Immediately after submission, the employee and the employee are sent a notification that the timesheet has been submitted and is ready for review.
• The employee manager reviews the timesheet, and marks the timesheet either “rejected” or “approved.” If the timesheet is marked as “rejected,” a notification will only be sent to the employee. If the timesheet is marked “approved,” both the employee and employee manager will receive a notification alerting them of the new status.
• If the timesheet was “rejected,” the employee re-submits his or her timesheet for approval. Once the status of “re-submitted” is marked by the employee, the employee manager receives a notification that the timesheet is again ready for review. The employee manager can either approve or reject the re-submitted timesheet, and the process continues or ends depending on the new status.

Also, just like reporting period notifications, the email notifications for the approval process are personalized with custom text. Notifications can be turned on or off, which means they can be created and saved for future use. Just like reporting period notifications, employee managers are in charge of several employees’ timesheets, an employee manager can be sent multiple approval status notifications; depending on how many employees he or she oversees and which employees are in their reporting period.