---
title: "Time Tracking Settings: Time Card Settings & Approval Hierarchy"
url: "https://help.ontraccr.com/en/article/time-tracking-settings-time-card-settings-approval-hierarchy"
language: "en"
last_updated: "2025-05-26T23:13:36.773Z"
---

# Time Tracking Settings: Time Card Settings & Approval Hierarchy

## 📝 **Time Tracking Settings: Time Card Settings & Approval Workflow**

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### ✅ **What This Covers**

This article walks you through how Ontraccr handles time card configuration and approval — including:

-   Digital signatures & disclaimers
-   Approval tiers (project, team, company)
-   Auto-approval via forms
-   Time card editing & locking

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### 🧭 **Where to Find These Settings**

1.  Go to **Web App > Settings > Time Tracking > Time Cards**

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## 🖋️ **Enable Digital Signature**

**What it does:**

Requires users to **sign their time cards** at submission.

**How it works:**

-   When enabled, a signature box appears during submission
-   Users must sign to complete submission
-   This works with both **manual submissions** and **automatic submissions**

**Custom Disclaimer:**

Edit the default disclaimer shown during signature (e.g.,

> “I agree this time card is accurate and that I was not injured…”)

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## ✅ **Approval Tiers in Ontraccr**

Ontraccr uses a **3-tier approval hierarchy**:

### 🔹 Tier 1: **Project-Specific Approvers**

-   Set in **Projects > General Info**
-   If set, this overrides all other tiers

### 🔹 Tier 2: **Team-Based Supervisors**

-   Enable via: **Enable Assigned Supervisor Approval**
-   Approves time for users within their team (under **Staff > Manage Teams**)

### 🔹 Tier 3: **Company-Wide Approvers**

-   Fallback if no project or team approver exists
-   Set one or more roles or individuals as global time card approvers

**How to configure:**

-   Set a **First Approver** (required)
-   Set a **Second Approver** (optional, sequential approval)

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## ⚙️ **Auto-Approval via Forms (Advanced)**

If using **form-based time entry**:

-   If the time entry is created via a **form** (like a Daily Log) that has a **Create Time Entry** workflow block with **Auto-Approval enabled**, the system auto-approves the time at the form submission.
-   No manual approval needed afterward for that time entry.
-   Time cards created using this method that have Auto-Approval enabled, will ignore any approvals that are set up because they will be created as approved.

✅ Perfect for workflows where time is already reviewed during form approval (e.g., supervisor-signed timesheets).

🔄 Optional: Precede this with an **Approval block** in the form workflow to review submissions before the auto-approval happens.

### ⚙️ **How to Configure Approvers**

-   **For Project Approvers:** Set directly inside each project's settings.
-   **For Team Supervisors:** Assign users to teams and supervisors under **Staff > Manage Teams**. Enable supervisor approvals in settings.
-   **For Company-Wide Approvers:** Assign default approvers in **Time Tracking Settings > Time Cards > Company Approvers**.
-   **For Form Auto-Approvals:** Configure the workflow inside the Form Builder when setting up Create Time Entry blocks.

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## 🧩 **Other Settings**

### 📅 **Show Original Clock-In/Out Times**

-   If rounding is enabled, this will still display **actual** times in reports and time cards.

### 🔒 **Lock Pay Period Submissions**

-   Prevents **non-admins** from logging time to past pay periods
-   Ensures processed payroll isn’t affected by late edits

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### 💡 **Pro Tips & Edge Cases**

-   👥 You can mix and match approval tiers — the system always picks the **highest** applicable one
-   🔄 Time submitted via **forms** can still flow into the standard approval pipeline unless **auto-approved**
-   🔐 Locking past pay periods prevents data integrity issues during payroll processing