Keep tracked, submitted and approved hours separate
Explain different totals without treating every status as payable or billable.
Tracked, submitted, approved and released totals can differ legitimately. Reconcile their populations and transitions before treating a difference as missing time.
Give every total a definition
A tracked total may include draft records. A submitted total may exclude work not yet sent for review. An approved total can exclude returned items. A released total may reflect a prior cutoff. Write those definitions next to the figures. None of these states alone establishes that a duration is payable, contractually billable or an assessment of productivity.
Reconcile a fictional period
Suppose 600 minutes are recorded, 540 submitted, 510 approved and 480 released. The 60-minute unsubmitted difference, 30-minute review difference and 30-minute release difference are separate questions. Do not subtract all three from the source as if they were duplicate work. Identify the actual record IDs in each difference and the owner responsible for the next transition.
Ask the export to carry the needed context
Clockify documents optional approval-related export fields. Other report types may aggregate away that context. If the recipient needs to distinguish draft and approved records, a total without state may be insufficient. Verify the precise report and selected fields; do not infer individual record approval from a manager having access to the report.
Keep state changes separate from duration changes
Approving an unchanged 30-minute entry changes its state but not its duration. Correcting it to 45 minutes changes the value and may require renewed review. Keep both events distinguishable in the process. When a product cannot provide the required detail, use a controlled companion register or select a different handoff rather than calling an ambiguous total final.
Continue this work-record check
Use the linked guide for the next decision in this workflow. Keep your original records separate from experiments and record any unresolved requirement before changing a live process.
Sources and boundaries
Primary documentation supports the dated product facts. Proposed checks and fictional examples are our editorial method, not observed product results.
- Clockify — approval · checked September 23, 2026
- Clockify — detail · checked September 23, 2026