Timesheet approval software compared: who charges for approvals in 2026

Disclosure: Sandtime.io is built by Sanddev, the publisher of this comparison. Sanddev uses it every day, and every Sanddev client invoice starts as a Sandtime.io timesheet. The facts about other vendors come from their own pages, linked in every row, so you can check each claim yourself.

A timesheet approval is the step where a person with authority reviews submitted hours and accepts or returns them before they reach an invoice or payroll. Almost every time tracking app has a timer. Far fewer include approvals on their entry plan, and the ones that do often split the rest of the chain, locking approved periods and reminding people to submit, across different tiers. This page answers one buyer question with sourced data: which apps include timesheet approvals, on which plan, and what that plan costs a real team.

For the wider shortlist, see our 20 best timesheet apps in 2026. If your pain is the Friday Slack message asking people to fill in their hours, start with how to stop chasing timesheets over Slack and Teams.

Which plan includes timesheet approvals

The table lists the cheapest plan on which each product documents a manager or administrator approving submitted time. The locking and reminders columns describe that same plan, and name a higher tier where the vendor places the feature there. Rows are ordered by the annual cost of that plan for 25 people.

Vendor	Free plan	First plan with approvals	Price per user per month, annual / monthly	Locking on that plan	Reminders on that plan	Source
Sandtime.io	Unlimited users and projects	Free	$0 / $0	Yes: auto-lock of past weeks, lock on approval, time-limited unlock requests	Yes: dashboard, email, and popup	Pricing
Jibble	Unlimited users	Free (pay-period timesheets)	$0 / $0	Approved timesheets lock	Clock-in and clock-out reminders	Help center
Connecteam	Limited plan up to 30 users; Small Business plan under 10 employees	Basic (Operations Hub)	$29 / $35 per month for the first 30 users, then $0.80 / $1 per extra user	Approval locks the payroll days; manual day locking on Advanced	Yes: push notification reminders	Pricing
Clockify	Up to 5 users	Standard	$5.49 / $6.99	Yes: lock timesheets, approved entries locked	Yes: targets and email reminders	Pricing
TMetric	Up to 2 seats	Business (Team Timesheets)	$7.50 / $9	Yes: timesheet locking	Email reminders to submit are documented; plan not named	Pricing
Traqq	Up to 3 users and 1 project, approvals by the Owner	Business for manager and admin approvers	$7.65 / $9	Approved timesheets lock	Submission reminders not found in public docs	Pricing
My Hours	Up to 5 active users	Pro	$8 / $9	Yes: auto-lock time logs	Yes: tracking reminders	Pricing
Everhour	Up to 5 seats	Team, 5-seat minimum	$8.50 / $10	Yes: lock after a set number of days or on approval	Yes: team reminders to track time	Plans
TimeCamp	Unlimited users	Ultimate	$9.99 / $13.99	Approved timesheets become uneditable	Yes: email reminders to submit	Pricing
Hubstaff	1 seat (owner only)	Team, 2-seat minimum	$10 / $12	Submitted and approved timesheets lock	Start-timer reminder documented; plan not named	Pricing
QuickBooks Time	30-day trial; no free plan listed	Time Premium	$20 base plus $10 per user, monthly billing only	Yes: approve and lock	Yes: submission and approval reminders	Pricing
Harvest	1 seat and 2 projects	Enterprise	$14 / $17.50, plus usage charges on Flex billing	Yes: approving locks the week	Yes: submission reminders	Pricing
Toggl Track	Up to 3 users	Premium	$16 / $24	Yes: lock time entries, approved periods locked	Yes: tracking targets with reminders	Pricing
Timely	14-day trial; no free plan listed	Premium (time entry states), up to 50 users	$16 / $20	Approved state can lock entries; period locking on Unlimited	Self-reminders to log; manager logging nudge on Unlimited	Pricing
Productive	14-day trial; no free plan listed	Professional, 3-seat minimum	$25 / $29	Approved entries lock; period locking on Ultimate	Weekly submission reminders on Ultimate	Pricing
BigTime	No free plan listed	Essentials	From $20; billing term not stated	Period locking documented; plan not named	Due and overdue reminders documented; plan not named	Pricing

Checked September 29, 2026. "Plan not named" means the vendor documents the feature without tying it to a tier. Replicon is left out because it publishes no public plans or prices.

Only Sandtime.io puts the whole chain on a free plan without a user cap. Everyone else trades a price, a user limit, or a missing link.

What approvals cost a team of 10, 25, and 50

Per-user pricing turns a feature placement into an operating expense, so the useful number is not the entry price but the price of the plan that contains approvals, multiplied by the whole team for a year. The table uses annual billing where the vendor publishes it. Every seat minimum in this comparison is below 10, so none of them changes these totals.

Calculation: annual per-user list price × team size × 12, rounded to the dollar. Connecteam is a bundle: $29 per month covers the first 30 users, plus $0.80 per extra user per month. QuickBooks Time publishes monthly billing only ($20 base plus $10 per user, counted here for every person) and requires a separate QuickBooks Online subscription that is not included. Harvest Flex billing adds usage charges above the included allowance. BigTime is left out because its page does not say whether the $20 starting price is annual or monthly. Taxes and promotions are excluded.

The same numbers for a 25-person team

Scenario: 25 active users for 12 months on the first plan that includes timesheet approvals, public list prices checked September 29, 2026. This is a purchasing benchmark, not a quote.

Two patterns stand out. First, the spread between the cheapest and most expensive per-user plan with approvals is roughly 4.5 times at every team size, so the plan you pick matters more than the vendor’s headline entry price. Second, the higher-priced plans usually bundle much more than approvals: invoicing in Harvest, budgets and resourcing in Productive, payroll in QuickBooks Time, automatic time capture in Timely. If you will use those, the price buys something. If you only need approved, locked timesheets, you are paying for the rest of the suite.

What approvals, locking, and reminders actually do

The three features are sold separately on many price lists, but they only work as a chain. We call it the timesheet completion chain: reminders get hours in, approvals decide whether the hours are accepted, and locking keeps accepted hours from changing afterwards.

Timesheet approvals

A person submits a week, a reviewer approves it or sends it back, and the decision is recorded with who made it and when. That record is what lets finance invoice a client or pay a contractor without re-checking every entry. In Sandtime.io, a person selects Submit for approval in the Approvals section of their timesheet, and an Administrator approves or rejects it there or with one click from the notification email. The help article on submitting and approving timesheets walks through the flow, and the timesheet approvals feature page shows it in context.

Timesheet locking

Locking turns an approved or past period read-only, so the hours on a sent invoice or a closed payroll run cannot drift. Without it, an approval only proves what the timesheet said at the moment someone looked. Sandtime.io locks a week when it is approved, can auto-lock every past week, and lets an Administrator lock a single person’s week by hand. A team member who spots a mistake sends an unlock request, and once approved the week opens for a set duration, from 30 minutes to 24 hours, and then locks again. See locking and unlocking timesheets and the timesheet locking feature page.

Timesheet reminders

Reminders remove the manager from the chase. Sandtime.io emails a fill-timesheet reminder every Friday at 6 PM, before the week locks, to each member who switches it on in their notification settings. The timesheet reminders feature page covers the settings.

Why the chain matters for billing and payroll

Each link fails in a predictable way when it is missing. Without reminders, approvals wait on the last person who forgot, and the invoice waits with them. Without approvals, nobody has accepted the hours, so a client dispute becomes one person’s word against another’s. Without locking, the approved number can change after the invoice or payroll run has gone out, and the two records no longer match. That is why the table reports locking and reminders on the same plan as approvals: a plan that has approvals but puts period locking one tier higher still leaves past, unapproved weeks open to edits at month-end.

Vendor notes

The table compresses each vendor into one row. These notes carry the qualifications that did not fit.

Jibble advertises its product as free for unlimited users, and its help center documents approving pay-period timesheets, which then lock until the approver reopens them. It is built around clock-ins, attendance, and payroll periods rather than client projects.

Connecteam prices its Operations Hub as a bundle: Basic costs $29 per month on yearly billing for the first 30 users, plus $0.80 per extra user. Approvals start on Basic and manual day locking on Advanced ($49 per month for 30 users on yearly billing), above the free Limited plan for up to 30 users. It is a frontline time clock and shift product, not a project timesheet tool.

Clockify capped its free plan at five users in 2026. Standard is the first plan with approvals, locking, and targets with email reminders, and every active or invited user occupies a paid seat. It is the cheapest per-user route to the full chain in this comparison.

TMetric lists Team Timesheets, where managers approve or reject timesheets, and Timesheet locking on Business and Enterprise. Its help center documents automatic email reminders to submit timesheets but does not name the plan.

Traqq includes timesheets and approvals on its free plan for up to three users and one project, but on Free and Plus only the workspace Owner manages approvals. Admin and manager approvers start on Business, which is priced for up to 50 users.

My Hours puts approve and reject, auto-lock of time logs, and tracking reminders together on Pro. A daily mobile tracking reminder is available on every plan, including Free.

Everhour lists time approval among the features of its Team plan and documents locking after a set number of days, locking on approval, and team reminders in its support center. Team has a five-seat minimum.

TimeCamp is free for unlimited users, and approvals start on Ultimate, which also carries automatic email reminders to submit. Approved timesheets become uneditable until an administrator unlocks them.

Hubstaff starts timesheet approvals on Team, with a two-seat minimum, and time in submitted or approved timesheets is locked. Its free plan is one seat, for the owner.

QuickBooks Time documents approvals, approve and lock, and submission reminders for Time Premium and Time Elite. The price is a $20 monthly base fee plus $10 per user, and a QuickBooks Online subscription is required on top.

Harvest lists timesheet approvals on Enterprise; approving a timesheet locks that week. Reminders to enter time work on every plan, while reminders to submit a timesheet need approvals. Prices are "starting from", and Flex billing adds usage charges for projects, clients, tasks, and invoicing above the included allowance.

Toggl Track is free for up to three users. Timesheet approvals, locking time entries, and tracking targets with reminders are all on Premium, and approved periods are locked.

Timely runs approvals through time entry states on Premium, capped at 50 users, and an approved state can be set to lock its entries. Period locking and the manager logging nudge are on Unlimited, at $22 per user per month on annual billing.

Productive lists billable time approvals on Professional, with a three-seat minimum, and approved entries stay locked. Time locking, timesheet submission, and weekly submission reminders are on Ultimate, which is priced on request.

BigTime lists approvals on Essentials, from $20 per user per month, and adds multi-level approvals on Premier. Its help center documents weekly, monthly, and quarterly period locks and due or overdue timesheet notifications, without naming the plan.

How to choose

Start from the workflow, then price the plan that supports it, not the plan on the banner.

1. Name who approves. One owner approving everything is a different requirement from project leads approving their own teams. Traqq’s free plan, for example, only lets the Owner approve.
2. Check locking on the same plan. An approval that can be edited afterwards is a snapshot, not a record. Timely, Productive, and Connecteam place period or manual locking one tier above approvals.
3. Check who sends the reminder. Self-reminders to log time and manager reminders to submit are different features, and several vendors split them across tiers.
4. Multiply by the whole team for a year. Include seat minimums, base fees, and required subscriptions such as QuickBooks Online.
5. Decide what else you are buying. Invoicing, payroll, budgets, and automatic capture are real reasons to pay. Sandtime.io does not create invoices or run payroll; it produces approved, locked records and invoice-ready exports.
6. Pilot one full cycle. Submit, reject, correct, approve, lock, and export one real week before rolling out.

Frequently asked questions

Verdict

If approved, locked timesheets are the whole requirement, you do not need to pay per user for them. Sandtime.io includes the full completion chain, reminders, approvals, and locking, free for unlimited users. If you want a paid plan with all three, Clockify Standard is the cheapest per user, and My Hours Pro and Everhour Team follow closely. Pay for Harvest, Productive, QuickBooks Time, or Timely when you will actually use the invoicing, budgets, payroll, or automatic capture that come with their approval plans.