Locking and unlocking timesheets

Sandtime.io supports both manual control and automatic locking for timesheets.

Auto-locking

Open Settings > Time tracking > Locking timesheets and enable Auto-locking timesheets if you want past weeks to lock automatically.

When auto-locking is enabled:

• past timesheets are locked,
• the current timesheet locks after each week,
• editing past periods is prevented until they are unlocked.

Manual unlocks

If a locked period still needs correction, an administrator can unlock it directly, or approve an unlock request sent by a team member who cannot unlock their own timesheet. This is useful for payroll corrections, late submissions, or approval adjustments.

While auto-locking is enabled, an unlocked period automatically locks again after a set duration - see below. When auto-locking is disabled, a manual unlock has no time limit; the period stays unlocked until it is locked again manually.

Unlock duration

Open Settings > Time tracking > Locking timesheets to set the Unlock duration: how long a period stays open after it is unlocked, either directly by an administrator or by approving a team member's unlock request. Choose a preset (30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, or 24 hours) or enter a custom value between 30 minutes and 24 hours; until you set one, it stays at 30 minutes. Once the duration elapses, the period locks again automatically.

Good practice

Turn on locking only after the team understands when reporting should be complete each week. Otherwise, the admin workload grows quickly from repeated unlock requests.