Email Approval

Owned by Mark Holland (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 25, 2023 by Former user (Deleted)
6 min read

Guide to using RSM InTime with the email approval facility.

This facility enables timesheets to be approved or rejected through email responses without the need for the approver to log in to the system.

Process
1. Worker fills in a timesheet online and Submits it.
2. An email with the timesheet attached is sent to the Timesheet approver containing links to approve or reject the timesheet. There is one Approve link and a Reject link for each configured rejection reason.

3. The approver clicks the appropriate link which generates a new email with the appropriate response text in the subject line. It is important that the subject is not edited as this is read by RSM InTime.

4. The approver sends the new email.
5. The email is received by RSM InTime and the timesheet is approved or rejected as appropriate.


General Information
The approver needs to have an RSM InTime account and the approval email response must be sent from the address that is associated with this account. The process checks this email address matches for security.
If there is an issue processing a received email approval response a notification is generated for pre-configured users. This could occur if an approval response is received for an already authorised timesheet or the timesheet has been reverted.
Email approval and faxback can be enabled for an agency at the same time but it is not logical to enable both on the same placement.


Configuration
If any Reject reasons are configured for the agency a link for each will be included in the authorisation email. If none are configured a single generic Reject link is included.

Email approval is enabled or disabled for the agency via system configuration. The default setting can be overridden on each placement by going into the Timesheet and/or the Expenses tab and using the Email Approval box. You will see it is greyed out if you have Use Default ticked, however, if you untick this box you will be able to choose between Yes or No. 



Email configuration

Email Approvers must have their Reminder Format set to HTML Email.

The email body text can be customised as per other email templates.

An IMAP Email account such as gmail must be set up to receive the emailed responses. The same account can be used for faxback if enabled.

The following configuration information is required from the agency. 

Email approval enabled: Y/N
Email approval enabled default: Default setting for all placements
Users who should receive notifications of email approval issues

An IMAP Email account must be set up to receive the email responses, which we can connect to from RSM InTime.  The details can be entered into RSM InTime by clicking on Configuration  > System > Email Server Settings. The following configuration information is required for connection to the IMAP enabled email account.  

    • Authentication Method. If you do not select an option then it will default to Plain
    • Email Server e.g. imap.gmail.com or outlook.office365.com
    • Protocol - imap or imaps. IMAPS is preferred.
    • Port - 143 for imap OR 993 for imaps
    • SSL Required - No for imap OR Yes for imaps
    • Email address: e.g. approval@gmail.com
    • Username: approval@gmail.com
    • Password:

  • Issues connecting
    • Check that IMAP is configured on your email server
    • Try logging in directly to the account using the credentials
    • Has the password expired or does it need resetting on first use?
    • If there are still issues then contact the RSM InTime support team and ask if they can disable plain authentication. This is a back end configuration change that only the support team can make.


RSM InTime is an external system that needs to connect to your desired email server. If connections externally are IP restricted, our IP address is 46.236.31.126


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: An approver sent an approval email but the timesheet status is still Submitted.

If you've received reports that email approvals haven't updated the timesheets accordingly then the STATUS widget on the dashboard would be the first place to check. 

Email Approval Events:  If there are any timesheets or expenses which RSM InTime could not update, there will be an “Email Approval Events” alert in the STATUS widget, or you an access these by going to Import/Export > Email Approval Events to find the reason for the timesheet not being updated.

Message

Explanation

Solution

An approval email was received but no approval is active for this item.

When the approval user clicked on the link in the email the timesheet was not active.  This is probably because the approval was not responded to before the system timed out.  Check the Approval Routes in the System Configuration menu (the cog icon) to determine what the timeout parameters are.

The Worker will need to resubmit the timesheet and the manager must respond to the most recent approval email that they receive.

An approval email was received but there is no record of the email address.

The email address that the Manger used to respond to the approval email is not set up in RSM InTime.  Go to Profiles > Managers and check which email address the user should be using.

The Manager must send the approval/rejection email from the email account that is set up in their RSM InTime profile.  If they have more than one mailbox, they must select the correct mailbox before sending the email.

An approval email was received but the timesheet was already approved.

The timesheet has already been approved, possibly by another Manager. 

Check the History tab of the timesheet to determine which Manger approved the timesheet.


Check the Approval Routes in the System Configuration menu (the cog icon).  Check who the approvers are.

An approval was received but the timesheet has been deleted or replaced.

The timesheet was submitted by the Worker and an approval email has been sent.  The timesheet was subsequently reverted before the Manager clicked on the link to approve the timesheet.

If the Worker resubmits a timesheet a new approval email will be sent to the Manager.



Email Account Access:  If there is an issue preventing RSM InTime from connecting to the approval mailbox you will see an "Email Account Access" alert in the STATUS widget, or you can access this by going to Configuration (cog icon) > Email Server Settings and check for any warnings.  

The message on the server setting page should indicate the reason for the connection issue e.g. socket timeout issues, invalid credentials.  If there is a recurring issue you could pass the details to your IT support to check.  It could be the client server rebooting after an update, or something similar which causes the connection to drop.

You will need to click on the link to re-enable the connection and the email approvals that were waiting to be processed will now been actioned.  In order for RSM InTime to process these, the approval emails need to be in the Inbox of this mailbox, and they need to be Unread.  If you have accessed the mailbox directly, please ensure any emails that you want RSM InTime to process are in the correct state.


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