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Timesheets and Budgets add-on

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Available as an add-on for Starter, Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise+ tiers.

Asana’s Timesheets and Budgets add-on allows you to track actual time spent on work, forecast and monitor costs and billable revenue, and ensure timely and accurate billing and invoicing.

By using the add-on, your teams will be empowered to drive alignment, increase visibility, and maximize impact.

Related articles

Included in the add-on

Feature

Description

Timesheets

Timesheets help you track progress and drive efficiency with accurate time data. With timesheets you can account for where your time is spent over a particular time period across multiple workstreams.


Time submitters can complete & submit timesheets for time reviewers to review/approve.

Budgets

Plan and monitor project budgets to stay on top of project health.

User rates

Set user rates for each project to factor automatically into project budgets.

Time & cost reporting

Report on the underlying time entries by time or cost, including comparing estimates to actuals.

Enhancements to resource management views

See costs on the resource management views that the user has access to as part of their Collaborative Work Management license, such as Capacity Plan, Placeholders and Universal Workload (Enterprise and Enterprise+) and Project and Portfolio Workload (Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise+). View time based on the single selected project in workload.

Enhancements to time tracking (web and mobile)

Access additional fields in time tracking to support accurate time entry, monitoring, and billing, such as billable/non-billable, a single project for time attribution, and description.

Admin settings

Admins can customize the Timesheets & Budgets functionality for your organization in the Admin Console

Who is eligible to purchase this add-on? 

A Timesheets and Budgets add-on license can be added to any Starter, Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise+ user license. To access the add-on after purchasing, an Admin must assign the user a license in the admin console. To purchase the add-on, you must contact your Asana sales representative, or reach out to Sales directly.

Managing licenses and assigning license roles

Domain admins, super admins and division admins are able to assign licenses and designate user roles for the add-on.

Timesheets have two primary roles to ensure an accurate workflow: the time submitter and the time reviewer.

  • A time submitter is an individual team member who tracks their work hours against specific tasks and projects within Asana. All users with a Timesheets and Budgets add-on license are automatically time submitters.
  • A time reviewer is a special designation that can be added to a person’s license.  These users are typically a manager or supervisor responsible for examining the timesheets submitted by their team members. They verify the logged hours for accuracy and may then approve or reject the submission.

Manually manage licenses and assign license roles manually

To manually assign licenses:

  1. Navigate to the admin console
  2. Click the Members tab
  3. Select Timesheets and Budgets in the add on column drop-down next to a user’s name

To manually designate time reviewer roles:

  1. Click the three dot icon next to the user’s name
  2. Click Profile
  3. Scroll down to Timesheet management
  4. Click on the Reviewer icon
  5. Select a user you want to assign as time reviewer
    1. Note: if the user you select as reviewer does not yet have an add-on license, they will be assigned one once selected as a reviewer.
Note iconNote

Only admins and super admins can assign time reviewers in the admin console.

Bulk manage licenses and assign license roles

To license and assign time reviewers in bulk, upload a completed CSV template from the admin console. In the CSV file, first add Timesheets and Budgets to each submitter and reviewer in the add on column. This step assigns the license. Then, enter the email address of a single designated reviewer in the Reviewer column for each user. 

  1. Click your profile icon and select Admin console.
  2. Navigate to the Members tab
  3. Click the Import/Export CSV drop-down
  4. Select Export CSV
  5. Add the term Timesheets and Budgets in the Add-ons column next to anyone you wish to grant access to. See image below.
  6. Import the CSV via the CSV import button in the top-right of the Members tab.
  7. You will receive a notification when the import is completed

Accessing timesheets

Timesheets help you track progress and drive efficiency with accurate time data. With timesheets you can account for where your time is spent over a particular time period across multiple workstreams.

To access timesheets, navigate to the sidebar and click Timesheets. You can add projects to the timesheet from the + Add project button and add tasks from the + Add task line item. 

Logging time and submitting timesheets

When landing on a timesheet, all work that already has time tracked and filled on a task or a project will auto-populate within the appropriate time range in the timesheet. 

To log time on a project in the timesheet, open the project drop-down arrow. You can add in time as general work on the project, or add time to a specific task type in the project. You can also select projects and/or tasks from recommendations.

When adding time, you can determine if it is billable or non-billable and add descriptions to detail the work. These fields are also available when tracking time on Mobile with the add-on.

The total times will accumulate at the bottom and on the right.

Note iconNote

If a task belongs to more than one project, when adding time directly from the task, you must choose which project it will count towards. 

To submit a timesheet, click the Submit button at the top right corner of the sheet. You can add notes if needed. The timesheet will then be sent to the designated reviewer for approval.

A timesheet submitter is able to recall submitted timesheets for a given week before they are approved.

  • Navigate to your timesheets
  • Click on In review
  • Click Recall submission

Logging time on behalf of others

Timesheet reviewers can log time entries on behalf of the users they review. This is useful for correcting missing entries or assisting team members with their logs.

  1. Open the time entry window and click Add time.
  2. Click the Logger dropdown menu (which defaults to your profile).
  3. Select the name of the submitter you wish to log time for.
  4. Enter the time and details as usual.

Pre-populating timesheets

Timesheet submitters can choose to automatically add tasks that are assigned to them and due during the current week. This setting helps you start each week with a timesheet that already includes the work you need to track.

Pre-populate timesheets

To turn this on, open Timesheets from the sidebar, click the three dot icon at the top right of the page and then select Timesheets settings. Under Prepopulate timesheet, turn on Auto-add tasks assigned to me that are due each week, then select Save.

When this setting is on, tasks that meet these criteria are added to the current week's timesheet. You can still add, edit, or remove tasks and time entries at any time.

Removing a task or project from timesheets

To remove a task or project from a timesheet, you must first delete all of its associated time entries.

  • Hover over task or project you want to delete
  • Right click on it
  • Click Remove from timesheet

Time review tab

Users designated as time reviewers gain access to a dedicated view displaying their time submitters and essential timesheet information within a specified timeframe. Reviewers will be able to view the times that are being logged throughout the week, prior to them submitting the timesheet.

To view the details of a user’s timesheet, hover over their name. The text “View timesheet” will appear. When you click on it, you will be taken to a detailed view of the user’s timesheet.

Filter and sort

Time reviewers can filter the view to display only specific users by using the People filter.

  1. Click the People filter
  2. Select the users you want to see on the Time review tab
  3. Click Save view to save your selection

Time reviewers can change the display order of team members by using the Sort feature.

  • Click the Sort button.
  • Select your preferred sorting option: Alphabetical, Total time, or Billable time.
  • Click Save view to apply the new order.

Approve or reject timesheets

A time reviewer is able to approve or reject timesheets.

  1. Navigate to the Time review tab
  2. For a given time submitter, click on To review
  3. In the pop-up, click Approve or Reject

Note iconNote

A time reviewer is able to recall an approval by clicking on Approved or Rejected and then Recall approval in the pop-up. This will depend on the timesheet approval process setting in the admin console. 

Both time reviewer and submitter users will receive a notification about change of timesheets status.

Notification for time reviewer

Notification for submitters

Exporting time entries 

To export time entries:

  1. Navigate to the desired project
  2. Click the drop-down next to the project’s name
  3. Click Sync/Export
  4. Select Time entries as a CSV

The export will show time as billable or non-billable for the project.

Time reviewers can also export from the Time review view. When exporting from the Timesheets view, you can use the time range selector to pick the exact timeframe for the time entries you want included in your CSV.

To export from this view:

  1. Navigate to Timesheets in the left sidebar
  2. Click the drop-down arrow next to Timesheets in the top right
  3. Select the export option available to your role
    • Timesheet reviewers: Click Export submitters’ time entries CSV to download the timesheets of the specific users assigned to you.
    • Super admins: Click Export everyone's time entries CSV to extract all time entries across the entire domain.
  4. Choose your desired date range using the time range selector, and the CSV file will be generated

Project budgets

With project budgets, you can plan and forecast budgets.

Accessing project budgets

You can access project budgets in two ways:

  1. Click the drop-down next to your project’s name and select Set project budget
  2. Navigate to the Overview tab of your project, scroll down to the budget bar, and click the settings button  on the bar
Note iconNote

You’ll need to be a project admin to access project budgets.

Project budgets progress bar

The progress bar will show you how much of the actual work is tracking against the planned work, and the remaining amount.

Setting threshold notifications for budgets

A user can indicate a threshold where they want to be notified about budget progress. 

To enable budget notification:

  1. Open the budget modal in a project with a budget set up
  2. Turn on the setting for threshold notifications
  3. Indicate which value actual costs should be compared against and at what percent the user would like to be notified at.

Project budget rollups in portfolios

Users can view budgets of multiple projects at the portfolio level to understand aggregations of cost or time, depending on the type of budget a project has.

  1. Navigate to the list view of the portfolio.
  2. Ensure projects with set budgets have been added. (Note: Use 'Add work' to add projects.)
  3. Click the + icon on the right corner of the list view to add a new field.
  4. Select one of the budget options to add rollups:
    1. Budget (Time): Adds rollups for Estimated Time (total), Actual Time (total), and Budgeted Time.
    2. Budget (Costs): Adds rollups for Estimated Costs (total), Actual Costs (total), and Budgeted Costs.

Note iconNote

Cost aggregations are only visible to those appropriate permissions.

Choosing a budget type

You can track your budget through hours or costs. You can also toggle between the two measurement types.

Setting people rates (Costs measurement)

If you’ve chosen Costs as your measurement type, you can designate hourly rates for people working on the project. This rate can also be maintained in their Capacity plan view.

To set a rate for a person or placeholder:

  1. Scroll down to the People and rates section in the project budget settings.
  2. Click inside of the Add people search bar and select people or placeholders.
  3. Type in or select people and click Add to add them to your resource pool.
  4. Click on the Rate box and input a number. 
  5. Click X to remove the rate from the budget
  6. Click Save rates to save any new changes made to the people and rates section.

A few additional notes:

  • Placeholders and capacity plans are available on Enterprise and Enterprise+ tiers, so users must have a base Enterprise or Enterprise+ license to use these features with the Timesheets and Budgets add-on.
  • Users can set up to 500 people or placeholders in each project’s resource pool.
  • Individuals do not need to be a project member to be in the rates list. If a person leaves the project halfway, their rate will still appear in the resource pool and would need to be manually removed. 

Bulk adding teams and rates to projects

If you’re a project admin, you can bulk add entire Asana teams to a project, allowing you to staff projects quickly, consistently, and with the correct, standardized rates every time.

To add teams to projects:

  1. Start typing the name of the team
  2. The search will find teams you have access to, including teams you belong to and public teams
  3. Select a team from the search results by clicking on it or using your keyboard
Note iconNote

Teams with more than 200 members cannot be added in bulk and will appear grayed out in search results. A single project cannot have more than 500 people staffed to it. The system will prevent you from adding teams that would exceed this limit.

When you click to add a selected team, the system takes a one-time snapshot of the team's current membership. It adds each person from that team to your project budget setting list individually. If a person is already on the project list, or if they are a member of multiple teams you've selected, they will only appear once.

Note iconNote

This is not a dynamic sync. If new people are added to the Asana Team later, they will not be automatically added to this project. You would need to add them separately.

Importing rates along with people

 If your teams have rates defined in a number-based custom field, you can import them directly.

To import rates:

  1. Next to each selected team pill, a drop-down menu will appear. This menu will list all the number-based custom fields from that team that you have permission to see.
  2. Select the desired custom field
Note iconNote

All numbers will be automatically rounded to two decimal places. If the field format is a percentage, it will be converted to a number.

To prevent accidental data loss, the system will not automatically overwrite rates. Instead, it will import all rates and require you to resolve them manually. 

Estimated costs or time

For estimated costs, you can choose from two sources; capacity plans or tasks.

Capacity plans

Available on Enterprise and Enterprise+ tiers.

As team members are allocated into the project, you’ll be able to see the cost breakdown in the capacity plan view, based on the rates.

The total cost per person will show up on the capacity plan, and the summation will be visible on the project budget.

Tasks

If allocation is done by estimated times on tasks, this will tie directly to the project to provide that project budget, either in hours or costs, depending on what you’ve selected.

Actual costs or time

Actual costs will be calculated using actual time from time tracking or from timesheets, as they are being submitted. You can break down actual costs by their billable or non-billable, or all time. This will depend on how you’ve configured actual costs.

Costs in resource management

Once rates are set, you can view costs in capacity planning and workload views.

  1. Navigate to a Workload or Capacity planning view.
  2. In the effort drop-down menu select Estimated time or Actual time. Then switch the Cost toggle on. 

Cost data is designed to ensure it's only editable and visible to the right people.

  • Rate management: Only Project admins have the ability to set the hourly rates for users within that specific project.
  • Cost visibility: Only  Project admins on a given project will be able to see the cost data associated with that project in workload and capacity planning views.

Time and cost reporting

See our dedicated article on Reporting with the Timesheets and Budgets add-on.

Admin console settings

To access the settings for timesheets and resourcing in the admin console:

  1. Click on your profile picture
  2. Select Admin console
  3. Click Settings from the sidebar
  4. Scroll down to Timesheets and Resourcing

You’ll see the following settings:

  • Enable time tracking: Controls whether the Estimated time and Actual time fields are visible on tasks and projects.
  • Enable billable time: Turns on the Billable status for time entries, allowing users to mark their logged hours as either billable or non-billable.
  • Billable default: Sets the default billable status (either billable or non-billable) for all new time entries created in your domain.
  • Project budget currency: Selects the default currency that will be used for all project budgets.
  • Timesheets approval process : Configures the timesheet workflow. Choose a simple (Draft/Submit) or a full (Draft/Submit/Approve/Reject) approval process.
  • Time categories: Apply a consistent label to each time entry. Admins can create the category options and teammates select a category when they log time. 
  • Lock past time entries : Automatically locks time entries after a set number of weeks, preventing them from being edited by non-admins.
  • Resourcing views (capacity plan and workload) : Controls access to resource management features. You can enable all features (capacity plans and workload) or provide more limited access to workload views within projects and portfolios.
  • General work on project: Controls whether users can log time directly to a project without selecting a specific task.
  • Future time logging: Controls how far into the future users are permitted to log time.
  • Submission reminders: Controls when users receive weekly reminders to submit their timesheets.

Both super admins and admins can view these settings, but only super admins can edit them. For more details on these permissions, see Admin and super admin roles in Asana.

Billable and non-billable work

Admins will be able to set whether or not time entries can be marked as billable for their domain in the admin console.

  1. Navigate to the admin console
  2. Navigate to the Settings tab
  3. Scroll down to Timesheets and Resourcing
  4. From here you can enable time tracking, set you preferences for billable time and timesheets, and resourcing views

Timesheet permissions and access control

To ensure data accuracy and integrity Timesheets and Budgets add-on enforces specific edit permissions based on the lifecycle of a timesheet. As a timesheet moves from Draft to Submitted and finally Approved, the ability to edit time entries becomes more restricted.

Editing restrictions by status

  • Draft: Both the Submitter and their assigned Reviewer can create, edit, or delete time entries.
  • Submitted: Once a timesheet is submitted, the Submitter is locked to View only to prevent changes during the review process. The Reviewer retains the ability to edit or delete entries to make necessary corrections before approval.
  • Approved: Once approved, the timesheet is locked for both the Submitter and the Reviewer. Neither can modify the historical record unless the approval is recalled.

Admin override: Domain admins and super admins have unrestricted permissions to view, edit, or delete time entries regardless of their status. This ensures that historical records can be corrected even after approval.

Recalling and modifying status

If a timesheet is locked due to its status, Submitters and Reviewers can use Recall actions to revert the status and regain edit access.

  • Recall submission: If a Submitter realizes they made a mistake, they can select Recall on a submitted timesheet. This reverts the timesheet to Draft status, allowing them to edit entries before re-submitting. Note: A submission cannot be recalled by the submitter once it has been Approved.
  • Recall approval: Reviewers can select Recall on an approved timesheet to undo the approval. This allows for post-approval corrections if an error is discovered later.
  • Resubmit rejected timesheets: Reviewers have the ability to Resubmit a timesheet that was previously rejected, streamlining the workflow if the necessary corrections have been made.

Timesheet status activity To ensure transparency and accountability, all status changes—including submissions, approvals, rejections, and recalls—are recorded in the Timesheet Status Activity log.

Admin visibility requirements

While Domain admins and super admins possess override capabilities for editing, they do not automatically have visibility into every user's personal timesheet view.

Note iconNote

Admins and super admins can only see a user's timesheets if they have an assigned Timesheets and budgets license and are designated as that user's Time Reviewer.

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How to use timesheets & budgets | Asana Help Center