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Every FieldTime account belongs to exactly one role, and that role controls which pages you can navigate to, which actions you can take, and whose data you can see. Your role is set by your admin when your account is created — you cannot change it yourself. Within a role, your employment type (exempt or non-exempt) further determines how you record time.
Your role is assigned by your admin and determines which screens and actions you can access. If you need a different level of access, ask your admin to update your role in FieldTime.

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The Five Roles

FieldTime defines five roles:
RoleWho it’s for
EmployeeInspectors, material testers, and other field staff who record their own time
Project ManagerProject managers who review and approve time entries for their assigned projects
SupervisorSupervisors who approve full weekly timesheets for their team
PayrollPayroll administrators who give final timesheet approval and sync to Vantagepoint
AdminSystem administrators who manage employees, projects, assignments, and org-wide settings

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Role Capabilities at a Glance

Roles are cumulative — each higher role includes all the capabilities of the roles below it, plus additional access of its own. An Admin can do everything a Payroll user can do, plus everything a Supervisor can do, and so on.
CapabilityEmployeeProject ManagerSupervisorPayrollAdmin
Clock in / clock out (Punch Clock)✅✅✅✅✅
Enter manual time (exempt flow)✅✅✅✅✅
View own timesheets✅✅✅✅✅
Submit own timesheet✅✅✅✅✅
View favorite projects✅✅✅✅✅
Manage account settings✅✅✅✅✅
Dashboard: operations overview—✅✅—✅
Dashboard: today’s employee coverage—✅✅—✅
Approve individual time entries—✅✅✅✅
Approve full weekly timesheets——✅✅✅
Request timesheet revision——✅✅✅
Final timesheet approval & lock———✅✅
View premium ledger———✅✅
Sync timesheets to Vantagepoint———✅✅
Manage all employee timesheets————✅
Manage employees & accounts————✅
Manage project assignments————✅
Configure VP auto-assignments————✅
Edit spot-check settings————✅
Manage notifications————✅
Add time entries to any timesheet————✅

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Employment Type: Exempt vs. Non-Exempt

Your employment type is independent of your role. It is set by your admin alongside your role and determines which time-entry interface you see:

Non-Exempt

You use the Punch Clock at /punch. Your time is tracked by real clock-in and clock-out events. FieldTime shows you a live elapsed timer and a real-time CA Labor Code §512 meal break countdown during your shift. You must assign a project and labor classification before you can clock out.

Exempt

You use the Manual Time Entry form at /punch (the page title reads “Time Entry”). You enter hours worked per project, phase, task, and labor classification. Clock-in and clock-out times are optional — if you enter them, FieldTime calculates your hours automatically after deducting meal breaks.
Employment type affects only how time is entered. It does not change your role’s approval authorities or administrative access. A non-exempt Supervisor still approves timesheets; an exempt Employee still submits their own timesheet for approval.

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Who Approves What

FieldTime uses a strict three-tier approval chain. Each tier has a defined scope, and a timesheet cannot skip a tier.

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Tier 1 — Project Manager

Project Managers review individual time entries on timesheets for the projects they are assigned to. They can:
  • Approve individual entries that look correct
  • Flag or reject individual entries that need correction
  • Leave comments visible to the employee
A Project Manager sees all timesheets that contain entries on their projects, regardless of which employee submitted them.

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Tier 2 — Supervisor

Supervisors review complete weekly timesheets for the employees in their approval group. After a Project Manager approves the individual entries, the timesheet moves to the Supervisor queue. A Supervisor can:
  • Approve the full timesheet to advance it to Payroll
  • Request a revision with a written comment — the timesheet returns to the employee, who must correct it and resubmit
  • View the Compliance Panel findings for each timesheet before deciding

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Tier 3 — Payroll

Payroll staff give final approval and lock the timesheet. Once Payroll approves, the timesheet status changes to Locked and no further edits are possible. Payroll staff can also:
  • View and export the Premium Ledger, which tracks every meal premium obligation across the organization
  • Trigger a Vantagepoint sync to push approved timesheets into Deltek Vantagepoint ERP
  • Manage VP auto-assignment rules (as can Admins)

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Role-Specific Pages

The sidebar navigation in FieldTime adjusts automatically based on your role. Here is a summary of the pages each role can access:
PagePathVisible to
Dashboard/All roles (content varies by role)
Punch Clock / Time Entry/punchAll roles
Timesheet/timesheetAll roles
Approvals/approvalsProject Manager, Supervisor, Payroll, Admin
Reports/reportsSupervisor, Payroll, Admin
Employees/employeesSupervisor, Payroll, Admin
Assignments/assignmentsAll roles (employees see own assignments; Admin sees all)
Favorite Projects/favoritesAll roles
Settings/settingsAll roles
Browser Extension Auth/extension/authorizeAll roles
Admin Panel/adminAdmin only
The Admin Panel contains seven sub-tabs: Employee Timesheets, Approvals, Premium Ledger, Edit Spot-Check, VP Sync, Auto Assignments, and Notifications. Only users with the Admin role can navigate to the Admin Panel.

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Changing a Role

Only Admins can change a user’s role or employment type. If your access does not match your job responsibilities — for example, you were recently promoted to a supervisory position or changed from hourly to salaried — contact your FieldTime admin and ask them to update your account in the Employees section of the Admin Panel.