Approvals
Some billing situations aren't wrong, but need to be confirmed as authorized before they're billed — for example, travel that is only billable with the client's prior approval. Antidote tracks these as approvals, separately from flags.
How approvals are created
Approvals are created by rules. Some rule types have a Requires prior approval checkbox, either when set up manually in a ruleset or when reviewing rules extracted from an outside counsel guideline (OCG) document. See Creating Rulesets.
Not every rule type has this option. Where it's available it's commonly used on rules like Travel, since travel time is often billable only with the client's prior consent.
Approval and flag statuses
A time entry can need an approval, a flag, both, or neither:
- If an entry only needs approval, its status shows as Approval needed.
- If an entry also has a flag, the status shows as Flagged until the flag is resolved. The approval is tracked and resolved independently of the flag.
For more on entry statuses, see Time Entry Status.
Resolving an approval
An outstanding approval can be resolved in one of two ways:
- Approve - confirm that approval was obtained for this entry, timekeeper, or client.
- Dismiss (the X button) - dismiss the approval if you don't think it applies.
In either case you can add a note, for example to record who gave approval or why it was dismissed. Approved and dismissed approvals show who actioned them and when, and can be reverted back to Approval needed if needed.
Antidote does not send approvals to your client, and does not store any supporting documentation for them. Approving a request only records that someone has confirmed approval was obtained, so your firm can reference it alongside your existing approval process when the invoice is sent to the client.
Where approvals appear
Entry approvals
Entry-level approvals appear on the time entry card wherever flags are shown - in the matter, on a draft bill, and in My Time if you recorded the entry. They also appear together on the Entries view of the matter's Approvals tab.
In My Time, entries needing approval count towards your existing outstanding total rather than a separate approvals count, and can be approved directly by the timekeeper who recorded the time.
Approvals for entries you don't have direct access to, such as another timekeeper's entries in a matter you can view, need to be resolved by someone with access to that matter.
Timekeeper approvals
Some approvals apply to a timekeeper as a whole on a matter, rather than a single entry - for example, a timekeeper exceeding a maximum hours threshold, or billing on a matter despite a Restricted Roles limit. These appear on the Timekeepers view of the matter's Approvals tab, and on the timekeeper's own Approvals tab.
Once a timekeeper's approval has been approved or dismissed, they won't trigger a new approval for continuing to bill on the matter. A new approval is only created if a different timekeeper later triggers the same limit.
Client approvals
Some approvals apply at the client level rather than to a matter - for example, the Maximum Hours rule, which checks a timekeeper's daily hours across all of a client's matters. These appear on a dedicated Approvals tab on the client detail page, and are also visible against the relevant timekeeper on their own Approvals tab. See Clients.