Period authorization policies consist of settings that drive Dayforce to automatically authorize all days in a pay period without you having to review each record individually. If configured, a period authorization policy might identify some exceptions and unauthorize some records, depending on how the policy is configured. For example, a policy might unauthorize pay periods whenever the Early End pay code is associated with a shift. When periods are unauthorized by a period authorization policy, a manager must manually review and authorize the periods to ensure that everything is correct before being processed by payroll.
See Period Authorization Policies in the Dayforce Implementation Guide.
With period authorization enabled, when you add a shift in Timesheets and save, Dayforce shows the manager authorization icon (
) on the shift. When you hover the cursor over the icon, Dayforce shows a tooltip indicating that the shift was automatically authorized:
Shifts that are unauthorized based on your period authorization policy can be viewed in the Audits panel in Timesheets and Employee Timesheet.
When period authorization is enabled, Dayforce splits the Audits panel into two tabs:
- Shift: Shows the standard audit information for shifts on the timesheet.
- Authorization: Shows information for unauthorized periods, including a description of why the period was unauthorized. In this tab, you can accept or reject unauthorized periods:
-
You can also view unauthorized records in Pay Admin Checklist using the Unauthorized Records button in the Filter panel. When period authorization is enabled, this button filters for unauthorized records based on daily authorization rather than time entry authorizations, making it easier to authorize periods that have been unauthorized by a period authorization policy.
Depending on how your time entry policy is configured, records authorized by Dayforce will become unauthorized if you edit them. The setting that dictates this behavior is the Unauthorize On Edit setting in Pay Setup > Time Entry Policy, in the Main tab. See Time Entry Policies in the Dayforce Implementation Guide.
Additionally, if you add a shift that Dayforce authorizes and an employee edits that shift, Dayforce initiates the period authorization engine to reconcile the edit. The engine determines if the shift is eligible to be automatically authorized once again, or if it should be changed to unauthorized.
When unauthorizing a shift, manager intervention always takes precedence over authorizations made by Dayforce. For example, if a manager unauthorizes a shift that was authorized by Dayforce and saves, the shift is no longer authorized, and Dayforce won't automatically authorize the shift when the period authorization engine runs. If needed, the manager can manually reauthorize the shift using the Authorize button.