Draft Time Entries

Draft time entries are reviewable time entries that can be incomplete when they are created. Draft time entries are created by integrations, API-based processes, or automation features, such as verbal time entry. They are used as a review step before a normal time entry is created.

Draft time entries are available by default since release 26.02.

Before you start

Users do not create draft time entries manually in the regular timesheet form. You review and process drafts that were created for you.

The concept of who “owns” a draft time entry is slightly different to that of normal time entries: a draft time entry is owned by the user who is assigned as the reviewer, not the timekeeper. The reviewer is responsible for reviewing and approving the draft time entry, which leads to a normal time entry. The timekeeper is the user the resulting time entry is written for, and also determines whether a draft appears in your own list or in another user’s list. See “Permissions” below for more information.

View your draft time entries to review

Go to Timesheet → Time entry. If drafts are available, you can see:

• Your draft time entries to review: these are draft time entries where you are both the reviewer and the timekeeper.
• Other users’ draft time entries to review: these are draft time entries where you are the reviewer but not the timekeeper.

In these sections, each draft time entry can show actions to approve, edit, or delete.

The Drafts page

The Drafts page gives you one overview of all the draft time entries you can review, with search, filters, and bulk actions. Go to Timesheet → Drafts.

The page lists your draft time entries with their date, matter, timekeeper, activity, and description. Use the filters to narrow the list by Timekeeper, Matter, Date, or Source, and to find drafts that are still missing information, for example drafts without a matter or without an activity. The Status filter shows drafts that are not approved by default.

Each row has the same actions as on the Time entry page: approve, edit, or delete. To review several drafts at once, select them with the checkboxes and click Approve or Delete in the bulk actions bar, then confirm. Legalsense approves every selected draft that can become a valid time entry and reports any that cannot, so a single invalid draft does not block the rest.

Approve a draft time entry

1. Open Time entry.
2. Find the draft time entry you want to process.
3. Click the green checkmark icon (Approve draft time entry).
4. Legalsense validates the draft data and permissions.
5. If validation succeeds, Legalsense creates a normal time entry from the draft.

You can approve a draft from the Time entry page or from the Drafts page. On the Drafts page, approve a single draft with the green checkmark, or select several and use the bulk Approve action.

After approval, the draft is marked as approved and is no longer visible, editable, or deletable as a draft. A normal time entry is created for the timekeeper assigned to the draft time entry.

You can find the created normal time entry in the regular time entry overviews, such as recent entries and Time search, depending on your permissions and filters.

Edit or delete a draft time entry

You can always edit and delete draft time entries where you are assigned as the reviewer.

Edit

1. In the draft time entry, click Edit draft time entry.
2. Update the available fields.
3. Click Save.

Draft edit validation is intentionally flexible: fields can remain empty in a draft. Strict validation is applied when approving the draft. This supports the role of draft time entries as a placeholder for information, so review each draft carefully before you approve it.

Delete

1. In the draft time entry, click Delete draft time entry.
2. Confirm the deletion in the confirmation dialog.

Deleting a draft time entry is final. On the Drafts page, you can also delete several drafts at once with the bulk Delete action.

Permissions

Only the user who is assigned as the reviewer on a draft time entry can edit, delete, or approve a draft time entry. This is based on the concept that a draft time entry is “owned” by the reviewer until it has been approved.

The reviewer is assigned upon creation of the draft time entry; to prevent misuse, the reviewer can only be changed by users with elevated permissions. In addition, if the timekeeper on a draft time entry is not the reviewer, the reviewer needs elevated permissions to approve that draft time entry (these are the entries in the Other users’ draft time entries to review table).

In most cases, you will be asked to review draft time entries where you are the timekeeper, and you can edit, delete, and approve those. If desired, user groups can be configured to enable them to manage and approve other users’ drafts. You can ask your Legalsense administrator to set this up.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

If approval or editing fails, Legalsense shows a message on the page. Typically, approval fails because one or more fields are missing or contain invalid data for creating a normal time entry. The error message indicates what must be corrected.

In some cases, a draft may already have been approved or deleted by another user or process. In that case, you will see a warning and can no longer view or modify that draft.

Can I undo approval and move a normal time entry back to draft?

No. After approval, the draft workflow is complete. You can still edit or delete the created normal time entry, but only when normal time-entry permissions and billing-status rules allow it.

How long are approved draft time entries retained?

Approved drafts are retained for a limited period and then removed automatically by background cleanup. Contact your Legalsense administrator if you need details for your environment.

Related articles

• Using verbal time entry
• Writing and editing Time
• Time search
• Default permission groups in Legalsense