Draft time entries

A draft time entry is a reviewable time entry that can be incomplete when created. Integrations, API-based processes, and automation features, such as verbal time entry, create draft time entries. They serve as a review step before Legalsense creates a normal time entry. The mobile app can also be used to create draft time entries (see Mobile apps).

Before you start

You don't create draft time entries manually in the regular timesheet form. Instead, you review and process drafts created for you.

The concept of who "owns" a draft time entry is slightly different from that of normal time entries: the user assigned as the reviewer owns a draft time entry, 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 created for, and also determines whether a draft appears on your own list or another user's list.

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 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. 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.

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.

Approve a draft time entry

1. Open Time entry.

2. Find the draft time entry you want to process.

3. Click the 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, Legalsense marks the draft as approved, and it's no longer visible, editable, or deletable as a draft. Legalsense creates a normal time entry 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. Legalsense applies strict validation when you approve 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.

Important: 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 assigned as the reviewer on a draft time entry can edit, delete, or approve it. This is based on the concept that the reviewer "owns" a draft time entry until it's approved.

Legalsense assigns the reviewer when it creates the draft time entry; to prevent misuse, only users with elevated permissions can change the reviewer. 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'll review draft time entries where you are the timekeeper, and you can edit, delete, and approve those. If desired, your Legalsense administrator can configure user groups to manage and approve other users' drafts. You can ask your Legalsense administrator to set this up.