The correction rule in plain language
DCAA Manual 7641.90 says changes to a timesheet should be documented through procedures that identify the original charge, the corrected charge, and the employee's concurrence. The clean result is not a perfect-looking timecard. It is a truthful current record plus a retrievable history of how and why the record changed.
Do not overwrite the original value, replace the entry date, or allow an administrator to move labor with no visible reason. A correction may be entirely legitimate; an invisible correction is difficult to explain.
What a correction record should contain
Store the correction as a linked event, not as an unexplained replacement. The record should let a reviewer reconstruct the timecard before and after the change without relying on email or memory.
- Employee, work date, and affected timecard period
- Original charge code and original hours
- Corrected charge code and corrected hours
- Specific reason for the change
- Person who requested and person who entered the correction
- System timestamp for the request and completed change
- Employee concurrence or recertification
- Supervisor reapproval when the approved record changed
Use different workflows before and after submission
Before submission, an employee may edit the current period as ordinary time entry, provided the system still retains the operational history required by company policy. After certification or approval, the record has a different status and should move through a formal correction path.
A practical status model is open, submitted, employee-certified, supervisor-approved, and locked. Define which roles may request a change at each stage. A post-approval change should invalidate the affected certification and approval or clearly require new attestations.
Keep the employee in the correction loop
A manager may discover that an employee used the wrong project or omitted an hour. The manager should reject or request a correction, not silently edit the record. Employee concurrence matters because the employee performed the work and owns the original time entry.
If the employee cannot access the system because of prolonged absence, follow the documented exception procedure. Record who acted, why waiting was impracticable, and how the employee reviewed and replaced or concurred with the record after returning.
Write reasons that explain the actual event
Generic reasons such as ‘fix,’ ‘admin request,’ or ‘wrong’ do not explain what happened. Require enough information to distinguish an innocent selection error from a work-authorization change or a budget-driven reallocation.
- Good: ‘Employee selected Atlas Task 1; work performed was authorized Atlas Task 2 testing.’
- Good: ‘Added 1.5 hours omitted from July 14; employee supplied contemporaneous secure-site record.’
- Good: ‘Removed duplicate entry created during mobile retry; original entry remains unchanged.’
- Weak: ‘Per manager.’
- Weak: ‘Move hours.’
- Weak: ‘Funding issue.’
Use period locks without blocking legitimate corrections
A period lock prevents ordinary edits after a defined close. It helps protect approved records used for payroll, billing, or labor distribution. A lock should not force people to hide a real error; it should move the change into a controlled exception workflow.
Define who can request an unlock or correction, whether the whole period or only the affected entry reopens, which downstream reports must be regenerated, and how finance confirms that payroll, billing, and accounting remain reconciled.
Distinguish late time, missing time, and reclassification
Late time creates a new record after the policy deadline. Missing time is the operational gap before entry. Reclassification changes the cost objective attached to existing hours. Keep these event types separate so management can see whether the root problem is employee timeliness, unclear authorization, or downstream accounting review.
Never backdate the system timestamp. The work date and the time of system entry are different facts. Retaining both lets the contractor correct the record and measure the control failure honestly.
Reconcile downstream records after an approved correction
A correction after payroll, invoicing, or labor distribution may change more than the timesheet. Identify every downstream record affected by hours, cost objective, rate, or period. Mark exports and reports as superseded rather than leaving two unexplained versions.
The close procedure should show whether payroll requires an adjustment, whether a voucher or invoice is affected, whether project and CLIN totals changed, and whether the general ledger or job-cost ledger must be updated.
Test the correction process before relying on it
Run three controlled scenarios: an employee corrects an open day, a manager returns a submitted period, and finance discovers a wrong code after approval and lock. Retrieve the original record, reason, employee concurrence, new approval, and updated downstream totals for each scenario.
If the only way to correct approved time is a database edit, administrator overwrite, or spreadsheet journal with no link to the employee record, fix the workflow before the first high-risk contract period closes.