Time Sheet Portal / Form: Delegated Approver cannot Approve or Reject Timesheets

Chirag Pathak · 3 weeks ago

Hi Community,
I am currently validating the Timesheet functionality regarding delegation and running into an issue.
My Setup:
User B is a manager of multiple users.
User A has been designated as an active delegate for User B (with Approvals = true on the sys_user_delegate record).
Both User A and User B have the timecard_approver role.
The Issue:
When an employee (whose manager is User B) submits their timesheet, User B (the original manager) can see the options to Approve or Reject perfectly. However, User A (the delegated user) cannot see the Approve or Reject buttons—either on the Time Sheet Portal (/tcp) or directly on the backend time_sheet form. Instead, User A only sees options like Submit or Recall.
Per ServiceNow documentation, the delegated user should be able to approve or reject timesheets on behalf of the manager.
Has anyone else faced this limitation with the Time Sheet Portal and forms? Is there an out-of-the-box property I am missing, or do the Time Sheet UI Actions and portal widgets require custom scripting to support the sys_user_delegate table?
Any solutions or workarounds would be greatly appreciated!

Hemanth M · 3 weeks ago

Hi @Chirag Pathak ,

The approver list only populates the primary approvers (Manager, Record Manager) - based on policy

Delegate approval makes use of this list to build its logic: if the approver is present in approver list and has delegated approval, it will let the delegate approve or reject.

If you don't create a delegate, a delegate can't approve it - just the Managers/admins

Here is the logic:

Script include name: TimeSheetUIActionHelper (this is called from Approve and Reject Button)

Hope it helps!

Accept and hit Helpful if it helps.

Thank you,
Hemanth
Certified Technical Architect (CTA), ServiceNow MVP 2024, 2025,2026

View solution in original post

Sunil B N · 2 weeks ago

Hi Chirag,
If you have the Non-project timecard approver and Project time card approver config in place in timesheet policy and then delegated approvers will able to approve the timecards.

The error we had seen was a regression for only few patches where delegation was not working as expected above. However it has been addressed in Brazil, Australia Patch 1, YP13 and ZP8.

If you have any issue with delegation, kindly raise a case and we will try to assist you in this regard.
Best regards,
Sunil B N