Creating Users

All persons with billable hours must have a user account in order to submit time on their behalf. They may never sign in to TimeLocker, but they must have an active account in order to upload and submit time on their behalf.

To manage your users, select "firm administration" and choose "manage users" on the left hand sidebar under "management".

To add a user, select the "add user" button.

On the next page, you'll be prompted to provide account credentials for the given user. All fields are required.

It is important that the user's first name and last name match what you expect to import time under. Take consideration of the way the user normally formats their name, if its hyphenated, or if they use a nickname.

We strongly recommend generating a random password for the user. If you never intend for the user to log in, you do not need to retain this, and you can reset the password in the future if you need to grant the user access.

Account Enabled means the user can log in, have time, and have time submitted on their behalf.

Firm Admin means the user will have access to the "firm administration" tab in TimeLocker, which will allow the user to manage other users, upload and submit time on behalf of other users.

TimeLocker does not email the user their account details, so you'll need to communicate the email and password to the user directly if you wish them to log in.

Assigning Positions

Once you create a user, in order for the user to add/upload time, or have time uploaded on their behalf, you must assign a position. To assign a position, on the "manage users" page, select the email of the user you just created or want to modify positions for.

To add a position, select "+ add position" and begin typing the title of the position you want to add. After you start typing, the position should appear below the search bar and you can select the position to add it. 

If a user has multiple positions, you can select a specific entry to be the "default" position, which would allow you to automatically select that position when importing time entries. 

Reset a User's Password

To reset a user's password, navigate to "firm administration" and select "manage users" on the left hand sidebar under "management".

On the list of users, select "reset password" next to the user you want to change the password for. TimeLocker does not email the user their new password, so you'll need to communicate the password to the user directly.

Creating a New Time Entry

To create a new time entry on behalf of a user, you'll need to navigate to "firm administration" and select "add firm time" from the left hand sidebar under "time".

To create a new time entry under your own account, select "add time" on the top navigation.

All fields are required.

Note: If you are submitting an entry within your own account, you will not see the "user" dropdown.

Select the user (if applicable), project (DepoProvera), position the user's time will be billed under, the category of the billable hours, the date of the hours, and the hours in tenth of an hour.

You must provide a description for the billable hours. For DepoProvera, you should also (until further notice) provide an "Authorized By" line identifying your firm chair/cochair that authorized your billable hours.

Common Rejection Reason: Your description must be descriptive. If you have any questions on how descriptive your billable time should be, contact Sansom CPA for assistance.

Editing an Existing Entry

To edit a time entry for another user, select the "firm administration" tab to jump to the search page.

To edit a time entry for your own account, select "my time" to jump to your search page.

To edit an entry, select the row you want to edit. You can only edit entries that are not submitted or are rejected. Note the "status" column. If there is no status, it is not submitted. If you need to make changes to already submitted entries, see the "Unsubmitting Time" entry below.

If there are any missing fields on the record, you'll see a red warning at the top of the page letting you know what fields are missing.

You must select "Save Entry" to save your edits.

Note: You can also individually submit time entries from this page using the "submit time" button.

Individually Submitting/Unsubmitting Time

When you select a specific entry, you'll see a "Submit Time" or "Unsubmit Time" button, depending on it's submission status.

Note: If you need to unsubmit an entry to make changes, please make sure you are not editing entries for past submission periods. If you need to edit an entry for an already submitted period, you must reach out to Sansom CPA for preapproval prior to making changes. Attempting to edit entries for a period that has already passed may result in rejections due to passed deadlines.

Viewing the Audit Trail

TimeLocker records all changes to an entry over time. You can view the audit log for a specific entry below the edit panel when you select an entry. Here, you'll see status changes, including who submitted/unsubmitted an entry, and any rejection/accepted notes when an entry is rejected by a special master.

Searching Your Time

TimeLocker uses a universal search panel to search your time. To search, select the search bar above your time table and begin typing a search term. 

In the above image, you'll see typing "test" brings up multiple options, which says "search [field] for Term".

You can search categories, projects, users, statuses, and descriptions by beginning to type the search term and then selecting your filter from the dropdown that appears.

To search for entries with no status, type "unsubmitted" in the search bar. A filter option will appear allowing you to search for all entries with no status (unsubmitted).

To search by a specific date range, type the date/range you want to filter by. If you just want to see all time on/before/after a specific date, type the date in the search bar and select one of the filter options that appears:

To search for a specific range of time, enter the from and to date in the search bar, separated by a hyphen (ie. 05/25/2025-05/28/2025). A filter option will appear once the terms are completed that will allow you to filter a specific range:

Your search filters will be visible below the search bar, and you can click the "x" next to a search term to clear a specific filter.

Completion Filter

Above your search bar, there is a "complete/incomplete/all" button. This allows you to quickly filter your entries for incomplete time. Incomplete time are entries that are missing one or more required field. If an entry is missing a required field, you cannot submit it, and attempting to submit will result in an automatic rejection by TimeLocker.

Having Search Issues? TimeLocker caches applicable search fields locally. Sometimes, your browser may restrict the size of the cache, which causes your search cache to fill up and can lock up the search bar. To resolve this, log out and log back in to TimeLocker using the "Logout" button in the top right, under your username.

Bulk Submitting/Resubmitting/Unsubmitting Time Entries

To bulk update your time entries, you must be a firm administrator viewing the "firm administration" tab. 

There are two ways to bulk submit entries: from the search filters, and using the "batch update" button with the TimeLocker entry IDs (entry IDs explained in reporting below).

Bulk Submitting via Search

To bulk submit your current search terms (see "Searching Your Time" above to filter your time), select the checkbox at the top left of your time table, next to the "status" column. If you have multiple pages of entries, you'll see a yellow bar appear that says "10 records selected - click here to select all ### records". You must select the "click here" button to select all of the search results. The yellow bar will change to "### records selected - click here to clear selection"

Next, choose "-- actions --" underneath the firm time header and choose "update entries". The actions dropdown will disappear, and a "status" option will appear.

Select "-- no update --" next to the status label and choose "submit/resubmit" or "unsubmit", then choose update. You will get a popup asking you to agree to the time submission per applicable court orders and certify your submissions accuracy. Once you agree, you'll get one final confirmation dialog asking you to submit # time entries.

Once you select "OK", you'll receive a final popup dialog informing you how many entries were successfully submitted.

If the count doesn't match or it says 0 entries submitted, your time is missing required fields. You can filter your time table by searching for incomplete entries and making the necessary corrections.

WARNING: Your browser will likely provide an option to "block/don't allow" TimeLocker to prompt you again. If you check this option, TimeLocker will not be able to prompt you for confirmation and will not submit your entries. 

Bulk Submitting with Entry IDs

If you want to bulk update specific entries with a given Entry ID (see Reporting below to get Entry IDs from your search results), you can do so by selecting "Batch Update" at the right above your search time table.

Here, you'll enter the IDs of the entries you want to submit/resubmit or unsubmit, each ID on a new line. If you copy from Excel, it'll automatically paste each ID in a new line.

You'll then select Update, and acknowledge any prompts that appear.

If the updated count doesn't match or it says 0 entries submitted, your time is missing required fields. You can filter your time table by searching for incomplete entries and making the necessary corrections.

WARNING: Your browser will likely provide an option to "block/don't allow" TimeLocker to prompt you again. If you check this option, TimeLocker will not be able to prompt you for confirmation and will not submit your entries. 

Deleting Entries

If you notice duplicate entries, unnecessary entries, or decide you no longer want to contest a rejected entry and wish to delete the entry, you have the option to delete these entries from TimeLocker. You may only delete time that is not submitted or has been rejected.

Note: TimeLocker does not permanently delete any entry. All entries are "soft-deleted", and may be recovered by a firm administrator by navigating to "deleted time" under the management header.

To delete an entry, you must select the applicable entries from your time table. You can individually check the entries you want to delete, or filter your entries and select all to mass delete.

Once you've selected the entry/entries you want to delete, select "-- actions --" and choose "delete entries". You'll receive a confirmation dialog to delete # time entries.

Important Notes on Importing/Common Issues

Saving as a CSV File

TimeLocker requires a CSV file in order to upload your time entries. The bulk import template provided is an Excel (xlsx) file, and cannot be directly uploaded into TimeLocker. To upload using the template, you must save the file as a CSV file. If you're using Microsoft Excel, you can review the process to save as a CSV file at Microsoft's Support Site by clicking here.

Fields Must Match Exactly

A common reason imports fail is because the provided name doesn't match a user's details in TimeLocker. For example, you may use "J Smith" in your internal time tracking tool, but entered "John Smith" in TimeLocker. Another reason is that the user lacks the position entered on the import spreadsheet.

We have provided a template file you can use to bulk import your time entries. Please note that categories, positions, names, and projects must match exactly what is entered in TimeLocker. Any deviation will result in a rejection by TimeLocker.

For example, if the category is "1) Depositions" and you enter "Depositions" or "1", TimeLocker will reject that row on import as an invalid category.

Position doesn't exist, but the user has the required position?

Sometimes, Excel may add extra data to a field that isn't visible. If a user only has one position and the importer is raising an error about missing that position on import, you can select a default position in the user's profile and leave the position field blank on importing. TimeLocker will automatically add the user's default position on import.

"Results Not Imported" contains blank data?

Sometimes, Excel likes to add extra blank rows to a CSV file if you focus to the bottom of a file. If you download the error file and the file does not contain any of your original data, you can ignore the error. We recommend confirming the imported count matches your expected import by selecting "view" next to the import and checking the total count at the top right of the time table.

Bulk Import Time

Once you have completed the import spreadsheet, to bulk import your time, navigate to "firm administration" and choose "import firm time".

Make sure you do not select "my time" and "import time". This will import all entries under your account, not the targeted users.

Next to csv file, choose "Browse..." and select the file you want to import, then choose "import time". Your upload will be queued for processing. As a reminder, this is only step one, and you must confirm the import was successful and submit your entries in order for your time to be reviewed by the special master.

We strongly recommend uploading before the deadline, as any issues that may arise can delay your submission.

It will take a few minutes for a submission to process. You must check the status of your import before attempting to submit.

Checking the status of an import

To check the status of an import, navigate to "firm imports". Here, you'll see a record of all of your past imports. Your most recent import will appear at the top of the page.

The two most important columns are the "not imported" column and the "status" column. When you first import an entry, the status will be "processing" until the import is processed. Once the status changes to "processed", if there are any issues with your upload, a "records not imported" link will appear.

If you see "records not imported" next to your upload attempt, click on that text to download the errors file. This error file will be the same as your original import, with an added column that contains the errors on the upload attempt. If there were successful entries in your upload, those entries are removed from the errors file.

You can make corrections directly within the failed file, delete the errors column, and upload the corrected spreadsheet.

WARNING: If you make corrections to your original file and re-upload, you may create duplicates. If you intend to make corrections in your original file and reupload your entire original upload attempt, please delete the successful records from your original attempt (if any). See "Delete Time from a Bulk Upload" below.

Downloading a CSV of your entries

You can download a CSV of your time entries from the search pages, either from "my time" or under "firm administration. These spreadsheets will contain all of the basic fields of your time, any accepted notes, rejection note (if applicable), and an entry ID (which is the resource number within TimeLocker).

To download a CSV of your search results, select the "export" link on the top right of your time table. This will download a CSV file of your filtered search results, or your entire time record if you don't add any filters.

You can use the entry ID on the given spreadsheet to perform batch operations, if you want to filter your entries within Excel and choose the records you want to update.