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Time entry locks and overrides

Why a time entry shows as locked, invoiced, past the edit window, or approved, and how someone holding Override timesheet locks can still fix one.

What you'll achieve

Recognise the three reasons a time entry can lock, correct invoiced time the right way, and use the Override timesheet locks permission for a genuine exception.

You'll end up with: Confident reading of any lock message, the right correction path for invoiced time, and, for admins, a deliberately configured edit window and approvals toggle.

Before you start

Log time on the calendar

A time entry isn't editable forever. Once it's been invoiced, has gone stale past your organisation's edit window, or has been signed off by a reviewer, Monument locks it, and locking is enforced on the server, not just hidden in the interface. We'll look at why an entry on Riverside Apartments locks, what each lock message actually means, and how Sarah Chen, who holds the Override timesheet locks permission, can still fix one when it's genuinely needed.

Locks are worked out fresh every time, never a switch someone flips

Nothing on a time entry stores "locked: true". Every time Monument shows or checks an entry, it works the answer out on the spot from what's actually true about that entry right now: is it invoiced, is it old, is it approved. Change the reason and the lock changes with it automatically. There's nothing to manually unlock, and nothing that can go stale.

An entry can lock for any of three reasons, and more than one can apply at once:

Invoiced. The entry has been consumed by an invoice, which happens the moment that invoice is approved, whether or not it's been emailed yet.
Age. The entry is older than your organisation's edit window (28 days by default).
Approved. A reviewer has signed off on it. There is no "submitted" state in between: an entry is pending from the moment it's logged until a reviewer approves or rejects it. See Review and approve timesheets for that side.

Open a locked entry and the dialog is read-only, with one of these exact messages depending on the reason:

"Invoiced: time on invoiced work can't be changed"
"Locked: older than the organization's 28-day edit window" (the number matches whatever your admin has set)
"Locked: this time entry is approved"

A lock binds everyone, including admins

Being an admin doesn't quietly bypass a lock. An approved entry reads locked for the person who approved it and for every other admin too, the same way it reads for the person who logged it. The only way past a lock is the explicit, audited override below, and it never covers invoiced time.

Invoiced time gets corrected at the invoice, not the entry

Invoiced is the one reason nothing can waive, not even Override timesheet locks. That's deliberate: an issued invoice is a record someone else has already seen, so silently changing the hours behind it would undermine the number the client was billed. If Sarah logged the wrong hours against Concept Design and they've already gone out on an invoice, the fix runs through the invoice, crediting or voiding it, rather than editing the timesheet directly. See Create and send an invoice for that side of the correction.

Approving an invoice can lock other time too

Consuming the hours a Time line actually bills isn't the only thing approval can lock. When someone approves an invoice, they choose a lock cutoff date, and every other time entry on that project dated before it locks along with the consumed hours, whether or not this invoice billed it. That's a deliberate choice made at approval, separate from the automatic age and approved reasons above: it closes the billing period so nobody logs or edits time behind an invoice that's already gone out.

Marking an entry billed by hand locks it too

Someone with Edit access to Revenue on a task can mark a time entry billed without putting it on a Monument invoice at all, for hours that were already billed somewhere else, most often history brought in from a previous system. See Edit several time entries at once for how to set or remove that mark. Doing so locks the entry with its own message:

"Marked as billed: remove the billed mark to edit"

This lock behaves differently from the other three. It only applies at all when your organisation's Lock time marked as billed setting is on, and while it applies, nothing waives it, not even Override timesheet locks. The only way past it is removing the mark itself, from the same place it was set, which immediately makes the entry ordinary editable time again.

Turning the setting off doesn't undo any marks

With Lock time marked as billed off, a marked entry stays fully editable even though it still reads billed everywhere unbilled totals are counted. Turning it back on locks every already-marked entry again immediately, nothing needs re-marking.

Overriding an age lock

Only the age reason can be waived from the entry dialog, and only by someone holding the Override timesheet locks organisation permission, one edit at a time.

1
Open an entry locked purely by age. Alongside its lock message sits an Override lock button, visible only to a permission holder.
2
Click it. A confirmation reads "Override timesheet lock?" with the note "This edit bypasses the organization's lock window and is recorded in the audit log."
3
Click Enable override. The dialog now shows "Override active: this edit bypasses the organization's lock window and is recorded in the audit log," and the entry's fields become editable.

Every override is written to the audit log

There's no silent bypass. A successful override records who did it, when, and exactly what changed, in the same transaction as the edit itself. If the audit write fails, the edit doesn't go through either.

An approved entry isn't overridden, it's rejected

The Override lock button doesn't appear on an approved entry, even for a permission holder: overriding a lock window is one thing, but reversing a reviewer's decision is another, and Monument keeps that path separate. Correcting an approved entry means a reviewer rejects it from the Approvals tab first, which reopens it to pending and is itself audited. See Review and approve timesheets.

Override timesheet locks is a permission you grant, not something that comes bundled with being an admin. It ships turned on for the built-in Office administrator level, but it is just another setting on that level. A firm can grant it to a different level, such as one for senior project managers, or remove it from Office administrator entirely, from Team members > Access Levels. See How permissions work for the rest of the permission model.

Override doesn't reach every path

The Override lock button lives on the interactive entry dialog only. Bulk paths like CSV import don't accept an override flag: a CSV row that lands inside a locked window is skipped with a reason, the same way an ineligible task status skips a row. Backfilling genuinely historical time means widening or turning off the edit window in Timesheet Locking first, importing, then setting it back.

Set the edit window and turn on approvals

The age window, and whether approvals are on at all, are both organisation-wide settings an admin sets once, on the Team members tab in Settings, in the Timesheet Locking card.

Automatically lock old time entries. Switched on by default. Turn it off and the age lock stops applying organisation-wide; invoiced time still locks regardless, since that toggle only ever controls the age reason.
Lock time entries after [N] days. How many organisation calendar days back the window reaches. Every organisation starts at 28 days even before anyone opens this card; changing the number moves the boundary immediately, with nothing to run or recalculate.
Timesheet approvals. Off by default. Turn it on and the Approvals tab appears for anyone who can review time, which is what makes the approved lock reason possible in the first place; every entry already carries an approval status of pending, approved, or rejected regardless, but nothing acts on it until this is on. See Review and approve timesheets for what turning this on actually changes day to day.
Lock time marked as billed. On by default. With this on, an entry someone has marked billed by hand can't be edited until the mark is removed. Turn it off and marked entries stay editable by the ordinary rules, still counted as billed everywhere, just not frozen.

Saving shows a "Timesheet lock settings saved" confirmation, and the new window applies to every entry immediately, no migration step, no entries to individually re-lock or unlock.

Troubleshooting

There's no Override lock button on a locked entry. Either the lock reason is Invoiced, which nothing can waive, or the signed-in person doesn't hold the Override timesheet locks permission. Check Team members > Access Levels for who currently has it.
A CSV import silently skipped old rows. That's the age lock applying to the import too, with no override available for bulk paths. Widen or disable the edit window in Timesheet Locking first, then re-run the import.
An admin can't edit an approved entry, and there's no Override lock button on it either. That's correct: approved binds every principal, admins included, and overriding isn't offered as a way past it. Reject it back to pending from the Approvals tab instead.
Turning the window off didn't unlock invoiced entries. It was never going to. Automatically lock old time entries only ever controls the age reason; invoiced time locks unconditionally.
A marked-billed entry has no Override lock button, even for a permission holder. Correct: Override timesheet locks only ever waives the age reason. Remove the billed mark itself to edit the entry again.

Where this fits next

Understanding lock reasons matters most once approvals are actually running: see Review and approve timesheets for how an entry gets to approved in the first place. For time that's already reached an invoice, Bill time on an invoice covers how those hours get there. For marking time billed and moving it between tasks in bulk, see Edit several time entries at once.