What to do when a client refuses to approve a contractor timesheet

Why sign-off stalls more often than teams expect

Most contractor billing problems are not disputes about whether the work happened. They are delays in someone confirming that it did. The contractor has delivered, the account team believes the hours are correct, and the invoice cannot go out because one approval is outstanding.

That gap is usually process, not bad faith. Approvers go on holiday, change role, or never understood that sign-off was their job. Sometimes the person named in the contract has left the client entirely. The work is not in question, but the billing stops anyway.

• The named approver has changed role or left the client organisation.
• Sign-off was agreed verbally and never written into the contract.
• The approver is unclear what they are confirming, so they defer.
• Hours were submitted late, so the approver no longer remembers the period.
• The client is applying an internal budget freeze and delay is the easiest lever.

Check the contract before you chase the approval

Before escalating, read what the contract actually says about approval. This matters more than it sounds, because contracts vary widely on whether payment depends on sign-off at all. Some make client approval a condition of invoicing. Others require the client to raise an objection within a set window, after which submitted hours are treated as accepted.

That distinction changes your position entirely. If your contract has a deemed-acceptance clause, silence may work in your favour after the window closes. If approval is a hard precondition, chasing it is the only route. If you are unsure how a clause applies to a specific engagement, take proper advice rather than relying on precedent from another client.

• Is client approval an explicit condition of raising an invoice?
• Is there a deadline for the client to reject submitted hours?
• Are hours deemed accepted if no objection is raised in that window?
• Who is named as approver, and is there a stated deputy?
• What notice or escalation route does the contract require?

Assemble the evidence you should already have

A stalled approval becomes much easier to resolve when you can show exactly what was submitted, when, and to whom. The weakest position is one where the timesheet lived in a spreadsheet attachment and the approval conversation happened across scattered email threads.

What you want is a record that answers the obvious questions without anyone reconstructing them from memory. If your system captures this automatically, this step takes minutes rather than an afternoon.

• The submitted hours, broken down by day and by contract.
• The exact time of submission and who submitted it.
• Which approver the submission was routed to.
• Any reminders sent, and when.
• Any prior periods the same approver signed off without objection.

A proportionate escalation path

Escalate in steps, and keep every step in writing. The aim is to get the approval, not to win an argument, so start from the assumption that the delay is administrative. Most cases resolve at the first or second step.

Give each step a deadline before you move to the next one, and say what the next step will be. Vague chasing invites more delay, and it also weakens your position if the matter later becomes formal.

• Send a direct written reminder to the named approver with the submitted hours attached.
• Ask whether they are the right approver, and who should act if not.
• Escalate to your day-to-day client contact or account sponsor.
• Raise it with the client contact who owns the contract or purchase order.
• If the hours are disputed rather than delayed, ask for the specific entries in question in writing.

Separating a delay from a genuine dispute

These two situations need different handling, and conflating them wastes time. A delay means nobody has said the hours are wrong. A dispute means someone has, and you now need specifics.

When a client raises a genuine objection, get it narrowed down to particular entries as early as possible. Broad statements such as "this looks too high" are difficult to resolve. A challenge to eleven hours on a specific date is something you can actually investigate against your own records.

• Ask which dates and which entries are contested.
• Establish whether the objection is to hours worked or to the rate applied.
• Check whether the work falls inside the agreed scope or was an informal request.
• Confirm whether the disputed portion blocks the whole invoice or only part of it.
• Record the objection and your response in the same place as the timesheet.

What to do about invoicing while it is open

A single contested entry should not hold up an entire billing cycle. Where the contract permits it, invoice the undisputed hours and keep the contested portion open as a separate item. That keeps cash moving and narrows the conversation to the part that is genuinely unresolved.

Make sure the split is visible to everyone. The client should be able to see that you have billed only what was agreed, and your own finance team should be able to see what remains outstanding rather than treating the whole period as unbillable.

• Invoice approved hours on the normal cycle where the contract allows it.
• Hold contested hours as a clearly identified open item, not a write-off.
• Keep the disputed value visible in your contract or purchase-order tracking.
• Set a review date rather than leaving it open indefinitely.
• Escalate through the contract terms if the value is material and remains unresolved.

Preventing the next one

Sign-off problems repeat because the underlying conditions repeat. Fixing them is mostly about naming people and shortening cycles, neither of which requires a large change to how you work.

The single most effective change for most teams is moving to weekly submission with a named approver and a visible status. Long gaps between work and approval are what make hours hard to verify and easy to defer.

• Name an approver and a deputy in the contract, not just in conversation.
• Agree a submission cadence and hold to it, weekly for most engagements.
• Make approval status visible to the contractor, the account team, and finance.
• Send reminders automatically rather than relying on someone to chase.
• Review any contract where sign-off has slipped more than once.

How BillByTime helps

BillByTime keeps submission, approval, and billing readiness in one place, which removes most of the reconstruction work described above. Contractors submit weekly timesheets against the correct contract. Client managers approve or reject in the system rather than by email, and rejections carry a reason. Every action keeps its timestamp and its author.

That matters when sign-off stalls, because the record already exists. You can see what was submitted, when it was routed, who it went to, and what has happened since, without asking anyone to search their inbox. Approved hours also feed into contract and purchase-order tracking, so you can see what is genuinely ready to invoice and what is still open.