Once you've reviewed an employee's hours, you can lock their timecards so no one can change them by accident. Locked timecards can't be edited or deleted until someone with permission unlocks them — so the hours you send to payroll stay exactly as you approved them.

Turning On Timecard Locking

Timecard locking is turned off by default. To turn it on:

Click the gear icon at the bottom of the left navigation to open Settings, then select Time Tracking under the Timesheets group.
Switch the Timecard locking disabled toggle on. It changes to Timecard locking enabled and saves automatically.

Once it's on, lock icons appear on the Timesheets page for managers.

[[insert Timecard locking toggle in Settings → Time Tracking here]]

Who Can Lock and Unlock

Locking and unlocking is controlled by the "Who can lock and unlock time cards?" permission:

Account Owner and Admin — Can lock and unlock by default.
Manager — Can't lock or unlock by default. Turn the permission on for the Manager access level if you want managers to lock timecards.
Employees — Never see lock controls.

Managers without the permission still see the lock icons, but they're dimmed and show "You do not have permission to lock timecards." when hovered. See Setting Up Permissions and Access Levels to change who can lock.

🔒 Editing and locking are separate permissions. Someone who can edit timecards still can't change a locked timecard — it has to be unlocked first.

What Locking Does

When a timecard is locked:

The Edit button on the timecard is disabled, so hours, breaks, tips, and job codes can't be changed.
The timecard can't be deleted.
Notes and tips can't be added to it. If an employee tries to declare tips on a locked timecard from the mobile app, they'll see a Payroll closed message.
It still appears in Timesheets, totals, the Pay tab, and your payroll export exactly as before.

⏱️ You can only lock a completed shift. Timecards for employees who are still clocked in can't be locked — lock them after the employee clocks out.

Locking a Single Timecard

Open Timesheets from the left navigation and expand an employee to see their timecards. Then either:

Click the open lock icon next to the clock-in and clock-out times in the Timecards column (it shows "Lock this timecard" when you hover), or
Click the timecard to open the detail panel, then click Lock in the top right.

In the Lock timecards? dialog, click Lock to confirm.

[[insert Timesheets row with lock icon here]]

Locking All of an Employee's Timecards for a Pay Period

The fastest way to lock a pay period is employee by employee:

Set the date range at the top of Timesheets to the payroll period you're closing.
On the employee's summary row, click the lock icon next to [N] Timecards. When you hover it shows "Lock [N] unlocked timecards".
Review the Lock timecards? dialog, then click Lock.

The dialog shows how many timecards will be locked and may include these notes:

"[N] timecards have unresolved issues. You can still continue." — Some of these timecards have issues such as a missed break or no-show. It's best to fix them first, but you can lock anyway.
"[N] timecards are still clocked in and will be skipped." — Open shifts aren't locked. The rest of the timecards are.

[[insert "Lock timecards?" dialog here]]

💡 Fix issues before you lock. Once a timecard is locked, you'll need to unlock it before you can correct a missed clock-out or add a break.

How Locked Timecards Look

The lock icon next to the timecard turns into a red closed lock. Hover over it to see who locked it and when — for example, "Locked by Jane Smith on Oct 10, 2026".
On the employee's summary row, the lock icon turns red when any of their timecards in the period are locked, and shows a closed lock when all of them are.
In the timecard detail panel, the Lock button changes to Unlock and the Edit button is grayed out.

Unlocking Timecards

If you need to correct a locked timecard:

One timecard — Click the red lock icon next to the timecard, or open it and click Unlock.
All of an employee's timecards — When every timecard in the period is locked, click the lock icon on the employee's summary row. It shows "Unlock all [N] timecards".

In the Unlock timecards? dialog, click Unlock. Unlocked timecards can be edited and deleted again. Remember to lock them again after you've made your changes.

Locking Before You Export Payroll

When timecard locking is on, the Payroll Summary reminds you if anything in the period isn't locked yet — for example, "3 timecards are not locked. Lock all timecards before exporting payroll." You can still download the export, but locking first makes sure no one changes the hours after you've sent them to payroll.

A typical end-of-period routine:

Select the payroll period in Timesheets.
Review the Issues column and fix any missed clock-outs, missed breaks, or no-shows.
Lock each employee's timecards from their summary row.
Click Download to open the Payroll Summary and export your CSV.

Good to Know

Locking is always manual. Teamsly never locks timecards automatically — a manager has to lock them.
Unlock before turning locking off. If you turn timecard locking off, the lock icons disappear, but timecards that were already locked stay locked and can't be edited. Unlock any locked timecards first, or turn locking back on to unlock them.
Employees don't see lock status. Locked timecards look the same to employees in the mobile app.
Square integration — If a locked timecard is changed in Square, Teamsly keeps its locked version and shows a Locked card changed issue in the Square integration's timecard issues, where you can choose Keep Teamsly's locked version.

Locking and Unlocking Timecards