An approved staffing timesheet is an upstream billing input, not accounts receivable. It enters an AR cash forecast only after the billable time has been converted into an issued invoice, the invoice appears in the authorized open-receivables source, and any required client submission evidence is recorded.
Intuit's timesheet approval guidance distinguishes submitted time from approved, rejected, and unapproved time. Intuit's project-invoicing documentation explains that approved and exported timesheets can appear in a project and that billable time can then be added to an invoice. The practical cash-forecast boundary is clear: approved time may support invoice creation, but it is not an open invoice by itself.
Keep four populations separate
For staffing billing, maintain distinct queues for:
- time submitted but not approved;
- time approved but not yet invoiced;
- invoice issued but not confirmed through the required delivery route;
- invoice issued, open, and eligible for collection-timing review.
Do not add the first three populations to open AR. They can appear in an upstream billing-readiness schedule so management can see work that may become receivables later, but mixing them into current open invoices risks double counting future cash.
Build the approval-to-invoice handoff
Use a stable assignment, project, or billing-period identifier rather than unnecessary worker personal information. The handoff should include:
- customer and assignment reference;
- covered work dates;
- approval state and approval date;
- approved billable units from the source;
- rate or purchase-order exception status;
- invoice owner and target invoice date;
- issued invoice identifier and date when available;
- customer portal or delivery evidence when required.
The customer contract and documented billing instructions remain the source of truth. This workflow does not determine wage, tax, employment, or contractual treatment.
Move into the AR forecast only after issuance
Once the invoice is issued and appears in the dated open-AR export, copy its source facts into the collection review: invoice number, invoice date, due date, open balance, customer, and report date. Then add the expected collection week, evidence, blocker, internal owner, next action, and review date.
Approval of the underlying time is useful evidence that the billing input was reviewed. It does not prove that the invoice was accepted by the customer's process or that cash will arrive in a particular week. Keep submission, acceptance, dispute, and payment evidence as separate states.
The broader staffing-agency cash forecast guide explains invoice-level timing and concentration. The billable-expenses boundary guide applies the same principle to other professional-services work: uninvoiced activity remains upstream from accounts receivable.
Review both queues without merging them
In the weekly finance review, show billing readiness beside AR collections:
- upstream items blocked before invoice issuance;
- open invoices blocked after issuance;
- expected collections by week;
- owners and review dates for both queues.
This gives management visibility into future billing without presenting unissued work as existing receivables. When a timesheet becomes an invoice, close the upstream item and reference the new invoice row rather than copying its value into both queues.
If approved time is later corrected after issuance, use the post-invoice staffing timesheet correction to bridge the source change to billing and one supported expected-cash amount.
If approval stops because the submitted amount exceeds a customer commitment, use the staffing committed-spend exception to keep blocked work visible without presenting it as open AR.
If the buyer creates the settlement document instead of accepting a supplier invoice, use the staffing self-billing and ERS boundary before moving approved service evidence into receivables.
The decision rule
Approved staffing time can be ready to bill. Only an issued, open, source-verified invoice can enter the AR collection forecast. Preserve that boundary through an explicit handoff.
AR Pulse analyzes an authorized QuickBooks receivables export and returns a ranked cash-action list plus a four-week collections forecast. It does not request QuickBooks credentials, process timesheets, issue invoices, or contact customers. Staffing finance owners can apply for AR Pulse.