The life of a time entry

1. Register. A technician registers time. With no matching rule, the entry is open and can be locked straight away.
2. Confirm, if a rule asks for it. The entry shows "Awaiting confirmation" until the registrant clicks Confirm. When a ticket closes with unconfirmed entries, each registrant gets a notification.
3. Approve. An approval rule opens a request and the entry shows "Awaiting approval". The approvers of the current step are notified at once, and reminded each working day while it waits. They see Approve and Reject on the entry in the ticket's Time section.
4. Withdraw, if the registrant needs a change. Withdraw returns the entry to "Awaiting confirmation". After a decision, Withdraw is gone.
5. Rejected entries stay open and cannot be locked. The registrant edits one, which resubmits it, or deletes it.
6. Lock. Billing staff lock the period, or the auto-lock rule does it.
7. Unlock, if a correction is needed: select the entry in Bill or unlock and click Unlock selected. Any approval it had stays valid.
8. Bill. Select locked entries and click Mark billed. Prepaid hours are drawn and the entries become final.

Lock, bill and unlock each write a line on the affected tickets.