Articles about: Payroll closing

How to lock the timesheet

Locking timesheets is a crucial step to ensure the security, immutability, and integrity of employee work records. By locking a sheet, you prevent subsequent changes, ensuring that the consolidated data accurately reflects the work hours and is ready for payroll processing.

Step-by-step instructions for securing a ruffle.

Access the "Lock Management" module.

In the top menu, click on "sheet" "sheet closing" option .

⚠️ Important: The menu name may vary depending on the company's environment configuration. As this is a customizable field, the menu corresponding to "payroll closing" may appear with a different name, depending on the configuration used.

Apply search filters

Select the workplace( , employee(s), or employer(s) .
Define the period you wish to freeze by selecting the corresponding month and year.
Click search to load the corresponding sheets.

Choose the type of locking

3.1. Unilateral Locking

In this model, only one side (manager or HR) performs the payroll locking. As soon as the action is completed by the authorized party, the payroll is considered locked. It is a faster alternative, but with less traceability for verification by the team.

Procedure

In the "unlocked" category, click the "lock unilaterally to lock the sheets without requiring prior action from collaborators.
The system will display an order processing notification in the "notification bell" next to the Pontotel logo in the top menu.
After the process is completed, a report will be generated showing:
Sheets successfully locked.
Unlocked sheets and the reason for not locking them (e.g., inconsistent days that still need to be corrected).

3.1.1. Locking a specific employee's payroll.

To lock a single employee's sheet, locate their name in the list, click on it, and select "lock unilaterally".

3.2. Bilateral Locking

In bilateral locking, two different parties confirm the closing of the sheet, promoting double validation of the process. This increases security and transparency, as the sheet will only be effectively locked after verification by both parties.

Suggested flows for bilateral locking

The system allows for different conference flows in bilateral locking. See practical examples:

Flow 1: The employee initiates the lockout and the manager confirms.
Flow 2: The manager initiates the lockout and the employee confirms.

These workflows can be chosen according to your company's routine, ensuring flexibility in the process and promoting greater safety for the team.

How to see who performed each action

In addition to the lockout status, the employee's timesheet and timecard also display the names of the users who initiated and confirmed the actions, as well as the respective dates.

Procedure

If using bilateral locking, one side must initiate the locking of the sheet itself.

⚠️ Important: Bilateral locking cannot be performed if one of the parties has a user with HR permissions. This is because the "HR" permission is the highest (administrator) level on the platform and only allows unilateral locking. To perform bilateral locking, both users must have permissions that are not administrator-level, such as employee, manager, supervisor, etc.

After the sheet locking process begins, your sheet will move to the "confirmed" category.

The second party clicks on confirm locking to finalize the process. Once the sheet is confirmed, it will move to the "locked" category.
If the other party does not agree with the lock initiated by the employee, simply select the reject . The sheet will remain unlocked and will be directed to the "rejected" category.

💡Tip: Before starting the locking process, review all entries and correct any pending issues or inconsistencies. The locking process will only be completed if all work schedules are properly adjusted.

⚠️ Important: Once locked, no changes can be made to the sheet for that period. If necessary, you will need to unlock it manually to perform any edits.

Beta lock

Recently, a new locking option, called Beta Locking , which can be used for both one-sided and two-sided locking. This functionality is a refactoring of the traditional locking process, developed with a focus on agility, stability, and performance.

With this, the process of securing the payroll after the conference becomes faster, especially in companies with a large number of employees. Both models (traditional and beta) remain available during this transition period so that administrators can test and adapt to the new version.

⚠️ Important: The overall operation of the locking mechanism remains the same. The difference lies in the technical structure, which has been optimized to make the process more fluid. Therefore, if this option is available to you, make use of it!

Locking as a digital signature

The act of locking the timesheet can be understood as a form of digital signature , formalizing that the information has been checked and validated for the closing of the timesheet.

In the case of bilateral data entry , this validation occurs both by the company and the employee. This means that, by entering data entry with their own access—which is personal and non-transferable—the employee confirms their awareness and agreement with the recorded data , effectively signing a digital signature of their work history.

Although the process does not require the use of a digital certificate, the Pontotel system automatically records the user , the date and time of the lockout , ensuring traceability, legal security and support in audits.

If necessary, the system also allows exporting the locked sheet as a PDF for external review or archiving. See this article to learn how to export the R01 report .

Sheet locking is an essential step to ensure that records are ready for timesheet closing. For more information, please consult our tutorials on the Support website .

If you need further support, contact our team via WhatsApp . We're ready to help!

Updated on: September 29, 2025

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