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Note: Some features or functions mentioned in this article are currently in beta trials and may not be visible in your account.

You can use Deputy AI to search and review timesheets, approve timesheets, update timesheet details, create new timesheets, and check or update clock-in status using natural language.

Before you read

Target audience: This article is for users with System Administrator, Location Manager, and Supervisor access.
Deputy AI:
- Deputy AI is currently in beta.
- Deputy AI assists users by generating responses and proposing changes using large language models and based on information available in Deputy.
- Users are responsible for reviewing all responses and proposed changes before confirming them.
- Deputy AI does not replace human judgment and may generate inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent responses.
- Click to learn about how to access and navigate Deputy AI.

This article covers:

How does Deputy AI work with Timesheets?
How can Deputy AI help me manage timesheets?
What requests may not work well with Deputy AI?
Troubleshooting Deputy AI
How does Deputy AI handle my data?
FAQs

How does Deputy AI work with Timesheets?

Deputy AI helps you manage timesheets using natural language while following the rules and information already configured in your Deputy account.

When you ask Deputy AI to help you complete a task, it reviews information such as scheduled shifts, clock-in and clock-out times, breaks, locations, areas, timesheet statuses, and permissions before generating a proposed plan for you to review.

Nothing is updated automatically. Deputy AI will only take action after you confirm the plan.

Sometimes Deputy AI may not be able to complete a request or return a result. This can happen when a request is too broad, too complex, conflicts with timesheet rules, or more information is needed to complete the action.

How can Deputy AI help me manage timesheets?

Deputy AI can help you manage timesheets and attendance more quickly using natural language.

You can use Deputy AI to:

search and review timesheets
approve timesheets
update timesheets
unapprove, discard, or reinstate timesheets
create timesheets
clock team members in or out
answer questions about attendance and payroll readiness

Note: For timesheet queries and requests, Deputy AI currently works best with up to approximately 500 timesheets at a time.

Supported request type	Description	Example requests
Create timesheets	Create timesheets for team members, including start times, hours worked, breaks, and areas.	“Create a timesheet for @employee starting at 9am for 8 hours with a 30-minute break in @area.”
Search and review timesheets	Find and summarise timesheets by location, date range, status, or issue type.	“Sort all pending timesheets at @location for the week starting 1 June into groups by type of issue, starting with ones with no issues that are ready for me to approve.” “Summarise all timesheets at @location last week by status.”
Find timesheet issues	Identify timesheets with attendance, break, location, area, or clock-in issues.	“Show me all timesheets where employees missed a scheduled break at @location last week.” “Show me all timesheets at @location for the last 14 days where employees forgot to clock out.” “Show me all timesheets where employees were late for their shift @location last week.”
Update timesheets	Update timesheet start times, end times, breaks, areas, or rounding.	“@employee forgot to clock out today — update the timesheet to 5:15pm end time.” “Add a 30 min meal break to @employee’s timesheet on [date].” “Change the area on @employee’s timesheet on [date] to @area.”
Approve timesheets	Approve timesheets for specific team members, locations, date ranges, or timesheets without issues.	“Approve all of @employee's timesheets from this week.” “Approve last week's timesheets for @location that match the schedule.” “Approve all timesheets from the last 2 weeks at @location that don't have any issues.”
Unapprove, discard, or reinstate timesheets	Unapprove, discard, or reinstate timesheets when changes or corrections are needed.	“Unapprove all timesheets last week in @area.” “Discard all of @employee's absent timesheets from last week.” “Reinstate @employee's discarded timesheet from last Thursday.”
Clock team members in or out	Clock yourself or another team member in or out of a scheduled shift.	“Clock me in.” “Clock out @employee now.”
Ask attendance and payroll-readiness questions	Check who is working, who is running late, who missed a shift, or whether timesheets are ready for payrun.	“Who's running late today at @location?” “Who is on shift right now at @location?” “Are we ready for payrun? Show me all pending timesheets for last week at @location.”

What requests may not work well with Deputy AI?

Deputy AI works best with clear timesheet requests focused on one task at a time.

Requests at very large scale: Deputy AI may not complete requests that involve a large number (over 500) of timesheets or broad date ranges.
- For example: “Unapprove all timesheets for every location from the last 12 months.”
Requests without enough detail: Deputy AI may not understand requests that are missing key details such as the team member, location, date range, or timesheet status.
- For example: “Fix the pending timesheets.”
Complex reporting or analysis: Deputy AI may not work well for complex numerical comparisons, payroll reports, or long-term attendance analysis.
- For example: “Create an overtime report for 2025.”
Predicting attendance: Deputy AI cannot predict future attendance based on historical behaviour.
- For example: “Who is most likely to be late next week based on their history?”
Payroll exports and pay rule changes: Deputy AI cannot export payroll data or change pay rules, award interpretations, or pay conditions.
- For example:
  - “Export all approved timesheets to Xero.”
  - “Change @employee’s pay rate to $32 per hour.”

Troubleshooting Deputy AI

If Deputy AI is not responding as expected, try these steps:

Click New Topic: If Deputy AI seems confused or is referencing old data, click New Topic to clear the conversation context.
Be more specific: To ensure an accurate request, always include relevant information like dates and times, and use the @ symbol to identify and match names, locations, and areas in your request.
Refresh the page: If the action returns as complete but the schedule or timesheets do not update, refresh the page and check again.
Shorten your prompt: If an action fails or produces inconsistent results, try a shorter prompt, remove unnecessary detail, or break the request into smaller actions.
Review the relevant employee profile: If issues occur with a specific team member, review their profile for potential scheduling, availability, employment, or configuration issues.
Check permissions: If you receive an error when clicking Confirm, make sure you have permission to perform that task in Deputy.

How does Deputy AI handle my data?

Deputy AI is built with security and privacy as key priorities.

No model training: Your customer data is not used to train the large language models that power Deputy AI.
Permission aware: Deputy AI respects existing role permissions and cannot perform actions that a user is not permitted to do manually.
Bias protection: Guardrails are designed to reduce the risk of inappropriate or unfair recommendations. However, all recommendations should be reviewed by users before confirmation.

To turn off Deputy AI for your business, follow these instructions.

FAQs

To learn more about Deputy AI's privacy FAQs visit the Deputy Privacy Center, and to learn more about Deputy's security program visit the Deputy Trust Center.