Submissions & Lifecycle
Everything in FiscFlow flows through a submission. This page explains how a submission is shaped, the states it moves through, and - precisely - what has to be true before you can submit it or act on it.
How a submission is shaped
A submission doesn't have fixed fields. Two settings decide what it holds and how it's routed:
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Category | The broad kind. Sets whether the submission allows, requires, or doesn't accept hours entries and documents, and which hours types are available. |
| Type | The specific form under a category. Sets the approval workflow, the schedule of submission windows, whether an account/sub-type/related submission is required, and how submissions are grouped (by site and/or account). |
Because of this, the form adapts. The Account field appears - and becomes required - when the type calls for it. The Site field appears when the type is Site Specific, and is editable only when the assignment spans more than one site (a single site fills in automatically). The hours grid only appears if the category accepts hours, the Documents section only if it accepts documents, and so on. If a field isn't showing, its type/category doesn't use it.
The states a submission moves through
A submission's status is derived from a few underlying facts (when it was submitted, whether it's been finalized, whether it needs revision, and whether the position and its control number are ready):
| Status | What it means | Who acts next |
|---|---|---|
 Draft | Not yet submitted, and not flagged for revision. | Creator |
 Needs Revision | An approver returned it to the initiator to change and resubmit. | Creator |
 Waiting on Approval | Submitted and sitting at an approval step (and the position is approved, or there is none). | Current step's role |
 Waiting on HR Approval | Submitted, but the linked employee assignment isn't approved yet - approval can't begin. | Assignment approver |
| Waiting on Position Control # | Submitted, but the requisition still needs a Position Control Number. | HR / requisition owner |
 Approved | Finalized after the last step approved. Done. | - |
Submitting, approving, returning, recalling, finalizing, and undoing each write a dated, typed note to the submission's history - so there's always an audit trail of who did what and when.
What must be true to submit
The Submit for Approval button is only available when all of the following hold. FiscFlow uses the exact same checklist to show you why the button is unavailable, so if it's greyed out, one of these is the reason:
- The fiscal year is active
You can't submit into a closed year.
- You are the submission's employee, or its creator
Only the owner or the person who created it can submit it.
- It hasn't already been submitted
A submission can't be submitted twice while it's in flight. If it's rejected or recalled back to you, it becomes a draft again and you resubmit it as normal.
- A submission window (pay period) is selected
Every submission belongs to a window.
- No hours entry is incomplete or future-dated
No entry with zero/negative hours, and no worked (non-absence) entry dated in the future.
- No hours entry has an unfinished break
A break whose start and end times are identical (a zero-length break) blocks submission.
- Today is within the submission window
Unless it was returned for revision - see the window rules below.
Submitting on a brand-new submission is always offered, so the button never flickers off mid-edit. The full checklist is enforced the moment you actually submit.
Submission windows & schedules
A schedule is a named set of submission windows (pay periods). When you pick a submission type, FiscFlow automatically selects the next open window from its schedule. Each window has a start date, an end date, and an "approve by" date.
A schedule - and, if you need it, each individual window - also carries a pay cycle, the payroll run the period belongs to. A window's pay cycle overrides the schedule's, so one schedule can host windows for more than one pay cycle. The pay cycle travels with the submission through to the HCM export.
Open vs. restricted windows
| Window type | When you can submit |
|---|---|
| Unrestricted | Date-flexible: you can submit through the window's end, plus any district-wide grace period. This is the default. |
| Restricted dates | A hard window: today must fall on or between the window's submission start and submission end dates. The grace period does not apply. Use this when a deadline is firm. |
If a submission was returned to you for revision, you can resubmit it even after its window has closed - the window date check is skipped for revisions so you're never locked out of fixing something an approver sent back.
Hours must fall inside the window
Every hours entry on a submission must be dated within the window's start and end. An entry outside the window blocks the submission from saving, with the message "This submission has hours entries that are not within the submission window."
Late submissions
If you submit after the window's end date, FiscFlow marks the submission late and shows a late-notification field. It still goes through; it's just flagged so approvers can see it was after the deadline.
Being late has a practical consequence: a late submission may not be paid in the current pay cycle and can be pushed to the next one. Submit within the window whenever you can so pay isn't delayed.
Deleting a submission
- You cannot delete a submission that's been finalized - undo the approval first.
- You cannot delete a submission in a closed (inactive) fiscal year.
- You cannot delete a submission whose hours have already been exported to payroll.
- Deleting a PR submission simply returns the personnel requisition to its un-submitted state.