Does the irs approve refunds or update returns on weekends?

https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/When-is-Where's-My-Refund-Available%3F
Time is given on their website.

No. According to the IRS tax transcript is only used to validate past income and tax filing status for mortgage, student and small business loan applications and to help with tax preparation.

Plus, you may not see anything in WMR while your return is being processed and that can be normal.

Please see the article below for more information.

Is it true that ordering a transcript will tell me when my refund is coming?

Here's more information about an accepted return.    

What does accepted mean?   

@robrich33

I was accepted by the irs on Wednesday February 12th and have not heard anything.  How long does it take to be approved?

YES!!!  Ive been checking my status daily and even a couple times a day and the WMR actually tells you when you've exceeded the attempts to check as you only need to check once. Amyway I checked yesterday - Friday and it still said your refund has been received and is processing. Well today its Saturday and the bars on top with two of three highlighted and under it says:

Your tax refund is scheduled to be sent to your bank by February 26, 2020. If your refund is not credited to your account by March 2, 2020, check with your bank to see if it has been received.

I filed February 27, 2020 it was approved but still no date. I filed through turbotax 

Theyve only ever given me a DUI

The IRS website itself says that the "Where's My Refund" tool updates once every 24hrs, usually overnight. Link below.

https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/the-2023-tax-season-has-begun-irs-offers-tips-to-accurately-file-your-return#:~:text=The%20%E2%80%9CWhere's%20My%20Refund%3F%E2%80%9D%20tool%20updates%20once%20every%2024,IRS%20began%20accepting%20returns%20Jan.

And then there's this video from TurboTax/Intuit. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/tax-refund/video-what-days-of-the-week-does-the-irs-deposit-tax-refunds/L2ojYZvjK

If you watch the video or read the transcript,

I believe it says the IRS updates your refund status once per week on Wednesdays. And there are 2 days during the week where the send refunds. One day is for direct deposits and the other day is for mailing paper checks.  

And if you think that's rather confusing, when you try to Google the question (or anything similar) many pages will say the IRS updates once a day during the week - between 12 A.M. and 6 A.M. in the morning. 

I would think the first answer I gave is most reliable, being that it's directly from the IRS website.