TimeControl is an enterprise system and, like all enterprise systems, it rarely exists alone.  Since its very first version, one of TimeControl’s most important features is its ability to integrate with other tools.  Over its long history, those integration abilities have evolved with many different features.  In some organizations, it will be desirable to see a seamless integration driven by the particular needs of certain tools.  Linking with Project Management tools is often like that.  The movement of data between TimeControl and Project Management tools means a certain back-and-forth with each transaction because so much of the transaction affects to many other things.  This is why TimeControl includes pre-built integrations with so many project management packages.  For Finance, however, it is extremely common for a CFO to tell us that they have no desire for any external system to push data into their ERP system.  They far prefer a transaction file to be created to their specifications and that they will consume that file with their own controls.

TimeControl has many ways to serve up or consume data.  Let’s take a look at a few:

Imports and Exports

One of the easiest and most popular ways to move data between TimeControl and other corporate systems is to use the TimeControl import and export links.  This functionality has been enhanced numerous times over the years and it works just as well in TimeControl Online as is does in TimeControl on premise.

TimeControl can consume a file for import (such as updated employees from new hires) on demand at any time.  The file can be in Excel or CSV format and you can use a pre-existing template to move the data in from your PC or wherever you access it at any time.

TimeControl Imports and Exports can be automated to happen behind the scenes on a pre-defined schedule.  You can use encrypted secure FTP transfer protocols to locate a file for import or to transmit a file as an export and then automatically send an email announcing if the file was transferred successfully or if intervention is needed.  This can be a great way to update TimeControl from HR records.  The HR system can create an onboarding file for TimeControl in a specific location and TimeControl can check for it and consume it overnight.  There will be a log of the file import so the Administrator can make sure it was imported successfully.

We tend to talk about Import/Export as an interface rather than an integration but that’s semantics.  The data is being integrated between different systems in a controlled and monitored fashion.

Links to Project Management

TimeControl comes with numerous pre-built and configurable integrations with Project Management Systems.  This has always been a part of TimeControl. Given TimeControl’s multi-decade longevity, some vendors are no longer supported because their products are no longer supported.

Project Management Links are almost all bi-directional based on the capabilities of the pm system in question.  These include links to Microsoft Project, Project Online, Project Server, Project for the Web, InEight, Hard Dollar, BrightWork, Contruent, Open Plan, Oracle’s Primavera and Primavera EPPM.

Authentication for these tools is managed within TimeControl depending on the requirements of the system.

Links via API

TimeControl’s ultimate integration is its bi-directional full service RESTful API (Application Programming Interface).  This interface allows the client to create code to access TimeControl directly to push data or to pull data out for almost every aspect of the system.  The API makes sure that requests through it won’t violate TimeControl’s referential integrity or any of the other database-based or configuration based rules.The API’s power is extensive.

This is one method clients can use to pull TimeControl data and then data updates for external data management systems like Microsoft Power BI or other reporting or analysis tools.

Talk to a TimeControl specialist about your particular needs of integrating TimeControl with other corporate systems.

TimeControl was available in both English and French on its first day on the market. The term localization hadn’t even been coined at the time, but it would have been quite appropriate. HMS Software, the publishers of TimeControl is, after all, headquartered in Montreal, Canada where both English and French are common. So, TimeControl itself as well as our website has always had elements of both French and English.

It should be no surprise then, that the system was used all over the province of Quebec, in France and other predominantly francophone locations. By the time we got to TimeControl version 3, we had realized that the product would have to do more than support just two languages. Localization refers to more than just the screen interface. Date formatting, for example, differs between the US (MM/DD/YY) and Canada (DD/MM/YY) so we realized early on that meeting local user needs would be a more extensive effort.

The result appears in several places in TimeControl. The language used to present the interface is selected by the end-user in their MyAccount area. It is defined in the TimeControl languages module where admins can not only define which languages are available but also modify the existing language definition. So, if a particular term such as Projects would be better to be called Mandates, that is changeable by the Administrators. More than that, while

TimeControl now ships with a number of different languages, if needed, Administrators can add their own definition.

Localization doesn’t stop there. Date formatting is defined by the administrator as a configuration setting as is the display of currency symbols and even the number of digits. This is defined at the User Profile level so some users might see TimeControl looking one way and other users could see it looking quite different. The language can be defaulted for an individual but they can select a different language just for themselves should they wish. For documentation, aside from the English or French user guides provided by HMS, clients can add their own internal user guide in whatever language they wish using the Menu editor.

The result is having the end-user comfortable to quickly enter TimeControl, do the work they have to do in the system and then get out as effectively as possible.

TimeControl started quite a long time ago.  By the time 1994 arrived and we had decided to publish TimeControl as a commercial off the shelf (COTS) timesheet system, we knew already that we would have to continue to work hard to update the product for technology that was changing dramatically even as we launched.

The first version of TimeControl was as a DOS product, a character-based interface.  That would be supplanted within the year with TimeControl version 2, with a Windows interface.  We were working on version 3 even as we launched that version.  TimeControl 3 featured support for client-server databases such as Microsoft’s SQL Server and the Oracle database.  Version 4 launched with one of the first ever browser-based interfaces for an enterprise product.  It was 1999.

Over the years, we have committed a portion of our development efforts to what we refer to internally as ‘infrastructure’.  It is, in our opinion, unavoidable.  The current term for this is ‘keeping a current technology stack’.  This is part of the cost of doing business.  There is a lot of technology to keep up with.

An enterprise product like TimeControl needs to support multiple databases and database versions.  These days we work with SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL.  Over the years there have been others.  Each of those products are also keeping up their technology stack.  They change all the time.  TimeControl also has to support different versions of Microsoft Server and different browsers including Chrome, Safari, Mozilla, Edge and Firefox.  Those too change all the time.  There are regular changes in malware protection, safety protocols and support for our product being used in our Software as a Service Online edition.  There is support for our free TimeControl Mobile App as well used by both Android and Apple iOS devices.   There are transportation protocols for data moving across the Internet that have to keep up with current standards to be more effective and safer.

TimeControl is well known for its links to Project Management tools like Oracle’s Primavera and Microsoft Project and Project Online.  These tools also change on a regular basis.

The very programming languages we use also change as do the interface controls we subscribe to in order to present different elements of our product.

TimeControl also including an Application Programming Interface (API) which allows other external systems to integrate to it without our intervention.  That too has to keep up with current language and protocol standards.

We’ve seen other products in our industry where, for whatever reason, the technology stack effort stalled.  Perhaps it was a short term plan to reduce costs and sell the company.  Perhaps the effort to update the technology stack was simply too challenging.  Those products quickly fell behind others in their category and, while not irrelevant, became harder and harder to sell, deploy and integrate.

That was never going to be us.

For TimeControl that means updating our underlying architecture all the time.  But, we don’t want to update in a way to make TimeControl unstable so we have to update that technology carefully as we do each major version.

I was noticing our most recent job posting for a developer which listed some of the technology we hope they will have experience in: C#, ASP.NET, Web API, RESTful services, Angular 4+, DevExtreme, OAuth/OpenID and, Bootstrap.  It’s quite a list and that’s not exhaustive.  Nor, do we expect we will find all of that in one person every time.

We haven’t even talked about changes that come about with modern desires like the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

We’re working on updating infrastructure in TimeControl now and I expect we’ll be doing it tomorrow and every tomorrow for as long as we can see forward.  Keeping up with the technology stack is one important way that TimeControl stays relevant.

Chris Vandersluis, the president of HMS Software has just posted an article on his EPM Guidance site about resource leveling.  It’s particularly timely as we get ready for the upgrade of TimeControl Project 8.6 in our TimeControl Online environment this weekend.

Resource Leveling was once all the rage in the project management industry but the software industry refocused on getting tools into the hands of individuals with the associated licensing and the ability of the resource leveling algorithms to deliver a meaningful picture was sidelined.

Take a look at the article on EPM Guidance at: www.epmguidance.com/2025/02/27/what-ever-happened-to-resource-leveling/.