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/.

Since the very first version of TimeControl, we have believed that no users should have to confront features in the product that aren’t for them. For a timesheet, you might think that’s silly. After all, how many features can there be?
Lots.
But in TimeControl’s User Profiles, Administrators and system designers can decide what elements of TimeControl to display to which users.
So long as some super-Administrator has access to the User Profiles, you can hide many of the features that you might not be interested in deploying at this time. This is a common practice for almost all TimeControl deployments over the last 30 years.
The result is that an end-user who perhaps just does their timesheet and nothing else can have everything else hidden. They won’t see the Tables or the Reports or the Tools or even the documentation unless that has been made available to them. This makes TimeControl incredibly easy to adopt for the end user.
But… This same ease of use can present a challenge over the long term.
On a regular basis an experience TimeControl user emails a request asking if we can help find a tool that would attach itself to TimeControl for some function only to reply that the very feature they are looking for is already in TimeControl.
Some clients have been using TimeControl for over 25 years and like any enterprise system, once it’s in place and doing what was originally intended, there is little effort expended on seeing how the use of the product can be extended or if the organization is using all that the system provides.
Not that we expect every user to read all our documentation but just to make this point, our reference guide has over 600 pages. The user guide, over 100. Our report designer guide is another 400+ pages and our BI Guide another 180+. The TimeControl Project Guide is another 100+ pages.
There are a lot of features that could be used in TimeControl, and no one deploys them all.
So, if you are a TimeControl client, we encourage you to keep an eye on what’s new in each TimeControl version and from time to time ask our staff to do a generic catch up training session as we might do for any new client. You can also look at the many video courses or sessions on the website or just keep up with this blog.
TimeControl may have the answers you’re looking for already in your hands.