Category Archives: Crew Timesheet

Supporting contractors in your corporate systems

Contractors, TimeControl, TimeControl Industrial, Chris Vandersluis, Christopher Vandersluis, Christopher Peter VandersluisWe often speak with organizations who are struggling with how to integrate their contractors into their corporate systems.  Payroll is rarely a problem.  The contractor is almost always paid by their own employer and that employer will submit an invoice for their person’s time.  It is in the project management and timesheet tracking areas where contractors become a more logistical nightmare.  This is exacerbated by environments where the individuals can change from week to week or even day to day.  When contractors are on longer-term engagements or working remotely, we hear about this more in relation to our standard TimeControl system.  When the contractors are taken from a pool each morning or each week, this comes up more in our TimeControl Industrial product in the Crew Management module.

TimeControl’s flexibility was designed to accommodate employees from multiple sources within the same organization.  Let’s look at that from a couple of different perspectives.

Authentication and Single Sign-on

Some clients report that to use any of their corporate systems, they need to on-board any workers whether they are full-time employees, part-time employees or contractors.  They use this workflow to record people for payroll, vacation and system access.  This can be a multi-step process that can result in additional hundreds or even thousands of employees receiving a corporate ID and can affect things like the number of licenses that must now be paid for in systems like Payroll or HR or Office systems that a contractor won’t ever use.  The challenge is so daunting and potentially expensive that organizations will isolate the contractors outside those systems where functions like timesheets will now be done completely separately.

TimeControl overcomes this by having authentication systems that are defined at the user level rather than globally.  On-premise staff can be authenticated in the corporate Single Sign-on  Active Directory such as Microsoft Entra or other LDAP mechanism. Contractors, on the other hand can use TimeControl’s own username/password login or alternate login mechanisms.  That frees up the corporation from having to bring every contractor on board the corporate infrastructure as though they are full-time employees.  Better yet, this can serve to avoid multiple timesheet systems (one for the contractor and one for the corporation) that don’t interact with each other.

It’s all together but that doesn’t leave the contractor company disenfranchised

With all the data for the timesheet now in one place, some contractor companies can be concerned they will lose access to their own employee’s timesheet information.  With TimeControl nothing could be further from the truth.  TimeControl’s can send data automatically to the contractor either by giving them limited and filtered access to TimeControl itself or by sending regular reports automatically on a schedule via email.  Data can even be sent via Excel so the contractors can automatically import that data into their own internal systems for their own payroll, billing and HR needs.  It’s a win-win.

Authentication and multiple approval layers

TimeControl’s approval mechanism is extensive and known as the most flexible in the industry.  Clients who use contractors are able to create an approval flow that will includes both the contractor’s representative and the corporation administration at the same time.  TimeControl is designed for this kind of challenge and it’s unique.  A timesheet could be approved on a remote site by both the contractor manager and the organization manager meaning that invoices from the contractor, once they arrive, will already have approvals from both sides.  Imagine how that will revolutionize the invoicing approval process at the end of the month with hours being pre-approved by both the client and the contractor.  We clients where invoice reconciliation times have dropped from weeks to hours.  We’re not kidding about that.
From weeks to hours.

It’s all about the flexibility

When you are merging the work of multiple contractors into the same system, clients often explain to us that the blending of corporate processes was a large barrier that TimeControl was able to overcome.  TimeControl’s timesheets can appear one way for one group of workers and very differently for other groups of workers.  When we weave in the additional functionality of TimeControl Industrial’s Crew Timesheet Entry and Enhanced Rates, the options become extensive.  Once entered, the data can be split, shared or divided up as need be in exports, reports and more.

We’ve mentioned a few things here you may want to look at some more.  HMS maintains a Manage Contractors solution portal with more information on using TimeControl with both Employees and Contractors at the same time.  If you’re interested in Crew Timesheets in particular or TimeControl Industrial in General, check out industrial.timecontrol.com or just contact us at timecontrol.com/contact to talk to one of our TimeControl specialists.

TimeControl Industrial 6.4 now available

This is a big month of announcements at HMS.  As you may have seen in our last newsletter, we have completed the migration of TimeControl Industrial into the TimeControl 6 family. This is a major new version of the TimeControl Industrial edition. TimeControl Industrial 6.4 has been designed specifically for field data collection of labor and non-labor usage on industrial and construction field sites. This builds on the already popular functionality of the classic TimeControl and delivers a timesheet system that can be used simultaneously for back office and field personnel as well as a field data entry system for material consumption, equipment usage and even production values accomplished.

We’re extremely excited about TimeControl Industrial coming into the TimeControl 6 architecture.  Bringing TimeControl Industrial’s field data collection functionality together with the highly flexible functionality of the classic TimeControl is a winning combination for many of our clients.”

TimeControl Industrial adds several elements of functionality that are ideally suited to collecting data in heavy construction, offshore, industrial or plant shutdown environments where the employees doing the work don’t have access to computers to enter the data themselves. These functions include:

Crew Timesheet Entry
TimeControl Industrial adds an additional timesheet interface to the weekly timesheet that is TC64_CrewEntry_300x209included for back office workers. TimeControl Industrial’s Crew Timesheet Entry allows crews to be assembled and then time entered for the entire crew at once. Crew Timesheet supports weekly, daily or even multiple timesheets per day to accommodate multiple shifts. Blank timesheets can be carried by the foreman or supervisor and then the timesheet for the entire crew is entered at one time. The Crew Timesheet Entry interface is included as both a web-browser and Windows Application Interface.

Material / Equipment / Production Entry
TimeControlIndustrial extends Field Data Collection beyond timesheets with the Material / tc6_materialentry_300x209Equipment / Production Entry interface. Non-labor cost entries can be allocated by project, by task, by resource and with a limitless number of possible rates to track material used, equipment expended and even production values of what was accomplished. This module is also delivered as both a web-browser and Windows Application interface for high-volume entry. When combined with either the Non-labor rates tables or the Extended Materials Rate system, multiple values can be tracked at once such as the actual internal cost, estimated cost, average project cost and invoiceable billing price. Once entered, Material / Equipment and Production can have unique approval paths or can be approved along the same lines as the Crew Timesheets.

Extended Rates
TimeControl Industrial includes functionality to vastly extend Rate tracking to atc6_crewextendedrates_300x238ccommodate complex burdened or premium rates or rates that vary for particular conditions. Imagine a field situation where unionized workers are paid different hourly premiums if they work the evening or overnight shifts and additional premiums if they work in inclement weather or in a remote location. Or imagine equipment costs that are different if the equipment is used at night or when the temperatures are very warm or very cold. Managing this with a traditional timesheet could be a challenge, but not with TimeControl Industrial, The extended Rates system handles these types of situations easily by matching user-defined and existing columns of data in the Crew Timesheet Entry and Material / Equipment / Production Entry interfaces with identical columns in the Extended Rates table.

TimeControl Industrial delivers a highly flexible timesheet and material / equipment / production data collection system to the field. It has been developed with requirements straight out of field use with our clients and we have found from experience on client sites that it delivers increased productivity. But, we also know that organizations and requirements change and TimeControl Industrial’s flexibility means the system can adapt whenever that is required.

TimeControl Industrial includes all the functionality that has made TimeControl one of the world’s most respected timesheet systems including links to project management systems such as Oracle-Primavera, Microsoft Project and Deltek’s Open Plan. It also includes links that can be defined for Payroll, HR and Finance systems as well as ERP systems such as PeopleSoft, Oracle Financials and SAP.

TimeControl Industrial is available immediately. Clients with current support contracts have access to the upgrade at no cost. For more information on TimeControl Industrial, visit http://industrial.timecontro.com.

TimeControl Industrial is available both for installation on premise or as a subscription in the cloud online.

About TimeControl
TimeControl was originally released in 1994. It was immediately successful in the project management sector and today is recognized not only as a project management solution, but also as an enterprise timesheet solution in use by companies worldwide. TimeControl is designed as a multipurpose timesheet able to serve the needs of both Finance and Project Management simultaneously. It includes features such as a multi-browser, multi-device interface, a PC and mobile interface, vacation approvals, executive dashboards, extensive approval functionality, flexible reporting and links to project management and corporate systems which makes the timesheet product ideally suited for integration with existing systems in any organization. TimeControl’s flexibility allows it to be deployed for use as a time and attendance, time and billing, project tracking and flex-time system.  TimeControl is available both for purchase for an on-premises installation or as an on-line subscription in the Cloud.
For more information about TimeControl and TimeControl Industrial, monitor the TimeControl blog at blog.timecontrol.com, the TimeControl Industrial website at industrial.timecontrol.com or the main TimeControl website at www.timecontrol.com.
For information about TimeControlOnline, our hosted timesheet subscription service in the cloud, go to www.timecontrol.net.
For any other questions, please contact HMS Software at info@hmssoftware.ca.

HMS has representatives or distributors in Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, Finland, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, the UK, and the U.S.

About HMS Software
Based in Montreal, Canada with offices in Toronto, HMS Software has been a leading provider of project management and enterprise timesheet systems and services since 1984.  HMS Software’s first customized timesheet application was written in 1984. With the launch of TimeControl as a commercial application in 1994, HMS Software began servicing clients worldwide. 

HMS Software’s client list reads like a who’s who of business. It includes Acergy, Aecon, Rio Tinto, the Atlanta Airport, the City of Montreal, the County of San Mateo, Electromotive Diesel, EXFO, FT Services, Kelly Services, Koch, Merck Frosst, the Government of Quebec, Georgia Pacific, Parker Hannifin, Rolls Royce, Sobeys, Volvo Novabus, Zimmer Inc. and hundreds of others. 
For further information about HMS Software, please visit the HMS website at: www.hmssoftware.ca or contact us at info@hmssoftware.ca.