Category Archives: timecontrol

timecontrol

Welcome to 2024 and HMS Software’s 40th anniversary!

It’s a brand new year and there is a lot happening here at HMS.  We’re coming off an amazing 2023 where we posted record revenues in the biggest year ever for the company.  There’s a lot more to come.

First, 2024 is HMS Software’s 40th anniversary.  For those of us who have been with the company since the beginning that’s a bit mind boggling.  We’ll be talking more about HMS turning 40 in the months to come including a look back at how we got here.

Next, 2024 is TimeControl’s 30th anniversary.  There are more HMS’rs who were here for the initial launch of TimeControl.  We’ll be making a big deal about that too later in the year.

Finally, we have just launched TimeControl 8.5 and will in the next few days update all TimeControl Online servers to version 8.5.  That includes TimeControl Online, TimeControl Industrial Online and TimeControl Project.  See What’s new with TimeControl for a more comprehensive list of new features.

We’re looking forward to an amazing year!

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Happy Holidays from your TimeControl team

As we near the end of a remarkable 2023, we’re reminded here at HMS of how grateful we are to our clients, our colleagues and friends.

We wish you and yours the very best of the holiday season.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

HMS will have holidays hours over the next week as follows:

  • Fri, Dec 22 – Office closed at noon
  • Mon, Dec 25 – Non work day – office closed for Christmas
  • Tue, Dec 26 – Non work day – office closed for Boxing Day
  • Wed, Dec 27 – Work day
  • Thu, Dec 28 – Work day
  • Fri, Dec 29 – Office closed at noon
  • Mon, Jan 1   – Non work day  – office closed for New Year’s
  • Tue, Jan 2 – Non work day – office closed
  • Wednesday, Jan 3 – return to normal operations
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TimeControl 8.5 released

Version 8.5 of TimeControl and TimeControl Industrial have been released.  We are very excited about this version of TimeControl.  There have been new features, enhancements and improvements for TimeControl, TimeControl Industrial, TimeControl Online, TimeControl Industrial Online and TimeControl Project and the list is extensive.

TimeControl BI

Our new TimeControl Business Intelligence Dashboard is a brand new module included in every edition of TimeControl.  It allows administrators to create views of TimeControl data as it trends over weeks, months and years to provide a unique perspective in how the organization is working.

See www.timecontrol.com/features/timecontrolbi for more details and examples.

Inline Debit/Credit

Inline Debit/Credit is a huge change to how our auditable Debit/Credit system works for post-posted adjustments.  With Inline Debit/Credit, the changes to a posted timesheet are simply made as though the timesheet was still in draft mode.  Along with the new Inline Debit/Credit there is a major enhancement to how this affects both Project Manager Validation and Line Item Approval.  Now, when changes are made to a posted timesheet with Inline Debit/Credit, as those changes are posted, they will shift the status of lines in PM Validation and Line Item Approval to pending.

TimeRequest Approvals and Validation Rules

Now, not only can the approval workflow for a TimeRequest be different from the timesheet workflow, it can follow rules for the type of request.  Our extensive Validation Rules system which already included the ability to create definitions of what would make an acceptable timesheet or crew timesheet has been extended to include TimeRequests.

Plus so much more

Enhanced link to Primavera, optional grid lines in the timesheet, support for database LDAP authentication for on-premise deployments, enhancements to the free TimeControl Mobile App,  line-item approvals for materials and equipment, default views for TimeControl Project.  Also in TimeControl Project the ability to export a Board or GANTT View to Excel, create a Sheets View independent of the Posted Timesheet table, hover over a card to see the details and so, so much more.

To see the complete list of changes in TimeControl 8.5, go to TimeControl.com/features/latest.

TimeControl and TimeControl Industrial for on-premise deployments can be downloaded right now at TimeControl.com/support/updates.  For TimeControl Online, TimeControl Industrial Online and TimeControl Project clients, systems will be updated automatically in the first week of January.  Users will receive notice within the application online of exactly when to expect their update.

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Quantifying the cost of multiple timesheet systems

We’ve talked for a long time about the inherent cost to an organization of supporting multiple timesheet systems. We’re updating several pieces of internal collateral on the subject right now but one thing we’ve never done before is to quantify the actual costs.

Think about this.

On average (according to industry surveys), employees spend on average about 15 minutes per week completing a computer-based timesheet. This doesn’t include any time for supervisors, managers, administrators or IT assistance. This number matches up well with our own internal discussions with our clients who report that with TimeControl the average per day is between 2 and 5 minutes of time.

The numbers vary when looking at more manual timesheet solutions such as Excel-based or paper based systems (yes, there are plenty of those that still exist)

We encounter numerous companies who have deployed multiple timesheet systems. Let’s take the easiest one. Imagine a company with 100 people with one timesheet for project management and separate timesheet for payroll.

Based on a salary of, say, $40,000 per year and regular salary burdens, a 40 hour work week and 15 minutes of time on timesheets per week, the company will spent about $480 per week of time on each timesheet. So the extra cost of having two timesheets for that 100 person company is a whopping $25,000 and that is for the time spent by employees only. There’s also time for supervisors, managers, reporting, analysis and (the worst) reconciling data between systems that has to be paid for as well. The problems get compounded when there are additional timesheets that have to be filled in for, say billing, HR, job costing and more. It is not uncommon for us to encounter companies with 3 or 4 timesheet systems which are all active at the same time.

This alone should encourage consideration of a multi-function timesheet but there are numerous other reasons. Imagine the happiness of employees who are told that they will no longer have to spend time entering two timesheets because all the timesheet requirements can be handled by one entry.

Take a look at how the multi-function aspect of TimeControl can generate a tremendous efficiency savings for clients by talking to one of our Timesheet Executives.

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It’s the end of the year and time to be sure your R&D reporting is up to date.

With the end of the calendar year in sight, it’s time to review the R&D tax credit reporting that you are shortly going to be asked to deliver.

TimeControl has been used for R&D tax credit reporting since it was first created and here at HMS we are well familiar with the process. Many governments in the US, Canada, Australia, UK and Europe have some kind of Research incentive program. It often occurs at both the federal and state levels. Virtually all jurisdictions have similar requests and TimeControl is well suited to the requirements of this type of tax reporting.

When creating a request for an R&D tax credit or to report on R&D grants or any similar government sponsored program, the needs are often the same. There must be timesheets used to track the time spent on the reported work. Those timesheets must track the time at a “sufficient level of detail” usually at the task level. The people who work on the projects must be eligible for the program. That usually means that they are residents of the appropriate jurisdiction and that their work is not covered under any other program. Finally, the accounting that comes from Finance must balance against the report. So the values in the request for credit has to match the values in payroll or invoices received etc.

TimeControl was designed with this kind of requirement in mind. As a multi-function timesheet it works well in the Finance structure with auditable data. As a project-oriented system, it works well in project management structure with projects and activities and as a multi-function system the flexibility of TimeControl’s data allows meta data with user defined fields to tag activities and people as eligible for different programs. That makes reporting for R&D simple.

The TimeControl website has an entire portal of resources for using TimeControl for R&D Tax Credits including a white paper that explains the triangle audit that is often required when an audit occurs. Other resources include webcasts, case studies and slide presentations.

You can find the TimeControl Research and Development portal at TimeControl.com/use-cases/r-and-d-tax-credits or contact a TimeControl Specialist at TimeControl.com/contact.

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TimeControl flexibility happens at every level

We often talk about the flexibility of TimeControl.  As a multi-purpose, multi-function timesheet and project system, it really has to be.  Over the many years TimeControl has been on the market, we have never met two companies who want to use it in exactly the same way.  So, the ability to configure the system to adapt to work flow, approvals, functions that are visible, tables that are used and even down to the field level selections are all part of the flexibility philosophy with the TimeControl team.

Flexibility in TimeControl extends not just in how you configure TimeControl but all the way down the line to the end user.

Where we work with administrators on how they would like to integrate TimeControl with other systems and what fields of data to show and not, even end users get choices about how to personalize and customize TimeControl.  Here are just a few ways individuals can modify their TimeControl experience:

Timesheet configuration

By selecting the Options in the timesheet, end users can change the field order, what fields are visible and how to sort the fields.  End users can choose to group their timesheet lines hierarchically if they have many entries or to sort entries however they wish.  Don’t want to see weekend days?  No problem, that’s changeable right in the options and TimeControl will remember the preference for each user.  Right on the timesheet, users can change the order of fields or change the width of fields to suit them.

Also in options is the ability to Wrap the headers of each column and to show line numbers or an on-line access to Line item Notes along with an indicator to show if that line has notes entered already.  In the same options screen users can even select the day/date format to show at the top of the entry columns.

Language and Dashboards

In the MyAccount area, users can select what language they would like TimeControl to be presented in.  More comfortable in French? No problem.  Spanish?  No problem.  This is a user-level selection so only this user’s interface will change.  Users might also change which dashboard they can see (If Administrators have allowed this) or what they would like their starting page to be both for TimeControl and TimeControl Project.

Preloading

Aside from Resource Assignment Pre-loading which might or not be in use for an organization, end users can also select what timesheet lines they would like to always automatically be preloaded.  So, if a user has meetings virtually every week, they can elect to always show a “Meetings” line item without having to add it all the time.  There are other options too for defaults and pre-answering questions that a users always answers the same way such as do they want to send a notification to their supervisor when they release their timesheet.

It’s all part of the same underlying philosophy with the TimeControl team.  End users should be able to be as efficient as possible in the product.  But in the background, all the functionality that we talk about so often is kept away from them having to wade through.

For more on flexibility, see the TimeControl website at TimeControl.com/features/flexibility.

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New Online TimeControl Report Designer Course

We’re very excited to announce the availability of a new multi-part video training course on the use of the TimeControl Report Designer.  Created by the HMS Technical Staff, the course comes in 12 bite-sized 3-5 minute sections and covers how to create your first TimeControl Report from scratch and how clean up the formatting so it’s ready for production.

The course video sections can all be downloaded so if you’d prefer to keep the files onsite or on your own system for later reference, that’s easy to do.

You’ll find the new TimeControl Report Designer Course at: TimeControl.com/resources/online-training/timecontrol-rw.

Additional video training for TimeControl and TimeControl Project can be found at TimeControl.com/resources/online-training and many other resources can be found on the Resources Page at: TimeControl.com/resources.

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The TimeControl Evolve Program brings your on-premise data to the cloud

The TimeControl Evolve program enables TimeControl on-premise clients to easily migrate to TimeControl Online.  And, it’s a lot more than that.

First of all, TC Evolve is designed to enable TimeControl on-premise clients to migrate to TimeControl Online, our TimeControl Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription in the Cloud.  The evolve program is an inexpensive and effective way to move your TimeControl system into the cloud.  It works for both TimeControl Online and TimeControl Industrial Online.

TimeControl on-premise has been sold since 1994 and there are many on-premise clients out there.  It’s true that most of our sales these days are for TimeControl Online but TimeControl on-premise is still sold and supported and will be for as far into the future as we can see.

In the last few years, more and more on-premise clients are thinking about what it would take to move their TimeControl system into our SaaS model.  The number one concern is how much their TimeControl will change.

If you are using the most current version of TimeControl or TimeControl Industrial on-premise, then there is no change to how will be online.  That’s because we committed years ago to keeping the source base of both on-premise and on-line systems the same.  That’s a big deal.  So, features that work for you in the on-premise version, work just the same in the online version!

The second concern prospective migrators have is what about their current configuration and their existing data.  While you could always start fresh, clients don’t. HMS helps them move 100% of their existing configuration and existing TimeControl data to TimeControl Online.

There are many advantages to migrating to a TimeControl Online subscription:

  1. First, all maintenance of TimeControl is handled by HMS. We do all the server, database, malware prevention and application upgrades for you.
  2. TimeControl Online is upgraded automatically by HMS. You will no longer have to be concerned about upgrades.  HMS takes care of all updates, upgrades and new version installation centrally on the TimeControl Online servers.
  3. Continuous monitoring is handled for you. TimeControl Online is monitored 24x7x365.  We are looking at the system continuously and are proud of our 99.9%+ uptime since the service was first launched in 2011.
  4. TimeControl Online and TimeControl on-premise are the same code. That means that all functionality that you know and love in TimeControl on-premise is already in TimeControl Online.
  5. Data backups and disaster recovery is already included. TimeControl Online is backed up daily and you can even download your own database backup in case you want to be sure to have control over it.  Disaster recovery is layered to handle issues of different scales and types.
  6. TimeControl Online is highly secure. We follow the OWASP standards for testing and our data is housed by Amazon Web Services in highly secure facilities.  Our SOC II certification let’s you know that our security protocols have been examined and audited by external third parties and deemed secure.
  7. TimeControl Project is an optional part of TimeControl Online and TimeControl Industrial Online and is not available with TimeControl on-premise.  Moving to TimeControl Online means you can elect to use TimeControl Project.

The TimeControl Evolve program will let you migrate your TimeControl on-premise licenses to the cloud and we won’t charge the subscription until your current support contract expires.  There is no subscription cost for the entire remainder of your already active support contract.  If you just updated your technical support for your TimeControl on-premise today, then that’s a whole year of TimeControl Online for free.

Free.

When you sign up for the Evolve program we are available to assist you in migrating all your existing data to TimeControl Online.  If you haven’t upgraded your TimeControl on-premise to the most current version, then we can help do the upgrades to ensure that the data you have will immediately migrate to the online version.  We can also advise you on maintaining or enhancing your links to external systems such as Project Management tools, Finance, Payroll, ERPs and more.

Everyone’s situation is different.  If you’d like to talk to one of our Account Specialists about whether the TimeControl Evolve program is right for you, contact us at: https://www.timecontrol.com/contact or email us at info@hms.ca.

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See Choosing Timesheets our latest webcast from HMS Software

We’ve just posted a new webcast on a subject that we are asked about often.  How does one go about choosing a timesheet and why is what sounds like a simple exercise so common.  Our President, Chris Vandersluis goes through the answer as well as showing how to overcome the challenge of choosing multiple timesheets.

You can also see the slides from this presentation at TimeControl.com/pdf/presentations/choosingtimesheets.pdf.

For more webcasts, see the TimeControl Webcast page.

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TimeControl uses hierarchies to manage huge volumes of charges

One challenge we faced when first creating TimeControl were the types of projects that we were presented with.  We’d seen other timesheets which could handle a dozen possible charge types on a timesheet. They’re still quite common.  That’s not at all what we were facing.  Our earliest clients described projects with hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of tasks each.  One client explained that they had over 50,000 active projects world-wide that they expected to load into the system and each project had approximately 1,000 tasks.

The idea that a user would scroll page after page looking for a possible task to charge their time against was a no-starter.

So TimeControl evolved with several possible methods of reducing what end-users would be presented with.  We introduced pre-loading, dynamic filters and assignment selections but perhaps the most powerful tool for displaying high volumes of data in a digestible format was the notion of hierarchies.

The idea of breaking down tasks into groupings and sub-groupings wasn’t new.  The very project management tools we wanted to integrate with already used the idea of Work Breakdown Structures for large projects.  So we incorporated the concept into TimeControl.

At the end user level, the idea is very straightforward.  The possible charge codes that an end user has access to are presented in a breakdown.  The most simple would be just like a project system using a delimited charge code with each period being a new level.  This is amazingly effective.

But TimeControl doesn’t stop there.

The Charge Table can be organized with not one but multiple hierarchy definitions.  Let’s say that for some users, breaking the charges down by location, then billing status then priority is the way to go.  For others perhaps breaking the charges by billable then capitalizable makes more sense.  TimeControl’s hierarchies format can define multiples and end users can select the hierarchy that makes most sense to the.

We didn’t stop there.  The selection of Rates can use the same type of hierarchy structure as can the selection of Employees in other parts of the product.

TimeControl Hierarchies take massive lists of possible data and breaks it down to bite-sized selections.