Category Archives: timesheet upgrade

Meet the new TimeControl Report Interface

Meet the new TimeControl Reporting environment

You know TimeControl as one of the most flexible timesheets on the market today but the release of version 6.5 has put reporting of your labor actuals into a whole new category.  GraphicsReportExampleTimeControl was released in 1994 and the flexible Excel-like reporting environment (which is still included with TimeControl) was introduced in 1999.  Since then, it has delivered thousands of reports in a tabular column and row approach which end users could print or save as Excel spreadsheets.  As flexible as that was, there were requests for more.  Could we fix the report format to show a company logo?  Could we do a graphics report?  Could we do a report with multiple lines or long fields that would automatically wrap their text? Could we have calculated fields that did formulas inside the report?  The new report interface brings all of this and more.  While there are some example reports in the new reporting system, the capabilities of this module of TimeControl are vast. 

The new TimeControl Report Interface comes in two parts, a Designer and a Presenter.  The Designer is Charge_Table_rerport_in_iPaddesigned to be used by a TimeControl Administrator and brings a rich collection of tools to a Windows PC to design and create report formats.  The TimeControl Report Designer is installed using Microsoft’s Click-Once technology.  The Presenter requires no installed code on the local terminal.  It follows TimeControl’s.Net architecture and will present any report that has been made available to that user.  The TimeControl Report Interface follows all the same security structures which are already a part of TimeControl.  If a user has access only to certain data, then regardless of which report format is selected, only the data to which they have rights will be displayed.  If the user is prohibited from viewing certain fields, then even if those fields are in a report format, they will not display to that user.

That’s the basic structure but what now becomes possible?

A lot.

The new report environment includes a WYSIWYG report designer that lets you control fonts, insert objects such as pictures, text, calculations, graphics charts, tables, pivot tables and, of course, data from TimeControl.  ReportDesignerGuideCover_200x259The new functionality is so extensive we’ve needed to create a brand new manual called the TimeControl Report Designer Guide which adds over 230 pages of new report functionality to consume.  Graphics charts include pie charts, histograms, curves and more.  For the first time, TimeControl can generate its own burn-down charts and spending curves. 

Tabular reports are vastly improved as well.  TimeControl now gives font control to every element on the report.  There can be some data in a small font, and headers somewhat larger.  Fonts can be colored for emphasis and conditional formatting can even show some data in one color and other data in another color based on the values displayed.  Tabular reports for the first time can display multiple lines per reporting element and control over formatting extends to dates, currency and more.

Calculated fields let us create effects like transposing the words “Active” or InActive” for the Inactive User field which only contains a T/F flag for (true/false).  Or, use calculated fields to calculate budget vs. actual or change person-hours to person-days.

The presentation of reports has also seen a light year leap forward. Having the report presenter created in TimeControl’s .Net environment means that for the first time, reports can be delivered using browsers other than Internet Explorer and in non-Windows environments.  Reports can be presented on an iPad or other tablet or even your Smartphone.
Once a report has been created, it can be saved not only as an Excel file (yes, don’t worry Finance people, we would never take that out of the product!) but also as a PDF, an HTML or MHT page, an RFT file, bot XLS and XLSX file, a flat CSV or Text file or even an image file. 

There is so much more to this new environment that we can’t possible cover in a single communication and to be honest, we know that the best reports that will come from this new system will probably come from the inventiveness of our own clients. You can see the new TimeControl Report Interface in action on the TimeControl.com site in our Online Lessons area or contact HMS to have us show you how these new reporting capabilities extends TimeControl’s reach in the market.

To find out more about TimeControl’s reports, visit www.timecontrol.com/timesheet/reports or contact HMS at info@hms.ca.

TimeControl 6.3 now available

TimeControl's new Virtual Trees allows a tremendous volume of data to be displayed virtually instantly.  Click here for a full screen view.TimeControl 6.3 has arrived and with it a long list of great new features many of which have been suggested by our clients.  Some of these features should delight both Administrators and End users.  Here are a few of the new features:
Virtual TreesTimeControl has always allowed for hierarchical display of our charge codes and other table entries.  Some TimeControl clients have tens of thousands of such hierarchical table entries.  In the past, TimeControl has had to load 100% of these records and then had to sort them into their appropriate hierarchy prior to displaying them and when the volume was large, this could take some time. Our new Virtual Tree display allows TimeControl to fetch only the top level of the hierarchy, display that and then fetch only the data the user wishes displayed when they click on the “+” key. We’ve been doing testing with 150,000 records and the results are startlingly fast.

Manage statutory holidays with the new TimeRequest™ WizardThis allows administrators to create pre-approved TimeRequests for employees of their choice. It’s an ideal tool for pre-loading entries such as statutory holidays. A TimeControl administrator can now create a “Statutory Holiday” TimeRequest for every employee in the system that would include all statutory holidays for the year (Canada Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc…). These TimeRequests are automatically approved and will appear on all affected employee timesheets at the time of their creation. TimeRequest iCal Approved TimeRequests can now be input into Outlook with a single click!  Click here for full screen view.When your Vacation is approved in TimeControl you can now just click to have it automatically open in your Outlook or other calendar program! TimeRequest Notifications People love how TimeControl can notify you by email automatically when there’s a problem with a timesheet.  Now you can do the same with TimeRequests.  When your vacation is approved, your supervisor can send you a quick note right from the TimeRequest screen and even include a link to add it to your agenda.  It’ll be nice to get happy emails from TimeControl! Lots, lots more…There are numerous other improvements including:

  • Cache updates right from the menu
  • Copy User Settings from one user to many
  • Copy Status from the Project table directly to all associated charge codes
  • Copy Status from one charge code to all the child charges in a single click

Existing TimeControl clients with current support contracts can find more information on TimeControl 6.3, on the Support/Updates page at timecontrol.com/support/updates.  There is no charge for the upgrade.

Upgrade best practices

Upgrade_TimeControlThe HMS Software technical department gets calls almost every day from existing clients asking questions or for assistance in doing an upgrade.  For some of these organizations, we find that upgrade practices are ad-hoc.  These organizations don’t have a standard procedure for managing upgrades and are making their best effort to get to the lastest and greatest TimeControl version.
Here are a few lessons about upgrades that we have learned over the years that are common to almost all TimeControl users whether you are moving from version 6.0 to 6.1 or 4.6 to 6.1:

Back it up
You might think that everyone backs up their enterprise data but sadly that’s just not true.  No matter how confident you are that your particular deployment of TimeControl will be seamless and instant, back up your data.  In some cases, organizations with virtual servers can actually back up the entire TimeControl environment include the database server, the database itself and even the TimeControl instance.  That’s fine.  But don’t get started on an upgrade without backing it up first.

Look before you leap
This advice is often given to swimmers venturing outdoors into an unknown area.  Diving into water that looks deep but turns out to be rock-filled or shallow can be dangerous.  In the case of TimeControl, take a look at the Read-Me files, any What’s New in this version files and even the installation and upgrade guide before jumping into a new version.  Just because a new version of TimeControl has an exciting new screen doesn’t mean that you need to upgrade right away.  If your current TimeControl is happily operating then there is a disincentive to go through the effort of upgrading.

All the world’s a stage
”All the world’s a stage…” said Shakespeare (in As you Like It).  In this case, I’m referring to staging your upgrade.  Every enterprise system should probably have both a production instance and a staging or development instance.  Your TimeControl licensing allows you to do this without extra cost.  Establishing an instance of TimeControl that has everything your production configuration has (easy to do by copying the production database back to the staging instance) means that you can test out new updates before they’re made available to the end-users.  That’s just a best practice for any enterprise system, not just TimeControl.  This allows not only new updates but any configuration changes such as new filters, new reports, new validation rules to be tested out in advance.  With a new version like TimeControl 6.0 where the architecture was significantly changed or 6.1 where core functions like table management underwent big changes, you’ll be able to ensure that your system will work just as it should before end users are exposed to it.

Do the whole upgrade
One of the most common upgrade problems reported to our technical staff from clients is finding that the client either skipped a step or didn’t finish the entire process.  This is particularly true when clients are trying to upgrade through multiple versions and the client doesn’t let the Administration Transaction Server start and complete the update work in each version before moving onto the next.  So, make sure you’ve complete all the steps to the update!

Be prepared to advance to the rear
Not every upgrade goes perfectly and for a wide variety of reasons.  When you do your update, be prepared to retreat, regroup and try again.  If that happens, HMS Technical support will be available to answer questions on what the issue was.

With a product that is in its sixth generation and 17th year on the market, we’ve seen a lot of updates and full upgrades over the years.  If you’d prefer, HMS Consulting services is always available to help you get the very latest version up and running in your office!

Happy upgrading.

TimeControl 6 upgrades now available

For those clients who have patiently been waiting for their upgrades to TimeControl 6, the upgrades to the new version are  now available.  Clients with a current support contract can download the upgrades which includes a full installation of TimeControl 6, and a complete ISO image of the CD.  In addition, the download area includes the Installation and Upgrade guide which includes the hardware requirements, the installation instructions for the new version and instructions on how to upgrade an existing TimeControl 5.1.8 database to the new version. 
Clients with existing support contracts should go to www.timecontrol.com/support/updates where the new version is available at no additional charge.
Clients whose support contracts have expired can contact custsvc@hmssoftware.ca to update their contract.