Excel is almost certainly still the most popular timesheet in the world.  There are, after all, free templates to make a timesheet right in Excel.  For smaller companies getting started or for people in Finance who grew up with Excel, it might seem an obvious choice.

But, while it may seem an obvious choice, the drawbacks are numerous and, the larger and more complex an organization becomes, the worse those drawbacks become.

Any need for auditability of a timesheet will be a struggle with an open ended system like Excel.  It’s designed for analysis, not for accountability.  If you need to harmonize your coding or just need to find missing timesheets, Excel becomes a labor intensive nightmare.  Most Excel-based timesheet deployments means sending templates for the timesheet to each employee then gathering those documents, merging the data, dealing with discrepancies and then filing a combined report.  That’s one thing if it’s 10 employees and a very different thing if it’s 500!

For those thinking it might be time to graduate up from an Excel timesheet to a full application designed for the purpose, it’s worth nothing that TimeControl was designed to have Excel Integration from its very first version back in 1994.

We didn’t stop there.

The points at which TimeControl and Excel can intertwine can be multi-faceted.  It is able to import Excel worksheets for lists of projects, charges or employees, rates or almost else. So moving your Excel system into TimeControl is a natural progression and that’s just the start.  Here are a few points of contact between the systems.

Importing and Exporting data between TimeControl and Excel

TimeControl includes complete support for transferring data to and from Excel files.  If you maintain some data now in Excel, then moving that into TimeControl is a matter of moments.  If you use Excel for analysis of data, then sending TimeControl’s centralized and auditable data back to Excel is very simple.  You can even schedule exports to Excel or imports from Excel to happen automatically on a schedule you define.

Importing legacy timesheets from Excel to TimeControl is already included

TimeControl includes import functionality for timesheets themselves so if you have an existing timesheet system in Excel you can transfer that data into TimeControl.  Our Excel Solutions Portal even has a template for you to download and use so you don’t have to create it yourself.

Integrating Excel Services dashboards into TimeControl

Some people like using Excel’s server-based charting capabilities to create analysis of timesheet or project management data.  TimeControl supports displaying Excel views in the dashboard.  Need an Excel pivot report in your TimeControl dashboard?  No problem. Need an Excel traffic light on the TimeControl dashboard?  No problem.

Displaying TimeControl Reports in Excel

Every TimeControl report including those created in our TimeControl Report Designer or with the TimeControl Drill Down Analyzer can be saved as Excel files so you can do more extensive analysis and reporting in the tools you are familiar with.

Migrating from Excel to TimeControl or TimeControl Online is so simple

TimeControl and TimeControl Online are almost always configured from Excel files.  Our technical staff give templates to new clients so they can configure the data they want into TimeControl with the features they want to enable.  If you’re using Excel already you’re all set to go.  And, if you’re subscribing to TimeControlOnline, there’s nothing to install, no servers or databases to configure.  Once your subscription is activated, you are ready to start moving your data into the system and activating your users.  Most small to medium sized organizations are able to enter timesheets a few days after subscribing.  You could be looking at your own TimeControl system only a few hours from now.

You can find out more about how TimeControl and Excel can work together to help your organization become more efficient on our TimeControl/Excel Use-Case portal at: Timecontrol.com/use-cases/excel-to-timecontrol.  On the portal you’ll find webcasts, factsheets and slide presentations explaining some of your options and potential benefits.