Whether you are using TimeControl Online in the cloud, or TimeControl on premise, email functionality can play an important part in making your TimeControl as effective as possible.  Let’s take a look at a couple of elements of TimeControl that you might not have considered:

Missing Timesheet Notification  and the new Missing Crew Timesheet Notification

One of the most popular requests for new clients of TimeControl is having TimeControl send an automated notification for any timesheets that are missing or overdue.  This functionality has now been extended to Crew Timesheets also.  It does a lot more than just send an email.  You can configure numerous scheduled emails, each with a different message and define if this will go to everyone who’s timesheet is absent or send it even if the timesheet is created but has no hours or even if the timesheet is complete but hasn’t been approved yet.  This makes for some remarkable configurations that help reduce absent timesheets and the time spent chasing them and at the same time helps to increase data quality by making sure people are doing their timesheets when expected.  From an Administration standpoint, it means ensuring that all the data is in before exports or reports are completed.  That can be a big deal!

Notice when releasing a timesheet for approval or rejecting it

When a user releases their timesheet, they get an option to send an email to their supervisor advising them the timesheet is complete.  That’s probably not so popular when the timesheet is first done but it’s hugely popular when a timesheet has been rejected and now is being resubmitted.  Going in the other direction, if a timesheet is rejected, the supervisor has an option to send an email to the user advising them that the timesheet is back in draft mode in their control and how to go about fixing it.  Without that email notification and the associated TimeControl notification function, users wouldn’t be able to easily determine if their timesheet is complete or back in their inbox.

TimeControl Workflow notification or request to intervene

If you TimeControl Workflow, you already know how powerful it is.  The Workflow engine looks at timesheets whenever they change hands and evaluates them for any element that can be found in the data.  It’s popular for changing the approval flow based on whether there’s overtime or excessive unbillable time.  It can also be used when this timesheet will push the actual expenditures on a project beyond their budget and if it does, it can email whoever you choose.  The project manager might be a good selection there.  This can help give early warnings to project and resource managers about a potential problem in the project before it gets too significant, allowing them to intervene if necessary.

Administrator Notices on events within TimeControl

TimeControl has numerous schedulable functions that can run in the background including imports, exports, links in or out with project management systems, timesheet posting, automated reports and more.  For each scheduled event, an administrator can be notified automatically by TimeControl when the event runs and if it is successful or not.  This is a big deal when something doesn’t go as expected in overnight processing and intervention is needed.

TimeRequest Approved vacation time

When a TimeRequest is sent or rejected, just like the timesheet, the user can opt to send an email advising the recipient that their attention is needed.  But, when a TimeRequest is approved, TimeControl also allows the supervisor to attach a calendar event to the email so the person taking vacation can just click on the file and add it to their calendar in programs like Google Calendars and Outlook.

Line Item Approval notification

TimeControl’s approval architecture is too long to explain here (for more information on it, see the white paper Creating your Approvals Process in TimeControl on the White Papers area of our website at: https://www.timecontrol.com/resources/whitepapers).  Let’s talk about just one function in the approvals area though and that’s the Line Item Approval.  This function allows approval or rejection of any line item in a timesheet to which a project manager or account manager has access.  Then, once rejected, TimeControl can optionally send emails to any users who’s timesheets were affected so they can make adjustments as needed.

Scheduled reports via Email

TimeControl’s reporting has been one of its strengths since the very first version back in 1994.  All TimeControl reports can be presented as a printable view but they can also be saved as PDF, Excel, HTML or a range of other formats.  If you elect to use Scheduled Reports, you can send a report by email directly to anyone who might need it.  Since reports can be associated to filters, this can be a powerful way to create exception reports.  An executive might only receive the exception report for example if some threshold had been exceeded.  Once it’s configured, that all happens behind the scenes.  Oh, and if the report is so large it won’t fit in an email, TimeControl will encrypt it and just send a link to the file in the email.  What could be better than that?

Alternate Email notifications

Sometimes we can have an alternate user be responsible for emails or we can have a situation where one person who is in the approval release path for a user will do most of the entry and should receive all of the email.  No worries.  TimeControl allows you to select that the alternate user or anyone along the approval path is the person to receive emails.

No matter what elements of TimeControl’s email functionality you take advantage of, it’s all designed to make the organization more efficient.