Powerful and user-friendly solution for timekeeping, built on Dataverse / Dynamics 365, Microsoft's market-leading technology platform for business applications.
tmeREG is modern and future-oriented, where timekeeping can be easily integrated with related business data and business processes. Great emphasis has been placed on making timekeeping as user-friendly and efficient as possible, where registrations can be done in several ways: via a standard interface, from a calendar, directly from Outlook entries and from a stopwatch application. tmeREG combines the benefits of a standard solution, combined with the flexibility of a custom-built IT system.
For most employees, timekeeping is often perceived as a necessary evil. This is mainly due to user-unfriendly solutions with unnecessarily cumbersome registration, and where timekeeping is perceived as a detached process from other work tasks and IT tools.
For businesses that live on their billable hours, this often results in lost revenue. Billable hours that are "reluctantly" entered long after the job was actually performed tend to be underreported. For non-billable hours, registration afterwards tends to contain poor data quality, so that the timekeeping provides less value for analysis and improvement work.
A key requirement is thus simple and efficient registration of the hours and a good user experience for those who register hours:
There should be several methods and tools to register time entries, adapted to each user’s way of working. Each method of registration must be as simple and efficient as possible.
Timekeeping is not an end in itself, but an important activity in a larger value chain. Because tmeREG is built in Dataverse / Dynamics 365 it is easy to connect the timekeeping with other business processes. An example from a project is being able to see registered vs. budgeted hours, and from a customer card seeing the timekeeping towards the customer. Registrations can be used as a basis for invoicing, in a similar way the data is important in relation to variable salary calculation. Skyvekraft can assist with the integration of these systems and processes.
There are many roles involved in timekeeping; those who register their hours, project and customer managers, finance, general management and HR. Other roles will also have an interest in the timekeeping for insights and analysis, for example in relation to sick leave, competence development and so forth.
It is therefore important that various stakeholders can easily see and retrieve the desired information, at the same time as requirements for information security and privacy are met. The Dynamics 365 / Dataverse platform has powerful mechanisms for granular access to data. With tmeREG, other security roles in use in the company can be used and adapted.
tmeREG takes advantage of the great opportunities that lie in the Dynamics 365 / Dataverse platform for reporting and insight into data:
Views and dashboards: Standard layout for different roles. This can be easily tuned, for common roles, for departmental and for personal usage.
Reports: Standard reports are developed, which can be run directly from relevant records. These can be adapted to the business's needs.
Power BI: Standard data model and dashboard have been developed. The target group here is employees who have needs that are best covered by the powerful opportunities that lie in Power BI. Here, the organization can build on the standard models provided by Skyvekraft or create own solutions from scratch.
Alerts and reminders are often a double-edged sword: On the one hand, we must be notified if registrations are missing, this is especially important at the end of the month and other milestones for reporting. At the same time, we know that too many email alerts cause these to be perceived as a source of annoyance, and are quickly ignored. It is therefore important to help users stay up to date, while at the same time it should be possible to configure criteria for e-mail notifications to be sent out. To avoid falling behind in timekeeping, tmeREG provides users with ongoing information on status and latest timekeeping. In tmeREG, the various managers can also configure criteria for sending out alerts.
A prerequisite for efficient and user-friendly timekeeping is that this can be done as a natural part of the usual work processes, combined with the use of other IT tools. Timekeeping in tmeREG can therefore be performed with different tools, and these can be freely combined. Thus, each individual user gets a solution that is adapted to their own work situation.
Here, the well-known Dynamics 365 / Dataverse interface is used, where timekeeping takes place either via a separate tmeREG App, or where tmeREG dashboards and tables are one of several areas within the organization’s standard App. For employees who in any case use other parts of Dynamics 365, tmeREG integrated in the rest of the corporate App is a good choice.
Hourly entries are shown here in traditional list form, and support has been created for easy cloning and extension of existing time entries. The platform’s built-in mechanisms for mass change and flow automation can of course also be used. Regarding the registration form itself, Skyvekraft has not only adapted these for the most efficient registration possible, but we have also created support to be able to view related data while a new entry is being registered: What the timekeeper has already done the same day on other activities and what others have registered on this activity.
Timekeeping can also be done via a separate calendar control. Here, timekeeping is shown in relation to two dimensions – days and activities. It is easy to see which days and activities have not yet been registered for the selected period, and it is easy to copy entries that can then be adjusted before submission.
With the tmeREG add-on for Outlook, timekeeping can be done directly from Outlook. In addition, Outlook calendar entries, emails and tasks can easily create the basis for an appointment in tmeREG. It is also easy to see in Outlook which entries have been linked to an appointment.
With tmeREG, time registrations can be made from all types of clients: From a PC, from a tablet or from a mobile phone.
tmeREG’s stopwatch client allows you to start and stop one or more of these, which automatically creates an associated time entry record in tmeREG. There can easily be rules set in relation to minimum registration time, for example for companies that invoice per. started half an hour etc.
tmeREG can be delivered both as an ongoing subscription service or as a project delivery.
If tmeREG is delivered as an ongoing subscription service, the customer’s solution will receive ongoing upgrades and improvements. Special adaptations are provided as consulting services. This form is best suited for companies that will use tmeREG reasonably standardized, only with minor adjustments.
If tmeREG is delivered as a project delivery, the basic functionality will have a fixed basic price, while other work is done as consulting services. If the customer later wishes to use improvements / new modules, work on installation and configuration of these will be done as consulting services, in the same way as special adaptations. This is best suited for scenarios where timekeeping is to be closely integrated with other modules and function areas in Dynamics 365 / Dataverse.