Solvion: Project time tracking and invoicing in the Microsoft ecosystem with time cockpit
It was important to us not to choose a system that forces us into process steps we do not want. The application has to support our processes as well as possible.
At a glance
| Company | SOLVION information management GmbH, IT service provider in the Microsoft ecosystem (Microsoft 365, Azure, modern workplace), founded in 2002 |
|---|---|
| Starting point | Self-written time tracking without interfaces, invoices created in Navision with manual transfer, no automation |
| Solution | time cockpit as a web app, customer sync from Business Central, Azure DevOps backlog items as tasks, Zendesk integration for support, data warehouse connection, automatic surcharges outside normal working hours, approval process with checks before invoicing |
| Result | Less internal coordination, faster invoicing, time data as the basis for reporting and company management |
Related pages: Project time tracking · Project invoicing · Web API and integrations · Customizable time tracking
The interview was recorded in German. This page summarizes it in English; the full transcript is on the German page.
Who Solvion is
SOLVION information management GmbH was founded in 2002. It started with custom software development in .NET and Java, moved into SharePoint and collaboration projects with Lync and Skype for Business, and today works almost entirely in the Microsoft ecosystem: Microsoft 365, Azure and everything around the modern workplace. Matthias Schreiner joined in 2011 as a consultant and has been responsible for the company’s internal IT since 2018.
Starting point: an in-house tool without integrations
Before time cockpit, Solvion tracked time in software it had written itself. It did the essentials and nothing more: hardly any interfaces to other systems and no automation. Invoices were created in Navision, and only working hours were synchronized, so project managers spent a lot of manual effort on invoicing. One immediate gain was that time cockpit is a web app: when an employee swaps a notebook, they simply carry on in the browser.
Integrations: Business Central, Azure DevOps, data warehouse
Solvion has since moved from Navision to Business Central in the cloud. Customers are created once in Business Central and synchronized into time cockpit. A second integration links Azure DevOps: the developers’ backlog items appear in time cockpit as tasks, so consultants and developers book on the right activity and project managers get budget control and project controlling without extra data entry. The third integration feeds the company’s data warehouse, which reads almost all time cockpit data, from time entries to other billable revenue, and merges it with article sales and other sources.
The data from time cockpit is an essential basis of our whole data warehouse and of how we manage the company.
Support tickets from Zendesk
Zendesk already had an out-of-the-box connection to Azure DevOps; the missing piece was time cockpit. Since that integration was built, support staff never leave Zendesk: they answer the ticket, create the backlog item and create or link the time cockpit task from one screen, and consultants, developers and support staff book directly on it.
Automatic surcharges and acceptance
IT work often happens outside normal hours, because restarts and migrations cannot run during the day. Solvion charges surcharges for such work, and time cockpit calculates them automatically: the employee marks the entry as outside normal working time, and the system applies the rules for the customer or project. Nobody has to ask the project manager how to book a surcharge. Schreiner names these automations and background checks as the main reason why acceptance of time cockpit increased enormously. Less coordination means lower internal costs and more time for billable hours.
Approval before invoicing
At the start of each month employees release their bookings. time cockpit checks that breaks were taken and that every entry carries an activity, which is mandatory at Solvion. Once an employee has completed the release, the project manager knows the bookings are correct and can invoice; after invoicing the entries are frozen, so accounting and time tracking cannot drift apart. Because everyone books promptly, invoices go out faster and costs are recovered sooner.
We save a lot of time and have much, much less internal effort and coordination thanks to the checks and the way time cockpit supports our processes.
Matthias Schreiner’s advice
Time tracking must be integrated with invoicing, and the whole process must work for the entire company, as fast, simple and intuitive as possible. Do not choose an application that forces you into process steps you do not want. Through its customizability and the interfaces it makes possible, time cockpit supports Solvion’s processes rather than dictating them, which is why Schreiner recommends it to companies in fast-moving service and project businesses.