What benefits does a company gain by converting paper reports into business processes?

Hello everyone! I am Artem Shelenkovskiy – founder and CEO of the IT company true.code. Today I want to share a real-life story about how I helped a company from New Zealand reduce time costs by optimizing business processes.

The beginning of the journey

We created and implemented a two-way integration system for tracking working hours, analyzing costs for each project and calculating wages for each day.

If it weren't for my New Zealand story, this project wouldn't exist. In 2022, my wife and I decided to move to New Zealand!

We moved there for a year. This story is full of adventures and interesting events, but more about them later.

When we arrived in New Zealand we thought we would be able to relax and travel, but it turned out that there were many New Zealand projects there and our company was very much needed. One of the first projects we encountered was a project by Morgan Engineering.

Morgan Engineering is a New Zealand-based engineering company specialising in the fabrication and installation of structural steel structures.

Simply put, Morgan Engineering will manufacture and assemble a metal frame for a hangar, airport, theater, and will also fulfill other orders, such as making a fence or a dog house. The company has its own production workshops, where a large team of specialists works: from metal structure engineers to welders.

Tasks received from the client:

1. Automate the accounting of the time each specialist works on a project so that at the end of the reporting period, customers receive an automatically generated invoice indicating the amount of hours worked by all project participants.

2. Minimize downtime and implement team time tracking, as the company previously relied only on daily paper reports from employees.

How was time tracking carried out at the initial stage?

Based on the data from these reports (Fig. 1), the accountant entered information about the working time of each employee into projects in XERO (analogous to 1C), where all employees and projects were registered. Then the salary was calculated and an invoice was sent to the client at the same time.

At the beginning of the project, in order to get rid of paper reports, we chose the Timedock time tracking service. We reviewed many services together with the client, contacted Timedock, assessed its features and found that only the API needed to be improved. We settled on this option.

Important information will be presented now, but without it it will not be possible to create a good case.

Development of two-way integration

After implementing and improving TimeDock, we began integrating it with Xero:

TimeDock uses QR codes to record work start and end times, as well as hours worked outside the project, in real time.
Xero calculates payroll and records time worked on each project, and invoices clients.

To combine the functionality of Xero and TimeDock, we created a two-way integration module that enables automatic data exchange between the systems.

We encountered different data formats in Xero and TimeDock. Here's what we did to ensure integration between the systems:

1. Determined what information should be transferred between Xero and TimeDock:

From Xero – project and employee data;

From TimeDock – recorded working time for each employee across projects.

2. We compiled a list of information objects that we plan to transmit and compared the data from one system with another:

For example, an 'Invoice' in Xero is a work order for a specific project;

Defined the relevant fields for each entity in the Xero and TimeDock systems.

3. We identified which data formats differ in Xero and TimeDock and figured out how to convert them:

For example, the Employees entity is the same for both Xero and TimeDock, but the two First Name and Last Name fields in the Xero entity correspond to a single Name field in the TimeDock entity.

Integrate employee and project data from Xero into TimeDock

The primary source of information about people and projects is the Xero accounting system. People and projects data should be up to date in both systems, and any changes made in Xero, such as adding a new project, should be automatically reflected in TimeDock.

We explored the capabilities of the Xero platform API and developed a method for synchronising the transfer of employee and project data.

For example, when a customer adds a new employee to the Xero accounting system, synchronization allows the employee data to be entered correctly and the list of employees in the TimeDock application to be automatically updated.

The process of transferring employee and project time information from TimeDock to Xero

The TimeDock application is installed on each employee's device. The application creates unique QR codes for the employee and the project, and also provides a QR code scanning function to activate the project workflow.

In TimeDock the process is as follows:

Upon arrival at work, the employee scans his QR code, and the system records the beginning of the working day. When switching to a specific project, the procedure is repeated. When leaving work, QR code scanning is also used.

We also implemented a function and an individual QR code for tracking time outside the project.

For example, an employee goes to lunch and scans their QR code to record time spent off-project. The employee's total working time for the day consists of time spent on projects and time spent off-project.

Thus, the system tracks when a person came to work, started working on project #1, how much time he spent on it, and when he moved on to project #2, and also takes into account the time spent on it.

Testing and integration of IT services for two-way interaction

Testing was carried out in two stages: on test accounts of the TimeDock application and a copy of the Xero database, as well as in real working conditions, when the customer's team worked out the process.

In our experience, an interesting situation arises at the implementation stage: teams resist using new services. This is understandable, because people do not want to change anything if everything works as is. So, our secondary task is to help teams better understand the process, train them, and reduce resistance to change in the company.

We did everything possible to ensure that Morgan Engineering employees could successfully use the two-way integration service. We analyzed the possible difficulties that users might encounter when working with the new tool and suggested ways to overcome them: we organized training, provided instructions, and supported the service for two months.

Result:

Together with the client, we optimized the existing business process using IT technologies.

Our proposal allowed the client to:

1. Eliminate paper reports;

2. Double the speed of preparing for payroll calculations and simplify the work of the accounting department;

3. Minimize the risk of errors in timekeeping;

4. Easily control costs for each project.

In addition, the integration helped optimize one workplace in the workshop by reducing downtime and optimizing the work schedule. At the same time, no one was fired, and the most diligent employee of the workshop was promoted to manager, which is exactly what the company was looking for. Thus, we saved about $35,000 per year and improved working conditions for the entire team. Mutually beneficial cooperation!

I would like to emphasize once again that we carefully study the specifics of our clients' businesses and, in addition to providing IT solutions, we devote a lot of time to implementing our developments into life. We communicate with the team, provide explanations, and help at the initial stage. After implementation, we leave detailed instructions and provide support.

Our integration into Morgan Engineering has received positive feedback from both management and employees.

If you need the same development or digitalization of other processes in your company, contact our team or me personally, and we will discuss all the details in detail!