All areas that are new or have changed from Version 9.0 are specifically marked. Changed Chapters are marked with and changed Topics or Pages are marked .

Review all new areas and analyze whether this affects your installation

The interface between centraltime™ and personaltime™ has been streamlined and unified with the webtime™ interface.

Timesheet Authorization
End user setup has changed dramatically. Previously, Groups were required to support Authorization, however, this is no longer the case as the system has been redesigned to use Email as a "carrier system" to send timesheets to the relevant person for Authorization.

To utilize the new "daisy-chained" authorization, you will need timegate™. If you do not have timegate™, you can continue to use Groups.

Group Setup
Groups are now spilt into "Group Details" and "User Profiles", the latter of which defines end user timesheet entry rules. Previously, this information was combined on 1 screen, therefore, if the entry rules were the same from 1 Group to the next, you needed to enter the same data twice. You can now streamline this by creating profiles which you allocate to the relevant Group.

We recommend you study the new method of operation, investigate the changes, consider how these will affect you, and plan accordingly.

Security has been dramatically enhanced, now offering menu control, add, edit, view and delete rights as well as TAB control for detailed screens, such as Jobs and Employees. You will need to ensure that the appropriate level of permissions are set up for all users prior to rolling out the upgrade.

In addition, Invoicing can now be configured by function as well as the Jobs that users can see within this.

The way in which disbursements operate in 9.5 has also been enhanced

• Each Disbursement now has a mechanizm to define or calculate a "Charge" value. Charges can be:
  • A Charge value
  • An uplift which will be applied to the Cost of the Disbursement / Expense
  • A %age uplift that will be applied to the Cost of the Disbursement / Expense
  
  

Job Analysis and Statistics tags have been replaced by customisable tags which can be applied not only to the Job properties, but also at the Cost Center, Customer and Invoicing level thus allowing you the ability to analyse and report on data in multiple ways.

Invoicing has not only been enhanced dramatically in this release, but the menu has been split into a number of functions to offer more flexibility in defining security rights within it.

Invoice templates can be allocated directly to jobs thus ensuring the job in question is always billed in the correct format. For example, you could differentiate invoicing on the basis of timeworked or fixed price jobs.

You should review the new security model in this release as well as the new Invoicing Menu.

Built in Crystal Reports
The ability to create Crystal Reports has been built into the system, thus removing the need to have a separate report writer. A built in reporting wizard also allows you to create reports using fields and values from the Drill Downs and present them in a Crystal format.

Menu Builder
How you run reports has also changed as the Menu Builder has been enhanced to support multiple Reports per Drill Down (TTX Reports). A new Intelligent Parameter Builder has also been added which interrogates your reports to apply the securtiy rules of the user's login to the reports they run. For example, if you use Employees as a parameter and the user is only permitted to see Employees in the current cost center, the user will only be able to report on Employees within the remit of that cost center.centraltime™.

Training courses and On-Line Tutorials are available for a variety of report writers including MS-Access 2000 and Crystal Reports. Please contact sales@timewatch.com for more information or pricing.

A number of data tables have changed in this release, most significantly, Clients which is now called Customers. Please review the table layouts and determine if any of your reports are affected and re-structure your reports accordingly before you upgrade to V9.5.

If you need assistance to upgrade or re-write any queries, reports or interfaces you have, Timewatch can provide either internal our outsourced services to assist you. For more information or pricing, please contact sales@timewatch.com.

Corporate and Enterprise Customers with a valid Support and Maintenance contract receive the upgrade to 9.5 free of charge. This does not include the new modules available within 9.5: Advanced Billing, additional Analysis Levels, Advanced Report Writer or the Menu Editor. These modules are all available separately.

Please note that although Timewatch have developed the 9.5 system to automatically convert and upgrade your database, there are many new features within the system which need to be learnt. We recommend you attend an upgrade training course, however if you wish to perform the upgrade without training and you need assistance, you will need to purchase a minimum of 10 hours of Consultancy Support, or use the Premium Support line number for all assistance.

All questions, assistance and advice pertaining to the upgrade and use of Version 9.5 which is not or cannot be covered by the on-line Help is not covered by Support and Maintenance.

Version 9.5 Registration details have changed from Version 9.0, so you will need a new authorization code and cannot upgrade to Version 9.5 unless you have already receive a Registration code from Timewatch.

Timewatch products are generally used by a vast number of people within your organization, so it is important to plan your upgrade such that it will be as smooth as is possible. Following are a few simple suggestions to bear in mind:

• Familiarize yourself with Version 9.5 thoroughly.
• Attend training as a preference. You will learn more about V9.5 and upgrading to it in the 1 day Course than if you do it yourself. And it's probably more cost effective too.
• Install V9.5 and work through the Tour Guide to see the differences in the product, particularly the PersonalTime interface.
• Time permitting, work through the Tutorials as well.
• Check your Backup process to ensure that it is working properly.
• Familiarize yourselves with the conversion process by performing a "dummy run".
• If you have written any external database reports, eg Crystal, Access or Oracle Reports, check that they are still operating okay. You should ensure this is done prior to upgrading.
• If you have re-written external reports, test them properly by converting your live database to V9.5 format.
• You must upgrade CentralTime and PersonalTime at the same time. CentralTime/PersonalTime 9.5 use a new communications and interface protocol, ie. you cannot use PersonalTime 9.0 with CentralTime 9.5.
• Plan your upgrade for a time when it is less busy / stressful.
• Do not upgrade just before a billing run or month / quarter / year end!
• Do upgrade just a after a billing run or month / quarter / year end.
• Don't upgrade just before key members of staff go on holiday!
• Do check key staff member's holiday / work load, and if you haven't got a system to check this, evaluate ScheduleTime.
• Ensure a maximum period post upgrade when key staff members are available to assist users / managers etc with any upgrade issues.

A number of new products are now available:

ScheduleTime, our new scheduling and planning system. ScheduleTime allows you to forward plan Employee workload as well as allocate skills to employees, view and make booking by employee skills, view forward utilization and maximize the use of your valuable resources. ScheduleTime is available for evaluation and we also have user stories available.

Additional Analysis Module extends the number of analysis fields available and allows you to allocate analysis fields to Employee, Clients and Cost Centers in addition to Jobs.

Software Developers Toolkit provides a developer friendly and future proof environment to customize your system.. and your system will continue to operate through future upgrades.