Timeon
Moving from Timeon to schakl. rarely happens in a day. For a while the team writes in both: hours are still logged there and already corrected here, projects are created here while people still book onto them there. An import script cannot deal with that: it only goes one way and can only create, so a correction made here gets overwritten or doubled. This integration keeps track of both sides, for as long as the cutover lasts.
Where to find it
Section titled “Where to find it”- Instellingen → Timeon (Settings → Timeon, also reached via Instellingen → Integraties): the key and the policy, so which direction, how far back, what may never be overwritten and when it runs by itself.
- Timeon-synchronisatie (the Synchronisatie openen button): run syncs, read the result, the pairings per hour and project, and the Wacht op jou (waiting for you) queue.
Timeon is deliberately not in the main menu and has no card on the client page: a cutover ends, and a menu item for an integration with an end date points at an empty screen one day. When conflicts are open, the hours page tells you, with the count.
The integration needs the Uren (time) module. Pairing projects works better with the Projects module too, but is possible without: an hour then books onto a client.
Turning it on, safely
Section titled “Turning it on, safely”- Switch Timeon on under Instellingen → Integraties and open Instellingen → Timeon. Choose Organisatie koppelen (connect organisation), give the connection a Naam (name) and paste the API-sleutel (API key; in Timeon under Settings). The key is stored encrypted and never shown again. Both directions start off.
- Press Controleren (verify). The answer names the organisation and its size (“7 employees, 108 clients, 159 projects”). A key that works is not the answer; which books it opens is.
- If you imported hours from Timeon earlier, set Niets aanraken tot en met (touch nothing up to and including) to the day of that import. Everything on or before that date stays untouched.
- Open the sync page and press Alleen koppelen (pair only). That run pairs what already exists on both sides and writes nothing, so “2814 paired, 3 only in Timeon” is a fact to look at before you decide anything.
- Choose a direction per kind under Wat er gesynchroniseerd wordt (what is synchronised) and run a Proefrun (dry run). Read the result: what would be pulled, pushed, protected and skipped.
- Only then Synchroniseren (synchronise), and only then Automatisch synchroniseren (automatic sync).
Directions, per kind
Section titled “Directions, per kind”Hours and projects each get their own direction, because the honest answer usually differs per kind: halfway through a cutover you pull hours (people still log there) while projects go to Timeon (they are created here now).
| Direction | What it does |
|---|---|
| Uit (off) | Read nothing, write nothing |
| Ophalen uit Timeon (pull) | Timeon to here; what you change here does not go back |
| Sturen naar Timeon (push) | Here to Timeon; what changes there is not taken over |
| Twee richtingen (two-way) | Both ways; whoever changed it last wins, unless both sides changed |
At the top of the settings, Wat deze koppeling doet (what this connection does) says in sentences which way, how often, how far back and what is protected. A setting you cannot read out loud is one you cannot check.
Pair first, create later
Section titled “Pair first, create later”The first run against an environment that already holds Timeon history, after an import for example, must recognise those hours and pair them without writing anything. A sync that created first would double three years of timesheets, and there is no undo for that. Clients are paired on their client number, never on name: two clients with the same name happen, and a match on name is ambiguous exactly where it looks safest.
The window is the sync
Section titled “The window is the sync”Timeon does not record when an hour was last changed, so “what changed since yesterday” is not a question its API can answer. Every run therefore re-reads a period and compares: the Venster (dagen terug) (window, days back), 45 days by default. Long enough for a correction made while preparing last month’s invoice, short enough not to read three years every night. Every run names the period it read, because a change outside it is not noticed. To walk through an older month anyway, pick a period on the run itself.
An hour that seems gone is only deleted when the whole period was demonstrably read in full and the hour is also gone when asked for by its number. An hour moved from 5 August to 5 January is missing from August and has not vanished.
When both sides changed
Section titled “When both sides changed”Every pairing remembers what the hour looked like on both sides when they last agreed. If one side moved, that change travels. If both moved, Als beide kanten gewijzigd zijn (when both sides changed) decides:
- In de wachtrij zetten (niets overschrijven) (queue it, overwrite nothing), the default: the hour goes under Wacht op jou with the fields side by side, and you choose Hou deze versie (keep this version), Neem Timeon over (take Timeon’s) or Mag verschillen (may differ).
- schakl wint or Timeon wint (schakl wins, Timeon wins): a decision to overwrite somebody’s edit. That is allowed, but it is chosen, not inferred.
A decision is stored. Mag verschillen leaves both sides as they are, and that difference is not proposed again: a queue that shows the same twelve rows every night is one nobody reads after three weeks. A difference no direction can resolve, such as a Timeon project with no counterpart here, does not enter the queue per hour but appears once per run as a warning you can act on: pair the project, and on the next run the value travels by itself.
Projects
Section titled “Projects”Name, status, billable by default and budget travel in the direction you choose for projects. With Ontbrekende projecten aanmaken (create missing projects), a project that does not exist on the other side yet is created there too, with its budget and billable default, in whichever direction projects travel. A project that is already paired stays paired when it is renamed.
With Twee richtingen, fields are merged one by one against what last agreed: a budget raised here and a project closed in Timeon are two changes by two people, and both arrive. Where it cannot be established which side changed, the sync page asks which side is right (“what is here is right” or “Timeon is right”) and then syncs the projects once with that answer. Nothing is guessed.
Timeon only knows a total budget. A budget that restarts per period here therefore does not travel, and that is reported.
What is never overwritten
Section titled “What is never overwritten”| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Gefactureerde uren beschermen (protect invoiced hours) | on | An hour on an invoice is a record. It is never overwritten or deleted; the difference is reported |
| Goedgekeurde uren beschermen (protect approved hours) | off | Hours approved here stay untouched too |
| Niets aanraken tot en met | empty | Everything on or before that date stays out of reach |
| Goedkeuringen terugsturen (send approvals back) | off | What you approve here is approved in Timeon too |
| Ontbrekende medewerkers aanmaken (create missing users) | off | Off: hours of somebody with no account here are skipped and named, never put on someone else’s name |
A refusal per hour is a line in the report; a key that stopped working is one message and a run that did not succeed.
Automatic
Section titled “Automatic”Automatisch synchroniseren is off until you switch it on, because a job that starts the moment you paste a key would make connecting irreversible. Then you choose Hoe vaak (how often): Elk uur (every hour), Om de zoveel uur (every few hours), Elke dag (daily) or Elke werkdag (every weekday), with a Tijdstip (time) on your organisation’s clock. Summer and winter time do not shift it, and it is met within a quarter of an hour, not to the minute.
During a cutover the team writes in both systems all day, so every hour is a reasonable choice then; once traffic goes one way again, daily is enough. Syncing more often than daily reads a shorter stretch on the in-between rounds, and the full window on the first run of the day. When it last ran by itself and when it runs next is shown on the settings and on the sync page: a schedule you cannot see working is one you cannot trust.
Permissions
Section titled “Permissions”| Permission | What it opens | Default |
|---|---|---|
timeon.settings.manage | Set the connection up: key, directions, window, safeguards, schedule | Administrator |
timeon.sync.run | Run and follow syncs, see pairings and the queue, a dry run | Administrator |
timeon.sync.write | Let a run write and decide conflicts | Administrator |
timeon.sync.write is never enough on its own: a run that pulls hours writes hours, so it also asks
for the write permission on hours.
Good to know
Section titled “Good to know”- Not carried: contacts, Timeon invoices as documents, tasks, categories, mileage, rates and the separately billable duration. An hour billed for less than was worked in Timeon arrives here with its full worked duration.
- A push sends the whole hour. Timeon replaces an hour whole when it saves. Mileage, expenses and the category, which schakl. has no field for, are therefore carried along unchanged: a description correction must not delete an expense claim.
- Invoice state is guarded, not carried. An hour invoiced here is not rewritten, and an hour on an invoice in Timeon is not changed from here. A pulled hour does not bring an invoice state with it. That holds as long as nobody invoices in Timeon any more; if you do, an hour could appear on Nog te factureren (still to invoice) here a second time.
- What has been proven. Reading, pairing, a dry run and real pull runs have been run against a real Timeon organisation. Pushing has only been tested against a stand-in. Before the first real push, do a dry run on a period holding one hour nobody minds, compare that hour in Timeon field by field, and only then widen the window.
- Done with the cutover? Set both directions to Uit, or delete the connection: the key, the pairings and the runs go, the hours already carried over stay. Then revoke the API key in Timeon.