For over four decades, organizations worldwide have wrestled with a persistent challenge: capturing accurate time and resource data that satisfies project managers, finance teams, HR, and compliance requirements, all at once. Many settle for fragmented tools or manual processes that waste hours and invite errors. HMS Software changed that by building solutions that turn complexity into clarity.

HMS Software, founded in 1984, stands as a trusted leader in enterprise project management and timesheet systems. Its flagship product, TimeControl^®, is a versatile, task-based timesheet designed to meet multiple needs from a single entry. Project teams gain real-time updates and precise tracking. Finance and payroll departments receive auditable records for billing, job costing, and regulatory compliance. HR benefits from seamless workforce insights. Everyone works from the same reliable data, eliminating duplication and reducing risk.

For demanding field environments, TimeControl Industrial excels at high-volume data collection. Crews log labor, materials, equipment, and production values directly on-site, feeding accurate information instantly to payroll, billing, project management, and estimating systems. Manual calculations and delayed reporting become relics of the past, while costs, cycles, and productivity come into sharp focus.

What sets HMS apart is its people. Every developer has worked directly with clients. Every support specialist writes code. Every implementation expert handles real-world support calls. This deliberate cross-training ensures deep industry knowledge flows into every line of code and every client conversation.

Deployed by organizations ranging from 20 employees to hundreds of thousands, TimeControl offers flexible on-premise and cloud options, including TimeControl Online and specialized editions for project and industrial use. Long-standing partnerships with Oracle Primavera, Microsoft Project, Birdview PSA, Brightwork, and others deliver flawless integrations that make TimeControl a natural extension of leading enterprise systems.

Chris Vandersluis, Founder and CEO of HMS Software, spoke exclusively with CIO Bulletin. He shared powerful insights into how his company continues to empower organizations worldwide, delivering lasting confidence that time and resources are tracked accurately, efficiently, and intelligently.

Where It All Began: The Inception of HMS Software

HMS Software was founded during a pivotal moment in business technology, when desktop computers were just beginning to enter mid- to large-sized organizations.

Chris Vandersluis, Founder and CEO of HMS Software, reflects on the early days of his company with the kind of clarity only experience can provide:

“HMS started in 1984 as a consulting and software distribution company focused on deploying project management software. At that time business software of any kind was a novelty and desktop computers were rapidly being adopted in mid to large size organizations around the world.”

It was his experience in project management that quickly positioned HMS as a leading expert in deploying project management software. “On our very first project, we selected and implemented project scheduling software from a third-party vendor and found that there were no options available to create timesheets to progress those project plans. We wrote one that fulfilled the requirements of both the project management and Finance departments.”

This early problem-solving approach didn’t just solve an immediate need, it planted the seeds for what would become HMS Software’s flagship product. Chris notes, “What we learned then would inspire TimeControl ten years later.”

From its inception, HMS Software was guided by a vision to bridge gaps in business software, shaping a company culture centered on innovation, adaptability, and practical solutions that endure over decades.

TimeControl^®: A Centralized Solution for Modern Project-Driven Organizations

In organizations where projects drive every decision, having accurate time tracking isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. Chris reflects on how TimeControl^® evolved to meet these complex needs.

“TimeControl has several editions. TimeControl Online is a timesheet designed for individual entry and is delivered as a Software as a Service in the cloud subscription service. This is our most popular edition. TimeControl on-premise is the same product but delivered as a license for on-premise installation. TimeControl Industrial Online is the SaaS version timesheet designed for field data collection and industrial use with both User and Crew entries. It also collects data for Material consumption and Equipment usage. TimeControl Industrial on-premise is the same product but delivered for installation instead of as a service. TimeControl Project is a SaaS project management system designed for multiple levels of the organization at the same time. The free TimeControl Mobile app provides a non-browser interface to access the various TimeControl editions.”

For Chris, the strength of TimeControl lies in its ability to serve multiple organizational processes at once. “TimeControl is designed to fulfill multiple organizational processes simultaneously. It updates project tasks with actual progress. At the same time, it delivers financial quality data to Payroll, HR, Billing, compliance and other processes like R&D tax credits, DCAA compliance and California Work Rules.”

He notes that organizations approaching HMS Software often struggle with fragmented systems. “What we find most commonly in organizations that approach us to talk about TimeControl is that they have managed to deploy more than one timesheet. Their project planning tool has one timesheet. Their payroll has another. There’s yet another timesheet for billing and another for compliance reporting to the government for tax credits. What TimeControl provides is an opportunity to have one central timesheet collect time for all of those needs in one auditable source and then use it for multiple purposes.”

By providing a unified, auditable system, TimeControl addresses the critical enterprise need for accuracy, efficiency, and compliance across all levels of a modern project-driven organization.

How TimeControl^® Keeps Projects, Finance, and Compliance in Sync

From the very beginning, TimeControl was designed not as a simple timesheet but as a multi-purpose platform capable of meeting the complex demands of modern enterprises. “TimeControl’s multi-purpose design has been a core element from its very inception. To accommodate all these different organizational processes, we had to make the product incredibly flexible,” states Chris.

Flexibility, he emphasizes, is what makes TimeControl legendary. “Clients can adjust the look and feel of data collection all the way down to the field level. Clients can elect to have timesheet periods be different. One department can collect them every day, the next every week, a third, every two weeks. Security can have some fields visible to some users and not visible to others. Yet, in the background, TimeControl has to accommodate the most stringent standards for collecting financial data. TimeControl’s data must be fully auditable. That’s what makes TimeControl so formidable and why clients stick with it once they deploy it. We have clients who have used TimeControl uninterrupted for over 25 years. That’s longer than many companies survive.”

Chris attributes much of TimeControl’s ability to handle complex organizational needs to HMS Software’s initial project management engagements. “From the very beginning, even before we made TimeControl a commercial product, we’ve included a link to project management in the timesheet. This lent itself to creating more and more links with different products. The challenging part of creating a link to a project management system is the process. Less difficult is the actual technology of making the integration. This is why we are able to have so many bi-directional links with project products at the same time. There is no other enterprise timesheet system with so many different possible integrations already included. TimeControl takes integration even further by offering automated import/export tools and a fully bi-directional API (Application Programming Interface) to allow clients to create their own custom integrations.”

The evolution of TimeControl also responded directly to operational realities in industrial environments. “TimeControl Industrial was created based on client demand. TimeControl for individuals was already popular. We had numerous clients who worked in an industrial or heavy construction environment who asked for a version that would accommodate non-user crew employees. These employees would not access TimeControl directly. Their timesheet entries would be made by team leaders or supervisors. That was the genesis for TimeControl Industrial which has expanded tremendously both in functionality and popularity since.”

From its flexible core design to deep integration capabilities and the creation of specialized industrial solutions, TimeControl has become a backbone for organizations managing projects, finance, and compliance, adapting effortlessly to both office and field operations.

From Teams to Titans: Technology Designed to Scale

Enterprise environments vary widely in scale, yet HMS Software has ensured that TimeControl serves both mid-sized teams and organizations with hundreds of thousands of users. “For any technology to remain relevant in an organization, there needs to be continuous improvement. HMS devotes R&D efforts in several ways. First, we make sure we maintain a current technology stack so we will always work with evolving software and hardware. Next, we continuously engage with our clients to ensure that their changing needs will be addressed in upcoming development.”

This commitment is also reflected in TimeControl’s delivery models. “TimeControl started as a networked multi-user system. Within a couple of years it had evolved into a SQL-database supported product. A couple of years later it was one of the first ever enterprise applications to be available through a web browser. The evolution of TimeControl into a SaaS system and then the free TimeControl Mobile App was completely natural for us. Over the last 30 years we have adapted TimeControl to the environments where it is needed. We also maintain TimeControl as an on-premise option,” Mr. Vandersluis adds.

By updating its technology stack, engaging with clients, and offering on-premise, SaaS, and mobile options, TimeControl has remained relevant, scalable, and reliable for enterprises of any size.

The Road Ahead: Redefining Enterprise Excellence

For HMS Software, enterprise excellence is measured not by features alone but by the real-world impact of TimeControl. “Enterprise excellence in our industry really comes down to one thing: Are you more efficient now than you were before you deployed TimeControl? Overwhelmingly our clients report that they are more efficient in ways they could have never predicted before TimeControl and that their expected results are far beyond what they had expected when they chose TimeControl.”

Every deployment of TimeControl is designed to create referenceable success. “Our definition of enterprise excellence is that every one of our clients will become referenceable. Case studies showcasing TimeControl clients include some of the most prestigious organizations in the world including AMD, Gunnison, EXFO and Azuria Water Solutions.”

“Our innovative directions have remained strong since we started the company.  We are committed to flexibility in software; to its ability to adapt to client needs instead of having the organization having to adapt to the software and we are committed to accurate, auditable data,” Chris Vandersluis concludes.

Th Visionary Leader behind HMS Software’s Success

Chris Vandersluis, the Founder and CEO of HMS Software, started the company 42 years ago. He is an economist who graduated from Montreal’s McGill University and has become one of the most prolific writers about project management. Aside from the work he does for HMS every day, Mr. Vandersluis can be found sharing his expertise in podcasts, webinars, project management or business seminars, and in writings that stretch from the Project Management Institute’s PM Journal to FORTUNE magazine, to his own blog at EPMGuidance.com.

“Being a leader is only as valuable as the team you lead. Just like a conductor who doesn’t play a single note in the concert, I see my role as facilitating a remarkable group of people who have made TimeControl a worldwide success.”

– Chris Vandersluis