Connecting Simplicate to AI: hours, projects and clients in one answer
Simplicate can be connected to AI. The assistant retrieves projects, logged hours, employees and clients from your own Simplicate environment and can prepare an invoice against a project. Hours are always requested within a boundary: over a period, for a project or for an employee, never all at once. Preparing an invoice is a separate choice.
What the assistant pulls out of Simplicate
Projects and where they stand
You ask about a project by name and get back how it stands and what the budget was. That answers in one go whether something is still running and whether there is room left in it.
Hours logged over a period
The assistant retrieves the time entries for a chosen period, a project or an employee. Never everything at once: the boundary sits in the question, so the answer is usable straight away.
Who is working on it
The employees from Simplicate come along, so a question about a colleague's workload really is about that colleague and not about somebody with a similar name.
Clients from the CRM
The organisations in the CRM part can be looked up by name. From there the assistant moves on to the projects belonging to that client and the hours logged against them.
Prepare an invoice against a project
The assistant builds an invoice against the project, with the date, the payment term and the invoice lines. Because it involves money and a client, it shows that first and prepares nothing until you approve.
Work that professional services firms recognise
Project management
- Situation
- In the weekly project meeting the question is how many hours went into a project this month and whether that tracks with the budget.
- What the agent does
- The assistant finds the project, retrieves the hours for that month and places them next to the budget attached to the project.
- Result
- The meeting gets the figure immediately and can move on to what to do about it.
Account management
- Situation
- A client asks for an update and the account manager wants to know which projects are running for that organisation.
- What the agent does
- The assistant finds the client in the CRM and names the projects attached to it, with where each one stands.
- Result
- A complete answer about the client without pulling somebody from project management into it.
Operations
- Situation
- The planner wants to know how full a particular employee was over recent weeks, to judge whether more work can be added.
- What the agent does
- The assistant retrieves that employee's hours for the chosen weeks and lists them week by week.
- Result
- A grounded conversation about planning rather than an estimate from memory.
Finance
- Situation
- At the end of the month the projects that are finished have to be invoiced.
- What the agent does
- The assistant retrieves the project, proposes the invoice lines with the payment term and waits for approval.
- Result
- Less retyping and a review that happens on screen instead of in a spreadsheet.
What it takes to get going
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1
Make the connection
In Simplicate you create a key pair for the connector yourselves. It stays yours and can be withdrawn there as well, after which the assistant sees nothing any more.
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2
Agree how hours are asked for
We record that a question about hours always contains a period, a project or an employee. That agreement keeps a mountain of time entries nobody can read out of the conversation.
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3
Choose who may use it
You decide which roles or departments work with the Simplicate assistant, and whether they may see the financial side. Not every colleague needs access to somebody else's hours.
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4
Invoicing on or off, and review
Looking things up works immediately. Preparing an invoice is something you enable separately or leave off. Every act lands in the log, so it stays clear what was requested and by whom.
Hours, rates and who gets to see them
Time tracking is about individual employees, and a project budget says something about margins. That is more sensitive than an ordinary client list.
Where the data lives: Nederland of de EU
Access stays yours
The key pair is created inside your own Simplicate environment and can be withdrawn there too. No employee login or password is kept anywhere.
Not everybody queries colleagues
Hours per employee are personal data. You decide who may use the Simplicate assistant, so not every colleague can pull up somebody else's time entries.
Traceable afterwards
Every question and every prepared invoice sits in the log with the moment and the person attached. That is handy during an audit, and it keeps the conversation about hours clean.
On a dedicated server
The model runs on a dedicated server in the Netherlands. The hours, budgets and client data from Simplicate do not travel to an American model provider and are never used for training.
Doubts and answers around Simplicate
Can I connect Simplicate to ChatGPT?
ChatGPT has no built-in connection to Simplicate, and colleagues' time entries do not belong in a public chatbot. IntraGPT gives you the same chat experience with a connector that runs on your own access and always asks within a boundary. Every act lands in the log.
Does IntraGPT work with Simplicate?
Yes. Simplicate is in the IntraGPT list of connectors and is in use with customers. The assistant retrieves projects, hours, employees and clients and can prepare an invoice against a project if you allow it.
Is Simplicate an accounting package?
No, and that is a common assumption. Simplicate combines CRM, projects and time tracking, and can build an invoice out of those. The general ledger sits in a separate accounting package at most organisations. If you want the assistant to know both, you put a second connector next to it.
Why does the assistant not simply retrieve all hours?
Because that produces no answer and does drag a lot of data about colleagues through the conversation. The agreement is that a question always contains a period, a project or an employee. Ask something broader and the assistant proposes a boundary first and waits for it.
Can the assistant log or correct hours as well?
No. Hours are only retrieved, never changed. That is deliberate: a time entry is the basis for invoicing and for accounting to the client, and it should come from the employee themselves. Corrections therefore stay human work inside Simplicate.
May the assistant prepare invoices itself?
Only if you enable it. It is a deliberate choice, because an invoice touches money and a client. With it enabled, the assistant first shows the project, the date, the payment term and the lines, and only after an explicit approval is the invoice ready in Simplicate.
What does a Simplicate connector cost?
Connecting is part of the project we run together. The work is driven by whether the assistant only looks things up or also invoices, which roles may reach the hours, and how many other sources join the same assistant.
How long does setup take?
Once access is arranged, the connector is in place quickly. The lead time usually sits in agreeing who may query somebody else's hours and whether invoices may be prepared. Those are choices that often get discussed internally first.