diff --git a/src/viur_cli/deploy.py b/src/viur_cli/deploy.py
index aa93a3d..f7ac070 100644
--- a/src/viur_cli/deploy.py
+++ b/src/viur_cli/deploy.py
@@ -23,10 +23,8 @@ def deploy(action, name, additional_args):
             {k: v for k, v in conf.items() if k not in ["version"]}
         )
 
-        # gcloud only allows for version identifiers following these rules
-        if not all([ch in (string.ascii_letters + string.digits + "-") for ch in version]):
-            echo_error(f"version name '{version}' contains invalid characters!")
-            return
+        # gcloud only allows for version identifiers in lower-case order and only accepting these characters
+        version = "".join([c for c in version.lower() if c in string.ascii_lowercase + string.digits + "-"])
 
         # rebuild requirements.txt
         create_req()
diff --git a/src/viur_cli/utils.py b/src/viur_cli/utils.py
index 6fdacf8..ab11ae9 100644
--- a/src/viur_cli/utils.py
+++ b/src/viur_cli/utils.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ def echo_info(msg):
     """colored cli feedback"""
     click.echo(click.style(msg, fg="cyan"))
 
+
 def replace_vars(string: str, vars: typing.Optional[typing.Dict[str, str]] = None) -> str:
     """Replaces $(placeholders) in a string by values from a dict until no more values are being replaced.
 
@@ -23,6 +24,9 @@ def replace_vars(string: str, vars: typing.Optional[typing.Dict[str, str]] = Non
     - day: Current date's day
     - month: Current date's month
     - year: Current date's year
+    - hour: Current date's hour
+    - minute: Current date's minute
+    - second: Current date's second
     """
     # set some defaults
     if vars is None: