Best Employee Scheduling Software for Small Business (2024)
Our guide to the best employee scheduling software is the product of extensive research conducted by our HR experts coupled with external insights from across the industry. Find pricing, pros & cons, best practices and more below.
Best Employee Scheduling Software for SMBs
The best employee scheduling software solutions help organizations plan their labor needs, assign jobs to the right employees, and ensure that the total available working hours are being optimally utilized.
We spent hours researching, evaluating, and comparing the best employee scheduling software for small businesses.
Our focus has been the same as if we were in your shoes, on the market for an employee scheduling tool. We looked at their features, user experience, and main strengths and weaknesses.
However, finding the most suitable employee scheduling tool for your business is as much about understanding your business as it is about the product. Depending on how you’re set up, ‘the best’ product will vary.
For that reason, we’ve tried to put together a list with sufficient variety in industries, types of tech, and pricing styles. That being said, all of these are good bets for businesses with less than 1,500 employees.
Sounds good? Let’s dive in and take a closer look at each tool’s strengths and weaknesses.
To find the ideal employee scheduling software tools for small businesses, we conducted an exhaustive evaluation of over 30 products. We carefully considered numerous factors, including what we believe are four key criteria for these products: ease of use, customization, pricing, and integrations with payroll tools.
Our editorial team, consisting of seasoned HR professionals guided by insights from industry leaders, spearheaded the research. Additionally, we collected valuable data through hands-on user research.
- Ease of Use: Small businesses often need more time and resources for extensive software training. Therefore, we prioritized employee scheduling software that boasts user-friendly interfaces and intuitive navigation.
- Customization: We focused on scheduling solutions that provide a high degree of customization. Our selections offer flexible shift templates, customizable scheduling rules, and the ability to cater to different workforce arrangements, such as part-time, full-time, and seasonal employees.
- Pricing: The selected solutions offer subscription plans suitable for SMB budgets, with pricing tiers based on the number of employees or schedule complexity. Additionally, we highlight software that provides free trial periods or freemium versions.
- Integrations with Payroll Tools: We sought out software options that seamlessly integrate with popular payroll systems, accounting software, and HR platforms. These integrations facilitate seamless data transfer, reducing manual work and minimizing the risk of errors.
For more insights into our comprehensive evaluation process and to explore our selection of the best HR tech, we invite you to read our piece on how we select the best HR tech.
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Homebase
There’s a lot to like about Homebase. Its central scheduling interface is its biggest strength, which gives employers and employees a clear view of the company-wide schedule. We also love the fact that it offers a free version which is sufficient for most small businesses.
PROS
- Provides a fully integrated employee scheduling system with separate interfaces for managers and employees.
- Instant messaging feature to directly communicate with team members and make schedule changes on the go.
- Makes requesting time off a breeze.
- Allows you to create schedule templates.
- Has desktop, android, and iPhone applications.
- Separate dashboards for managers and employees
- Real-time communication features allow for schedule changes on the move
- Requesting and approving paid time off is easy
- Great scheduling templates help managers streamline work
CONS
- It doesn’t have the most intuitive user interface, making it hard to navigate the product.
- Offers limited third-party integrations
- The tool offers very little room for customization
- Limited third-party integration support
- Additional features are somewhat expensive
Homebase is among the best employee scheduling applications with thousands of customers worldwide. It provides organizations with an integrated system to manage their team’s schedule and instantly notify the relevant employees of any changes.
Its mobile apps allow employees to access their schedule on the go, coordinate with team members, and stay updated on any changes.
Similarly, it allows managers to assign work shifts and instantly notify employees of their schedules.
Try Homebase For Free
Homebase offers the following subscription plans (billed annually)
- Basic - Free
- Essentials - $14/month per location [most suitable plans for employee scheduling features]
- Plus - $35/month per location
- All-in-one - $70/month per location
Best For
I utilize Homebase as a comprehensive scheduling solution for managing cleanings for my LLC's short-term rentals. The platform allows me to create and organize cleaning shifts for each property, ensuring that our units are consistently maintained to high standards and ready for guests' arrival.
With Homebase, we start by signing in and adding "Open Shifts" on any days we have turnovers for a given property. Then, based on each cleaning team member's availability (availability is shown within the app), we assign the shifts to prospective team members.
Homebase's user-friendly interface simplifies the scheduling process, allowing us to quickly make adjustments or reschedule shifts as needed.
- It is free! The free version of the app provides everything we need to solve our scheduling challenges.
- It is user-friendly. The web app is great for monthly scheduling, and the mobile app works for our team to view their shifts, etc.
- It was great that I could begin using it right away. There was no complicated onboarding process or steep learning curve.
I stumbled upon Homebase after a Google search looking for a scheduling tool. It has proven to be invaluable for coordinating the cleanings for my LLC's short-term rentals. Prior to using Homebase, we experienced significant challenges in efficiently managing and organizing the cleaning schedule for multiple properties with multiple members of our cleaning team. It was a time-consuming and error-prone process, resulting in delays and dissatisfaction among the team. We have used it for over three months now and have thoroughly enjoyed using the tool.
- The system sends a lot of automated notifications (app alerts, emails, text messages).
- There is a lot more functionality than we use it for, which is frustrating. We don't handle payroll, etc., through the app, but get notifications about these features all the time.
- Limited customization; I don't need an alert every time there is a scheduling "conflict" because oftentimes one employee will handle the turnover for multiple properties in a given day. I wish I could customize my views, alerts, etc., to better meet our needs.
I have never used other scheduling tools so I'm unsure how it compares.
One thing to think about is how you will handle communication and collaboration. Homebase's communication tools work adequately but aren't very robust. I sometimes get better responses from our team by just texting them, so consider how the tool facilitates communication and collaboration among team members. Look for features such as real-time notifications, messaging capabilities, and the ability to easily share schedule updates and changes.
No changes that I'm aware of.
It's hard to answer this, but it's worked great for us - a small team of people managing short-term rental properties with a small team of people handling the scheduled cleanings for these properties.
It's hard to answer this, but it probably would not be a good fit for an organization that does not have scheduling demands.
Connecteam
You can enjoy using all three of Connecteam’s hubs (Operations, Communications, and HR & Skills) for free for up to 10 users.
PROS
- Reach staff instantly with native team communication tools.
- Forms and checklists provide workers with necessary job information.
- Track employee hours with a user-friendly time clock.
- Geofencing and automated timesheets for payroll.
- Offers auto-scheduling, error-flagging, and scheduling templates.
- Competitive pricing. Free plan and free trial available.
- One of the only fully-mobile HR tech tools for deskless workers
- Very adequately-priced for all it entails, SMB-friendly
- Quite open to feedback, having implemented user suggestions as features in the past.
CONS
- Limited native integration options. API access for Enterprise plan only.
- No phone support.
- In the communication hub, the app offers no confirmation that messages were sent and/or seen.
- Certain features that some teams consider essential, such as GPS-tracking, are only available in the higher-tier pricing plans.
Creating shifts on Connecteam is designed to be flexible and accommodating. You have the option to create single or multiple shifts, import from Excel, provide open spots for your workers to claim, or set up repeating shifts. Further, given that small businesses often function on shift-based models rather than specific job roles, the platform's adaptability in enabling users to approve individuals for shifts independently is truly a plus.
Connecteam has a clear interface that worked well despite the devices we used: laptop, tablet, and phone. The help center has easy-to-digest video tutorials and articles and a search function that, during our testing, made it easy for us to find what we needed. Plus, we like that the platform keeps everything current and in three languages.
Pricing-wise, we were impressed with Connecteam’s transparency and flexibility. There’s a free-for-life plan for teams with no more than 10 users and a couple of paid options that could be of good use for these businesses as they expand.
Our main concern about Connecteam, though, is its integration limitations: It can natively connect with very few HR tools, while API access is restricted to the Enterprise plan.
We love the thorough Help Center, but it’s a shame there is no phone support. In our experience, being able to engage with support immediately over the phone when required is greatly appreciated by many businesses.
36,000+ companies, including Eco-Moving, Cage Free Voices, and UGS Private Security.
Connecteam offers a free plan for SMBs with up to 10 employees. The platform’s paid plans start at $29 per user per month billed annually.
Best For
SMBs with no more than 30 employees and which do not need extensive integration choices.
When I Work
When I Work is ideal for small businesses with limited budgets looking for a robust employee scheduling application. It’s not loaded with unnecessary features like many other HR tools but delivers excellent employee scheduling and time tracking capabilities.
PROS
- Easy shift scheduling for managers and employees.
- Global organization view of all employees.
- Minimizes absences and no-shows through shift confirmation messages and seen receipts.
- Allows managers to decide how much control employees get
CONS
- No way to track paid time off
- Limited reporting data
- Technical and user-experience issues with the mobile app
When I Work is a robust employee scheduling tool ideal for small businesses. It gives employers a bird’s eye view of their team’s work schedule and allows them to make changes on the go. It also empowers employees and makes their off-time more enjoyable by giving them control over their schedule and saving them from unplanned work.
When I Work offers the following subscription plans.
- Small Business - $2/user per month
- Enterprise - Custom quote
The Small Business plan comes with a 14-day trial, while Enterprise users can schedule a Demo before purchase.
Best For
- It gives employers the company-wide schedule dashboard simplifying decision making and saving countless hours.
- Allows users to track their work hours and update schedules anytime.
- Enables instant communication between employees and managers to improve coordination and minimize confusion.
We use the tool daily to manage day-to-day scheduling of employees, including approving or denying time off requests. It's also instrumental in planning large special events such as fundraisers or camp activities. Additionally, the When I Work app aids in payroll functions, making it an integral part of our operations.
I appreciate that the app has a clean interface and is easy to use, which our employees also seem to like.
Our organization has been using this tool for over 15 months to schedule per diem employees, who are hired as needed. Previously, there was a significant inefficiency in coordinating between management and gig workers, particularly in contacting workers promptly. This platform allows temp workers to schedule themselves at any time of day, effectively resolving the issue and streamlining the scheduling process for gig workers.
Currently, there’s nothing specific that I dislike about the tool.
While there are competitors like UKG and Q-Genda that offer similar services, this tool stands out for our particular needs.
Consider whether you employ many temporary workers and if your workforce is tech-savvy enough to utilize mobile technology effectively. These factors are crucial in determining the suitability of this tool for your organization.
To my understanding, the services provided by this tool have not undergone significant changes since their inception.
This tool is highly effective for small organizations that rely heavily on part-time or temporary workers.
This tool is versatile enough to be beneficial for all types of organizations.
Deputy
Deputy makes employee scheduling a breeze. But what makes it different from other employee scheduling software is its AI capabilities. It does the heavy lifting for you by developing optimized employee schedules for departments, teams, or individual employees based on their workload and availability.
PROS
- Quickly create optimized employee schedules with AI assistance.
- Easily find replacements when an employee doesn’t show up.
- Accurately track breaks and unproductive time.
- Easily integrates with Google Calendar and other workforce management and scheduling apps.
- Create AI optimized employee schedules
- Eliminate no-shows with quick replacements
- Track unproductive time and breaks with precision
CONS
- Very limited reporting and analytics
- Average customer support in case of technical problems
- It has a complex user interface that makes editing shifts, and employee schedules unnecessarily complicated.
- Limited reporting functionality
- Once published, upcoming schedules can’t be changed
Deputy’s AI-powered employee scheduling features make it an ideal solution for busy small business owners. It takes the hassle out of employee scheduling by providing up-to-date workforce engagement details to managers and allowing employees to access their schedules online.
Deputy offers a full-featured free trial of up t0 31 days. After that, you can sign up for one of its paid plans.
Scheduling - $2.5/user per month (billed annually)
Premium - $4.5/user per month (billed annually)
The Premium plan includes scheduling and time & attendance features.
Best For
- Simplifies team communication and workload planning a breeze.
- It helps you identify underutilized and overburdened employees.
- Replaces spreadsheets and other manual work management methods with real-time dashboards.
My team and I used the Deputy system on a daily basis to manage workplace schedules for our sports medicine department. We had users at multiple levels of system access. Deputy was used separately from our Hospital ADP Payroll system, as we were not permitted to integrate them. Additionally, we utilized the messaging component to share key updates with the team. The key workflows I relied on included creating and publishing schedules, managing time off requests and shift-drop requests, tracking employee hours, and generating reports for tracking and invoicing purposes.
- User-friendly ease of access via the app
- Customization ability in creating shift locations based on our outreach partnership sites
- Very affordable option to address our needs
- Feed features - helpful communication tool
When I worked for RWJBarnabas Health, we purchased Deputy to manage the scheduling, shift details, and communications for the outreach sports medicine team. We utilized it for two years. Our pain points included lack of per diem employee access to outlook schedules and disjointed communication platforms. Key benefits of use included an easy centralized scheduling system that was customizable to make our contracted partners along with an easy-to-navigate app for the end-users
- Lack of / difficulty with integration to our other hospital systems
- Feed - while it was a useful tool, at times, it was clunky; notifications were not always pushed through
- Not all settings and functions are intuitive and easy to find - especially with differences between the web-based version and the app version
I have also used "When-I-Work" as a comparison. I preferred the app interface of When-I-Work. However, I preferred the web-based interface of Deputy, which was much more user-friendly.
- Cost - very affordable option, we paid per user
- Volume of users - was an effective schedule management option for 30-40 users with varying access levels
- Chat function - should seek a platform with a consistent messaging function, both with individual messaging and group messaging
Deputy was receptive to ideas for enhancements during calls with customer service, and the overall experience and user-ease improved during the two years we utilized this service.
Single or multiple-location entities in need of customizable location details
I can honestly not think of a user or organization situation where the tool would not at least be somewhat helpful.
Shiftboard
ShiftBoard is ideal for large production-centric organizations looking to effectively schedule shifts and optimize labor costs. It makes life much easier for shift managers by giving employees access to their schedules and the option to trade hours.
PROS
- Offers two different products for production-centric companies and service providers.
- It’s a sophisticated employee scheduling solution that links directly with production plans, HR software, account, etc., to provide 360-degree resource management.
- It reduces absences and missed shifts resulting in lower labor costs and optimized production planning.
CONS
- Offers limited functionality to accommodate project-based employees.
- The user interface is clunky and hard to navigate.
- It has a learning curve due to its complex options.
Shiftboard is a robust employee scheduling platform that offers significantly more features and functions than the other software in this list. This is why 60,000+ manufacturing and service-oriented companies use it for employee scheduling.
But it isn’t very customizable and lacks several key features for small businesses and companies that operate with contractual employees.
ShiftBoard offers two different scheduling products for manufacturing and service-oriented organizations.
ScheduleFlex Pricing (Service Industry)
Basic - $3/month per user
Professional - $6/month per user (ideal for growing companies)
Enterprise - Custom Quote.
SchedulePro Pricing (Manufacturing Industry)
Enterprise and Enterprise Plus plans - Custom quotes
You can schedule a free demo of SchedulePro and ScheduleFlex from their respective pricing pages.
Best For
- Improves employee motivation and productivity by helping companies minimize overtime and unplanned shifts.
- Allows organizations to manage employees at multiple production facilities from a central dashboard.
- Minimizes communication gaps in large companies through group announcements and one-on-one chats.
We use Shiftboard for multiple purposes. Our program schedule for over 40 program site locations is housed in Shiftboard for our program schedulers to administer and adjust daily. This includes not only publishing available shifts but also narrowing down who can pick up shifts at various locations based on their credentials and training. We also use Shiftboard to communicate with our employees, as most of them utilize the Shiftboard app daily. We send announcements and reminders through Shiftboard. Our employees use Shiftboard to see their schedules, find available shifts, and clock in or out when they work. They also use Shiftboard to request time off and designate whether they'd like to use PTO.
Shiftboard is highly customizable and allows us to have multiple qualifiers for employees to accept shifts, such as credentials or specific training requirements. The platform is easy to use and understand for our employees. The "Tradeboard" feature allows employees to swap shifts if they qualify and meet the requirements, offering flexibility when they need time off. The support team is highly responsive when issues occur, which is not frequent.
My organization contracted with Shiftboard for scheduling over eight years ago. We needed a solution for scheduling 350+ employees in the healthcare industry working in various locations that were staffed 24/7. Our payroll provider had timekeeping and scheduling capabilities, but they were very limited and didn't operate well with 24-hour scheduling. We needed something that employees would find easy to navigate and use daily. We also wanted our employees to have more than one option for how they clock in and out for each shift that would update in real-time.
From an administrative standpoint, the system can be challenging for schedulers to learn. The training modules offered could be expanded to make this easier. The visual calendar is a bit rudimentary.
I find Shiftboard superior to its competitors. Prior to contracting with Shiftboard, I researched 6-7 other timekeeping/scheduling systems, and none of them were as customizable. I appreciate the added benefits of company announcements and communication features, and the price is highly competitive and affordable.
When considering timekeeping/scheduling software, first identify the goals you need it to achieve. The larger and more complex your needs, the more customizable the software should be. Do your employees have the same basic schedule? Do they work at the same location frequently? If so, you may not need much customization. If you have many employees and multiple locations, your scheduling needs will be complex, and you'll want the ability to mold the software to fit your exact specifications.
Shiftboard is proactive about contacting and meeting with their customers regularly to identify any pain points. Shiftboard has undergone multiple upgrades over time, each beneficial to our company. This includes a company dashboard for announcements to all employees, the ability to contact employees individually or by location, and the Tradeboard feature. Their support team responds well to feedback and requests.
Any sized company with complex scheduling needs will find Shiftboard to be a great fit. It is especially useful for healthcare companies, which have hundreds of employees in multiple locations.
Small companies with simple scheduling needs won’t need Shiftboard. If your employees generally work the same shifts at the same location, this may not be a necessary expense.
7shifts
7Shifts provides a wide range of scheduling features under one hood. They stand out for their AI-powered auto-scheduler, in-app messaging, time tracking, and even a basic ATS. Few software products that apply to the restaurant business combine many such functions.
PROS
- This software has a lot of integration options, making it easier to streamline aspects of your business like sales. You can, for example, connect to point of sale systems like Square and Toast so you can easily accept credit card and NFC payments as well as inventory and financing.
- A fully-featured software that helps you manage team schedules, timesheets, tasks, communications, and much more, within a mobile-friendly platform.
- Their free plan features basic scheduling and ATS functionalities to get your restaurant up and running, and it can accommodate as many as 30 users per location.
- This software has a lot of integration options, making it easier to streamline aspects of your business like sales. You can, for example, connect to point of sale systems like Square and Toast so you can easily accept credit card and NFC payments as well as inventory and financing.
- A fully-featured software that helps you manage team schedules, timesheets, tasks, communications, and much more, within a mobile-friendly platform.
- Their free plan features basic scheduling and ATS functionalities to get your restaurant up and running, and it can accommodate as many as 30 users per location.
CONS
- The platform’s scheduling can be a drag for teams with global remote workers because the shifts are only scheduled in CST timezone.
- The system, sometimes, does not synchronize employee’s mobile shift data with admin data. So shifts could be created and published on the manager’s end and the employees might not receive it.
- Doesn’t allow you to edit schedules before publishing. If a mistake is made, the schedule will have to be deleted and created again.
- The platform’s scheduling can be a drag for teams with global remote workers because the shifts are only scheduled in CST timezone.
- The system, sometimes, does not synchronize employee’s mobile shift data with admin data. So shifts could be created and published on the manager’s end and the employees might not receive it.
- Doesn’t allow you to edit schedules before publishing. If a mistake is made, the schedule will have to be deleted and created again.
7Shifts was built specifically to be a human resources software for the restaurant industry, offering a wide range of functionality including employee scheduling, time clocking, labor compliance, and team communication.
Although this software has a lot of moving parts, they all synchronize to streamline restaurant operations. Additionally, the software offers innovative tools like an AI-powered auto-scheduler and templates, to help managers keep up with the fast-paced nature of restaurant HR management.
Sambo’s, The Chopped Leaf, Andy’s Frozen Custard, National Coney Island.
7Shifts has four plans available, three with fixed pricing and one with customized pricing. Add-ons are also available for separate purchases. Here are the main plans:
- Comp: Free plan with basic scheduling and ATS features. It supports only 30 users per location.
- Entree: $34.99 per location per month, but you can save about 10% if you pay annually. It is a little upgrade from the comp plan with additional reporting and budgeting features. It also supports a max of 30 employees per location.
- The Works: This plan costs $76.99 per location per month ($69.99 when billed annually). It offers all 7Shifts features to give you an all-in-one restaurant team management platform.
- Gourmet: The Gourmet plan is their custom plan. What separates this plan for the previous ones is that it comes with a dedicated account manager.
As for the add-ons, these are priced as follows:
- Task management: $12.99/location/month
- Tip pooling: $24.99/location/month
- Operations overview: $6.99/location/month
- Manager logbook: $14.99/location/month
Best For
7Shifts is a great choice for restaurants that want a little bit of human resource management together with the scheduling.
7shifts was used for hiring, onboarding & scheduling. The hiring features helped us get a hold of more new employee information. It was easy to have them onboarded which cuts down on improperly filled out w-2s, i-9s, health insurance information, etc. The ability to use the time clock functions also has cut down on labor costs avoiding employees clocking in too early for their scheduled shift. It also had employees become responsible for shift changes and put it "in stone" versus a he-said-she-said circumstance. It also was great to create a black out date for time off requests such as Christmas or Thanksgiving. Having employees be able to mainstream their schedule also made for a better work environment with less phone calls/texts on their time off.
Labor costs were lowered. Hiring became a much smoother and easier process. Shift changes were documented. Schedules were not having to be posted and texted which has caused issues with staffing in the past. Holidays were able to be blacked out for time off requests.
Our restaurant purchased this with hopes of having a smoother way to communicate with scheduling. 7shifts enabled an easier way to share the shifts versus posting on a board and texting them to employees (who of course could say they never received the text). It also was a great way to request time off which we had by hanging a post it note which could easily be lost or removed by other employees wanting the same day off. It was also a great way to cut labor costs as each shift is entered in. Prior to this, employees could clock in and out as they pleased. The new hire paperwork being able to be stored online was also very beneficial and cut down on filing with the risk of misplacing the files. The hiring tool was beneficial as I was able to flag candidates to contact when the season began again.
It did take a few attempts to learn the program in the beginning. I would like to see an easier tutorial section.
7shifts is user friendly once learned and the ability to integrate hiring, managing applicants, payroll & scheduling was a smoother transition than other programs such as Pinnacle or Aloha.
They should consider putting effort into learning the application. It also should be taken into consideration having all employees onboard on one application so as to not have paperwork and e-files.
I feel it became quicker and has kept up with the changing times of technology by including the POS integration for example.
Restaurants would definitely benefit as well as retail locations.
Office atmospheres.
ScheduleBase
ScheduleBase does what it promises - simplifying employee scheduling. Its limited features make it an easy-to-use product for field staff and employers looking for a straightforward employee scheduling tool.
PROS
- ScheduleBase is an easy-to-use tool that takes users straight to employee scheduling without overwhelming them with features.
- It can be easily accessed from its website and mobile applications (iPhone and Android).
- It offers a generous free trial of 30 days during which you can test all its features.
- Automatically sends email and SMS alerts to employees when the employer modifies their schedules.
- ScheduleBase is an easy-to-use tool that takes users straight to employee scheduling without overwhelming them with features.
- It can be easily accessed from its website and mobile applications (iPhone and Android).
- It offers a generous free trial of 30 days during which you can test all its features.
- Automatically sends email and SMS alerts to employees when the employer modifies their schedules.
CONS
- ScheduleBase comes with very limited features and is only suitable for companies looking for basic employee software.
- It does not offer any third-party software integrations, which means you can’t connect it with your payroll or HR solutions.
- It has an outdated user interface that isn’t visually appealing and lacks the drag & drop functionalities that most modern employee scheduling tools offer these days.
- ScheduleBase comes with very limited features and is only suitable for companies looking for basic employee software.
- It does not offer any third-party software integrations, which means you can’t connect it with your payroll or HR solutions.
- It has an outdated user interface that isn’t visually appealing and lacks the drag & drop functionalities that most modern employee scheduling tools offer these days.
ScheduleBase has all the basic employee scheduling features that allow you to effectively create and manage your team’s schedules online. It provides you with an easy-to-use employee scheduler and instantly notifies your team of any changes to their shifts. However, you can’t call it an advanced tool since it lacks many additional features such as group chats, time tracking, etc., that the more expensive scheduling tools offer.
Subway, Orange Leaf, GoRun Wichita, Holiday Inn Express, Bell Bank, Randy’s Hardware
ScheduleBase has a straightforward pricing structure based on the number of users associated with a company account. You can start as low as $10/month for up to 20 users. If you’re unsure about getting a paid plan, ScheduleBase offers a full-featured one-month free trial to help you decide if the platform is right for your business.
Here are the different pricing ScheduleBase pricing slabs based on the number of users.
Best For
ScheduleBase is a versatile employee scheduling tool suitable for diverse industries, especially small to medium-sized businesses with shift-based teams like restaurants, call centers, retailers, and construction companies spanning multiple locations.
QuickBooks Time
QuickBooks Time isn’t the most robust product on this list. But the overall feature package that comes with QuickBooks makes it worth using. It provides you a 360 solution for employee scheduling, time tracking, and costing, which saves you countless hours and a significant amount of money in the long run.
PROS
- Increases profitability with integrated time-tracking and employee scheduling features.
- It makes scheduling simpler by highlighting work windows and available employees.
- Provides accurate labor costing thanks to time-tracking, scheduling, and accounting features.
- This product offers promotions and discounts (up to 50%) from time to time.
- Their customer service is personalized. You get to reach them by scheduling a call and customers have commended the courteous, tailored responses to issues they have.
- Consolidated clock in/clock out system for central work locations.
CONS
- Not very user-friendly
- Limited customizations
- No features for scheduling sub-contractors
- The GPS technology is slow to catch up on current locations at times. Instead of live updates, the software shows the employee’s previous locations.
- While their customer support is very helpful, they don’t provide many options for you to contact them. You can only schedule a call.
QuickBooks is a global leader in accounting and HR software. QuickBooks Time is a part of its ecosystem and provides employers with time tracking and employee scheduling features. It isn’t as impressive as some of the other apps in this article. But the overall QuickBooks feature range enhances its employee scheduling capabilities and links it directly to your payroll software and HR systems resulting in more accurate costing and streamlined operations.
QuickBooks Time offers two subscription plans
Premium - $8/user per month + $20 base fee/month
Elite - $10/user per month
Both plans come with a 30-day free trial
Best For
- Helps in creating employee schedules and tracking employee activities in the same tool.
- Replaces the manual work in employee scheduling with a fully automated system with real-time shit tracking.
- Streamlines communication through notifications and email alerts.
Employees log all paid hours in the system, including work hours by project and any paid leave offerings. Employees also utilize the "who's working" feature to see who on the team is working and available at a given time. Managers review and approve time entries. Managers, HR, Finance, and Operations leaders use the reporting features to understand productivity, profitability, and overall staff activity. The data from QuickBooks Time is pushed to QuickBooks Online for invoicing to clients and pushed to ADP for payroll processing.
The ability to set up different projects for clients allows us to track specific types of work employees are doing for each client and invoice accordingly. Integration with other QuickBooks products allows for easy invoicing. Reporting features give managers real-time data about employee time and productivity.
We purchased QuickBooks Time because we were already using QuickBooks for accounting and needed a system for time tracking as our team grew. I have used this system for three years and currently still use it. Prior to QuickBooks, we had a timekeeping system that frequently had errors and glitches, so this transition helped to solve that pain point and allowed us to work within a single, integrated product for time reporting and accounting.
The project design is limited in its ability to be customized, so we have had to adjust our business to fit within the confines of the system. The leave time features do not provide the robust view and data that employees expect to have at their fingertips, which generates questions and unnecessary extra work. The paid leave settings are fairly simplistic and don't allow us to automate accruals based on our company policies, so manual accruals must be set and adjusted annually on an individual basis.
In terms of timekeeping, QuickBooks is on par with competitors in that it is fairly simple and intuitive for employees to log in and clock in and out. QuickBooks does offer some advantageous features in terms of project tracking, but its customization limits put it behind competitors and really make it suited for only specific types of organizations or work. In terms of approvals, customizable workflows, different access and view levels, etc., QuickBooks is also limited and falls behind competitors. The leave tracking, in particular, is far behind what I've seen in any other time tracking system I've used.
Strongly consider the larger picture for how the data in the system will be used beyond individual time entries. Consider downstream needs such as invoicing, reporting, and payroll to determine if the limitations in the system will meet all of your needs.
In the years I've used this system, I have seen no meaningful changes. I have been encouraged to submit feedback for consideration for system updates but have not seen any updates that have affected me or my team.
QuickBooks Time is suited for an organization that has very defined, distinguished projects. For example, possibly a company with various separate construction sites and projects. QuickBooks Time is also likely suited for a small-scale organization of limited complexity.
QuickBooks Time would not be suited for a large, complex organization. QuickBooks Time would also not be suited for a highly matrixed organization due to the limitations around access and user views. QuickBooks Time would also not likely be valuable for an organization that does not bill time or record hours based on client work. While the system would still allow clocking in and out, most features would not be valuable, and there are other more customizable and user-friendly timekeeping options available for an organization such as that.
OpenSimSim
SocialSchedules by OpenSimSim covers most (if not all) of the core features you need in a modern scheduling software tool: from scheduling to time off management, shift replacements, and in-app messaging. It even offers a free feature-rich plan for up to 10 employees.
PROS
- SocialSchedules is easier to use than other employee scheduling tools thanks to its drag & drop user interface and excellent user experience.
- Generous free plan with all core features: scheduling, in-app messaging, availability management, and time off requests.
- You can try all features in the premium plan for free for 14 days.
- The knowledge base provides in-depth help content.
- Includes time tracking, recruitment, and sales management modules to provide a fully integrated one-stop HR management solution.
- Unlimited chat history means your group chats can become a secondary knowledge base for your team to quickly refer to and find previously discussed information.
Easier to use compared to other employee scheduling tools thanks to its drag & drop user interface and excellent user experience.
- Offers a generous free plan, ideal for small teams, which includes all its core features with unlimited usage.
- Includes time tracking, recruitment, and sales management modules to provide a fully integrated one-stop HR management solution.
- Offers unlimited chat history which means your group chats can become a secondary knowledge base for your team to quickly refer to and find previously discussed information.
CONS
- The free plan is available for up to 10 scheduled workers. It also stores data for 28 days.
- Dedicated customer support, SLAs, API access, and custom reports are only available for the highest-tier plan.
- No features for auto-scheduling and labor cost forecasting.
- It can be quite confusing to see two websites: one with the former name Opensimsim and the other with the newly branded one SocialSchedules, co-exist separately.
- The iOS app hasn't been updated since Oct 2022, while the Android app gets several negative reviews for lacking certain features compared to the web version.
- Its knowledge base has in-depth help content, but its customer support is limited to Enterprise users.
There’s a lot to like about SocialSchedules’ employee scheduling capabilities. It offers an easy (drag & drop scheduling features) and inexpensive way (the free plan with all core scheduling features) to schedule shifts and keep track of your employees.
We like how simple it is to navigate the platform from managers’ perspectives. Upon sign-up, we got a virtual tour guide that walked us through the platform briefly, a help center with more details on how a feature works, and chat support in the right corner of the dashboard to get help when needed. As soon as we sent a schedule, assigned a new task, or updated shifts related to them, stakeholders got updated instantly. The platform gave us a bird’s-eye view of the team’s daily and weekly schedules, with individuals’ workloads and availability in different color codes. For the monthly view, we needed to switch to time cards. In the time cards section, you can also filter what you want to see by departments, positions, workers, and shift status. It simply worked well. However, filtering by status is locked for free users. Only paid users can access it, along with other cool features, such as advanced time tracking, certification tracking, and compliance.
Besides evaluating it from a manager’s perspective, we enjoyed testing the platform out as an employee too. Through SocialSchedules, we could see our assigned weekly schedule and the countdown until our next shift began. The ability to request time off and leave a note on reasons for the request was also a nice touch for both managers and employees. Our favorite feature was native messaging: we could contact managers and team members privately or via a group chat within the app. The only downside experienced was the mobile app. It underperformed compared to the platform version.
SocialSchedules integrations include Point of Sale Systems (POS) and payroll applications such as Heartland, ADP Workforce Now, and Square POS. However, POS integrations are only available for paid users. Custom API is also limited to the highest-priced plan.
SocialSchedules offers three different subscription plans along with a generous free plan that includes all the core product features for one location, one department, and up to 10 workers. Following is a summary of its paid plans when billed annually:
- Starter: $12.99 per month per location, 2 departments per location. Features include unlimited workers, shift confirmations, block time off on dates, overtime (daily/weekly), overtime report, and manager logbooks.
- Premium: $33.99 per month per location and comes with 5 departments per location, cloud storage (7 years), mobile time clock, POS integrations, certification management, auto break allocation, and advanced reporting.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing. The plan includes unlimited locations, departments, cloud storage (7 years), dedicated support contact, negotiated pricing, custom API integration, custom reports, and custom features.
Best For
SocialSchedules’ generous free plan makes it ideal for teams with 10 employees or fewer, whereas their paid plans with tools for compliance, certifications tracking, and labor budgeting make it a solid option for hospitality and service businesses.
Humanity
Humanity is a very flexible employee scheduling tool that companies in diverse industries can use to simplify their shift management and employee coordination. Its biggest strength is that it offers multiple types of scheduling depending on an employer's needs. For example, companies can create flexible shifts for peak and low-demand hours.
PROS
- It accelerates the employee scheduling process through predictive technology, AI tools, and templates.
- Offers an excellent user interface to employees for time-off requests, schedule changes, and communication with managers.
- Significantly reduces overtime costs by timely identifying relevant employees, accurate costs calculations, and schedule optimization.
CONS
- Schedule builder doesn’t automatically adjust time zones.
- No way to prioritize shifts.
- Employee leave changes are not automatically incorporated into the schedule.
Humanity is a leading employee scheduling software that allows shift-based employees to know exactly where they have to be and when. It empowers employees by giving them access to their weekly and monthly shift schedules, allowing them to trade shifts, submit time-offs, and communicate with their line managers instantly.
Similarly, it provides employers a one-stop solution to easily manage their employee schedule, assign resources, identify understaffed shifts, and take corrective actions on the go. In addition, it provides employers with the data and insights to take accurate recruitment decisions based on the demand-supply gap in a given shift.
It is ideal for service-oriented companies in healthcare, pharmaceutical, retail, and household services.
Humanity offers three different subscription plans for small, medium, and enterprise businesses. But users need to contact its sales team to learn more about pricing.
All plans come with a 30-day free trial.
Best For
- Facilitates better decision making with multiple resource views
- Enables smooth communication without revealing the staff’s contact numbers to everyone.
- Simplifies schedule management, time-off requests, and shift exchanges between employees.
Calendly
Calendly differentiates itself through a user-friendly interface, sleek design, and exceptional time-saving capabilities. Notably, it offers a rare indefinite free plan, setting it apart in the scheduling tool arena.
PROS
- Calendly’s simplicity is its biggest pro. It has an elegant user interface, it's very easy to navigate, it promptly gets the task done, and connects seamlessly with other applications.
- The reduction in back-and-forth emails. Your invitees can book a meeting slot, without reaching out to you multiple times. Calendly automatically sends them a confirmation and they can reschedule or cancel on their own. It’s even better for virtual meetings because once your invitees schedule a meeting with you, Calendly will automatically generate a meeting link based on your preferred video conferencing tool.
- The ability to set your own rules so that you can get complete control over your availability preferences. For example, you can decide how long a particular kind of meeting should be, buffer time between meetings, how many appointments can be booked per day, etc.
- Calendly seamlessly integrates with popular calendar and mailing tools. Meetings are automatically reflected on your personal calendar and video conferencing links with tools like Zoom or Google Meet are generated without any extra steps.
- Provides a bird’s eye view of your team’s availability for meetups and events.
- Calendly’s simplicity is its biggest pro. It has an elegant user interface, it's very easy to navigate, it promptly gets the task done, and connects seamlessly with other applications.
- The reduction in back-and-forth emails. Your invitees can book a meeting slot, without reaching out to you multiple times. Calendly automatically sends them a confirmation and they can reschedule or cancel on their own. It’s even better for virtual meetings because once your invitees schedule a meeting with you, Calendly will automatically generate a meeting link based on your preferred video conferencing tool.
- The ability to set your own rules so that you can get complete control over your availability preferences. For example, you can decide how long a particular kind of meeting should be, buffer time between meetings, how many appointments can be booked per day, etc.
- Calendly seamlessly integrates with popular calendar and mailing tools. Meetings are automatically reflected on your personal calendar and video conferencing links with tools like Zoom or Google Meet are generated without any extra steps.
CONS
- Doesn’t provide shift management features.
- Besides branding and the ability to choose different colors, Calendly does not offer a lot of options for customizations. This could be frustrating for users who want to embed Calendly in their website without making it seem like a completely different component.
- Calendly is not very mobile-friendly. You can’t perform all the functions on the mobile version.
- The payment collecting feature is not available in all currencies. Your invitees can only pay in the United States Dollar (USD), Australian Dollar (AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Pound Sterling (GBP), and Euro (EUR).
- You’ll be severely limited in terms of features if you choose the free plan or the cheaper ones. According to Craig, a Customer Success Manager at a small business, “All advanced functionality is locked behind higher subscription levels – We have the Professional level so that we can set up a team, but they locked the most obvious and useful meeting type for teams behind yet another upgrade to the sub level.”
- Besides branding and the ability to choose different colors, Calendly does not offer a lot of options for customizations. This could be frustrating for users who want to embed Calendly in their website without making it seem like a completely different component.
- Calendly is not very mobile-friendly. You can’t perform all the functions on the mobile version.
- The payment collecting feature is not available in all currencies. Your invitees can only pay in the United States Dollar (USD), Australian Dollar (AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Pound Sterling (GBP), and Euro (EUR).
- You’ll be severely limited in terms of features if you choose the free plan or the cheaper ones. According to Craig, a Customer Success Manager at a small business, “All advanced functionality is locked behind higher subscription levels – We have the Professional level so that we can set up a team, but they locked the most obvious and useful meeting type for teams behind yet another upgrade to the sub level.”
Calendly is a modern meeting scheduling platform designed for entrepreneurs, consultants, service-oriented companies, and businesses that frequently conduct meetings across time zones.
Businesses looking for an affordable solution can use it as a makeshift tool for assigning work slots to in-house and remote employees.
However, it isn’t an employee scheduling platform for managing shifts, employee communication, shift trading, or leave management.
Calendly has many big names in their customer base, such as eBay, Compass, Lyft, Dropbox, La-Z-Boy, Twilio, and Stack Overflow.
Calendly has five pricing plans that can be billed either monthly or annually. If you choose the latter, you’ll save 20%. Below are the prices you’ll pay per month per user, if you choose to get billed annually.
- Basic Plan: This is completely free of cost. However, as the name suggests, you’ll only have limited features to use.
- Essentials Plan: This plan costs $8 and is suitable when you need scheduling automation.
- Professional Plan: This plan costs $12 and is their most popular plan. Use it if you need customizations, integrations, and basic team features.
- Teams Plan: This plan costs $16 and is useful for teams that rely on collaboration and need to align on a scheduling process.
- Enterprise Plan: This plan has custom pricing and is suitable for teams with 30+ members and advanced needs. You’ll have to contact their sales team to get pricing.
All the paid plans come with a 14-day trial, at the end of which, you’ll automatically be downgraded to the free plan. They also offer special pricing for non-profit organizations. You’ll have to reach out to their customer support specialists for details.
Best For
Calendly suits businesses of varying scales seeking an economical and intuitive scheduling solution. Particularly advantageous for solo entrepreneurs and small enterprises, Calendly's inclusion of a free plan caters to individual professionals and modest business setups.
As a Recruiter and Business owner, Calendly has been beneficial in my business and profession. I used it for scheduling interviews with job candidates. I used it to book one-on-one meetings with prospects and clients, allowing me to specify the duration and location of each meeting. I also used it to coordinate events such as training, and coaching session with my mentees. That said, these key workflows, allow me to simplify the scheduling process to save time so I can focus on other important tasks.
What I like about Calendly is that it eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails. It makes it a simple and easy way for others to book time with me based on my availability. This process helps to schedule more effectively and efficiently thereby saving time and energy.
We use Calendly as it eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails. It makes it so easy for our candidates, clients, stakeholders, and others to book time with us based on our availability. This can save us a lot of time and energy and make scheduling a more efficient and effective process.
I have been using Calendly since 2018 and so far, I haven't come across anything I don't like about Calendly. That said, I am completely satisfied with Calendly and have no negative feedback to provide.
What I like about Calendly is that it is user-friendly making it so easy to navigate. It has customizable event types as it allows me to create various types of events and I can customize the details for each type. It has real-time availability. I don't need to check timebuddy.com anymore to ensure that the time and date are accurate as Calendly integrates with my calendar.
It has email and calendar integrations such as Gmail, Outlook, and Google Calendar too, making it easy to manage my appointments and meetings. Finally, it has an automated email reminder. I don't miss a single meeting since Calendly sends automated email reminders to me.
- User-friendly: This is the number priority that each has to consider. A tool that is easy to use and navigate will make your life easier and help you save time and energy.
- Customizability: The ability to customize events and appointments to meet your specific needs is also crucial.
- Integration: Look for a tool that integrates with your existing email and calendar tools. This will make it easier to manage your appointments and meetings.
- Multi-user support: If you are part of a team, it's crucial to find a tool that supports several users and makes it easy for everyone to coordinate their schedules in real time.
- Automated email reminders: Run the risk of missed appointments which will definitely affect your reputation as a professional. Automated email reminders can help reduce the risk and keep everyone on track.
- Pricing: Make sure you understand the pricing structure. Identify if the price is within your range.
By considering these criteria, you can ensure that you choose a scheduling tool that meets your needs and helps you streamline your processes.
Calendly has evolved through time and has added changes and additions. The goal is to ensure customer satisfaction and streamline the process. It has enhanced customization options. They also improved integration options and added a mobile app.
These are just some of the changes that have evolved and added through time showing their commitment to having a seamless scheduling process.
Calendly is ideal for Freelancers, Small Business Owners, Event Planners, Real Estate Agents, Sales Agents, and the like.
Large companies
What is Employee Scheduling?
Employee scheduling is the process of managing your employees' total available working hours and scheduling them properly to ensure the continuation of work with optimal productivity.
In easier words, an employee schedule outlines employee working hours across different work shifts so that everyone knows who’s working when.
Why is employee scheduling important?
A well-planned employee schedule means everyone in your workforce knows their working hours. This reduces miscommunication and allows managers and team leads to plan their work with more clarity.
In short, employee scheduling brings transparency to your workplace and leads to a more organized, satisfied, and motivated workforce.
On the contrary, the absence of staff scheduling can result in employees working overtime, losing interest in their jobs, and feeling burned out because of unplanned work and last-minute changes.
Research shows that frequent overtime poses a severe health risk to employees and directly impacts their productivity.
This is why it’s crucial for large organizations that operate across shifts to carefully plan their employee schedule and ensure that their workforce performs at the optimal level.
This is where employee scheduling software comes in.
What Is The Best Employee Scheduling Software For Your Business?
We’ve covered some of the world’s highest-ranked and most widely used employee scheduling software in this article.
Most of them offer similar features and benefits. However, they’re all different products with their unique strengths and weaknesses.
Which tool is right for your business depends ultimately on your specific scheduling needs. Since most of these software products offer free trials, free plans, or demos, we recommend using these options before finally choosing a product for your business.
About Us
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