Employee Scheduling Software Guide

Customizable safety feature

Homebase lets you add custom screening questions for employees to answer during clock-in. This makes it easy to ensure compliance with local health guidelines and regulations in industries with high customer interaction or where workers are closely stationed, like retail, hospitality, healthcare, and food service. 

Through these health screening measures, Homebase helps businesses maintain a safe working environment, which is crucial for operational continuity and building trust among employees and customers.

Pre-built report visualizations

Homebase offers a variety of report templates for at-a-glance views of useful data, such as comparing scheduled and actual hours, hourly labor costs, and sales summaries. Aside from displaying figures, Homebase also provides data visualizations such as line graphs, pie charts, and bar charts. This feature allows managers to make quick and informed decisions when necessary, like swiftly adjusting staff levels to accommodate sales predictions.

User-friendly employee self-service 

Homebase’s self-service features stand out because they make it easy for employees to adjust their availability, swap shifts with colleagues, and communicate directly with managers. In particular, employees can access all of these functions from Homebase’s mobile app, enabling them to control their work schedules from anywhere.

Homebase’s simple self-service features also lift some of the administrative scheduling work off managers and place it in the hands of employees. For example, an employee who is also a working student can easily post their availability to make sure their work schedule does not overlap with their classes. Allowing employees to manage their availability within Homebase with just two clicks eliminates the back-and-forth and ensures more accurate scheduling procedures.

Homebase charges per location and has a free plan, just like 7Shifts. However, unlike 7Shifts’ free plan, which can handle up to 30 users, Homebase’s Basic plan is limited to 20 users and lacks availability and time-off approval functions. 

Despite this, Homebase’s paid tiers are relatively affordable. For example, Homebase’s Essentials plan offers advanced time-tracking features, including customizable breaks, shift swapping, geofencing, availability, and time-off requests for $20 per location.

Overall, Homebase scored 3.63 out of 5 for pricing. Homebase’s Essential plan is a better choice for a small company. But if you have more than 20 employees, you should consider other options, such as 7Shifts.

Basic*

• Free for 1 location.
• Up to 20 employees.
• Basic scheduling.
• Basic time tracking.
• Point-of-sale integration.

Essentials*

• $20 per location per month.
• Unlimited employees.
• Everything in Basic, and:
  • Advanced scheduling.
  • Advanced time tracking.
  • Team communication.

Plus*

• $48 per location per month.
• Unlimited employees.
• Everything in Essentials, and:
  • Hiring.
  • PTO and time-off controls.
  • Departments and permissions.

All-in-one*

• $80 per location per month.
• Unlimited employees.
• Everything in Plus, and:
  • Employee onboarding.
  • Labor cost management.
  • HR and compliance.

*Note: You can add fully integrated payroll to any plan for $39 monthly plus $6 per month per active employee.

Mobile biometric time punches

You can prevent buddy-punching within your workforce through ClockShark’s facial recognition and capture feature. Whenever your employee clocks in for work, ClockShark snaps a photo. Using machine learning technology, it recognizes your employee and will send you a notification if it doesn’t recognize their face.

Employee attendance monitoring

As the feature’s name implies, ClockShark’s Who’s Working Now will let you know who among your employees are currently clocked in. Aside from the employee’s name, you will also find the following information:

• GPS location.
• The duration of time they have been working. 
• The task they are currently working on. 

Using this feature, you can also monitor the different locations your employee has visited along with the time stamp. This makes it easy for you to monitor your employees’ activities no matter where you or your employees are. And because Who’s Working Now will free you from keeping a close eye on your employees’ tasks and movements, you have more time to work on more important business tasks.

ClockShark has only two plans, Standard and Pro. It does not have a free plan, but it does have a free trial. Both plans require a base fee plus a per-user fee, which can be expensive for small or start-up businesses. Its pricing structure is similar to QuickBooks, with a monthly base fee plus an additional amount per user. QuickBooks has lower base fees and even offers a 50% discount for the first three months. Both Standard and Pro plans include time and attendance tracking capabilities, drag-and-drop scheduling, and customer support. 

ClockShark’s Standard plan is feature-rich and can support the scheduling needs of mid-sized companies. One thing that sets it apart from its competitors is that it has built-in Spanish language support and advanced scheduling and time tracking features, like GPS tracking and geofencing.

The Pro Plan has more advanced features that suit enterprise-level businesses. These features include multi-department or office controls, advanced job costing controls, and clock-out questions.

ClockShark’s pricing framework can be quite costly for most businesses, which explains why it received the lowest score of 1.88 out of 5 in my roundup for pricing.

Standard

• $40 per month plus $8 per month per user.
• Base fee includes 1 free administrator.
  • Time and attendance tracking.
  • GPS tracking.
  • Job and task tracking.
  • Built-in Spanish language support.
  • Drag and drop scheduling.
  • Manager roles and approvals.
  • Third-party integrations.

Pro

• $60 per month plus $10 per month per user.
• Base fee includes 1 free admin.
• Everything in Standard, and:
  • Paid time off (PTO).
  • Multi-department/office controls.
  • Advanced job costing controls.
  • Clock out questions.
  • Draft schedules.

Multiple communication channels

Connecteam provides a variety of ways to connect and communicate with your employees. Its chat feature alone allows you to:

• Send private messages to employees. 
• Send messages to entire teams. 
• Create a channel where you can also communicate anonymously. 

Just like Slack and other collaboration tools, Connecteam’s chat feature allows you to make announcements, share links, tag employees, and record voice messages. You can even export the chat conversation should you need to have a copy of it for documentation purposes. 

The in-app chat function in Connecteam provides a secure platform for employees to discuss work-related matters. This feature also offers a more convenient method for communicating shift changes or coordinating with team members during urgent situations, such as unexpected staff absences.

Employee smart groups

Connecteam’s Smart Groups feature allows managers to categorize the workforce by department, team, location, or qualification. These predefined groups allow for quick adjustments to staffing based on real-time needs. Consider a restaurant chain that experiences varying customer volumes based on events or seasons. Using Connecteam’s smart groups, a manager could quickly mobilize a team of servers, cooks, and bartenders who are experienced in handling high-volume shifts and have indicated availability for evening or weekend work. Once you set up these smart groups for your specific needs, Connecteam will automatically assign new hires to their appropriate side.

Across all its paid plans, except for Enterprise, Connecteam’s initial price covers the first 30 employees, with a small additional fee for the succeeding employees. Connecteam scores 3.63 out of 5 when it comes to pricing. While Connecteam can be scalable, it is more costly than its competitors. For example, Connecteam’s Advanced plan is priced at $49 per month for the first 30 users, but you have the option to add more users for an additional fee of $1.50 per user per month. 

Depending on how many users you intend to add or the number of work locations you have, you might get a better deal by opting for 7Shifts’ The Works plan, which is priced at $69.99. This plan already includes similar scheduling capabilities plus an unlimited number of employees. 

The Small Business Plan (Free plan)

• Free forever for up to 10 users. 
• Single number of time clock.
• Up to 3 automated reports.
• Access to almost all hubs and features, except:
  • SSO for admins.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA) for admins.
  • App lock for mobile app.
  • API access and support.

Basic

• $29 per month for the first 30 users and $0.5 per month for each additional user.
• Filter dates for more than 30 days.
• Time tracking includes all report types, GPS, and unlimited jobs.
• Payroll software integration.
• Shift info (location, notes, media & files).
• Claiming open shifts.
• Users can add images to a form.
• Past-due tasks quick view.
• Save task as a draft.

Advanced

• $49 per month for the first 30 users and $1.5 per month for each additional user.
• Everything in Basic, plus:
  • Smart Groups and admin permissions.
  • Geofence for the Time Clock.
  • Recurring shifts and templates for the schedule.
  • ​​Advanced filtering and bulk actions.
  • Lock days in timesheets.
  • Kiosk only clock in and out.
  • Auto clock out.
  • Recurring task.

Expert

• $99 per month for the first 30 users; $3 per month for each additional user.
• Everything in Advanced, plus:
  • Users can view and edit personal profile.
  • In-app links (shortcuts).
  • Automatically assign shifts.
  • Multi-branch or location management.
  • Live GPS tracking (breadcrumbs).
  • Process automation.
  • Conflicts and custom limitations.
  • New device login alert.

Internal task management feature. 

Deputy’s task management feature lets you create, assign, make notes, and monitor employee tasks. The tasks can also be filtered by location. While other scheduling software like Homebase also has an internal task management feature, it is very limited compared to Deputy’s because Homebase’s task management lacks customization and detailed tracking. Homebase primarily focuses on basic task creation and assignment without the depth of features such as status tracking.

With Deputy’s task management feature, you can create a task based on the following:

• Task for the whole area. 
• Task for me (personal task).
• Task for someone else. 

When creating a task for the whole area, you can also create subtasks and automate this task creation by setting an interval for the task to repeat. This task management feature helps employees streamline their workflow, which in return enhances the efficacy of the planned schedule because it aligns tasks directly with employees’ shifts and makes sure that each team member knows their responsibilities ahead of time.

Extensive integration options

Deputy partners with leading HR and payroll software options like ADP Workforce Now, Quickbooks Online, Gusto, and BambooHR. 

Moreover, Deputy has integrations specific to countries like Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the US. Integration with these country-specific software allows you to comply more easily with the laws and regulations around scheduling cadences in other countries. These integrations are tailored to meet local labor laws and payroll requirements and help businesses manage their workforce effectively while adhering to regional legal standards. This localization of services is crucial for multinational companies or businesses looking to expand into new markets, as it simplifies the complexities associated with global workforce management.

As mentioned above, Deputy has an Insights feature, and integrating it with leading POS solutions will help generate more accurate data.

Despite its easy-to-use scheduling feature and flexible pricing, I do not recommend Deputy for small businesses on a tight budget. That’s because it charges SMS messages when publishing schedules or sending out notifications to employees. So, if you have to send multiple notifications to multiple employees, these small extra fees add up and can chip out your budget. 

When it comes to pricing, Deputy scored a bit low at 2.5 out of 5 for the following reasons:

• While Deputy charges per user, which can be considered scalable, it tends to be expensive if you have many users. Having a plan with a collective or unlimited number of users will give it a better score. 
• Deputy offers a free trial, but it doesn’t have a free plan like most competitors.

Scheduling

• $4.50 per user per month billed monthly.
• Unlimited shifts/month.
• Employee scheduling.
• Auto-scheduling.
• POS integration.
• PTO & leave management.
• News feed.
• Tasking.
• 24/7 email support.

Time and attendance

• $4.50 per user per month billed monthly.
• Unlimited timesheets/month.
• Timesheets.
• Payroll integration.
• POS integration
• PTO & leave management.
• News feed.
• Tasking.
• 24/7 email support.

Premium

• $6 per user per month billed monthly, or;
• $5 per user per month billed annually (local taxes may apply).
• Unlimited shifts/month.
• Unlimited timesheets/month.
• Employee scheduling.
• Auto-scheduling.
• Create AI-optimized schedules with a single click.
• Timesheets.
• Payroll integration.
• POS integration.
• PTO & leave management.
• News feed
• Tasking.
• 24/7 email support.
• Reporting.

Enterprise

• Contact Deputy for pricing. 
• Designed for businesses with more than 250 employees and custom configuration needs.
• Everything in Premium, plus:
  • Single sign-on.
  • Advanced demand planning.
  • Advanced reporting & analytics.
  • Custom-built enterprise agreements.
  • Custom implementation.
  • Custom roles & permissions.
  • Custom organization structure.
  • Dedicated enterprise support.
  • Location & department level procedures.
  • Training matrix.

Manager’s Logbook Feature

The platform has a logbook where managers can leave notes about repairs and maintenance, customer feedback, and daily weather. It also allows them to provide a short employee performance log. This log will be visible to other administrators and managers and appear in the employee’s profile. It’s an excellent way to document any event that can be valuable to an employee’s official performance review. 

This is a great feature for managers to use to document their direct reports’ day-to-day performance and inform more formal evaluations.

Tip management

7shifts allows employees to report their tips in the same place where they request shift changes or access their schedules. This process makes the self-service scheduling process more efficient and reduces the need to navigate multiple systems. 

Through tip pooling, 7shifts distributes the tips collected among eligible employees based on predefined rules, such as equal distribution, based on hours worked or performance. Because 7shifts can also integrate with several payroll software solutions, it can automate the process of adding these tips to the employees’ wages. 

Through tip management, managers can see how much tips employees earn and schedule top performers more often. Doing so boosts sales and customer satisfaction. Higher tip earners also allow employers to take higher tip credits, creating an incentive to identify and schedule high-tip earners frequently.

7Shifts scored 3.81 in pricing because its free plan, Comp, has enough features to support a small team’s scheduling needs. Similar to Homebase, 7Shifts charges per location. However, what sets the 7shifts free plan apart from its competitors is that it can handle a handful of employees. Unlike Homebase’s free plan, which can cover up to 20 employees, or Connecteam’s, which can only hold 10, 7shift’s Comp plan can cover up to 30 employees. 

With basic scheduling capabilities, recruitment features, and POS integration, 7shifts’ free plan is an excellent option for a startup or small business with 11 to 30 employees. They can enjoy using these features without spending a fortune on a scheduling software. However, if you have a very small business with less than 10 employees, Connecteam is a better option. Connecteam’s Small Business (or free) plan is less limited than 7shift’s Comp plan, giving users access to almost all its features and functionalities.  

Comp

• For single locations.
• Up to 30 employees.
• Basic scheduling and time clocking.
• Basic team communications.
• Availability and time off requests.

Entrée

• $29.99 per location per month.
• Up to 30 employees.
• Everything in Comp, and:
  • Advanced scheduling and time-clocking.
  • Advanced team communications.
  • Live support.
  • Customizable permission settings.

The Works

• $69.99 per location per month.
• Unlimited employees.
• Everything in Entrée, and:
  • More advanced scheduling and time clocking for complex needs.
  • Budgeting, labor compliance, and labor cost tools.
  • Employee performance management and retention tools.
  • Manager Log Book.
  • Reporting and insights from integrations.

Gourmet

• $135 per location per month.
• Unlimited employees.
• Everything in The Works, and:
  • Advanced compliance and employee management tools.
  • Employee onboarding.
  • Task management.
  • Permission templates for faster profile creation.
  • Document storage.
  • Advanced business insights and reporting.