Tired of spending countless hours scheduling your employee’s working hours and shifts? Well, with the sheer number of the best employee scheduling software, you can now use their innovative solutions and save your time and effort.
Scheduling, leave and time-off requests, presence tracking are vital for any business. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if your employees have daily fixed hours or flexible remote working, this type of software can help you manage your team effectively and efficiently.
With that said, we have reviewed a selection of Top 20 Best Employee Scheduling Software currently available on the market. Each comes with different features and tools that can help you achieve your goals and meet your planning needs.
How to choose the best employee scheduling software?
With the wide range of options to choose from, selecting, and purchasing the best employee scheduling software can be challenging. Likewise, to make things easier for you, here are a number of factors, you should take into consideration before deciding on a final choice.
1. Purpose
Prior to buying any new product, it is important to understand the purpose of this product and its advantages to your business. And since there are different scheduling software, you will come across different features and tools that may not be valid to your purpose. Then again, you find yourself paying money for things you don’t need in the first place.
Therefore, it is important to set your needs and purposes ahead and determine what kind of services you need to help achieve your aims. For example, booking employees for services software can be suitable for businesses in industries such as health and beauty, hospitality, and restaurants, rather than retail or contractors industries.
2. Business Size and Industry
The number of employees and locations will surely influence your software choice. Granted that some software companies are only suitable for small businesses, others for small to medium businesses, and some are suitable for enterprises and large businesses. Therefore, you have to realize that the small businesses of a team of 4 to 10 people won’t have the same needs as businesses with 200+ staff across different locations.
Also, you have to keep in mind your business industries. Some companies may not support the type of industry you are leading or simply do not offer the needed solutions for your type of industry.
3. Mobile App
The best employee scheduling software should come with a free mobile application. In this way, it is much easier to manage changes, update, and communication at any time and from anywhere. Additionally, it makes the whole process of scheduling, planning, and request approval easier and smoother. Nevertheless, make sure that the mobile app is well built, and has the exact features that you can find on the web.
4. Templates
Certainly, you may want to consider pre-made templates where you can also use a drag and drop builder for easy customization. You can apply and save these templates for future use. Forthwith, this will help you avoid wasting time on repetitive tasks.
5. Time Tracking
Some scheduling software solutions do not include the time-tracking feature. However, depending on whether you need it or not, time tracking is also considered important when dealing with employee’s time management. Indeed, it will help track their working hours and more.
6. Employee Schedule Filtering
This feature offers you a better and clear vision of your employee’s shifts, leave, and breaks. This can be achieved by filtering their position, name, or department.
7. Data Reporting and Analytics
Having insights on your scheduling, planning, labor costs, and more, can help you effectively to redirect your strategies and apply for the best practices. Reporting can guide your businesses to quantify KPIs for improved performance.
8. Communication and Engagement
To effectively communicate with your employees, you can use a software that has features including email notifications, instant group or direct messaging, direct notes creation, and more. Markedly, this ensures that your team is always notified and up to date with changes and new announcements.
9. Integrations
The best Employee scheduling software usually integrates with payroll systems, POS, and social integrations. They assist you in organizing and optimizing time and pay transactions.
Overall, some other features we can mention include shift swapping, Automate shift assignments, leave management, employee portfolios, labor forecasting, and more.
1. Timesphere
On the head of the list of the best employee scheduling software is Timesphere. Founded in 2017, this software supports businesses around the world and offers them the best scheduling software to manage their employee’s complex schedules. Over time, Timesphere has proved its leadership in enabling organizations to be more productive and effective.
By all means, this solution is suitable for different industries including, the Public and Security Sector, Transportation and Logistics, Commercial and Industrial Services, Financial Services and Banking, Retail Industry, and Health Services. When it comes to features, the software is outfitted with a sheer of tools that helps you manage a more simplified workforce planning. To point out, some of these features include scheduling and planning modules, Demand Forecasting, order management, employee portal, schedule optimization, time and attendance, remuneration, reporting, and business intelligence, and more.
Pricing
Timesphere offers three pricing plans:
- Base plan costs $2 per month per employee. This plan is ideal for organizations that look to simplify their work timing process.
- Professional plan costs $4 per month per employee. You can choose this plan is you are looking for some flexibility in adopting different modules.
- Enterprise plan costs $6 per month per employee. This option is for organizations that are looking for more advanced features and seeking more customization and personalization to their scheduling needs.
Pros
- Integrations (HRS, POS, Traffic Management Systems, Authentication systems, and more)
- Reliable, scalable, and secure
- Data tracking and Advanced reporting
- Adaptable to different industries
- Easy to deploy and implement
Cons
Specific reports and other features are not available in the base pricing plan.
2. Deputy
Trusted by 200,000 workplaces across the globe, Deputy is another leading software when it comes to best employee scheduling. If you are having a hard time managing and tracking your employee’s working hours and shifts, then this software is for you.
Certainly, this software is designed to meet the needs of different organizations in different industries. To illustrate, some of these industries include Construction & Engineering, Manufacturing & Logistics Security, Retail, Working remotely, Adapting to new ways of working, call centers, hospitality, and many more.
Some of the basic features the software offers are Time scheduling, Time and Attendance tracking, Communication and Legal compliance, and fast onboarding, and staff engagement.
Pricing
Deputy offers four pricing plans:
- Scheduling plan costs $2.50 per month per employee. This plan is ideal for organizations that look for a better method to schedule and communicate with their team members.
- Time and attendance plan costs $4.50 per month per employee. You can choose this plan if you are looking to track attendance and export timesheets to payroll.
- The premium plan costs $4.50 per month per employee. This option is for organizations that are looking for more advanced features, including reporting and more.
- Enterprise plan costs: For a quote, you will need to contact their sales representative for more details. This plan is ideal for large and more complex organizations and businesses.
No annual plan available
Pros
- Cost reduction
- Demand forecasting
- Prevent payroll errors
- Intuitive mobile app
- ROI
Cons
Enhancing integrations.
3. HRnest
HRnest offers three different modules; Leave Management, Work Schedule, and personal file. Needless to say, having these three different solutions at the tips of your hand is effective and efficient for a smooth working process. In general, some of the advantages of using this software are robust reporting, smooth bulk actions approval process, easy data exporting, secure and reliable, flexible document flow, and email notifications for updates and changes.
Pricing
HRnest offers three pricing modules, including:
- Leave management plan costs $1.05 per user per month.
- Work schedule plan costs $0.8 per user per month.
- Personal file plan costs $0.55 per user per month.
Prices do not include VAT.
Pros
- Available in Polski and English language
- Data security
- Integrations with API, Google calendar, Outlook, Slack, iCal, SAP, and more
- Web-based, no installation needed
Cons
- No resources
- Other features like automation, customization, and more can be considered.
4. ActiPLANS
ActiPLANS is a smart and potent software for employee leave management. To start with, this software is ideal for regular users, HR managers, and Team and project managers. Besides, the way this software operates is simple.
First, the employee has to submit a leave request. Second, the managers or those in charge can either accept or reject the employee request. Finally, the employee will receive a notification informing him or her of their request status.
As a business, you can use this software to
- Withdraw paperwork and streamline communication,
- Inform and update your team members about your absences,
- Plan your workloads ahead,
- Automate the leave management process depending on your customs regulations.
Pricing
ActiPlans pricings depend on the number of users and the length of the service period.
- The free version can only include 1 to 3 members and it has limited functionality.
- 1-40 users plan costs $1.5 per user per month billed yearly
- 41-200 users plan costs $1.2 per user per month billed yearly
- 200+ users plan has a fixed cost for unlimited users
Fully operative 30-day trial with an unrestricted number of users
Pros
- Easy to use thanks to its intuitive interface
- Leave time reports
- Customizable
- Mobile app
- Time-saving and cost-effective
- User guide
Cons
No FMLA Tracking
5. Shiftnote
The fifth of our list of the best employee scheduling software is Shiftnote. Trusted by 75,000+ users, Shiftnote helps businesses to reduce costs and save time by offering two solutions. In particular, these solutions are simplified Employee Scheduling and an amplified Managers Log Book.
With the time scheduling solution, the software enables you to have a full view of the week schedule, giving you the big picture of the different shifts and staff working hours. For a fact, you can save your time creating schedules by using the available templates. Moreover, you can assign tasks on the go, update and notify your employees, and follow up with shift planning from anywhere you are.
Pricing
Shiftnote does not display their pricing plan on its official website. However, they offer two pricing plans; Standard Plan and Essential Plan.
In order to know more details on what included, the price, and more, you can book a demo.
Pros
- Simple and easy to use software
- Ideal for all types of industries
- Improve accountability
- Pre-made templates
Cons
Pricing is not available on the website
6. HotSchedules
Hotschedules software is mainly designed for restaurants and hospitality. Notably, this software helps these specific industries in managing their work process by offering their technology, workforce management, services, and data and analytics. Therefore, it is considered all in one and best in class software.
Within the workforce management solution, we find the following services Workforce Management ATS & Onboarding, Payroll & Benefits, Training & Development, Scheduling & Labor Management, Employee Engagement, Logbook, and WFM Packages. Besides, the scheduling system allows you to schedule employees faster, communicate with them effectively, stay on track, and get updated about occurring changes. Moreover, employees can request to change, release, and pick-up shifts using the mobile app.
Pricing
Hotschedules does not display their pricing plan on its official website.
In order to know more details on what included, the price, and more, you can book a demo.
Pros
- Integrations with most modern restaurant systems
- Mobile app for easy and fast communication and engagement
- Optimization
- cost reduction
Cons
Prices are not displayed on their official website
7. Humanity
Humanity was founded in 2010 and it is currently one of the industry-leading cloud-based employee scheduling and time tracking software. For one thing, this software enables you to lessen error forecasting and allows you to create compliant and smarter schedules with less time.
More importantly, you can use customized rules and templates to meet your business scheduling needs. In particular, Humanity scheduling software features are Forecasting, Compliance, Auto-scheduling, Mobile Shift Management, Flex Scheduling, Time Clock, and Integration.
Pricing
Humanity offers three pricing plans:
- Starter plan costs $3.5 per user per month ($100 per month minimum)
- Classic plan costs $5 per user per month ($100 per month minimum)
- Enterprise plan has a custom pricing. You need to contact a sales representative for a quote. You can call them on this number for more details: 1 (888) 973-6030
Pros
- Automation
- User-friendly interface
- Mobile app
- seamless HCM integrations
- Complete visibility of working schedules
Cons
Can lag or freeze occasionally.
8. Snap Schedule
Snap Schedule was founded in 2006. To start with, Snap Schedule is ideal for small businesses that are looking to save time and money. Eventually, it can be effective when it comes to designing, publishing, and managing shifts and working hours schedules for employees.
Needless to say, this software is conceived to serve all types of industries, with no exception. Moreover, the company offers three different products that ensure power scheduling, save your time, diminish the costs, and enhance business productivity and efficiency.
Pricing
Snap schedule has three different types of Snap schedule Models from which you can choose:
Snap Schedule 365: you subscribe to SaaS and pay an annual subscription fee
- Base subscription plan costs $450 per scheduler per year
- Employee access add-ons cost $36 per employee per year
For more details, check out this page, here.
Snap schedule premium: you pay a one-time payment to possess the right to use the then-current version of the software permanently.
- Snap Schedule Premium 2017 plan costs $995 per computer
- Employee access add-ons cost $900 per 25 employees per year
For more details, check out this page, here.
Snap schedule: the payment method is the same as Snap schedule Premium.
- Single license for 1 computer costs $450. Optional Annual Software Assurance Plan available for $180 per year.
- License pack for 3 computers $950. The assurance costs $380 per year (optional)
- License pack for 5 computers $1350. the annual assurance costs $540 per year (optional)
For more details, check out this page, here.
Pros
- Reduce Costs
- Error-free scheduling
- Fast and efficient
- Cut down wasted time
- Maximize productivity
Cons
On the expensive side
9. Sling
Sling offers a simple scheduling method and enables you to communicate efficiently with your employees, for free. Like most software mentioned on this list, Sling also enables you to save time spent every week scheduling your employees and decrease the labor costs.
In general, some of this software’s features include shift scheduling, Labor costs, time clock, communication, task management, multiple work locations, integrations, reports, time and attendance, and more.
Pricing
Sling offers three plans:
- Free plan which includes everything you need to schedule and communicate with your team. This plan is for an unlimited number of users and locations.
- Premium plan costs $2 per user per month. It has everything included in the free plan plus other advanced features like a mobile time clock, labor cost management, and budgeting.
- Business plan costs $4 per user per month. This plan includes all features in the premium plan plus a centralized time clock, PTO tracking, and reports.
Pros
- Great reporting
- PTO
- Efficient communication via messages
- Payroll streamlining
- Process automation
Cons
More improvement on the mobile app performance
10. Calamari
Another simple yet powerful software when it comes to the best employee scheduling software is Calamari. In fact, the software offers two different products; clock in clock out and the leave management system.
The first product enables you as a manager to track time with iBeacon technology, QR code scanner, and other helpful clocking systems. Undoubtedly, it is easy to use. And it highlights other features such as employee time tracking, timesheets, manual time records, and approval flow.
Pricing
Calamari pricings depend on the number of employees and the location.
For 1 employee, the cost is the following:
- Leave Management costs $10 per month
- Clock in/Clock out costs $20 per month
To calculate the cost based on the number of employees your organization has, check out their page, here.
Pros
- Automated time tracking
- Adapt time with GPS
- Integrations with G Suite, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and more
- Ultimate privacy and data protection
Cons
Learning curve
11. Shiftboard
Shiftboard has solutions that can be tailored to your business needs. And when we are talking about tailored solutions, we are talking about tailor-fit scheduling.
Ultimately, Shiftboard offers your business the flexibility to accommodate scheduling goals to fit the single needs and obligations of your company. Not only that, but the software also continues with its ultimate optimizations with features like auto call-out fill. Assuredly, this optimization ensures a smooth and efficient operating process.
The process of efficient scheduling is easy:
- Automate Shift Assignment
- Guarantee Shift Coverage
- Configure your process
- Self-service for sudden changes
- Communicate in real-time
Pricing
Shiftboard does not display their pricing plan on its official website. However, they offer two different products with two different plans; ScheduleFlex and SchedulPro Plan. The scheduleFlex includes Business and Enterprise Plans, while SchedulePro includes Enterprise and EnterprisePlus plans.
In order to know more details on what included, the price, and more, you can book a demo.
Pros
- Suitable for different industries
- Seamless integration
- Automated process/time saving
- Enhanced visibility into workforce capacity
Cons
No pricing plans are available
12. Paycor
In 1990, Paycor was founded to support medium and small businesses around the world by offering them their expertise and services to meet their aims and needs. Now, Paycor allies with over +40,000 businesses at both the local and international levels. In particular, Paycor’s solutions are suitable for industries including Education, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Nonprofits, Professional Services, Restaurants, and Retail.
Scheduling services wise, the software has a lot to offer. First, it enables you to schedule your employee’s shifts and working hours faster. Second, it ensures maximized coverage and guarantees complete visibility. Finally, it offers an informative reposting on your shift hours and costs.
Pricing
Paycor does not display their pricing plan on its official website. Therefore, to know more details on what included, the price, and more, you can request a consultation, here.
Pros
- Customization and automation
- Team engagement
- Enhanced productivity and increased engagement
- Cost reduction
Cons
Updates notifications should be included.
13. Shiftbase
Shift Base is a free Employee Scheduling and Time-Tracking Software. To start with, the company was founded in 2011. Ever since it worked on upgrading its software to ensure the best features for its customers.
To illustrate, Shiftbase highlights three main features:
- Employee Scheduling
- Time Tracking
- Absence Registration
Other features include HRM, reporting, and mobile app.
The employee scheduling feature helps you plan and create your employee shifts fast and easy. It also highlights an availability reminder feature for your employees to remain updated and notified of each other availability. Besides, it allows your employees to schedule their own working hours or invite them to pick an open shift.
Pricing
Shiftbase offers four plans:
- Free plan
- Starter plan costs $3,25 per active employee per month (ex. vat)
- Premium plan costs $4,45 per active employee per month (ex. vat)
- Enterprise plan: You need to contact them for a quote.
Pros
- Easy to use drag and drop builder
- Visibility on open shifts, absence, and availability
- Self-service system
- Link via iCal possible
Cons
No automated scheduling.
14. Homebase
Homebase was launched in 2015 and now is partnered with more than 100,000 businesses. In fact, this software is designed to support small businesses that are looking for a robust management and tracking system. Some of the features include Scheduling, Time Clock, Hiring & Onboarding, Team Communication, HR & Compliance, Health & Safety, and Integrations.
Nevertheless, scheduling wise, the software offers templates to help you create your schedule easily and quickly. Once done, you can share it and update it with your team members. Interestingly, the software also enables you to forecast labor costs and sales.
Pricing
Homebase prices per location. For this reason, you can have an unlimited number of employees per plan.
The company offers three pricing plans:
- Essentials plan costs $19.95 per month per location
- Plus plan costs $49.95 per month per location
- All in one plan costs $99.95 per month per location
There are also some Add services that you might be interested in:
- HR Pro advisors and resources cost $99 per month
- Onboarding & document storage costs $49 per mo per location
- Job posting boosts starting at $79 per post
Pros
- Sales data integration
- Easy and simple to use
- Prevent overtime and errors
- GPS-based clock-ins
Cons
No multiple clock outs
15. Setmore
Markedly, Setmore is more popular with industries such as health and beauty, entrepreneurs, consulting and sales, the public sector, and contractors. In other words, the software enables you to handle booking, reminders, and payments more efficiently and in a smarter way.
This way, you can easily book appointments thanks to the drag and drop builder. The software also sends texts and email reminders to both your customers and employees to keep them updated with new appointments or any changes.
Pricing
Setmore has two plan:
- Setmore plan is Free. You can start with 1-4 staff logins and calendars.
- Premium plan costs $25 per month and you can scale up with 20 staff logins and calendars.
Pros
- Calendar Self-managing
- social integrations with Instagram, Facebook, and Slack
- Notifications and reports
- Reliable, Premium Scheduling Tool
Cons
Not suitable for enterprise
16. Whentowork
Whentowork is another industry-leading best employee scheduling software. Precisely, it was launched in 2000 and it is based in California.
The way this software operates is easy. Check out these following steps to figure it out:
- Assign employees to set their working time choices
- Let manages create and plan the schedule based on their employee’s choices.
- Once planned, share it and notify your team
Not to mention, as a manager, you have full control of whether you want to give full access to your employees on what they do and see online.
Features wise, the software highlights an Autofill option that can prevent the occurrence of overtime and conflicts. Moreover, you can view schedules in 12 different configurable layouts including graphical, calendar, list, chart. You can also quickly change shifts and find replacements. More importantly, you can easily track Schedules, Employees, and Managers.
Pricing
Whentowork pricing depends on the number of employees
- 1-10 employees: $15 per month
- 11-30 employees: $30 per month
- 31-60 employees: $49 per month
- 61-100 employees: $72 per month
- 101-150 employees: $90 per month
- 151-200 employees: $108 per month
- +200 employees: you need to contact a sale representative for a quote
Pros
- Drag and drop interface
- Customization
- Multiple locations
- Mobile app
- Instant updates and notifications
- Print and export data
Cons
Time clock not available
17. Acuity Scheduling
Acuity Scheduling makes scheduling and appointments booking easier and straightforward. Thanks to the customized scheduling folio, customers can effortlessly inspect your real-time availability. For one thing, this enables them to choose the appointment schedule depending on your availability.
The software also allows you to manage multiple locations and employees, and tackle all the versatility to create schedules that uniquely works for you.
Pricing
Acuity Scheduling offers four plans:
- Freebie plan
- Emerging plans cost $15 per month
- Growing plan costs $25 per month
- Powerhouse plan costs $50 per month
If you pay annually, you can save up to 10%
Pros
- Auto adjustment
- Auto reminders
- Customization
- Integrations with Xero stripe and more
Cons
Can be more user-friendly
18. Myschedule
Myschedule is one of the simplest yet powerful software you can find out there in the market. With their philosophy of keeping everything simple, the software is easy to use, affordable, and does the job perfectly.
To put it in another way, if you are quite familiar with Trello, then you would have no problem using this software. In fact, their scheduling tool is easy to use thanks to the drag and drop builder.
Moreover, it enables you to add your employee to the schedule planning with a free click. You can also visibly inspect the whole scheduling plan and determine the number of hours is scheduled for each employee. Additionally, you can use the position filter feature to have a more accurate and clear vision of the schedule. Furthermore, you can blend saved schedules to build a modular scheduling system
Pricing
Myschedule ahs a simple plan which include free mobile applications
1-on-1 training, setup assistance, technical support, designated account representative.
- $1.99 monthly per user
Pros
- Very simple and straightway
- Affordable
- Instant communication and notifications
- Shift swaps, availability, and leave requests are handled swiftly and smoothly
Cons
Can invest in more advanced features.
19. 7shifts
7Shifts is, specifically, designed for restaurants. Undoubtedly, the software allows you to manage your staff effectively and hassle-free. Besides, the software feature scheduling, auto-scheduler, and time clock. Not to forget other features including, reports, integrations, a communications channel, manager log book, labor compliance, and more.
Pricing
7Shifts offers four plans:
- Comp plan is a free plan
- Appetizer plan starts from $19.99 Per month Per location
- Entree plan starts from $43.99 Per month Per location
- The works plan starts from $76.99 Per month Per location
You can save up to 10% if you pay annually
Pros
- POS integrations
- Payroll integrations
- Easy, fast, and efficient software
- Labor cost control
Cons
More work on the mobile app.
20. Findmyshift
The last but not the least on the best employee scheduling software list is Findmyshift. In fact, Findmyshift has been operating for over 15 years and continues to ensure the ultimate satisfaction for its users.
The software helps you manage your employee’s schedule, track labor costs, and handle leaves and shift requests. Its main features include time scheduling, time and attendance, reporting and payroll, reminders and notifications, and time-off management.
Pricing
Findmyshifts offers three plans:
- Free
- Business plan costs $35 per team
- Volunteer plan costs $26.25 per team
Pay annually and save 20%
Pros
- Easy to plan and change shifts thanks to the drag and drop builder
- Multi-cell editing
- Calendar integration
- Templates
Cons
Lack of integrations.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best Employee scheduling software overall for small businesses is Homebase. Surely, this industry-leading software has long been on the market and continues to satisfy thousands of businesses around the world. Moreover, they offer the right tools and features to convey your scheduling needs and expectations.
There are mainly four types of employees scheduling software. In particular, we have:
Cloud-based hosting
This is suitable for businesses that are seeking cloud-based solutions that can be obtained from any device anywhere. Notably, there is no need for manual data backing and on-site installation.
Dynamic scheduling
This sort of software is ideal for industries when shits, customers, and sites are constantly changing.
On-premise hosting
This is the type of software that is installed on the company’s server. Therefore, to achieve this, you will need a private or separate network.
Static scheduling
This type of software is ideal for industries with unvarying shifts and which happens in the same location(s).
Here are some of the benefits of using employee scheduling software:
a. Save time and effort
b. Cost-effective
c. Control and reduce labor costs
d. Enables you to avoid overtime and conflicts
e. Streamline your staff responsibilities
f. Offer relevant and helpful employee information.
Certainly, there exist integrations that are essential for this purpose. Time tracking, POS, payroll integrations are quite crucial in this aspect. On the whole, they reduce the occurrence of errors and risks that can happen with manual management.
First, Shift swapping between employees can lead to diminishing the level of productivity. In other words, some employees may find themselves in a position doing tasks that are not qualified for it.
Second, schedule planning running late can cause a lot of dysfunctions in the business. Therefore, managers should create a schedule on time to avoid chaos. For this reason, it is better to handle minor changes or replacements on the go than preparing a schedule at the last minute.
Finally, managers and employees who use the software should be careful when entering the information. Therefore, a little bit of attention and oversight can be very helpful in preventing accidents in the schedule.
Conclusion
Hopefully, by now, you have narrowed down your choices to the best employee scheduling software that meets your needs. All in all, the different software companies mentioned in this list have proved their leadership in this industry. Therefore, they are reliable, trustworthy, and will be a great support to your business.
