Homebase

Avantages

This app is very simple for using and also has clean design. I tried just two functions - scheduling and chat with my partners. and I was fully satisfied. Also everything is in the one place, that's very helpful.

Inconvénients

Sometimes I was not sure about settings and tutorial or some tips were hidden.

Avantages

Makes scheduling and tracking hours so easy.

Inconvénients

The phone app glitches occasionally, making it difficult to clock in.

Avantages

The ability to schedule and manage my employee hours, the other features. I haven’t had time to sit down and figure out yet. but I hope to go over other options soon.

Inconvénients

Haven’t found anything I have not late yet the overall experience has been well worth it

Avantages

Homebase ha cambiado las reglas del juego para mi pequeña empresa. La función de programación de empleados es intuitiva y fácil de usar, lo que me ahorra incontables horas cada mes.

Inconvénients

El precio podría ser más flexible, ya que las empresas más pequeñas pueden encontrarlo un poco costoso.

Avantages

I love that it’s very easy to use, alerts when employees are late

Inconvénients

Nothing, I love it , it’s very convenient

Avantages

We own a small business and only require time tracking. We now also use homebase for chatting to our team members and the time management piece is great.

Inconvénients

In the free version, there is limited capacity

Avantages

Reminders for upcoming shifts, location access.

Inconvénients

Non, homebase is fine just the way it is.

Alternatives envisagées 

Avantages

It’s very user friendly and easy to use

Inconvénients

The customers service could be a lot better

Avantages

This product is easy to use and my employees like the documentation of their hours and scheduling options.

Inconvénients

No complaints at this time. Still learning how to use it to maximum benefits. Playing around with it helps me learn new things.

Avantages

it is very easy to navigate on a touch pad when you are busy and need to enter things correctly

Inconvénients

at first it was difficult to figure out how to change items saved in the system, but once you do it a few times it gets easier

Avantages

Free I upgraded after a year even better more option involved like job descriptions and alert messages to the team

Inconvénients

I don’t feel it was missy anything it worked flawlessly for the time I used it then turned over the rights to next one in line

Avantages

chatting with the team members, team members call out

Inconvénients

It's perfect for my everyday needs i dont have any issues.

Avantages

This program is very easy to use. Set up was a breeze and having the ability to post jobs for hire is amazing!

Inconvénients

Sometimes staff complains that the app wouldn't let them clock in or out so it is a little glitchy at times.

Avantages

As a very small business owner, I find Homebase to be extremely easy to use, and communicate the schedule to my employees. I love the copy and paste feature, that allows me to create the same schedule every week. I also love that the basic program is free to use. Most scheduling apps require subscriptions. Homebase offers tiered programs, including a free program.

Inconvénients

It is hard to find any negatives about homebase. I will say that when I tried to find an employee through homebase, and launched a job search, I did not receive any hits, unlike another employee finder program (not mentioning name here).

Avantages

I like how easy it is to navigate. And they have plenty of options for your business

Inconvénients

Can't figure out some minor things on the app

Avantages

I really love this software. I can clock in on my phone and it makes it convenient. I really like that I can also look at my schedule and see who is working with me. I can also send requests for time off whenever I need the time off. If you need a mobile time clock for your team and an online scheduling function then this is the most useful software that you can buy. It is integrated with our HR and is seamless.

Inconvénients

That it says that I have a message from someone and I have read all my messages. I think it is a glitch but it doesn't impede the use of the app.

Avantages

I like that employees can access their schedules from home allowing them to track their hours and shift trade with other team members. I also like that we can message individual team members or the entire team to document conversations, questions, and corrections. I also LOVE the Homebase HR Pro - it has been great with HR-related questions and changes prior to implementation.

Inconvénients

There have been issues with notifications. I feel like every couple of months either our Android users or our Apple users will stop receiving notifications. This causes a break in communication with our team.

Avantages

The parts of the app that I loved most was the fact that if you worked so many hours at the end of that shift if you needed to you could borrow against your paycheck in times of an emergency and then when it come payday homebase just takes back whatever it was that you borrowed. No hidden catch super easy and Simple probably the biggest reason why I like the app so much.

Inconvénients

The one and only thing about homebase that I do not like is the fact that you can not talk to customer service at all on the phone or even via email. There were a few times I needed to speak to then and I couldn’t find the phone number I did find an email address but never got any response back from them m. But even with that being said i still give the app 5 star rating

Avantages

In 2018 everything was so great and at an incredible price, by my second year as a monthly subscriber I upgraded my plan, in spite of the problem integrating homebase timecards with my QuickBooks payroll, and had to manually enter the data personally. I loved being able to see the total hours per employee when creating a schedule, until one day it disappeared. Still undeterred, I loved the ability to access the app from any mobile device and desktop. Only androids & Desktops access the app easily and iphones or ipads come with headaches. I fell in love with the ease, simplicity and it's sexy platform look of this time tracking/management app, until one day everything changed and I lost my ability to view time cards all on one screen. Little issues were just an alert in the far upper right corner like a nudge. Now they scream in double size that takes up half the monitor, leaving only an inch or two to view time cards accompanied with a lot of scrolling. Nowadays I'm afraid to login and be greeted by a scowling dashboard with a list of issues nagging to be resolved. Issues caused by employees that can't log in or out and got tired of uninstalling and reinstalling the app as a temporary fix. I knew my relationship with homebase was reaching a bitter end when without so much as a "heads up" warning there would be an increase to my subscription (almost $20.00 more). When I said "Oh h#!! NO!" and lowered it to essentials...

Inconvénients

I was denied the ability to manage my PTO mandated sick leave pay feature that never matched QuickBooks anyway, and the feature to assign different roles/rate of pay for different jobs among my existing employees. I now have a default pay rate/role homebase deems as "fitting". After a 5 year relationship with all the little things I loved, I can have back if I pay $20.00 more a month. Out of some "disturbed" sense I felt I owed to Homebase, I emailed support with an offer to pay a small increase but not at their ridiculous price with it's 15 features included that I would never use. If they can't find my request reasonable and let me pay only for what I use, I will fly into the arms of another app that gives me the basic features for free. The email was sent last week and long past the "24 hour" promise to respond. I never called out their promised "money back guarantee" after 5 years and the inability to integrate their application with my payroll system......Seriously? How much alimony is it worth? No, it's too late now. I'm divorcing homebase from my company forever.

Avantages

My team used Homebase as a scheduling and communication tool. If we needed a day off, there is a setting to where I can request a teammate to switch shifts with me or I can request cover. This made it super convenient if I needed a day off last minute.

As for communicating with my team, this was the best! When sending out a group message, it allows you to message the people who are only scheduled for a specific day. So if you needed to let the team you're running late or that you need someone downstairs to bring up supplies, etc. I wouldn't need to take time to select the specific people I need to inform, it would automatically pull up those people from the schedule. This software not only lets you message the people you are scheduled with but it also allows you to see who is scheduled that day. I enjoyed this feature because it let me know when I was working with my bestie or my not so bestie.

Another tool I loved on Homebase was the income tracker. This software was able to track when I worked and for how long and would provide an estimate on how much money I have made that pay period. It wasn't hard to find either. This helped my anxiety a lot because I knew if I had enough to pay my upcoming bills or if I needed to pick up an extra shift.

Inconvénients

There is only one thing that I have to say is a con and I think it's more my managers fault. There is a feature in Homebase that allows you to potentially get a small amount of your paycheck early. Unfortunately every time I tried it never worked, but I am pretty sure it's because my manager was against that feature and enabled it. I think this feature is so awesome for employees especially during this inflation period and living in an expensive city.

Avantages

Employee onboarding is simple, and everyone loves the app. Scheduling is intuitive and fast, and very easy to update. Payroll is a game changer, with timecards easily flowing into the payroll function, and it's very easy to add tips into paychecks, both cash tips and credit card tips. Employees can easily access their schedules, send messages, update availability, and trade shifts.

Inconvénients

I really can't think of anything that has been bad, truly, it's been so easy to use. I couldn't imagine going back to the methods I had before!

Avantages

The fact that you can see exactly how much your earning as you're working, is a huge impact. People love being able to see what they are working for.

Inconvénients

Can't say that I have anything bad to say about home base.

Avantages

The most thing I like about this software was the fact of its multi-function that they can do I can go see exactly who sold a beer and what time and what kind of beer.

Inconvénients

The only thing I didn't like in the beginning was when we would go offline it was almost impossible to get back on but nine times up and it was due to our connection not home bases

Avantages

It's VERY user friendly, makes scheduling extremely easy. Also makes tracking hours and Labor$ easy as well. I also like the option of group messaging which enable s managers to communicate and issues or changes efficiently.

Inconvénients

When an employee fills in their "availability" on Homebase, I personally would do away with the option that says "preferred' and replace it with the word "available" The reason:
whenever I copy a schedule to the following week, I can easily accidently schedule employees on days the did not, or weren't able to work, because the system would allow me to schedule them outside their preference. The way I solved this issue was by telling my employees to put in the availability as "unavailable" that way, whenever I would schedule them on days, or hours, they weren't available to work, the system would only then alert me that they can't work those hours!!
With that being said, I don't understand why the "preferred" option is even there! :) I don't care what they prefer, I want to know when they can't work so I know what NOT to schedule them.
you're welcome :)
I have called in the past, twice, and explained my suggestion, but no one seemed to get what I'm talking about, maybe because they're software engineers and not business managers.

Avantages

Being able to create a base schedule of open shifts as a template is nice. You apply the template to the week, and then you can drag and drop the shifts onto employees. You must use a computer for this to work. The auto-scheduling feature can give you a good starting point but has flaws that make it impossible to publish a schedule using only auto-scheduling.

Inconvénients

I would like more categories than owner, manager, employee. With more options of who can see what information. Auto schedule feature needs improvement to not schedule people on doubles and multiple locations at the same time. They've made a number of improvements over the years, but I sometimes think they are trying to add too many new features when they need to perfect the features already available first.

Avantages

I pretty much love everything about the software. I like that you got even if say the Internet is down we still can access it you can access it on a computer a tablet or a phone so there are no excuses of keeping old-time cards by handwriting.

Inconvénients

I just wish it was a little bit more customizable for myself and for the business.

Avantages

Homebase works much like an Excel spreadsheet...but easier and minimalistic. There are not as many services out there as one might think, and most of them are meant to organize hundreds of employees. Homebase seems to have been made for smaller businesses and crews, with an interface that is easy to work with.

Inconvénients

Printing. Printing the schedule directly from the program was, at first, a nightmare, and the same can be said for sharing the finished schedule with others. Now, however, Homebase has made their integrations more robust ,and there exist more format features.

Avantages

Asking for time off is simple for my employees, the message option is convenient.

Inconvénients

Homebase since the beginning is constantly lagging. Whether it be to load pages, send or receive messages, especially sending images. Whether I am using the url on a desktop, or the app on my iPad or iPhone, it is extremely slow. I get message notifications long before the messages actually show up. It is like this for all my employee's that use the app.

The iPad version is difficult to use, it is as big as the size of a small phone screen, I don't understand why the app can't take up the entire screen of the iPad, like every other app I use on my iPad.

I don't know if this is an option, but for my restaurant in particular, as I'm sure is the case with many establishments that use your app, we have several different departments. I'd for one like to be able to only see my FOH employee's on the schedule, and have a separate for BOH.

It would also be convenient to not just limit the amount of employee's that can request off for a specific day, but to be able to limit by department. For example, to be able to say, 3 servers, 2 bussers, and 1 hostess is the limit for any particular day, rather than only being able to say 3 employee's in general is the max. I hope I explained that in a way it makes sense.

Additionally, working in a restaurant that is open nights and weekends, your support hours are not reasonable at all. There has been numerous times we've needed support and you have been closed, so we are just hopeless.

Avantages

The scheduling feature and time clock were the two most important features in implementing this software. But since then, the Hiring feature has become so valuable. Honestly every feature they offer is superb and what a great value.

Inconvénients

Honestly, I can't think of anything I don't like about it.

Avantages

We decided to go for Homebase because it mostly resembled what i was doing in as spreadsheet before. The timeclock is rather solid, we have set up a dedicated tablet to clock in and out. This is the main reason i got homebase for my team - so that they would have a schedule and be able to clock in and out. Also nice is the fact that custom national holidays can be setup and automatically be shown in the schedule. The Homebase team has over the years implemented a few nifty features to save me time as an admin.

Next is checking timesheets and correcting them when it comes to payroll - however this is where we stop with using homebase. We don't use any other features.

Inconvénients

We don't utilize the payroll feature at all - everything can only be set in dollars. Overall, the software feels like it is made for the US market - not internationally. I have feature requested over a year ago that custom currencies should be implemented and even the way time is displayed (24h instead of am-pm). To no avail. Even from their content marketing strategy it is clear that Homebase is only focusing on the US market, with no interesting content for me as a hotelier on the other side of the world.

It is also sad to see that they have recently started adding a lot of fluff to their product like hiring, instead of making the core experience easier and faster to use. The new timesheets section looks nice, but i am 5 times faster with the old one (which could be faster still). I would love to see much more emphasis on a fast and easy to use product, with lots of features to get my work done quicker. Homebase is a classic example of software which gets better the less i have to use it. I would like to see the product move in this direction.

Avantages

I love the fact that you can see from start to finish your scheduled shifts. I can see my coverage in advance and adjust on the fly. I love that fact that each employee can have their scheduling without having to come into the office to see a sheet of paper. I schedule out every two weeks, so my staff can see their schedules and even trade with each other if they would like. I can also see who has or hasn’t seen their schedule so I know exactly who to call for clarification.

Inconvénients

I would like to see a way to have real time coverage bars indicating who is on duty with an option to view their time on shift in a bar setting (like the schedule view) so that I don’t have to look at numbers.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi choisir Homebase 

Pourquoi passer à Homebase

Avantages

What I like most about Homebase is that it doesn't break the bank to put in a virtual timeclock system. It integrates with Quickbooks online and it is easy to use.

Inconvénients

1. It does allow for a little customization, but not advanced enough for the way I run payroll.
2. It does not send separate regular hours and overtime hours to QBO.

Avantages

The easy way to teach it to our staff, and the easy reports.

Inconvénients

The GPS sometimes does not work properly because of the synchronization with Google Maps. Its the main concern our employees complain.

Avantages

all the features in one place. easy of communication with my teams

Inconvénients

Getting sold a introductory rate, for full service plus HR and as long as i kept the plan i would be grandfathered in! Well it seem like home base tried to renew 4 months early and cause an issue with my teams permission and for what ever reason, i am no longer having HR. Now even though it wasn't past my renewal date yet! they won't honor my Original agreement nor give my services till the end of term!

2nd they are also supposed to charge one account for their subscription services and another to pull wages for payroll yet they continue to draft the wrong account fraud!

Shady practices all around excusess

Avantages

It has everything in one and it makes my job so much easier.

Inconvénients

I love the free options I just wish the paid options were cheaper

Avantages

Very easy to use, keeps track of hours clocked in and out from employees

Inconvénients

It gives us all we need. Just wished it had a line to punch in for holidays and vacation days. Have to add after the download.

Avantages

Being able to use the software anywhere and have the ability to change the schedule, communicate with staff, find coverage and my staff to always be up to date with what's going on.

Inconvénients

Sometimes staff tell me they don't get notifications of schedule change when I post it.

Avantages

I love that the employees can request time off or switch/trade shifts from their phone and I can instantly deny or approve the request. I love the ease of pulling the time sheets, and reading the time sheets. I love the access to be able to edit employees time on a daily or weekly basis. Employees can be horrible for clocking in early unauthorized, not clocking out to walk down the street to the store, etc. This app makes it simple to edit this carelessness from employees without even having to sit them down and talk to them about clocking in and out. Its kind of like, Okay, you want to take 20 mins to walk down to dollar general and you have already taken your lunch previous, oh and you didn't clock out. Well let me fix that mistake for you. The system tracks tardies, which is awesome, bc after 90 days, anyone who has been tardy more than 20% of their shifts, only gets offered a part time position within the company. This system gives us accurate data to show the employees at their 90 day evaluation, and the data can't be disputed bc it is tracked based on their clock in and clock out times.

Inconvénients

I don't like the fact that there is not room for multiple clock outs under the edit mode. If we do not clock out for an extra break, there is no where to add it. I always have to add the time employees are gone to their lunch break. It give a false interpretation and false data when we pull data from this system for evaluations. I really wish you would update this to add columns for extra breaks, and reasons for the breaks. Also, I wish you would add a column to give explanation for employees that clock in late, miss a scheduled day, or clock out early. This system does not even track early clock outs, just late clock ins. We often find that employees will leave early to take care of things, and sometimes it can become repetitous. I would like to be able to track the data.

Avantages

Homebase has been the perfect time clock system for our business. It was easy to configure and with the entire system web based I can monitor our staffing when I am off site. We use a wall mounted iPad to clock in and out which was less expensive than many physical time clocks.

My staff has enjoyed having access to their Homebase dashboard where they can easily review their punches/total hours.

One of the best features is the ability to specifically define your pay periods. Many systems only offer weekly, biweekly, or monthly with no customization of dates. Homebase allows complete customization for when you would like you pay periods to start and end.

I have also used their hiring tool. It is by far and away the easiest tool I have used to publicly post to multiple job sites at once. It is very straight forward and has been a great resource in helping us in our hiring.

Inconvénients

I don't have any cons. It is a quality product and the team at Homebase has been quick to respond to any issues we have had.

Avantages

I love that you can clock in and out on the app and that it gives you a reminder 1 hour before your shift

Inconvénients

My only complaint would be that I can’t delete chat threads I would really like to do that

Avantages

Homebase is extremely easy to set up employee time clock which happens to be free if your business has a single location and with a single location you may set it up for unlimited employees. For a small business owner where every dollar and cent matters, it’s a no brainer. A business owner may assign or allow the employee to set up their clock in and out code. Also, it may be set to take a photo of the employee during the clock in and out sessions to help or eliminate other employees from clocking in and out for them. Homebase offers an iPad, iPhone and an android app. You may also use your device's browser. We downloaded the app, installed it on an iPad for our employees to clock in and out on. The administrator has 100% access via web browser login. There’s also a feature which allows employees to clock in and out in the field which would geo-tag the location of the clocking activities.

Inconvénients

Not a lot a negative things to say. This software is best if you have multiple employees who may have a staggered schedule. Example: an employee opens, then you have a mid day shift, then a closer. You also have many employees that may be out in the field. geo-tag is not the best choice for a single entrepreneur who’s trying to track their time, set up easier ways to do so.

Avantages

I love that everything you need is in one space. The employees can access anything 24 seven and it allows for changes to be made in real time. I like that we can communicate on different message boards and that you can see who has received and read that message. The ability for employees to request off in real time and block off deep in real time is a huge plus.

Inconvénients

I wish homebase would allow users to pick up a shift outside of their availability if they are the ones requesting it. Currently a manager has to go in and manually give them a shift that is outside of their availability even if they have chosen to pick it up.

Avantages

Pros:
*Free option
*Customizable - we're able to use it for employees to log in and out of the different unscheduled departments/roles they do within a scheduled shift. Makes it easy to track manhours and payroll by department when the people working in each department changes throughout each day.
*The app
*Easy to use
*Great additional features like job posting and document storage/sharing, PTO tracking

Inconvénients

Cons:
*Getting the PTO tracking to work for us has been a long wait.
*Employees experience a lot of glitches of punches not going through.
*Takes forever to enter a schedule in the separate "available" and "actual" schedules. I would like to take a posted availability schedule and just make it be their working schedule with one click. Scheduling takes a bit of time, but isn't hard.

Avantages

Most importantly, our employees love using the app for following their schedule and trading/covering shifts. I think there would be a mutiny if we stopped using HB. As a regional manager watching over 3 stores, I refused to do scheduling anymore until we went with an app. After researching many different ones, Homebase won and it's been close to 3 happy years using it.

Inconvénients

As Homebase has grown as a company, the support system and ease of use has improved; and it wasn't bad to begin with. We had some challenges with interfacing with Square, our POS, but that was more on Square's end and has mostly been resolved. We were only disconnected once in the past 6 months.

Avantages

This is a business tool that allows professionals to plan their strategic plans without problems, it has calendar systems and notifications for better efficiency, it is the type of tool that as a professional is quite necessary when working with large amounts of information constantly, It also allows monitoring and more functions that this tool presents

Inconvénients

I have no problems or it has not stopped working for me since I understood the importance of this tool, it is generally the type of tool for professionals with heavy workloads or helping them reduce them and improve the environment in which they work

Avantages

The Time Clock. is very vital to us. Also the fact that it shows the break. It shows me if they didn't clock out for there break. our employees are told when they are hired, if you don't take you break.... thanks for the donation, it will be subtracted from your time.
The scheduling is just as important, people need to know when they work, it is wonderful that it goes to there phones, not just hanging on a wall, for them to say, " I didn't know"

Inconvénients

I really really wish I could copy and paste in the scheduling part.

Avantages

Set up of the system and addition of new employees is easy. Minimal training needed for employees to use time clock feature. Geofencing is helpful. Updates are discreet and we haven't experienced any reliability concerns.

Inconvénients

Homebase continues to try to build extra revenue beyond the subscription cost directly from employees - offering payday loans (which we had removed after threatening to abandon the service), and new ads for employees to buy features they do not want or need. Service desk unable (or unwilling) to disable ads. If Homebase is that desperate for revenue, they could potentially offer an ad-free subscription.

Avantages

My team was using spreadsheets to schedule and to complete payroll before Homebase. What a manual nightmare. There were always so many mistakes and issues. Once we moved to Homebase, it instantly made things better.

My contractors were able to see their schedules instantly and at any time they needed it. The reminders an hour before their schedule help them to be on time for their shift. So we have fewer tardies. They can also check their payroll amount at any time during the month instead of having to wait until the end of the month when I am able to calculate it. They have also made schedule swaps easy.

It has helped my person who does the scheduling tremendously. It has helped her to be able to get our schedule done in a much faster and efficient way.

It has helped me complete payroll in a fast, easy effective way.

Inconvénients

There are sometimes glitches, especially with the app. They are overall minor but can be a pain. For example, sometimes when there is a swap made on the app, it will show a notification, but when you go into the app it doesn't show the swap. Good thing we keep up with them in a chat or we would have no idea who was trying to swap.

Also, it is mostly geared towards companies with employees, this could be great if there could be modifications for people who have contractors and do not have to abide by the same restrictions, such as 8-hour shifts, working days consecutively, etc.

Avantages

I liked the concept of it and how it was going to work. We needed help with keeping time when doing consulting work or catering work and this seemed to be an easy enough program to use. At first it was and it was simple to use and it allowed us to organize our timekeeping as we wanted.

Inconvénients

It seemed to be just a bit too simple. Or maybe it was too challenging. Too many of our employees had issues with inputting the information as necessary and things were not as well organized as we wanted. Then, the glitches in the system did not allow for accurate timekeeping and effective records.

Avantages

This makes scheduling our bar staff extremely easy and helps to track other payroll accounting data like start dates, hours, etc. It also helps to communicate with staff and provides a good source of applicants from a tailored database of hospitality industry applicants.

Inconvénients

It could have more features for team communication and collaboration. The dashboard navigation is pretty straightforward but could be improved.