The Best Employee Scheduling Software List
To make the selection process easy, I’ve boiled things down to the 10 best employee scheduling solutions on the market today:
- monday.com
Best for visualizing simple weekly schedules
- Wrike
Best for companies looking project management software with resource planning features
- Connecteam
Best scheduling + time tracking with GPS
- Buddy Punch
Best for teams in multiple locations
- ClockShark
Best employee scheduling software for managing mobile, field-based workforces
- Homebase
Best for all-in-one team management
- QuickBooks Time
Best for existing QuickBooks users
- Tanda
Best for organizations with demanding needs
- OpenSimSim
Best for companies in catering and hospitality
- OnTheClock
Best for managers seeking a simple solution
Managing a team of hourly-paid employees can be a challenge. At short notice, you may need to replace team members who are sick, arrange shift swaps, manage requests for time off...and much more. All that’s on top of tracking timesheets and ensuring everyone gets paid the right money at the right time.
Whew...that’s a lot to worry about! But here’s the good news. You now have access to great tools that will keep you calm, organized, and efficient. With the help of the best employee scheduling software, staying on top of staff management can be a breeze.
So what exactly is employee scheduling software? In essence, it’s a system that makes it easy to schedule the open shifts of hourly employees. The software may also auto-assign shifts, automate notifications for new schedules, and provide clock-in and clock-out options.
But with so many great tools on the market, how can you decide what’s suited to your employee scheduling needs? Relax...I’ve got your back. In this article, I’m taking a deep dive into the subject, bringing you the skinny on the hottest SaaS products.
Types Of Employee Scheduling Software
Every business has its own specific scheduling requirements. A platform that’s perfect for a 9-5 office-based business may not meet the business needs of a 24-hour pizza restaurant. So it’s no surprise there are many types of scheduling software available to suit specific purposes.
Here are some specific types of employee scheduling software you may wish to check out:
- Employee scheduling software for small business
- Employee shift scheduling software
- Open source employee scheduling software
- Online employee scheduling software
- Free employee scheduling software
Or, keep reading for the overall best employee scheduling software.
Best Employee Scheduling Software Comparison Criteria
When looking for the best employee scheduling software, I have a shopping list of key scheduling features and benefits to evaluate. These are the criteria I consider most important:
- User Interface (UI): Is the software clean, attractive, and easy to use for both managers and employees?
- Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Does the company offer good customer support, user support, tutorials, and training?
- Integrations: Is it easy to connect with other tools such as payroll software? Are there pre-built integrations to accounting, time-tracking, and payroll platforms?
- Value for $: How appropriate is the price for the features, capabilities, and use case? Is pricing clear, transparent, and flexible?
Employee Scheduling Software Key Features
In the employee scheduling software sector, the presence or absence of one feature can be make-or-break for a particular use case. Here are the top features I look for:
- Auto-scheduling: Creating schedules automatically based on previous schedules and employee requests
- Mobile app: Availability of a phone app employees can use to stay up to date and make requests
- Payroll tracking: Computing clocked hours so employees can be paid accordingly
- Absence management: Managing schedule gaps caused by no-shows and other staffing issues
- Employee self-service: The ability for workers to manage their own schedules to facilitate shift trading and rescheduling
- Employee profiles: Organizing employees and their information so they can be managed more easily
- Time management: Tracking that ensures workers are clocking in and out correctly, etc.
- Analysis and reporting: Access to detailed reporting and management information for sharing with stakeholders in the business
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Overviews Of The 10 Best Employee Scheduling Software
Now it’s time to dig into the individual products. Here’s a description of each of the top employee scheduling software tools on my list. Here you’ll find info on what the software does best, plus screenshots to showcase the coolest features.
monday.com
Best for visualizing simple weekly schedules
monday.com’s flexible Work OS system makes it easy for users to organize and track any process through their customized data dashboards. Their system comes with 200+ templates, including a weekly work schedule template, that can be adapted to your business needs. All of their data dashboards can also be visualized in a variety of formats with just one click, including a calendar view or Gantt chart format.
Monday.com is a straightforward and low-cost way to streamline your scheduling process. You can even include automation to notify your staff as soon as a new schedule is posted. Another helpful feature is the ability to share the schedule in “read-only” mode, so you can ensure no alterations are made. You can also search schedules for unique details or employee names, add customized labels, or break schedules down into as many groups and subgroups as you need.
To further enhance your planning processes, monday integrates with a wide range of other communication and productivity tools including Excel, Google Calendar, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Zapier, and others.
Pricing for monday.com starts at $8 per user/month. They also offer a 14-day free trial, as well as a free forever plan with limited features for a maximum of two users.
Wrike
Best for companies looking project management software with resource planning features
Wrike is a comprehensive software solution that helps employers better manage their workforce. The platform offers a range of features and tools, including task management, project tracking, time tracking, employee scheduling, attendance tracking, and payroll management.
With Wrike’s employee scheduling features, you can create and manage employee schedules easily and set up alerts to notify you when some changes or tasks need attention. It allows you to create custom work shifts for each employee and assign tasks accordingly. You can also view who is scheduled for which shift at any given time, track changes in work hours, and approve or deny requests for shift adjustments or overtime hours. Additionally, employees can use the self-service portal to pick up shifts, request time off, and swap shifts with coworkers.
Wrike’s time-tracking feature lets you track how long each employee spends on a task or project. You can use this data to accurately measure productivity levels and identify areas where improvements are needed. Employees, on the other hand, can view their schedules from any device with a web browser, giving them more flexibility when managing their workloads. Finally, Wrike allows you to analyze workloads based on detailed reports that provide insight into overtime pay rates or staffing levels over extended periods.
Wrike integrates with over 400 applications, including ADP, Bamboo HR, Workday, Namely, Evernote, Dropbox, and Slack.
Connecteam
Best scheduling + time tracking with GPS
Connecteam is a feature-rich employee scheduling software that is designed to ensure that managers and their team members are always up to date on employee schedules; i.e., when and where teams and individual employees are working on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. This saves businesses time and money.
Connecteam provides managers with complete shift coverage with easy schedule planning, shift allocation, and monitoring of individual employee’s work schedules, all of which can be performed with just a few mouse clicks. Connecteam users are even able to send automatic alerts and push notifications to remind employees of their upcoming shifts or to keep them apprised of any scheduling conflicts or shift changes.
With Connecteam, managers can save time on creating employee schedules and assigning open shifts to the right personnel. They can instantly create different types of shifts with just a couple of clicks, including recurring and ongoing shifts. They can also create a template from previously created shift schedules, so they can just reuse it later to save time.
Connecteam’s employee scheduling software features an online time clock that automatically synchronizes with the employee schedule, providing employees with the ability to clock in and out of their shift directly from the platform, with just a click of a button. Employees also have easy access to their shift information, which includes times and dates, read-and-sign forms, locations, and relevant documents.
Connecteam integrates with QuickBooks.
Pricing for Connecteam is divided into three modules referred to as Hubs: the Operations Hub, Communications Hub, and the HR & Skills Hub. The employee scheduling software is included in the Operations Hub, which has a starting price of $35/month for the Basic plan. A Small Business plan is available for free for up to 10 users.
Buddy Punch
Best for teams in multiple locations
Buddy Punch is a time tracking and employee scheduling software for creating and monitoring employee schedules to help enforce productivity. It has a mobile app version allowing remote or field workers to view their schedules on their mobile devices. Buddy Punch has a punch limiting feature, so employees can only punch in or out during assigned times. On top of these, Buddy Punch lets you assign specific IP addresses to remote employees to help you ensure that they are working on assigned tasks.
Managing a group with team members in different locations and time zones can be challenging because of the time difference, but Buddy Punch can help ease this burden with its Time Clock Locations feature. You can use the software to create locations and assign them to employees. Your employees can select the location they’re working on, and this will reflect on their time cards, enabling you to view how much time they spent on a particular work site. Buddy Punch also lets you create reports on a specific location or multiple locations so you can assess the workload for your work sites.
Buddy Punch pricing starts at $3.49/user/month plus a $19/month base fee for their Standard plan. They also offer a 14-day free trial.
ClockShark
Best employee scheduling software for managing mobile, field-based workforces
ClockShark is a cloud-based time tracking and employee scheduling solution for businesses in the construction and field service sectors. It is tailored to facilitate the scheduling, job assignment, and time tracking process associated with managing a field-based workforce. Its employee scheduling module gives managers the ability to create work schedules for field personnel within minutes, using the employee scheduling app.
This employee scheduling app will automatically update employees regarding relevant changes to their work schedule, job site location, and task assignments. The app uses a drag-and-drop function for editing schedules. It also instantly notifies the entire crew as soon as an update is made to their schedule.
ClockShark’s employee scheduling solution works as a comprehensive system as it is a work calendar, a time clock, and a job manager all rolled into one application. In addition to being able to create schedules and assign jobs, the scheduling app also lets employees clock in and out from their calendar. It even provides them with complete details about their job assignments, all inside their schedule. The software is optimized for desktop/laptop computers and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
Pricing for ClockShark starts at $3/user/month, plus a $20/month base fee for their Basic plan. They also offer a 14-day free trial of any plan level.
Homebase
Best for all-in-one team management
Homebase allows you to create work rosters easily from schedule templates, and then make changes on the fly as required. You can build smart work schedules and forecast your labor costs.
Employees can always get their up-to-date work schedule using the free mobile apps, or they can get the information via text or email. Homebase’s scheduler automatically calculates overtime, subtracts breaks, and alerts you to schedule conflicts.
You can also integrate your sales data and forecasts, so you can build your schedule around your labor targets.
Homebase costs from $14 per month, per location. However, there is also a ‘free forever’ Basic plan which is good for one location only.
QuickBooks Time
Best for existing QuickBooks users
QuickBooks Time is optimized for time tracking on the go. The Android and iOS apps can be used to track, submit, and approve employee time from virtually anywhere.
Employees can clock in or out with just one click. Plus the system makes it easy to take a break, change job codes, or add timesheet details instantly.
See the status of all your projects at a glance and set geofence boundaries, reminding employees to clock in and out. Of course, the software also integrates easily with other QuickBooks applications and other accounting and payroll solutions.
QuickBooks Time is priced from $10/month + $8/user/month. A free 30-day trial is offered with all plans.
Tanda
Best for organizations with demanding needs
Thanks to Tanda, you can now ensure you have the right person in the right place at the right time.The online rostering tool helps you create detailed schedules based on locations and teams. Everything you need to build rosters is at your fingertips, wherever you are.
The Tanda dashboard tracks wages as a percentage of revenue, and provides other key metrics to inform business decisions. Vital information such as maximum hours, visa conditions, and award rules is captured automatically.
Better rostering improves attendance, cuts shift abandonment rates, and ensures staff are there when you need them. Automation tools allow managers to lead, while Tanda does the rest.
Tanda offers a free plan with a 14-day trial. Full pricing information is available on request.
OpenSimSim
Best for companies in catering and hospitality
An award-winning employee scheduling and time clock solution, OpenSimSim allows you to build your work schedule in minutes. You can find replacements quickly and save countless hours each week scheduling your employees.
The time clock facilitates attendance tracking, simplifies timesheet management, and allows payroll to run faster. You also get team messaging that allows you to simplify workplace communication and send upcoming shift reminders.
Compliance and labor law issues are fully managed through meal and rest planning, restricted overtime, warnings, and certification tracking. The software also integrates with major payroll and point-of-sale systems.
OpenSimSim costs from $12.99 per location, but also offers a ‘free forever’ Basic plan with limited functionality.
OnTheClock
Best for managers seeking a simple solution
If you want to spend less time worrying about time tracking, accuracy, and compliance, OnTheClock should be on your shortlist. The software is designed to be super-easy to use, so it is still a powerful and benefit-rich workflow solution.
OnTheClock boasts features such as phone apps, paid time off tracking, scheduling, SMS, and push notifications. Any authorized device can be used as a time clock, so workers can clock in from their phone, a computer, or by fingerprint.
Recording of employee locations keeps everyone honest and accountable. The software also offers integrations with payroll providers such as QuickBooks, Gusto, Accounting CS, Paychex, and ADP. Thanks to the combination of power and ease of use, OnTheClock has been a big hit with companies like State Farm and Holiday Inn.
OnTheClock costs $30 per month for 10 employees, and a free 30-day trial is also available.
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10 Best Employee Scheduling Software Summary
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | monday.com Best for visualizing simple weekly schedules | 14-day free trial + freemium plan available | From $10/user/month | Visit Website |
2 | Wrike Best for companies looking project management software with resource planning features | 14-day free trial | From $9.80/user/month | Visit Website |
3 | Connecteam Best scheduling + time tracking with GPS | 14-day free trial | From $35/month | Visit Website |
4 | Buddy Punch Best for teams in multiple locations | 14-day free trial | From $3.49 - $4.49/user/month + $19/month base fee | Visit Website |
5 | ClockShark Best employee scheduling software for managing mobile, field-based workforces | 14-day free trial | From $20/month base fee + $3/user/month | Visit Website |
6 | Homebase Best for all-in-one team management | Freemium version available (unlimited employees) | From $20/month (payroll add-on is $6/user/month + $39/month) | Visit Website |
7 | QuickBooks Time Best for existing QuickBooks users | 30-day free trial | From $10/month + $8/user/month | Visit Website |
8 | Tanda Best for organizations with demanding needs | 14-day free trial | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
9 | OpenSimSim Best for companies in catering and hospitality | Free forever basic plan with limited functionality | From $12.99/location | Visit Website |
10 | OnTheClock Best for managers seeking a simple solution | 30-day free trial | From $30/month for 10 employees | Visit Website |
Other Employee Scheduling Options
This is a competitive market, so there are some great products that didn’t quite make it into the top 10. Here are some honorable mentions:
- Factorial
Best for managers who want to empower their people
- Rotageek
Best for teams seeking smart scheduling
- Resource Guru
Best for simple resource management
- Sage HR
Best for users of Sage Accounting and Payroll
- Paycor
Best for human resources leaders
- Planday
Build employee schedules faster by taking into account factors such as staff vacation, availability, and payroll costs
- 7shifts
Simplifies labor management for restaurants, one shift at a time
- Deputy
A platform that makes it easy to schedule in line with demand, prepare accurate payroll, and communicate clearly
- BambooHR
Aims to set people free to do their best work, with over a million employees currently being managed with their software
- When I Work
Built for teams of any size that need to integrate employee scheduling, time tracking, and team communication
How Can I Get Employee Scheduling Software For Free?
This is a question people often ask, and there are some options available to you. A simple way to manage employee scheduling online for free is to use Google Sheets with the template: Employee Shift Schedule:

This is a big improvement on old-fashioned pen and paper, but it does not offer the advanced features of a fully-fledged software solution.
Many of the management tools mentioned here offer free or low-cost trials. Your best bet is to sign up with one or two of these and find out which works best for you.
Can I Do Employee Scheduling Using An App?
Many of the best employing scheduling software tools provide mobile device apps in addition to web-based software. This offers you the best of both worlds. Supervisors can manage scheduling using larger screens on desktop or tablets, while workers can easily check in using the mobile app.
Are These The Best Employee Scheduling Software Tools?
Well that about wraps things up for this article. Do you agree with my choice for the top employee scheduling software? Whatever you think, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below.
To find out more about employee scheduling software and other ways to manage people better, remember to sign up for our regular news and updates. We’ll keep you in the loop with the latest insights from top thinkers and innovators.
Related Read: What Is Time Tracking And Why Is Time Tracking Important?