The Best Employee Scheduling Software of 2024

While it may seem like remote work is all the rage, the truth is countless businesses across the country can only operate with in-office employees. Whether you run a restaurant, hair salon, clothing store or doctor’s office, you need in-person staff — and you need a way to schedule when exactly those staffers will be working. Modern employee scheduling software makes it easier than ever to schedule shifts, track time and attendance, and ensure your employees are paid for hours worked.

With modern employee scheduling software, you can ditch pen and paper in favor of digital drag-and-drop schedule builders. (Source: When I Work)

Using employee scheduling software with built-in payroll processing is more convenient but may also be more costly. (Source: Homebase)

If you’re in the market for employee scheduling software, you’re looking at entering into a monthly, subscription-based service agreement. Some vendors charge a small fee per employee each month, while others charge a flat rate that covers up to a fixed number of employees. Still, other providers charge a monthly fee on a per-location basis. During our investigation, we saw plan pricing ranging from $0 to $99 per month.

Alternatively, some employee scheduling software vendors only provide custom quotes. Once you contact the company, they will work with you to determine pricing based on your industry and other factors. In any case, there are typically no long-term contracts to sign, but some vendors require you to provide written notice in advance before closing your account.

Like most subscription-based services, almost every employee scheduling program is available in multiple service tiers, with the more expensive options including more advanced features, covering larger employee bases or both. If you’re considering a certain platform, check to see if it has a free tier or trial period, as most vendors offer one or the other. That’s a great way to give a service a try before formally adding an employee scheduling solution to your company’s operating costs.

Ultimately, when determining how much this software will cost you, you have to consider how many employees and locations you have, and which features you really need out of an employee scheduling solution. Sometimes, a free tier can meet all of your needs, especially if you run a particularly small operation. Note which features are included in which packages from your preferred vendor and compare those findings with those of other scheduling companies. What one provider considers a premium feature could be included in a lower tier elsewhere.

Keep in mind that add-ons, such as payroll processing, will increase your expenses. For example, Homebase charges $39 per month and $6 per active employee per month on top of its regular package fee if you want to add payroll to your plan.

One potential way to save money: Instead of paying a monthly fee, you can usually opt to pay for a full year upfront. This usually results in overall savings, but you should be absolutely sure that you want to stick with the service for the entire year before committing. If you decide to cancel before the term ends, some companies will offer a prorated refund, though you will want to check the agreement before attempting to sever ties in case there’s a hefty early-termination fee.

You can empower your workers to adjust their shifts and find coverage as needed with employee scheduling software. (Source: When I Work)

The specific functions your employee scheduling software can perform will vary by vendor and further depend on what service tier or package you purchase. For example, some software plans are very basic and simply enable the creation of schedules, whereas other options incorporate advanced features like time and attendance tracking, automated scheduling, and security and compliance functions.

We suggest looking for the following features when evaluating employee scheduling solutions.

Shift Scheduling Tools

While most employee scheduling software allows you to build schedules manually with drag-and-drop tools, the best platforms give you the option of using auto-scheduling to build repeating or varied schedules automatically. Top-of-the-line software like this also simplifies workforce management with schedule templates, labor forecasts and calendar features (e.g., daily, weekly or monthly calendar view). Some programs include demand-based scheduling and shift auto-fill, which can be valuable for ensuring your business is adequately staffed.

Your team members can benefit from scheduling software with employee-centric tools that allow them to set their availability and preferences, request to drop or swap shifts with their co-workers, and modify their schedules from anywhere. Managers can set rules for automatic shift approval and denial, or they can manually respond to change requests.

Time and Attendance Tracking

Tracking employee hours is a key element of employee scheduling. Some employee scheduling software vendors automatically include time clocks and time-off request capabilities in their base plans, whereas others offer time and attendance functions only as add-on features with an additional cost. Employee scheduling software with a clock-in function streamlines timekeeping and can help prevent errors when paying staffers for their hours worked. If the solution you’re eyeing doesn’t have native payroll, make sure it can integrate with your preferred payroll service.

The best software can also help employers track employee overtime, monitor worker behavior, prevent early clock-ins, enforce employee breaks, automatically deduct unpaid breaks, budget for labor costs and more. Employee scheduling software with time-tracking features often includes reporting capabilities as well, allowing you to study attendance data and identify trends.

Notifications and Reminders

Most employee scheduling software has alert and notification capabilities, but the type of notifications you can send (and the channels through which workers can receive them) will vary. The best solutions offer text, email and in-app notifications for schedule and message confirmations, tardiness and overtime alerts, automated clock-in and clock-out reminders, and more.

Security and Compliance

Labor law compliance is incredibly important when you have employees on your payroll. If you fail to comply, you could find yourself in hot water with government agencies. The best employee scheduling platforms have built-in checks to make sure you don’t fall out of compliance with local and federal labor laws, including overtime regulations and advance-notice requirements for schedule changes.

Dashboard, Usability & Integrations

While usability may not be one of the first things to come to mind when you think of features, how easy or challenging a program is to use will affect your user experience. Look for platforms with user-friendly dashboards that are intuitive to navigate. If a service has a comprehensive iOS or Android app that employees and managers can use in addition to the computer software, that’s even better since both sides can benefit from mobile convenience.

Additionally, the ideal employee scheduling solution integrates with many other pieces of business software, such as the entire Microsoft 365 suite, QuickBooks Online accounting software or a payroll service like Paychex. These connections streamline multiple processes without much effort. Some companies may want to look for POS system integrations, such as those offered by When I Work, or other integrations unique to their sector.

Employee scheduling software with time-tracking and GPS features helps ensure your employees are working when and where they’re supposed to. (Source: When I Work)

Regardless of what your company does, if you have employees, you most likely need an employee scheduling application that both you and your employees can understand. If you don’t properly convey your scheduling needs and expectations, you’ll eventually run into a situation where either your team is shorthanded and unable to properly do their jobs or you have too many people on the clock at one time, greatly inflating labor costs without giving you much of a productivity boost in return.

Below are some of the key benefits your business stands to reap if you use high-quality employee scheduling software to manage your workforce.

More Efficient Operations

Employee scheduling software helps businesses streamline the schedule creation and maintenance process. Rather than managers filling out each employee’s schedule by hand or scheduling individuals based on a hunch about their effectiveness in a certain shift, employee scheduling software can provide detailed data to help you create the most effective schedule possible. Once it’s implemented, managers can also gauge how much time off people are using and where inefficiencies exist in the schedule, helping the company save time and money in the long run.

With the right employee scheduling solution in place, businesses of all sizes not only become more efficient, with less to worry about in terms of labor costs, but can also more easily forecast the potential workload at certain times of the day. For example, a restaurant owner can chart out when regular meal rushes happen and plan schedules accordingly.

Improved Communication & Accountability

With most of today’s scheduling platforms functioning in the cloud, employees can access their schedules from any location on their mobile devices, get instant notifications about shift changes and adapt to any changes at a moment’s notice. Employees can also set their own availability through their scheduling platform rather than relying on their manager’s memory.

Throughout the workday, managers can send messages to individual staff members or entire teams to notify them of important announcements, schedule changes, stock shortages and more. Field workers can stay in the loop simply by checking an app on their phone.

Cost-Savings

Employee scheduling programs that boast robust reporting functionality provide business intelligence that can help you make strategic decisions related to hiring and scheduling. With AI-driven scheduling predictions, sales forecasts and more, you can use reliable data to ensure you have the right number of team members — and no more — to keep your business operating at an efficient cost. These analytics can also spotlight where most of your labor expenses are going, such as if particular employees keep racking up unnecessary overtime.

Another way employee scheduling software can save you money is if you run a small business that requires customers to make appointments in advance. With a solution like Setmore, you won’t need to hire a receptionist to take down any incoming appointments, as some programs let customers book their own appointments either online or via mobile app. This not only saves time and money but lets employees know when they’re booked and puts customers in the driver’s seat throughout the process.

Industry-Specific Tools

While some employee scheduling software like Humanity is suitable for a range of industries, you might want to take advantage of sector-specific platforms. TimeForge, for example, can tailor its packages for grocers, hospitality businesses and more, giving your team the precise tools that will best serve your company’s unique needs.

There are also scheduling platforms designed for businesses in the services industry, where workers are booked as needed by customers. These programs let customers book a meeting or session with an employee based on a publicly available schedule. Employees can set their availability, making them less likely to get booked when they can’t work and reducing the number of cancellations.

When choosing employee scheduling software, consider all the device types you want to be able to access it on. (Source: Humanity)

The process of choosing employee scheduling software is much like the buying journey for any kind of business software. You should start by outlining your company’s needs and determining your budget for such a service. Next, you should research the market and use guides like this one to identify programs that include the features you desire at a price you can afford.

After that, you’ll want to contact the vendors for software demos and sign up for free trials. Try two or three platforms and have your managers and employees weigh in on the user experience. Finally, compare costs and see which provider stands out the most in terms of affordability, usability and features. At this point, your purchase decision should be clear.

This decision-making process, of course, will be impacted by a few factors. When you’re deciding which employee scheduling program your business needs, the first and most important thing to consider is what purpose it will serve. As mentioned above, there are two main uses for such platforms: creating work schedules and booking employees for services.

When you’ve recognized the function you need, you should debate the specific features you want the software to contain to fulfill that purpose. If you’re going with the schedule creation style of program, do you want it to be web-based or not? Do you want employees to be able to jockey for favorable work slots when they become available or make it easy for them to swap shifts with one another? How much freedom do you want to give employees to set their preferred availability?

If you’re getting one of the booking and employee engagement platforms, do you want to integrate the program with your website so customers can book their next appointment without leaving your homepage? What about being able to facilitate messaging between customers and your employees? In either case, how important is it to you that the software connects with other business tools, such as accounting and payroll services?

Once you identify your desired software’s form and functions, another big consideration is how much it will ultimately cost you. As a small business owner, you’re already aware of your bottom line. Choosing a solution that breaks your budget isn’t financially sustainable, but purchasing a platform that doesn’t adequately meet your needs is a waste of money. You’ll need to do your best to balance these aspects.

Lastly, estimate how much customer service you and your team may require. Some vendors only provide phone support for their more expensive plans, while some don’t give assistance over the phone at all. Make sure the company offers customer support in a way that works for your business.

To determine the best employee scheduling software on the market, our team of HR experts and software analysts evaluated an initial list of 21 platforms. After whittling our list down to 10 providers, we chose six employee scheduling software platforms as our top recommendations. Our experts and analysts studied each solution’s functionality and evaluated the products on nearly 40 factors.

These factors were weighted differently in our overall conclusion. The weights were determined based on how much business owners prioritize these criteria when shopping for business software and services and making purchasing decisions.

• Pricing (30%): Our experts and analysts compared and contrasted each vendor’s plans, judging which packages offered the best bang for your buck. They took into account monthly subscription fees, per-employee costs versus flat rates, industry-specific or location-based pricing, and add-on services like payroll processing.
• Features (25%): We looked for standard employee scheduling software functions like drag-and-drop schedulers, schedule templates, shift swapping, time and attendance tracking, and labor forecasts. We also assessed the available integrations and awarded extra points for advanced services, like AI-powered demand-based scheduling and shift auto-fill tools.
  
• Ease of Use (20%): We tested the software ourselves, gauging each solution’s learning curve, user-friendliness and customization options. We also considered whether there was a fully featured mobile app for managing scheduling tasks on the go.
  
• Customer Service (15%): We evaluated the range of customer service options, including whether phone assistance was provided with all package tiers. We also examined each vendor’s online resources for businesses interested in self-guided help.
  
• Expert Analysis (10%): Given that our HR experts know and understand employee scheduling software better than anyone, their personal insights from years of experience and hands-on testing were also considered when deciding our best picks.

Based on these criteria, we not only determined which employee scheduling software programs our readers could trust but also the ways in which each solution could best serve different business needs. Some platforms were better at certain tasks than others or more suited to a particular type of company. These takeaways informed the “Best for” use cases you see on this page.

To learn more about our methodology, see our full editorial process.