Homebase Reviews

Pros

Quite honestly, one of the first things I recommend to businesses that want to schedule employees and know their labor costs that are up to the minute.

Cons

The one feature that I do wish was available, would be a calendar view that showed the entire department or business, so that it could be displayed on a monitor or web-based application.

Alternatives Considered

When I Work, HotSchedules and MySchedule

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

The integration with Square POS and ease of use made it a reasonable switch. After years of use, I don't know if I would go back.

Switched From

HotSchedules

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Homebase seemed to offer a solid free version, that makes it easier to implement with a client before showing them the added advantages of a premium plan.

Pros

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.

Cons

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

Pros

Very easy to use. The user interface is very simple and easy to navigate.

Cons

I feel like this is a beta software that should not have been rolled out yet. We have been using it for a week and have had issues every day since we started using it. Basic things that you think should just work doesn't work.
Example: All my employees have a 1 hour, unpaid lunch everyday. They clock in and clock out on this required one hour lunch but Homebase is still counting it in their total hours. So know I ma getting alerts that they all have overtime but they actually don't because Homebase is not calculating hours correctly.
So there have been several little things (Bugs) that I have found every day since using Homebase. I contact customer support and they tell me that they will pass it on to their product team.
This may sound harsh but the product team really should have tested this software more before rolling it out. Makes me question all the reviews I am seeing on here. All the bugs have been on basic functions.

Pros

As a manager that uses this app to help schedule our employees, I have to say I love all the functions! All my staff can use it on their mobiles and see upcoming shifts (at multiple locations, request time off, and see how much they are earning.

Cons

In 3 years I have to say I have not run into any issues, I absolutely love this tool.

Pros

I really liked the fact that employees can clock in on their own phone or on a shared kiosk.

Cons

The most challenging part about using Homebase was when making time entry corrections. It forces you to click into an entry, wait for a popup, make the change, hit save. You need to start the whole process for a different entry. This is very time consuming when you're on a deadline. A spreadsheet like functionality to make these changes would be very helpful, as I've seen them on other solutions. This is the one reason I switched to another product.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Time and When I Work

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Was being open to trying other solutions.

Switched From

When I Work

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

The trial option made it easy to sign up and try it out.

Pros

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.

Cons

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

Pros

simple to use and always is ready to use

Cons

everything ok. nothing to complaint. it is simple to use and giving the information I need. I will recommend to all people

Pros

This app allows us to keep track of clock ins and clock outs, we schedule employees as well and it has an amazing feature where you can request someone to cover your shift without the hassle of contacting a supervisor considering how busy we get. We are able to clock in even before we step into the kitchen. Overall it’s an excellent app to consider, try it out!

Cons

Honestly not many things to say that are negative, if we do run into something we will update our review if it applies.

Pros

Homebase is easy to use and navigate. We use it for payroll of our small company, and it has been wonderful.

Cons

So far I do not have any things that I like least about Homebase.

Pros

I am not a “tech savvy” kind of gal, but homebase is very user friendly and has a lot to offer. I love how I have abscess to everything I need right through my phone.

Cons

I have yet to find a con to this product.

Pros

First off......It is free for basic features. I love that it has an app for phone and tablet use. It is very intuitive and easy to learn. Staff can track their time and their salary. I could make a huge list here, but basically it is the software we needed, but now we can't live without it.

Cons

Some of the features are a little on the expensive side when purchasing plans, but mostly because of our exchange rate.

Alternatives Considered

7shifts, Deputy and BambooHR

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Too much wasted time on scheduling and time tracking. We didn't know we could find a single software that had the complete solution.

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

We felt that Homebase was much more inclusive overall allowing us to complete almost anything payroll related within one app.

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

HotSchedules

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

It synchs with our Point of Sale System and pricing.

Pros

I love how you can do the schedule out as far as in advance as possible but no one sees it until you post it. We have used other softwares that we would have to do a spreadsheet first and couldn't enter anything into the system until we were ready for anyone to see the shifts.

Cons

I would say the only thing I don't like is that we have trouble with the clock in system at one of our locations. Which is weird because it works perfectly fine at our other 3 locations. It doesn't register clock-ins a lot of times so my employees have to text me to clock them in.
I have reached out support about this several times in the past and they just say to delete the app and then reinstall. It works great for about a day and then acts up again.

Pros

I love that there is an app connected to the schedule and other features! A huge plus is my team being able to put in their own time off, and request shift trades or covers through the app as well.

Cons

The scheduler can run slowly, and it would be nice to be able to organize job applicants a little better.

Pros

I get to schedule employees and they get to see it on their phones, check schedules, ask for time off, trade shifts, and get reminded to come to work an hour before their shift starts! I can change timecards on the back end if I need to, see how many hours I have scheduled, and estimate what payroll will be. It's easy to clock in and out in the app and Homebase keeps up with the times for pertinent questions to ask when they clock in.

Cons

Trying to shedule a shift from the app will make the schedule go off. You put in one time and then it changes it 2 hours for some reason, not a big deal, it usually schedule from my laptop anyway.

Alternatives Considered

7shifts

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

It had the features that I needed; multiple shifts per day and changing timecards for free!

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

This is a very simple to use software and it is very easy to train our store managers to use it. It also gives visibility to All team members who is scheduled and for what shift.

Cons

It is really the best scheduling software. I do not have anything negative to day about it. The only thing that I wish it has, is the ability to have another layer of management report view that would allow my General manager to see that exclude those reports reserved for me as the owner. Current levels are "owner/general mgr", "store manager" and "user". It would be nice to separate "owner" reports from "general manager" reports.

Pros

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.

Cons

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 Considered

UKG Ready, When I Work, Fresha and RedVector

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Homebase is a lot more powerful!

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Price and ease of use!

Pros

Ease of use, nailed key functions needed, intelligent navigation, visually uncluttered despite having a lot of functionality.

Cons

It is not a shortcoming of the software but of non-technical users. The biggest problem I have had is bringing along the technophobes who are used to working with...wait for it...paper calendars and personal journals to keep up with. They yearn to be able to use something so powerful but blanch when they open the home screen and see what is available. It is about as user friendly as can be imagined but some still are so intimidated that it is hard to get them to dig in. When they do, they begin to appreciate the value that is provided.

The key is bringing the shy types along S L O W L Y. This software will sell itself once it is given a fair opportunity to shine. Just grit your teeth and work with them. It's more than worth the effort.

Pros

The reason that I started using g homebase was because it is linked to Square. However, even if I stopped using square I would still use homebase!

Cons

Some of the reports are difficult to configure and very time consuming to drill down to the data we need

Alternatives Considered

When I Work

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Home base was linked to square

Switched From

Justworks

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Again because HomeBase was linked to square

Pros

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.

Cons

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

Pros

I use the free version and the functions and customer support are excellent. I have called them several times and they always answer and always solve the problem. For free you cannot get much better.

Cons

The free version lacks a few features I would like to use, such as time card saving and managing how far before the shift an employee can log in. The problem I have is the paid plans are too expensive. The pricing goes from zero to expensive to very expensive. There is no mid tier pricing for someone like me that wants a few extra features.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Time

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Needed a scheduler and more features.

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Cost

Pros

I love the scheduling and time and attendance features. I like the flexibility and the abilities of my team to control their own schedule and time off.

Cons

I dislike that the only feature I require from the next tier (+$20 per month) is different job codes so I just don't use it. I renegotiate payrate and time to achieve payrate differential for alternate job descriptions. It it was a weekly issue, I would switch products... that's how serious of a flaw it it.

Also, Shift Ratings are a good idea but the functionality to retrieve their comments is clunky and I only remember to search it out once a month. It just makes it a throw away feature.

Pros

cost and initial functionality for what we needed

Cons

Out grew it. Seems like it is more for food services industry instead of Technology Consulting services. We got away with stretching the functionality for our needs (like having to make everyone a manager). It was good for the year we used it with about 8-10 people, but now that I have rolled out company wide, it just wasnt the tool for us going forward

Pros

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.

Cons

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.