Homebase Reviews

Pros

I thoroughly enjoy the Homebase platform and its ease of use. Everything is color coordinated, which is my favorite part. I use this to schedule my employees for all my locations. My employees enjoy it too because they can request time off, trade shifts, and see when they are scheduled on their phone. I also love the stats where I can keep track of sales and labor - and it links up all my locations which is a plus!

Cons

There honestly isn't anything I dislike about the software. I use it mainly for scheduling, but it does so much more than that. I would maybe like to customize admin roles a little more for better security, but that isn't entirely necessary.

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

Ease of use and user interface was the cleanest. We switched to Square Shifts because of the price at the time and the easy integration with square payroll. But Homebase looks much better and is easier to use for the person creating the schedule.

Cons

Price and that I didn’t have much trust in Homebase’s payroll. We switched to square because it was more trust worthy in our opinion. Whether that is a correct assumption or not, I don’t know.

Alternatives Considered

Square Shifts and When I Work

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

I like being able to use the mobile app for finding our team schedule and receiving updates on schedule changes. It is also easy to communicate with other team members on the app.

Cons

Homebase works well for our small, 20 person team. I would question if it was scalable for if our team exponentially increased.

Pros

I really like the geo clock and functioning with employees using their mobile phones instead of store equipment

Cons

Cost and reporting could be more detailed to be more HR equipped

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Easier to make schedule

Switched From

Hubworks Suite

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Easier to use

Pros

I love that staff can ask for someone to cover their shift. That notifies me that someone has not clocked in or is running late. I love that I can track tips. The team loves it as well.

Cons

The ability to list dates that are needed to be filled and let staff select those dates.Right now we manually send out dates that need to be filled and then we plug people in and create the schedule.. Would love that this could be more automated.

Pros

Communication skills are great I love this company.

Cons

It’s okay to me . And I enjoy communicating to others about my opinions.

Pros

Easy to use, easy to edit and helpful for payroll.

Cons

Sometimes it is hard for me to remember how to publish schedules. But that is a user error.

Pros

Homebase was much needed at the time we were restructuring our company. The app came in handy for our sports management side of the company to help maintain payroll.

Cons

Some employees found it to be difficult to use

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

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Timesheets.com

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

100% for the price difference. Timesheets is so overpriced. Thank you for providing your software for such a reasonable amount of money. It makes a huge difference during this pandemic.

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

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.

Cons

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.

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

Very easy to set up. Very easy to use. I just had to add on another location we just opened and it was so straight forward. I had it set up in minutes.

Cons

I've brought this same concern up for over two years when I talk to support specialist.
When I do my annual reviews, I want to quickly be able to get to the data that shows how many times an employee was late, left his shift early or called out sick. I need that for a 365 day period.
Also, we have 7 locations and approximately 130 employees. About 10-20% of those employees move from store to store on a regular basis. We internally call them "floaters". I'd like to be able to just pick a
floater and see what his overall track record is. Printed on one page with the stores he worked at listed.
Also, because we have multiple locations and we have floaters, it would a nice feature if we could work on 2 locations at once on the same screen. Jumping back in and out of locations takes a little extra time.