When I Work Reviews

Pros

The When I Work software is great at keeping track of my work schedule. On the Dashboard, it notifies me of my next upcoming shift, the date, and the time. It tells at which location I am working and what my position will be. It also tells what coworkers that I am working with during that shift. I can go into the schedule tab of the software and see what days during the week I am working. The software will also tally up my total hours that I will work per week. This is helpful because it allows me to see who is working and who is not so I can get a shift covered. The software also allows me to put in requests in advance of dates that I want to request off.

Cons

The availability scheduling feature takes some time to learn how to navigate. It is somewhat difficult to fully schedule availability. If you make a mistake and accidentally alter the availability for one day you have to go back to that day and fix it before adjusting your availability.

Pros

Mobile integration and notifications were awesome. The team loved how they could easily look up their schedule and sync it with their calendar.

Cons

It was a little tricky to ensure the user was viewing the correct day on their mobile app. We had some missed shifts because of confusion

Pros

Looks slick, appears to offer a lot (which it does, at a cost, see below...)

Customer support is very responsive - live chat, email, etc. I may not like their answers (see below) but I can't fault their timely attention, their patience, their attentiveness.

Cons

1. Pricing Practices

The page at wheniwork.com/pricing says nothing, just that schedulling is free for less than 75 employees (and anything over is a "contact us for enterprise" price, which is fine). Great, I think, I'll sign up, start working with it.

Glad I didn't invest much time. I set up a few employees, downloaded the apps, started working out the wrinkles. And after a few hours of looking, and testing, and reading, it looks good, but...

...then I discover that basic features like scheduling more than 10 days ahead (!) are paid-for. So is time tracking. Etc. That's ok to charge, but not ok to deceive - and there's *no* simple way right now to see a comparison of features and costs before getting signed-up.

And this is not a small bump. You can't bolt-on a little extra. To get a proper working app, the minimum number of users they offer 20 minimum and the time attendance module adds something like 50% on top.

But really it is transparency and deceptive practices that have *really* turned me against this product in a *very* short period of time - and that is *very* sad. If they'd allowed me to choose up front to devote my time, great; but they didn't.

I had to ask support what "long-term scheduling" meant (that being something not included in the free plan). That means more than 10 days... No other warning of that, that I could see. I feel deceived.

2. App Reliability

Others have mentioned glitches. I started working with the iPhone app - it stopped working for some tasks. I contacted support who said it was restricted to my account only, and they would get their developers to look at it. So I stopped using the iPhone app. My wife's Android phone wouldn't recognise her (valid) phone number when accepting a request to log in. So 2 strikes there. Your mileage may vary.

3. Limited Integrations

A few years ago, WIW posted on their Facebook page that they used Xero. Some commented then - why no integration? No answer. Years later, still no integration with Xero. No Zapier integration, either.

The cynic might think that WIW gets kick-backs / referral fees / bonusnes from Quick Books, Gusto, etc. which is why they're the (very limited) integration "partners". There's an API of course, if I had time.

Again, I'd forgive that for a free / cheap deal. But it isn't a free / cheap deal *for a working scheduling solution* - a schedule that doesn't reach into next week is *not* a working schedule.

So, yes, I'm annoyed. I feel like I've wasted my time. I feel like I've been deceived. I feel like I signed-up and invested time based upon what is almost a lie. And that sucks - not least because it was so needless. The product isn't awful, the pricing (whilst I may not like it) isn't the worst out there. The limitations are limitations, but every product has some.

And that, really, is sad.

The silver lining is that the free plan only launched yesterday. So perhaps they'll think again about the offering. And my experience is unlikely to be the same as that people had before me. But it is what it is today - so much so that I've signed-up for GetApp just to leave this review.

Pros

It is easy to keep track on all employees. It is also very easy to see who is on the schedule for the week and fix times if needed.

Cons

We turned off the mobile access to be sure that everyone was being accurate and honest.

Pros

I like the most this software because it is accessible and easy to use. Me and my employees are the happiest guys in the world, for their tome is well managed and their schedules well known.

Cons

I steel checking it, but so fare I have not found any issues with the software. The software is easy to use, quick and reliable.

Pros

After searching for a job two years ago, I found one from Craigslist. I was told to download this app and my schedule would be sent to it. Well the next day I woke up and decided to check my phone while doing so, I got a text or notification from the app. I opened it and sure enough I had to go to work in less than 10 minutes. I hurriedly put on my clothes and ran out the door. I was late on my first day. I told them the app lagged and I received my schedule minutes before coming to work. This app never got straight, I had to write my schedule down while at work.

Cons

My schedule never showed up in a timely manner. I was eventually fired then the schedule started showing up telling me I had work. How ironic is that, I didn't need notifications then, yet I was still getting them. I uninstalled the app and went back to my Event Specialist job.

Pros

This really kept me on the ball and tuned in to my employees and staff and in turn they felt more looked after and nurtured for.

Cons

The dash board can be slightly complicated at first.

Pros

It's really useful to be able to set your availability and if you work in a team to be able to see other people's availability, working hours and when they are on leave etc.

Cons

This software could be made to be more user friendly and have a clearer and more concise layout overall.

Pros

I like how easy it is to request time off

Cons

The only thing I'd change about When I Work, is when I put in a request for PTO, it asks how many hours I would like to be accommodated for. I'm only able to put in 8hrs of PTO/day, but I work at least 10hr/days, so I have to notify my manager and he has to manually change it.

Pros

I like using this app because I can keep my schedule in one place. If I pick up extra hours or switch shifts with someone it is all in one area and easy to track. I can also request time off on the software which is so nice.

Cons

I have not had any problems with the app so far.

Pros

When I Work is a great product that our company loves to use. We love how easy it is to create a schedule and assign employees, and all of the features are very easy to work with and aesthetically pleasing. We also like the ability to keep a detailed database of employees in the system. Their customer service team has been very friendly and are always there to answer our questions in detail. It is also a great platform for time tracking and exporting time sheets every week to send to payroll. Overall, it's the best platform we could have found to help us do what we need to do every day.

Cons

A couple features we wish they had:

- The option to create a preferred list in our employee database (A-list, B-list, C-List, Do Not Call List, etc)
- The option to be able to look at all events at once on the Time Tracker for the day (right now you can only look at one event at a time, which is hard when we have multiple events and sometimes forget which ones are happening in a day)
- To have a log of attendance (who was late, who called out, who was a no show) that is linked to a person's profile so we know who the problem people are (maybe a color coding that's like "green" if they are good on attendance and then gets closer to "red" if they have had several call outs/tardies)
- A way to add the zip code of an event to a schedule/job site that shows up on timesheet exports
- A way to send a crew memo or mass notification ("this shift has been cancelled" or "this shift has had a time change, please confirm") to all or selected crew members via WIW.

Pros

It is fairly easy to build the schedule every week and staff get notified right away. The time off feature works really well. I like the "Open Shifts" feature for weeks when we are short staffed.

Cons

So many things, but mostly that I have used it for 7 years and it has hardly evolved. Or at least when they do add features, you almost always have to pay for them. I made some changes a few years ago that broke somethings and tried to get someone on the phone and was basically told that I dont' qualify for phone support. They didn't solve my issue (I'm just tolerating it). Kind of annoying considering that I hav epaid about $8400 USD for this software over the past 7 years. I feel I'm worth a 15 minute phone call to troubleshoot my issues and make it work better for me.

Pros

It is EXTREMELY easy for the end-user to utilize this software. There are also some pretty good mobile applications that it offers which makes tracking your schedule very easy!

Cons

There are a lot of overly-helpful tips and suggestions that constantly spam the administrators' email accounts and scheduling interfaces. (Essentially the company does this to assist the administrators, but there is no way to stop it, which makes it very annoying after awhile). The mobile application can also be buggy at times, and the website schedule does not work properly on mobile phones that don't have a "desktop view", as the website does not have a mobile version designed for it. This forces you to use the mobile app on mobile devices unless your mobile phone can display it in a "desktop view". On a normal computer interface, this works just fine.

Pros

When I Work is a simple and truly effective time scheduler for resourcing projects in your organization. You can track across one or more projects, as needed, and identify time availability for the work that needs to get done. This is often one of the most challenging aspects of keeping projects on track and very few project management tools can help you like When I Work can.

Unlike the "capacity" view of other applications, When I Work gets down to the most granular details. It allows you to identify when and where a team member will be used, including time-off, breaks, lunches, meetings, etc. You can use these categories to identify how best to allocate their time.

The scheduler allows you to see teams based on shift or positions (roles). You can track un-paid breaks and time off, as well as customize schedules and create templates for reuse. You can even create specific shifts for one time or recurring use and maintain notes on each entry. It also provides high level visibility of total individual team member capacity as well as what is scheduled and what has already been used.

View your teams across one or more projects or job sites and distribute resources across them all as needed. It offers program-like management of projects and does not restrict you to individual projects, which can become cumbersome when re-allocating time of one team member across two or more projects.

When I Work is a great tool for planning, or simply use it in addition to your project management application. Its scheduling features make it a powerful tool that lets you forecast as well, by easily making changes in schedules as needed. You will spend less time manually calculating your resources and where to place them, saving you time and money. Changes to any schedules are easy to see and the responses are easy to manage.

When I Work also offers features like task management, which allows you to manage projects of less complexity in the same application. And if you are looking for integration, yes, you can use their library of APIs for that. But, you need to click on the developer link at the footer for more details. Their integration features are not prominently displayed on their website.

Cons

No cons I could personally find for the application and its use. Integration via APIs are present, but this is more for organizations who have techs who can implement them. I have seen organizations with limited development capabilities due to their areas of expertise, where integrations might pose a small challenge... but this should not necessarily pose as a true con for you.

Pros

It has many of the features we needed for scheduling employees.
We liked that more than one location can be scheduled for different employees, even sometimes on the same day. When we finally figured out how to use it, the map function was convenient because we go different places nearly every day. We liked that employees could see who was working with them each day.

Cons

There is no ability for employees to decline a shift. For several years, we requested the company add this feature. This turned out to be a deal breaker for us, and we finally went to another software.
I also thought it was odd that when a loyal customer of many years left, no one from the company contacted us to find out why.
Interestingly, the software we changed to also costs less per month, in spite of the fees they charge us for employees to accept/decline shifts by text message.

Pros

The ease of the program. It was very user-friendly. Scheduling used to take 2 hours, but it was cut down to 30 minutes with WhenIWork. I love that I could customize the shifts. I especially loved that employees had to acknowledge their shifts. There was no more miscommunication that an employee didn't see their schedule. It's also been a great tool to get staff on the same page. The ability to message everyone at once was awesome. Plus the program tells you which employees have viewed the messages. It also has the option for employees to clock in via the app and you can link it with payroll. Employees are able to submit requests for time-off or vacations. Everything you need is in one place. The customer support team is available immediately through their live chat. They have always been very helpful and friendly. Absolutely a wonderful program!

Cons

The only thing I would modify is to have the ability to block off certain dates for requests. That way an employee wouldn't be able to request off Black Friday for example.

Pros

I enjoy the ease of being able to track employee time sheets. When I Work is very user friendly for both the administrator and users. I also am very impressed with the customer service department when I reached out to them regarding upgrading ny services and they were very helpful with recommending what would best suit the needs of both the employer and staff.

Cons

It was a little difficult for the employees to get used to the change of software that was being used for payroll, however, that is no fault of When I Work. Change can be difficult and hard to remember at times.

Pros

I like that I am able to see everyone schedule and it will tell me how many hours and how many hours this person has on one specific day and in total. I also like the fact that employees can put in for their days off on the app and then those shifts are available to whoever would like to work them first. I also like the sack that employees can get in contact with all levels of staff and management. It also allows employees to switch shifts, which has been an issue in the past. For one employee will say so and so sad they would take over my shift and this person has no idea what the person is talking about or says no I told him I couldn't do it. When all of it is done on the app you could hold people responsible for training shifts or picking up shifts.

Cons

I think on the scheduling part there could be a little more room. The employee list isn't double spaced and it's a regular size font. I also found creating staff schedules to be a bit of an inconvenience due to the fact that you have to use a cursor to pick a time spot and drag it from one side to another. It can often times be difficult when you're busy.

Pros

The functionality and features offered are by far the best thing about this Software.
Ease of use, and control of use. Fairly Intuitive, and addresses most all of my needs for my small business!! The Cost! This software is very affordable for a small company.

Cons

I think that the Customer Support is not up to Par. The only way to get support is via Chat or to submit a Ticket. I have been ignored or neglected in the past, and just needed some help and no one was available and Did not respond either. This was when I first started using the Software and so it left a bit of a bad impression with me... I wish the Reports were not just limited to CSV files. I wish the reports were nice and clean and well presented like some of their competitors offer...

Pros

I've been using WhenIWork for about 3 1/2 years now and the best feature that I enjoy about this software is that I can utilize my phone to track my clock-ins and outs. I travel a bit for my job and being able to clock in at any time without having to jump on a computer is great!

Cons

I love that it gives me a notification when I have an upcoming shift or when I haven't clocked into a shift yet (something you simply forget) but WhenIWork always sends me a notification that I haven't clocked out even when I have clocked out from a shift. I am not sure why it recognizes that I have clocked out but still sends me a notification that I haven't done so. It might just be a personal problem though.

Pros

What I like most about this software is the ability to track my hours in multiple manners. Not only does the app show me how many hours I am scheduled to work a week, it shows me the scheduled hours of everyone on staff in a larger format, and can even show my timesheets, giving me the breakdown of negative or positive hours correlating to clocking in early or clocking out late. This last feature is extremely helpful as it quantifies the fruits (whether ripe or rotten) of your labor, letting you know exactly what you need to keep doing or improve on.

Cons

Yes, when I am accessing availability and have repeating schedule preferences, if there absolutely any overlap, it simply does not allow you to make changes and it is then your job to find the overlaps and shift them to allow for your original change. Often, this process is tedious, but it doesn't come up often as the initial mistake is human error. If there was a way for it to offer options on how you'd like to fix the overlap, that would be perfect.

Pros

It simplifies communication with staff and freelancers, pushing updates to them en masse. It is an attractive UI and the app functions pretty well. Support is responsive and communicative.

Cons

The permission levels need a lot of work. They are limited and global so you really don't have much control over who sees what. You can't copy a shift from one week to the next, this seems kind of basic, especially if an event spans multiple weeks it's inconvenient to have to build the shift twice. It would also be nice to have the ability for someone to view a schedule at a location other than the one they are scheduled at...for example, someone in one office wants to see if someone in another office is scheduled to be available or not without showing up in that locations schedule. Currently this is not possible.

Pros

This is a very user friendly software. We are able to quickly create, edit, and distribute schedules to our large staff. We love that the staff can quickly submit time off requests, send us messages about their schedules, and even drop/swap shifts if necessary, within moments of the schedule being published.

Cons

When I Work is a very proactive company, and they make software updates often. The only bad thing about this is that it can some time for us to adjust to changes that are made, and occasionally there are small glitches. But overall, I would say I am more satisfied that they are proactive in expanding what the software can do, than I am disappointed in these occasional issues.

Pros

When I Work is very simple to use and easy to navigate. My current or upcoming schedule always shows up as soon as I log into the app, and I can easily view my upcoming shifts and approve them. Putting in requests and setting my availability is also very straightforward. Finally, I enjoy the messaging feature, which is helpful for communicating with a whole team or with individuals whom I haven't shared contact information with yet.

Cons

Sometimes When I Work logs me out of the app and I am forced to log in again, which can be inconvenient if I don't have my password saved or written down. When I cancel a shift, it still shows up in my Concluded Requests, as well as my employer's requests for me, which I feel is a bit unnecessary. I would prefer if it just showed up in mine but not in my employer's requests. I also wish my shifts from previous weeks were still available to view.

Pros

I like that I am able to see my schedule and the team schedule as they are posted. It's very handy to have a color-coded visual schedule as well, so I can see at a glance which team members are on which roles. I also like that I have the ability to enter time off and shift change requests. My team does not utilize the feature that allows open shifts to be posted so employees can pick up extra shifts as they become available, however I like that the option to do so is there.

Cons

I wish that I had the option to sort the team schedule by shift time so I could see who I will be working with by day at a glance, as opposed to scrolling through the list of scheduled team members sorted by name.