TimeForge vs Shiftbase

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Our analysts compared TimeForge vs Shiftbase based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Employee Scheduling Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Timeforge is an all-in-one labor management solution that helps manage employee hiring, training, scheduling, communications and payroll. You can manage all aspects of your labor operations seamlessly from a centralized software without any data silos.

Its employee scheduling module provides a visual calendar that allows you to easily drag and drop shifts, ensuring optimal staffing levels at all times. Additionally, the built-in time tracking feature enables employees to clock in and out of work, eliminating the need for manual timesheets and reducing the risk of errors.

To help you run your team like clockwork, Timeforge also incorporates nifty HR and compliance management tools. You can manage employee records, track sick leave and vacation time, and ensure compliance with labor regulations. The software's built-in compliance alerts keep you informed about any changes in labor laws and avoid costly penalties.

The built-in messaging feature lets you communicate with your team easily, so you won’t lose important conversations across different platforms, minimizing the risk of miscommunication. Moreover, a native payment processor ensures same-day pay, boosting employee satisfaction and reducing administrative overhead.

Finally, Timeforge empowers you to make data-driven decisions with its labor analytics, reporting and sales forecasting capabilities. You can analyze employee performance, track labor costs and forecast future staffing needs based on historical data. This insight enables you to optimize your workforce, improve operational efficiency and drive business growth.

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Shiftbase is workforce management software that helps businesses with frontline workers manage employee schedules, track time, monitor attendance, handle time-off requests and maintain employee profiles. It offers a comprehensive set of features to streamline HR processes and optimize shift and task management.

Its scheduling feature helps you easily create, modify and share employee schedules. The platform supports shift templates, recurring shifts, drag-and-drop scheduling and flex teams for efficient workforce allocation. It also considers employee availability and absences to ensure optimal scheduling. Additionally, you can manage personnel costs, track wage costs and create schedules based on work hours or budgeted labor costs.

For time tracking and PTO management, Shiftbase can track worked hours, manage time-off requests and ensure compliance with labor regulations. Employees can view their schedules, request time off and track their hours through the mobile app. Also, managers can approve or deny time-off requests and monitor employee attendance.

The human resource management module includes tools for creating and managing employee profiles, storing important documents and managing employee communications. The software also offers compliance management tools to help businesses adhere to labor laws and regulations. This includes features for tracking overtime hours, managing minimum wage and Working Hours Act (ATW) compliance, and generating audit reports.

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$2.50/User, Monthly
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$3.50/Employee, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Streamline PTO Handling: Timeforge offers a robust leave and absence management module that scored a perfect 100 rating from our analysts. It allows you to configure custom leave policies, track balances and set blackout periods, helping you handle leave requests efficiently while staying compliant with your organization's policies. The platform also supports partial day-offs and simplifies time-off requests and approvals for both employees and managers.
  • Simplify Scheduling: According to our data, the platform excels in its scheduling capabilities, offering every key scheduling feature ready to use out of the box. With features like ad-hoc scheduling, auto-scheduling and a drag-and-drop interface, you can easily create, modify and manage schedules. The system also identifies scheduling conflicts, supports multi-location scheduling and provides various visualization options to help you better understand and communicate schedules.
  • Adopt a Data-Driven Decision-Making Approach: The platform’s reporting and analytics capabilities are another strong suit, receiving a perfect rating from our analysts. With customizable dashboards and report templates, you can easily track KPIs and identify areas for improvement. Additionally, its sales forecasting capabilities enable you to analyze historical sales data and predict future demand, helping you optimize workforce allocation.
  • Ensure Compliance With Labor Regulations: Lastly, the platform offers a robust security and compliance management toolkit that got a 100 analyst rating. The solution adheres to industry-standard regulations such as FLSA, OSHA and GDPR, ensuring that your organization complies with relevant labor and data protection laws. Additionally, its role-based permissions and single sign-on capabilities provide security and control over access to sensitive employee data.
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  • Start Scheduling For Free: The starter plan lets you manage up to 75 employees in one location across five teams for free. You can manage employee profiles, create schedules, assign tasks and set role-based permissions. Employees can also track time manually via the mobile app.
  • Streamline PTO Management: Shiftbase's time and attendance management tools, highly rated with a 91 score by our analysts, offer a streamlined PTO management process. Employees can easily request and track time off, while managers can efficiently approve or deny requests and monitor attendance. This not only reduces administrative burden but also ensures accurate payroll calculations and compliance with labor regulations.
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  • Employee Management: Track candidates before they even become employees, seamlessly transferring information over to HR files. It can monitor the progress and completion of forms, exams and training, as well as notify employees of forms they need to complete before they even clock in for a shift.
  • Employee Self-Service: Provide employees with access to the system as soon as they accept an offer, allowing the new employee to enter all of their information into the database and freeing up managers to focus on other essential onboarding tasks.
  • Communication Tools: Send texts and alerts to individual employees or groups of staff members. Managers can send communications as necessary or enable the system to automatically send notifications regarding things like schedule changes or open shifts.
  • Mobile Access: Log into the platform from any internet-connected device, allowing managers and employees alike to complete essential tasks, such as clocking in for work or requesting a shift change. Mobile apps are available for both Android and iOS, with specific apps for employees and managers.
  • HR Types: Create, customize, categorize and track various types of files, including employee information sheets and tax forms. Managers and employees can both upload relevant documents and files, allowing for centralized storage and organization.
  • Learning and Development: Develop HR Activities and send them to employees for completion. Activities can include everything from collecting employee information to assigning training courses to employees.
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  • Employee Scheduling: Create and publish work schedules with an overview of expected costs. Repeat standard shifts by dragging and dropping into upcoming schedules while building custom templates. Get employee availability reminders when creating schedules while sending automated shift reminders. Invite employees to pick open shifts.
  • Time Tracking: Prevent errors while recording employee work hours using an online time tracking module. Employees can clock in via mobile apps or desktops based on GPS locations. Copy work hours from timesheets to time registration automatically while saving manual effort and errors.
  • Absence Registration: Automate absence management processes while tracking vacation hours and employee leave requests. Employees can create leave requests while forwarding them automatically for supervisor approval. Get a real-time overview of accumulated vacation hours while entering balance hours for new employees.
  • Resource Management: Manage vacation balances, employment contracts, employee work hours and information from one place. Process employment contract modifications while calculating overtime hours accurately. Set employee birthday and anniversary notifications.
  • HRM: Build personnel files with employee notes, automatic leave accrual, contract reminders, notifications for anniversaries and birthdays, and automatic calculation of plus/minus hours. You can track employee competencies and certificates, monitor employee well-being through overtime and absence tracking, and receive alerts when documents expire.
  • Reporting: Get an accurate picture of worked, scheduled and approved employee working hours. Gain in-depth insights into labor costs compared to revenue, worked hours per department or a team and more. Generate customized exportable reports containing crucial operational data.
  • Mobile App: Manage workforce schedules, absences and availability on the go using Android and iOS apps. Monitor employee work hours while posting important announcements and messages from anywhere. Receive push notifications about timesheets and availability changes.
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Product Ranking

#34

among all
Employee Scheduling Software

#103

among all
Employee Scheduling Software

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

91
75
98
52
88
62
100
91
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Leave and Absence Management
Reporting and Analytics
Schedule Management
Security and Compliance
Time and Attendance Management
Leave and Absence Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

TimeForge
Shiftbase
+ Add Product + Add Product
Collaboration Employee Management Leave And Absence Management Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting And Analytics Schedule Management Security And Compliance Shift Management Time And Attendance Management 98 88 100 59 71 100 100 100 94 100 52 62 91 83 63 81 84 67 79 74 0 25 50 75 100
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89%
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88%
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63%
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37%
80%
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67%
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33%
100%
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26%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

78%
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22%
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 41 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 421 reviews
94%
of users recommend this product

TimeForge has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 94% when considering 41 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

90%
of users recommend this product

Shiftbase has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 421 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (1)
4.6 (225)
4.7 (37)
4.4 (196)
4.5 (3)
n/a

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated TimeForge and concluded it deserves the award for the Best Overall Employee Scheduling Software available today and earns best-in-class honors for Leave and Absence Management, Reporting and Analytics, Schedule Management, Security and Compliance, Shift Management and Time and Attendance Management. TimeForge stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

Analysts' Pick Award
User Favorite Award
Leave and Absence Management Award
Reporting and Analytics Award
Schedule Management Award
Security and Compliance Award
Shift Management Award
Time and Attendance Management Award

Shiftbase stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Time-Saving: Reviews mentioned that TimeForge significantly reduces the time spent on scheduling, payroll and other HR tasks.
Comprehensive Functionality: The platform offers a wide range of key HR tools out of the box. You don’t need to spend resources on integrating with external solutions.
Customization: TimeForge allows for a high level of customization to meet specific business needs, particularly in reporting and scheduling.
Customer Support: Users frequently praise the responsiveness and helpfulness of the customer support team during implementation and ongoing use.
Real-Time Data: The ability to access and manage real-time data remotely through the web-based platform is a significant advantage.
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Increased Flexibility: Users appreciate the ability to assign different roles and create flexible rosters, making the platform suitable for self-rostering and cross-team visibility. It offers color coding to differentiate users and tasks, improving visual clarity.
Ease of Use: The software is user-friendly and requires minimal training. It simplifies scheduling and time tracking, especially when compared to manual or Excel-based methods.
Time-Saving: Shiftbase significantly reduces the time spent on administrative tasks like calculating hours and scheduling, with users reporting substantial time savings.
Responsive Support and Help Resources: Users consistently highlight the excellent customer service for its quick responses and effective issue resolutions.
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Limited Mobile Access: Many users complained about the mobile app lacking essential features such as geofencing, customizable push notifications and offline scheduling.
Integration Issues: The lack of integration with certain systems like QuickBooks or sales programs limits the platform’s scope.
User Interface Challenges: Some users experienced minor issues with the user interface, such as fields being too narrow to view all information or the system refreshing and pulling users away from the section they were working on.
Complexity of Reports: The platform has a clunky and outdated reporting and analytics interface, which involves a steep learning curve.
Cost Concerns: The platform cost was a concern for some users, especially those from smaller or rural businesses.
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Lengthy Setup Process: Transitioning to Shiftbase from other systems requires a time investment. Users mention that setup can take two to three days, but the platform is highly efficient once it’s operational.
Challenging User Interface: While Shiftbase is functional, users mention that its presentation, particularly in areas like team rosters and part-time employee scheduling, could be more refined with color-coded visual representations.
Limited Advanced Features: The platform has limited functionalities, such as no custom fields, rigid reporting templates and a lack of customizable graphical representations for tracking specific tasks or plotting work hours.
Clocking Issues: The system doesn’t automatically log out employees based on their physical location. Users have complained about spending time manually adjusting or verifying clock-in and clock-out times when employees forget to log their hours properly.
Lack of Detailed Change Logs: There are no clear records of who removed or altered shifts, which limits accountability and tracking.
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TimeForge is a labor management platform offering various features to streamline hiring, scheduling, payroll and workforce tracking. Our experience with the software has been mixed, with both strengths and weaknesses.Setting up TimeForge was straightforward, with a user-friendly setup wizard guiding me through each step. The platform's intuitive interface made it easy to create schedules using the drag-and-drop editor. I appreciated the ability to customize intricate settings, such as pay rates, payment options, employee roles, permission groups and custom fields.While the user interface felt somewhat outdated compared to some competitors, it was still functional and easy to navigate. One of my favorite things was how organized the platform was, providing separate dashboards for tracking shift confirmations, swaps, templates, work periods and messages. You can also create custom dashboards to track key performance indicators specific to your business.TimeForge significantly improves the employee experience as well. Staff members can access their schedules, chat with colleagues and easily swap shifts. The platform's automatic prevention of early clock-ins and late punch-outs helps avoid time theft and ensure compliance. Additionally, the integration of staff surveys allows managers to gather feedback and improve the overall employee experience.However, there are some limitations to consider. The mobile app, while functional, is not as robust as those offered by competitors like Deputy, 7shifts and Sling. The lack of GPS tracking can make it challenging to verify employee locations during clock-ins and clock-outs. Additionally, the inability to create schedules offline and publish them later can be inconvenient.Also, TimeForge's integration capabilities are limited. It doesn’t integrate with popular sales and accounting solutions like QuickBooks and HubSpot. This requires you to manually enter sales, payroll and employee data, opening the door for errors and mistakes.Overall, TimeForge is a solid option for businesses of all sizes, but it’s important to weigh its strengths and weaknesses to see if it meets your specific needs. If mobile scheduling and extensive integrations are a priority, you may want to explore other options. However, if you’re looking for a user-friendly platform that can streamline processes and provide valuable insights, TimeForge is worth considering.

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Shiftbase is a workforce management and scheduling platform that offers one of the best starter plans for free. You can start managing employee databases and schedule shifts of up to 75 employees in one location across five teams.In my experience, Shiftbase was easy to onboard if you’re not migrating from other scheduling platforms. However, the process is more cumbersome when you’re looking to migrate employee and scheduling data from an external platform. Unlike its competitors, Shiftbase cannot automatically set up your account using a CSV and Excel file containing your business data.One of the things I like most about Shiftbase is how easy it is to create flexible schedules, factoring in staff costs, revenue and budgets. Managers can track working hours through the website, mobile app or clock terminal. This gives insights into attendance and wage costs, allowing for better decision-making and optimized staffing. Additionally, it’s easy to manage employee leave and absences with Shiftbase, making it ideal for businesses with flexible or part-time staff.The platform can connect directly with payroll systems, reducing manual data entry and ensuring accurate, on-time payments. Shiftbase also offers basic reporting tools that help businesses understand budget allocation and staff work hours.Based on my experience and the feedback from other users, Shiftbase is a great option for businesses that need a simple and efficient way to manage their workforce. However, it lacks many advanced features that may be essential for larger enterprises with bigger teams. For example, it doesn't offer built-in AI for conflict alerts, seasonal demand analysis or workforce optimization based on seasonal trends.Overall, Shiftbase is a suitable choice for small to medium-sized businesses seeking a user-friendly and affordable workforce management solution. Its ease of use and focus on core scheduling and time-tracking features make it a good option for businesses with straightforward scheduling needs. However, larger enterprises with complex requirements, such as advanced analytics, AI-powered optimization or integration with multiple systems, might find Shiftbase's feature set limited.

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