HotSchedules vs Shiftbase
Last Updated:Our analysts compared HotSchedules 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
HotSchedules is a cloud-based shift scheduling tool within the Fourth HR ecosystem. It assists with a variety of core employee scheduling tasks, including assigning shifts, tracking time and managing labor.
It helps optimize time and labor costs by analyzing sales patterns, forecasting demand and optimizing workforce allocation through seasons. The built-in messaging portal improves communication and keeps the team on the same page.
Businesses can create custom dashboards to track business-specific KPIs, employee performances and attendance. Employees get unique portals to view assigned tasks, swap shifts and communicate with team members.
A built-in wage and labor compliance module helps maintain compliance with state and federal labor laws. The mobile app provides push notifications for scheduling conflicts and compliance issues to stay agile and compliant from anywhere.
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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.
Product Assistance
Product Insights
- Save Time: Build schedules and assign shifts more effectively and save time spent on these activities.
- Improve Communication: Communicate with team members, update schedule changes, swap shifts and more directly through the platform to keep up with all critical and urgent scheduling revisions.
- Reduce Labor Costs: Generate store reports on labor costs and sales and assess overall labor practices to help inform future budgets.
- Encourage Employee Engagement: Managers can provide employees direct access to the schedule through the mobile app, allowing them to access and request changes to the schedule, which boosts engagement.
- Ensure Compliance: Configure labor rules to document shift transactions, control labor costs, and comply with industry, state and federal legislation.
- Accurate Forecasting: Ensure accurate forecasts using tools that help cut operational costs, boost revenue from sales and increase customer satisfaction and experiences.
- 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.
- Scheduling: Build schedules with customizable templates and intuitive drag-and-drop tools. Approve or deny shift change requests, define rules to limit overtime and manage employee availability from a dashboard.
- Time and Attendance: Track clock-in and clock-out times, collect information on tip and break entries, and allow employees to access their timecards and payroll histories. Managers can set up alerts to notify employees when they miss a time punch. Set geo-fencing rules using the mobile WebClock to track employee locations.
- Labor Forecasting: Access the following forecasting features:
- Schedule Optimization: Standardize scheduling rules and automate recurring tasks using predictive scheduling across multiple branches and locations.
- Scheduling Visibility: Manage labor analytics to measure critical KPIs like overall performance, cost per labor, sales patterns and labor cost to keep restaurants competitive.
- Store-Level Forecasting: Analyze historical data to identify weekly sales patterns and help managers allocate workforces efficiently. Send alerts for overtime and other potential compliance issues.
- Labor Management: Calculate minimum staffing requirements, plan shift breaks, and generate suggested headcounts to ensure that any given shift always has the proper number of staff members.
- Scheduling and Wage Compliance: Adhere to local and federal regulations with:
- Predictive Scheduling: Stay up to date with local laws and evolve as regulations shift. Prepare and adapt to compliance changes before they go into effect.
- Break and Meal Management: Set up rules to automatically schedule meal and break times for staff members. Receive notifications of missed break times and automatically calculate break pay impacts.
- Overtime Management: Track employees going into overtime and allow managers to swap overworked staff with other employees.
- Certifications: Receive certificate expiry alerts and define automation to request updated documents from employees, managers and other team members.
- POS Integration: Employees can track time and clock in and out of work from a POS system. Pull sales and operational data from POS to forecast weekly and seasonal sales patterns and workforce requirements.
- Health Surveys: Generate digital health surveys to gain extra visibility into the business. Use CDC-tailored surveys and health screening tools to ensure employees are safe to come to work.
- Manager Logbook: Manage physical and digital logbooks that help track tasks, maintenance objectives and food safety information, such as temperature.
- 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.
Product Ranking
#7
among all
Employee Scheduling Software
#103
among all
Employee Scheduling Software
Analyst Rating Summary
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User Sentiment Summary
1149 reviews
421 reviews
HotSchedules has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 86% when considering 1149 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.
Shiftbase has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 421 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.
Awards
Shiftbase stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.
Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews
Let's dish on the good, the bad, and the ugly of HotSchedules based on what folks have been saying lately. HotSchedules seems to be a bit of a mixed bag. Users dig that it's pretty straightforward to use and can be a real time-saver, especially when it comes to wrangling schedules and keeping everyone in the loop. It's like having a personal assistant who's always on top of things. But, there's a catch – it can be a bit pricey, and some users feel like it's missing some bells and whistles that other scheduling software has. Think of it as a reliable car that gets you from point A to point B, but maybe doesn't have all the fancy features like a sunroof or heated seats. So, who's HotSchedules a good fit for? Well, if you're running a business in the hospitality industry, like a restaurant or hotel, and you need a solid scheduling tool that won't leave you scratching your head, HotSchedules could be your jam. It's especially handy if you've got a bunch of hourly employees and multiple locations to juggle. However, if you're on a tight budget or need a software with all the latest gadgets, you might want to shop around a bit. There are other options out there like Homebase or When I Work that might be more your style.
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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