Homebase

Pros

Homebase is extremely easy to set up employee time clock which happens to be free if your business has a single location and with a single location you may set it up for unlimited employees. For a small business owner where every dollar and cent matters, it’s a no brainer. A business owner may assign or allow the employee to set up their clock in and out code. Also, it may be set to take a photo of the employee during the clock in and out sessions to help or eliminate other employees from clocking in and out for them. Homebase offers an iPad, iPhone and an android app. You may also use your device's browser. We downloaded the app, installed it on an iPad for our employees to clock in and out on. The administrator has 100% access via web browser login. There’s also a feature which allows employees to clock in and out in the field which would geo-tag the location of the clocking activities.

Cons

Not a lot a negative things to say. This software is best if you have multiple employees who may have a staggered schedule. Example: an employee opens, then you have a mid day shift, then a closer. You also have many employees that may be out in the field. geo-tag is not the best choice for a single entrepreneur who’s trying to track their time, set up easier ways to do so.

Pros

I have been looking for software that combines payroll and schedule seamlessly. I love seeing the payroll cost per hour on my schedule!

Cons

I haven't found a feature I do not like yet. If I have to be super picky, having a visual of individual teams on the schedule would be great!

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Pros

all the features in one place. easy of communication with my teams

Cons

Getting sold a introductory rate, for full service plus HR and as long as i kept the plan i would be grandfathered in! Well it seem like home base tried to renew 4 months early and cause an issue with my teams permission and for what ever reason, i am no longer having HR. Now even though it wasn't past my renewal date yet! they won't honor my Original agreement nor give my services till the end of term!

2nd they are also supposed to charge one account for their subscription services and another to pull wages for payroll yet they continue to draft the wrong account fraud!

Shady practices all around excusess

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

We decided to go for Homebase because it mostly resembled what i was doing in as spreadsheet before. The timeclock is rather solid, we have set up a dedicated tablet to clock in and out. This is the main reason i got homebase for my team - so that they would have a schedule and be able to clock in and out. Also nice is the fact that custom national holidays can be setup and automatically be shown in the schedule. The Homebase team has over the years implemented a few nifty features to save me time as an admin.

Next is checking timesheets and correcting them when it comes to payroll - however this is where we stop with using homebase. We don't use any other features.

Cons

We don't utilize the payroll feature at all - everything can only be set in dollars. Overall, the software feels like it is made for the US market - not internationally. I have feature requested over a year ago that custom currencies should be implemented and even the way time is displayed (24h instead of am-pm). To no avail. Even from their content marketing strategy it is clear that Homebase is only focusing on the US market, with no interesting content for me as a hotelier on the other side of the world.

It is also sad to see that they have recently started adding a lot of fluff to their product like hiring, instead of making the core experience easier and faster to use. The new timesheets section looks nice, but i am 5 times faster with the old one (which could be faster still). I would love to see much more emphasis on a fast and easy to use product, with lots of features to get my work done quicker. Homebase is a classic example of software which gets better the less i have to use it. I would like to see the product move in this direction.