Homebase Reviews

Pros

Being able to use the software anywhere and have the ability to change the schedule, communicate with staff, find coverage and my staff to always be up to date with what's going on.

Cons

Sometimes staff tell me they don't get notifications of schedule change when I post it.

Pros

The interface/importing with QuickBooks Online. Easy to add time and track PTO, holidays, OT and more. Customization for our business hours was perfect. The cost is lowest I have found for the amount of features. T-Sheets in QBO is too pricey for us. Also the remote clock-in features and mobile app is a big hit with employees.

Cons

Importation of hours into QBO Payroll needs to be adjusted and checked, but having HomeBase open after importing employee time cards makes it simple. Just match 1 to 1 and your good. Also the initial holiday set-up can be a bit tricky but HB customer service is excellent and guided us through it.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Time

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Epicor was cumbersome and tricky for HR. That was a longtime ago.

Switched From

Epicor Advanced MES

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Price and Features. Paid Time Off (PTO) feature. Mobile App for remote use

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 how it's very simple and easy to use, very easy set up and everything is done for you. The time sheet calculates work hours perfectly.

Cons

No issues so far and I will continue to use this provider for my small business. Homebase is a very great company.

Pros

I've used this for so long now it is hard to imagine what I'd do without it. We began using it as a simple time clock, and it has slowly become our go to for hiring, time tracking, time off, and employee messaging. If you have a mostly hourly workforce it is super simple to setup, and as your business grows it has helpful and intuitive tools to make your life easier. Their support in my experience can be a bit disorganized, but they always get the job done and are easy to work with.

Cons

Not as helpful for salaried employees as it is for hourly employees in my experience. The lower tiers lack some of the onboarding functionality and digital form filing I'd like it to have, but I think this may have been added recently.

Alternatives Considered

BambooHR

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Homebase wins handily over BambooHR when it comes to hourly employees, and the value and ease of use it brings to busy workplaces.

Pros

Homebase has been the perfect time clock system for our business. It was easy to configure and with the entire system web based I can monitor our staffing when I am off site. We use a wall mounted iPad to clock in and out which was less expensive than many physical time clocks.

My staff has enjoyed having access to their Homebase dashboard where they can easily review their punches/total hours.

One of the best features is the ability to specifically define your pay periods. Many systems only offer weekly, biweekly, or monthly with no customization of dates. Homebase allows complete customization for when you would like you pay periods to start and end.

I have also used their hiring tool. It is by far and away the easiest tool I have used to publicly post to multiple job sites at once. It is very straight forward and has been a great resource in helping us in our hiring.

Cons

I don't have any cons. It is a quality product and the team at Homebase has been quick to respond to any issues we have had.

Alternatives Considered

Virtual TimeClock and Time Clock Wizard

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Looking for a cloud based time clock to replace our failing legacy time clock

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

The cost (as low as $0), the ability to define pay periods, cloud based, ease of use

Pros

I love the ease of communication Homebase allows with employees. No need to exchange personal numbers and all of the communication is one place. Also allows employees to clock in and out from their devices which is awesome when your the point of sale is also the clock and out spot. This way, we don't have to interupt the workflow to clock in and out. Also really like how Homebase shows your earnings per shift. No guess work at what your hourly paycheck will be!

Cons

My biggest complaint is just that there seems be a lag between the time you check a notification and the time it takes to refresh. So the app will show that I have a new notification when it's actually something I have already checked on. Not a huge deal, but makes me feel like I'm missing something when I'm really not. I could also live without a notification asking if I have clocked out of my shift any time I work past by specified hours. For Example, shift ends at 11:30 but I don't clock out until 11:45 - I get at least one if not 2 text asking if I forgot to clock out.

Pros

I really liked the fact that employees can clock in on their own phone or on a shared kiosk.

Cons

The most challenging part about using Homebase was when making time entry corrections. It forces you to click into an entry, wait for a popup, make the change, hit save. You need to start the whole process for a different entry. This is very time consuming when you're on a deadline. A spreadsheet like functionality to make these changes would be very helpful, as I've seen them on other solutions. This is the one reason I switched to another product.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Time and When I Work

Reasons for Choosing Homebase

Was being open to trying other solutions.

Switched From

When I Work

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

The trial option made it easy to sign up and try it out.

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

I am not a “tech savvy” kind of gal, but homebase is very user friendly and has a lot to offer. I love how I have abscess to everything I need right through my phone.

Cons

I have yet to find a con to this product.

Pros

Being able to create a base schedule of open shifts as a template is nice. You apply the template to the week, and then you can drag and drop the shifts onto employees. You must use a computer for this to work. The auto-scheduling feature can give you a good starting point but has flaws that make it impossible to publish a schedule using only auto-scheduling.

Cons

I would like more categories than owner, manager, employee. With more options of who can see what information. Auto schedule feature needs improvement to not schedule people on doubles and multiple locations at the same time. They've made a number of improvements over the years, but I sometimes think they are trying to add too many new features when they need to perfect the features already available first.

Pros

I like that I am able to link all of my locations within one application. I can easily schedule someone for multiple sites and assign specific duties, send messages, approve or decline time-off, etc.

Cons

I do not like that I can't edit someone's information when they take ownership of their account. I have some that forget passwords and not update their personal information like phone numbers and email addresses.

Alternatives Considered

RUN Powered by ADP

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

We had already been using Homebase and it was cheaper.

Pros

Homebase is a must-have for me. I do the schedule, communicate with team members and prospective hires and it integrates with square for spot number analysis.

Cons

Team members have given me feedback that it's has been occasionally glitchy to sign in and rarely to clock in. Thankfully there is the web time clock option as an alternative when that happens. I am not sure if this has been resolved, b/c no one has complained of this in the last month at the time of this writing.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Homebase had all of the features I needed in one software and it's easy to implement. Also they are consistently adding new features.

Pros

My team was using spreadsheets to schedule and to complete payroll before Homebase. What a manual nightmare. There were always so many mistakes and issues. Once we moved to Homebase, it instantly made things better.

My contractors were able to see their schedules instantly and at any time they needed it. The reminders an hour before their schedule help them to be on time for their shift. So we have fewer tardies. They can also check their payroll amount at any time during the month instead of having to wait until the end of the month when I am able to calculate it. They have also made schedule swaps easy.

It has helped my person who does the scheduling tremendously. It has helped her to be able to get our schedule done in a much faster and efficient way.

It has helped me complete payroll in a fast, easy effective way.

Cons

There are sometimes glitches, especially with the app. They are overall minor but can be a pain. For example, sometimes when there is a swap made on the app, it will show a notification, but when you go into the app it doesn't show the swap. Good thing we keep up with them in a chat or we would have no idea who was trying to swap.

Also, it is mostly geared towards companies with employees, this could be great if there could be modifications for people who have contractors and do not have to abide by the same restrictions, such as 8-hour shifts, working days consecutively, etc.

Pros

My team used Homebase as a scheduling and communication tool. If we needed a day off, there is a setting to where I can request a teammate to switch shifts with me or I can request cover. This made it super convenient if I needed a day off last minute.

As for communicating with my team, this was the best! When sending out a group message, it allows you to message the people who are only scheduled for a specific day. So if you needed to let the team you're running late or that you need someone downstairs to bring up supplies, etc. I wouldn't need to take time to select the specific people I need to inform, it would automatically pull up those people from the schedule. This software not only lets you message the people you are scheduled with but it also allows you to see who is scheduled that day. I enjoyed this feature because it let me know when I was working with my bestie or my not so bestie.

Another tool I loved on Homebase was the income tracker. This software was able to track when I worked and for how long and would provide an estimate on how much money I have made that pay period. It wasn't hard to find either. This helped my anxiety a lot because I knew if I had enough to pay my upcoming bills or if I needed to pick up an extra shift.

Cons

There is only one thing that I have to say is a con and I think it's more my managers fault. There is a feature in Homebase that allows you to potentially get a small amount of your paycheck early. Unfortunately every time I tried it never worked, but I am pretty sure it's because my manager was against that feature and enabled it. I think this feature is so awesome for employees especially during this inflation period and living in an expensive city.

Pros

It's VERY user friendly, makes scheduling extremely easy. Also makes tracking hours and Labor$ easy as well. I also like the option of group messaging which enable s managers to communicate and issues or changes efficiently.

Cons

When an employee fills in their "availability" on Homebase, I personally would do away with the option that says "preferred' and replace it with the word "available" The reason:
whenever I copy a schedule to the following week, I can easily accidently schedule employees on days the did not, or weren't able to work, because the system would allow me to schedule them outside their preference. The way I solved this issue was by telling my employees to put in the availability as "unavailable" that way, whenever I would schedule them on days, or hours, they weren't available to work, the system would only then alert me that they can't work those hours!!
With that being said, I don't understand why the "preferred" option is even there! :) I don't care what they prefer, I want to know when they can't work so I know what NOT to schedule them.
you're welcome :)
I have called in the past, twice, and explained my suggestion, but no one seemed to get what I'm talking about, maybe because they're software engineers and not business managers.

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

I like that my team all have access to the schedule as soon as it comes out. The ability for them to request days off on the app is amazing because I do not have to remember all the days, it comes up while I'm making the schedule. The ability for my team to clock in and out on their phones makes it easy and efficient and the ability to track where they did so is very reassuring. Everyone on the team is also able to message on it which means everyone can be in contact even without everyone sharing their phone numbers. The ability for the team to see who they are working with and in what positions is a great bonus too.

Cons

I would love to be able to put on the schedule that we are closed on certain days (for holidays or other reasons) just as a reminder for the team. I would also like an option to remove employees without having to terminate them. In cases with students going back to college but working on breaks or families taking maternity leave, they don't need to notifications from Homebase, but they are still planning on continuing to work later on.

Pros

Homebase is easy to use, quick, and effective. There is practically no learning curve for new employees. Scheduling is a breeze, as is running reports for payroll. It gives me quick reporting to see my business performance, even when I'm not there I can see how the shops are performing. Clock-in features work great. Customer service and troubleshooting (not that you'll even need it) are seriously amazing. This team treats you like your problem is their main priority.

Cons

I wish the date selection feature still said the day of the week like it used to. It says July 10 2019, but it used to say Wednesday July 10 2019. I mean... that's all I can think of that I would change... and that's kind of a non-issue.

Pros

I was looking for something that was easy and convenient to use and most of our employees are contractors and we do not need to track their hours and we do have one employee that we have to pay hourly and this just seemed like the best way to go. It was free to use for what we needed. What could be better than that. Homebase is wonderful and is just what we were looking for. We are a small business and when we grow we of course will use the service more. But it saves me time doing payroll and it is ADP friendly which is another plus .

Cons

It was a little confusing at first but after using the features and playing with it a bit I found it to be quite logical so I was able to figure things out with just a little playing around. As i played I thought it to be a wonderful program and I could see what a time saver it could be especially if you have more employees than we do.

Pros

The software does what its' meant to do, keep track of clocking in and out. This helps to supplement the payroll process greatly and is easy to access and use by out employees.

Cons

The scheduling function could be better. Our industry a little different, usually the work is project based. It would be nice to be able to schedule multiple people to one project with just a start time. We usually don't know when exactly a show will end, or when everyone will make it back so adding some flexibility would be very helpful. Even just having the ability to schedule multiple employees at the same time instead of having to click each one would be great.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Time

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Cost.

Pros

I think it is fairly simple to use and for all questions I have I generally get quick answers from support. The free HR support offered during the pandemic was very generous and we ended up signing up. In past reviews I have stated that I think your pricing should be based on a sliding scale depending on how many employees a business has. For someone like myself, who only has 2 hourly employees I don't need to use HR pro much and may not be able to justify $800+ for annual renewal for minimal assist and usage. I do like the onboarding paperwork feature that was added as well.

Cons

I don't like that when publishing a schedule, the default on my version is to update all employees. Unfortunately, we had to furlough employees and if I don't manually change it, it defaults to alert all on our team even though they don't have a schedule or employed by us currently.

Pros

The core feature we needed was employee time tracking, but we have started using this for team communication and posting new jobs and tracking applicants.

Cons

I wish I could easier audit when the manager edits clock ins and clock outs.

Alternatives Considered

Clover

Reasons for Switching to Homebase

Better price.

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.

Pros

I like that employees can access their schedules from home allowing them to track their hours and shift trade with other team members. I also like that we can message individual team members or the entire team to document conversations, questions, and corrections. I also LOVE the Homebase HR Pro - it has been great with HR-related questions and changes prior to implementation.

Cons

There have been issues with notifications. I feel like every couple of months either our Android users or our Apple users will stop receiving notifications. This causes a break in communication with our team.