When I Work

When I Work User

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.

LV loves WIW!

Comments: WIW is great! I would and have recommended over and over. I've used multiple scheduling software. WIW is hands down the best!

Pros:

I like the web based system. I love the instant changes are communicated. I love the color coding of roles and the budgeting features on the schedule.

Cons:

Reports are confusing. There should be more premade reports to choose from. I HATE that we can't report an absence without removing the employee from the schedule. When reported absent - the employees shift should be removed from the schedule as well as the labor hours.

Good product for scheduled

Comments: Overall a good product and nice for what we need

Pros:

Nice platform and set up. Easy to look at.

Cons:

Constantly signs out employees, so have to log back in frequently

Deceptive & misleading pricing practices, little integration, but certainly quite slick.

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.

Great software for scheduling of work

Comments: It was a great product, very useful, clear layout and great features.

Pros:

Scheduling feature was very good, we could see very clearly availability of each employee and their schedules of work.

Cons:

It did not link directly with our bookkeeping software.

Alternatives Considered: QuickBooks Time, Clockify and Toggl Track

Reasons for Choosing When I Work: We wanted an app that will be communicating to the employees directly their schedules.

Switched From: Microsoft Excel

Reasons for Switching to When I Work: This software worked best for the scheduling needs.

Simple and effective

Pros:

Easy to set up time shift templates confirmations

Cons:

Sometimes difficult to confirm shifts for all employees

Great Time Tracking Tool

Pros:

Flexibility for creating different shift types and pay categories by staff.

Cons:

Payroll side isn’t fully there. For example, contractors don’t have a self service side for paystubs, etc.

Alternatives Considered: Gusto

Reasons for Switching to When I Work: Flexibility to create different positions and assign per staff member.

Acceptable product quality but poor service

Comments: I've been using it so long I don't remember the sales and implementation process. It's probably time to start shopping for a new solution, but I can't be bothered because my staff are used to it and it basically does what's it's supposed to.

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.

Exeptional App for Scheduling Workers

Comments: I find that When I Work is a seamless way to schedule shifts for my part-time job. With When I Work, I can view and pick up shifts quickly without being distracted from my full-time job. In addition, I can request to drop a shift or pick up a dropped shift. There are a lot of great features to assist with scheduling numerous part-time workers, but as a worker, the ease of choosing shifts once posted is what I like most. I also like that I can sync my shifts with my digital calendar.

Pros:

There are a lot of great features to assist with scheduling numerous part-time workers, but as a worker, the ease of choosing shifts once posted is what I like most. I also like that I can sync my shifts with my digital calendar.

Cons:

There isn't anything that I do not like about When I Work. In the two years I have been using this app, I haven't experienced any difficulties.

Happy Customer

Comments: My overall experience with When I Work was pretty good.

Pros:

What I liked most about When I Work is that it's great for a start-up company.

Cons:

What I liked least about When I Work was that employees could go in and enter their own time worked.

Game Changer

Comments: It's been a huge change in scheduling each week. I used to dread it but no it's so much more manageable. The more I use it the more I learn how to be more efficient with the process. Our team loves it as well. Overall, just a great experience.

Pros:

I love the ability to make changes right from the app on my phone. Also, to have the functionality to make adjustments as needed. The scheduler views and auto-assign feature has been a huge help to our organization. Also, the ability to put a begin and end date on availability requests. We tried 2 other scheduling systems and this one by far has been the most effective and easy to use for administrators and employees.

Cons:

The cost is a little high and by paying on a yearly basis the discount isn't enough to really make a difference for paying in advance.

Alternatives Considered: Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Choosing When I Work: Too many of our employees were struggling to utilize the availability/time off features with ScheduleFly.

Switched From: Schedulefly

Reasons for Switching to When I Work: Square didn't have an option to put up a shift, only to swap.

Okay for micro-busineses but does not scale well, integrates poorly, and suffers from bad support

Comments: The company only offers support by Chat or Email - there is no way to get someone on the phone. I did not realize this when signing up, and find it a maddening waste of time when you have a real problem to solve (and you will have problems!)

Pros:

The Scheduling module works well for our 25-person veterinary practice where staff work rotating schedules. We can set up templates for each group and quickly deploy and tweak the schedule.

Cons:

We tried to integrate with Gusto Payroll to streamline time-sheet reporting. It's a mess, and does not often work. It's really hard to troubleshoot because WhenIWork hides all the integration details. For instance you can not see the mapping of employees and their roles/jobs between the two companies. After a while I realize that it's faster to manually type in all the data since troubleshooting this is so time consuming. Plus you can not get support on the phone!

When I Work

Comments: Good bad simple to use

Pros:

Notifies employees of upcoming schedule, published schedules.

Cons:

Unable to approve time cards if you schedule a manager that is not required to clock in and out

Does what it is supposed to

Comments: I loved this product until a setting (that I didn't touch) mysteriously changed itself, causing my subscription to increase significantly. I didn't notice it for 14 months. When I addressed this with When I Work, I was told that their policy is to not provide credits or refunds - in this case even when it seems it was them that had overcharged. I have gone from a very satisfied long-term customer, to one who feels like When I Work is not there for its clients at all. And I am suspicious that others would have their background settings changed as well (I didn't even know what or where it was).

Pros:

It's visual and simple. It schedules down to 15 minute increments. It makes a very dynamic schedule like ours, easy to manage and understand.

Cons:

It would be good if a shift automatically started from the time you first click on the schedule. It would be good if they understood how tricking and overcharging their customers leads to a complete lack of loyalty. Buyer beware! Just keep on checking your subscription amounts each month. As if you don't have other things to be occupied with.

I've Reviewed Them Before But They Stay Current And Deserve To Be Commended

Comments: When I Work has really been great. Gone are the days of me trying to create weekly and monthly calendars and juggle handwritten requests for sick and vacation time. Staff can request through When I Work and I can easily update our schedule. I've saved hours and hours a month being able to utilize the templates as well.

Pros:

When I Work has saved me daily headaches. Public Libraries don't have the funding to implement expensive employee scheduling software. When I Work even offers a free version which we started out with awhile ago but as our staff grew we moved into the paid format. Our library and employee pool has grown and changed, When I Work grows and changes alongside it. They continuously offer new resources and seek to keep ahead of us and just "know" what issues we may have as our staff is in flux.

Cons:

The only issue I've seen thus far is a slight problem with the remote ap. Let me first say that having the ability to have an ap at all is great. My staff often is out of the library for programs and if they have an event prior to actual library hours they can clock in from their own phone. The issue that I speak of was mostly in calculating the distance that clocking in was allowed. It took a few tries to make sure that staff can check in, with a decent range, but not be so far from the library that it could be abused by someone wanting to beat the clock when they're late to work.

Worth Every Penny

Comments: Staff empowerment to take control of their schedule and the money saved from the time saved and less errors occurring make this experience worth all the searching for a new system. Also, the customer service is quick and straight to the point!

Pros:

The ease of creating a schedule, distributing it, and letting staff handle their shift swaps or drops has completely empowered our team. The best feature is the 'history' button so that you know where it all began when shifts start with one employee and end with another. No longer do we have to hear, "I didn't know?" or "Who was originally scheduled?" because there's a ledger! Gone are the long, tedious hours of making sure the schedule is correct, every month, due to alternating work sites and schedules. Multi-site employees are never double-booked at different work sites, which is a game changer. Creating employee profiles take less than 60 seconds. Best of all, teaching everyone was not painful as there's a whole video on the website that walks everyone through the basics in less than 15 minutes.

Cons:

The print feature is limited to what is offered with no option to change the font, unable to expand the daily roster (daily view is limited to 7 names on paper calendar), and there's no option to print in 2 week segments. This isn't a deal breaker, but the old school needs still exist of having a paper trail (even in PDF form) and due to limited names viewed on any given day, we can't use the feature to it's fullest. If the box for the day could expand to reflect all the names when printing, we'd pay extra!

Great scheduling app with tons of features!

Comments: Scheduling is EXTREMELY easy! Long gone are the days of paper postings and random email messages. It is VERY nice being able to reference your entire schedule from the moment it is posted, going all the way back to your initial employment. Even those with little to no computer experience can use it fairly easily.

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.

Good for specific types of companies; we needed additional functions

Comments: This software seems to be developed and used for companies whose locations do not change. I can see why restaurants and small stores would be very happy with this app. However, there is a large market "out here" for companies who send employees to many locations to have an app they can use also (housekeepers, landscapers, moving/packing companies, etc.).

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.

Nice entry level scheduling product

Comments: This is a huge time saver for me, as my time spend for scheduling and totaling time cards has dropped significantly. Additionally, my staff can easily swap shifts making it easier for them.

Pros:

This tools allows me to more easily schedule my staff with my staff entering their unavailable times which display when I am scheduling. The time tracking in the application, allowing my staff to clock in and out on the app is great. All of their time is tracked, and I get their total time worked at the end of each period which has saved me hours of my time already.

Cons:

Some features seem to need a little more work. Additionally, this tool has required a lot of experimenting to figure out how I can use it best for my business. The task lists are great once they are figured out. Unfortunately, updating (reordering the items) is not easy. Additionally, my staff have struggled a bit with marking tasks complete on the wrong shift, causing issues. The fact that the Android and iOS versions vary in navigation on the phone has also led to issues in the "implementation" of the product. Extraction of the time totals is not great, as it only works for certain products. I end up manually transferring time totals from this tool to my payroll system.

When I Work works well

Comments: Overall I enjoy using the app. I very rarely has any glitches. I recommend using When I Work.

Pros:

What I liked about When I Work the most is that it is very easy to use. The link to download app feature works great. Its great for scheduling.

Cons:

What I liked the least about When I Work is the time tracking feature because it real time updates are not automatically available without refreshing the screen. Also sometimes new shift updates also lag and require refreshing the app as well.

We started using When I Work to do scheduling and time clock for our 130 desk-less employees

Comments: It saves us a lot of time. We have 130 college students that work for us and they are always swapping shifts or need a shift off for an exam or something like that. They can do all of that through When I Work and I don't have to be the middle man in any of that anymore. It also helps hold them accountable. It makes them acknowledge their shifts and tells them that they are still responsible for the shift until someone accepts it (and notifies if/when it is accepted). It is nice that they get that reminder every time they need to drop a shift and I don't have to find them and remind them all of the time.

Pros:

We love the fact that our employees can access it on their phones. Our employees are college students, so being able to use it on a mobile device is crucial. Our old program didn't have that functionality. I also like that I can go in and move someone's shift to "open" for any other employee to accept. Since our employees are college students and anything required for a course is excused from work, so it is really nice to be able to go in and move a shift for an employee that has an exam or something like that. I also like that employees have to acknowledge their shifts.

Cons:

Two things - I can't go in and schedule just one person. We are on a college campus that operate on quarters. I would like to be able to look at an individual schedule for a certain time period and edit it as necessary, but that functionality doesn't exist. My employees are frustrated with the notifications. It is great that someone can do a "drop shift request" that goes out to all of the other employees, but it is frustrating to get 10 emails about that. We (mainly our hourly employees) wish there was an option to get the notifications in a digest once a day instead an email for every single notification.

Manage staffing, scheduling, and attendance of your team for free

Pros:

It’s a great application if you handle a large team and you need to keep track of your employees schedule, time clock , and shift staffing. It can handle up to 75 users. We used this application when i joined a part time job in sales. And it was easy to set up both in desktop and mobile. And when i logged in I can see all members of our department in the Team messaging feature. You can easily read and track all conversation within the team. Choosing your shift or schedule was easy. Just add the shift or schedule you chose for up to 2 weeks and the Manager can view your schedule for the day. Time clocking was easy, just press the IN button and break button if you are on break. Its an awesome application and whats good is that its free to sign up and use these features.

Cons:

Well since its free, the features and function are just limited to what the employees clicked on the app but no screenshots of their desktop or other feature that other time applications have that can testify that the logged hours are indeed productive. Unlike Some paid applications that would have integrations to payment system after approval of hours, When I Work does not have other app integrations that would be complete the staffing and accounting system of your business. But so far everything went fine for this application, and moving through features or tabs does not hang and does not have much errors.

Fantastic Tool!

Comments: I will never go back to the old way. When I Work has revolutionized my work day.

Pros:

I have numerous staff working different jobs at different locations. Previously I was using Excel to schedule them all. Keeping track of days off and their class schedules was next to impossible. Letting the staff request time off and set their availability streamlined the process drastically. Since switching to When I Work my time spent scheduling has been greatly reduced. The mobile app is very helpful for my employees. The ability to designate positions is also very valuable. A large portion of my staff work in a child care setting so there are rules about qualifications necessary for each shift. I can designate which staff have which qualifications so that only eligible staff can be scheduled for a specific shift.

Cons:

I don't believe I have any cons. Occasionally when they change or update something it will cause an issue. I contact their customer service and it is corrected immediately.

Great tool for managers and employees!

Pros:

The ease of navigating the app. Being able to put the scheduling software directly on the phone of the employees is outstanding. We also really enjoy utilizing the messenger tool. Its a great way to speak to everyone in an efficient manner.

Cons:

We dont like the add drop portion of shift scheduling and changes. As a management staff we would like to use this but it has been difficult to create a process do to implement this do to it not requiring a manager approval.

Great for hourly staff

Pros:

Employees find it easy to use. Admin uses it daily

Cons:

Workchat is often faulty. Our manager (Android user) is so frustrated and has contacted support over 10 times.

Alternatives Considered: Sling

Reasons for Switching to When I Work: It was recommend by our franchisor