When I Work Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
Charlette has over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance and 2 years of partnering with HR leaders on freelance projects. She uses this extensive experience to answer your questions about payroll.
Juvy has over 10 years of content writing experience and was a licensed teacher. She has evaluated and written about dozens of payroll and HR software solutions for small business to provide the best answers to your software questions.
When I Work is an employee scheduling software with time clock and attendance features. It has desktop and mobile apps that make shift management and time tracking easier. With its cloud-based and scalable platform, you can start with a single location subscription and easily scale up as your business expands to multiple locations.
What We Recommend When I Work For
When I Work makes our list of best time and attendance software due to its strong functionalities and affordability. For businesses with shift-based workplaces, When I Work offers a full-featured system that lets you create, share, and track staff shifts easily and efficiently. Setup is easy, plus you get robust shift and staff management tools—from schedule templates and labor forecasting to team messaging and employee time clock apps. When I Work is also affordably priced—monthly fees for its Small Business plan (up to 200 employees) start at $2 per user.
In short, When I Work is best for:
- Companies with hourly or shift workers looking for an affordable and comprehensive staff management solution: When I Work’s robust suite of features lets you manage scheduling, time tracking, and team communications from one dashboard. It has drag-and-drop scheduling tools, which managers can use to make new schedules. Employees can also tailor their schedules by swapping or bidding on shifts. There’s even a smart auto-scheduling tool that creates optimized work schedules for your staff.
- Growing businesses that need an easy-to-use tool: When I Work has been well-reviewed as a straightforward and user-friendly tool that does not require any complicated setup processes. Its flexible and intuitive system enables new employees to get up and running quickly.
- Employers that hire hourly employees across different locations: Its platform is built to scale across single and multiple business locations, making When I Work an easy system to adopt for a dispersed company.
When, When I Work Would Not Be a Good Fit
- Businesses that require robust point-of-sale (POS) and payroll software integration options: When I Work has limited third-party software integration options, having only one POS system and eight payroll solution partners as of this writing. Businesses that need employee scheduling and/or time tracking software that fully integrate with their POS and payroll software should consider Homebase.
- Budget-conscious employers needing free, basic employee scheduling software: Although affordable, When I Work no longer has a free forever plan. If you want to try a free solution, check out our top free employee scheduling software picks.
When I Work Overview
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Offers a 14-day free trial | Limited reporting; only basic options are available |
| Has robust employee scheduling and time management features | Lacks phone support; email and live chat support is not available 24/7 |
| Its Small Business plan is affordably priced (monthly fees start at $4 per user) | Access to overtime alerts, POS and payroll software integrations, and mobile time clock apps with GPS enforcement cost extra |
When I Work Pricing
When I Work’s pricing scheme follows a pay-as-you-go model, in which you can either pre-pay annually or pay on a month-to-month basis. It discontinued its free plan option but has three alternatives, all of which have transparent pricing and are pretty affordable:
- Essentials ($4 per employee monthly)
- Advanced ($4 per employee monthly
- Complete ($8 per )employee monthly)
Its Essentials tier is optimal for companies with up to 200 employees and comes with scheduling, team messaging, on-demand pay and time and attendance tools (overtime alerts, early clock-in prevention, custom time sheet exports, third-party software integrations, and mobile clock-in with GPS enforcement).
For companies with more than 200 employees, When I Work offers a Complete tier that includes all its Small Business plan features plus customization options. It also comes with system implementation support to help you quickly get When I Work up and running. Its Advanced tier doesn’t come with on-demand pay option or time and attendance but does include both standard and advanced scheduling features.
When I Work Features
When I Work can efficiently handle employee scheduling and time tracking with its features. It also supports multiple pay rates, labor reports, and clock-in/out reminders. It can be implemented on web browsers and mobile devices, which makes it easy for employees to clock in and out. Check out more of When I Work’s features to see if it’s a viable option for your business.
Employee Scheduling
When I Work has a wide range of scheduling capabilities that includes multilocation scheduling, shift replacements and swapping, and schedule templates. It has shift eligibility and smart auto-scheduling tools that quickly match shifts with employee availability and work qualifications.
With When I Work’s online schedule builder, you can easily assign shifts to employees given its drag-and-drop functionality.
Employees can also identify and share their shift preferences online, providing you instant visibility into your staff’s preferred schedules. In addition, When I Work lets you list the expected shift and team tasks on employee schedules. This helps you manage employees more efficiently by helping you monitor the completion rates of listed tasks on a per-day and per-activity basis (such as opening tasks and closing shift activities).
Employees can view the work tasks via When I Work mobile apps.
Employee Time Clock
When I Work’s online employee time clock is designed to let you track attendance and breaks with ease. It offers time tracking apps that work on computers, tablets, and mobile devices (with iOS and Android systems). Your remote workers can record their time entries via their smartphones, and you can set up geofencing and geolocation tracking to restrict and monitor where offsite employees clock in/out. However, you have to purchase the time and attendance add-on to gain access to its mobile GPS enforcement functionalities.
You can also activate its “photo clock-in” feature that captures snapshots of your employees when clocking in and out, enabling you to prevent buddy punching and providing an added layer of security. System administrators and authorized managers can access, review, and delete the employee pictures taken for each time transaction. Note that this functionality works only on iOS devices.
Time & Attendance
Apart from tracking time and alerting managers of missed clock-ins and employees nearing overtime, When I Work has break management features that include break schedule planning and notifications that inform employees of upcoming rest periods (i.e., lunch break) and the end of break times. It also comes with paid time off (PTO) management, digital time sheets with edit histories, and early clock-in prevention tools. You can even set up different pay rates for each position that employees are qualified to work in, allowing you to efficiently track and control labor costs.
If it fits your process, you can enable employee time sheet editing, allowing staff to manually add details for missing time entries online. Employees can then forward the edited time sheets to their managers for approval and payroll processing.
With When I Work mobile apps, system administrators and authorized managers can review, edit, and approve time sheets even while on the go.
Team Messaging
When I Work offers a secure platform for sending team messages. It features instant notifications, broadcast messaging, private one-on-one communications, and group chat. It even allows you to send documents and important files to employees.
If you have staff without smartphones, When I Work has a “TeamTxt” function that lets you send messages through group texting. What’s also great about its team messaging tool is that your employees must be invited to join your online workplace to access your company’s chat thread, making it a secure place for team communications.
Third-party Software Integrations
When I Work integrates with several third-party software, but this option is only available in the optional time and attendance add-on or the Enterprise plan. Here are its partner solutions.
- POS systems: Square
- Payroll solutions: Gusto, ADP Run, ADP Workforce Now, OnPay, Gig Wage, QuickBooks, Paychex, and Simplepay.ca
- HR tools and other business apps: People HR, Rippling, GoCo, ResaleAI, Crew, and Zapier
Customer Support
With When I Work, you get customer support through online tickets and live chat. However, these are available only on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (until 10 p.m. for online tickets), weekends from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and holidays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time.
When I Work Ease of Use
- Easy to set up and use
- In-app help tools
- Library of how-to guides
- Instant notifications and alerts
When I Work has a cloud-based platform that’s easy to set up, plus its mobile apps are easy to use for both your managers and employees. While its interface is generally user-friendly, some of the features take time to get used to. You also need to have a good understanding of how scheduling and timekeeping work to maximize all of its online tools.
In terms of customer service, When I Work doesn’t provide live phone support, but you can submit online tickets and contact its support team through live chat. If you prefer a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to getting answers to your system queries, you can check its library of how-to guides, training resources, and webinars.
What Users Think About When I Work
Users Like | Users Don’t Like |
|---|---|
Affordably priced | Some tools aren’t intuitive (like making mass schedule changes) |
Efficient time tracking and scheduling tools | Occasional software lags and glitches |
Easy to set up and convenient to use | Slow customer service |
Many users who left positive When I Work reviews online highlighted its ease of setup, affordability, and efficient scheduling tools as its best features. They added that it helps them easily create schedules for multiple employees and work locations. However, some reviewers said that its mobile app can be glitchy at times. With the mobile app, employees can clock in, access schedules, and communicate with managers and co-employees. On the manager’s side, however, the mobile app is full-featured allowing them to create schedules, manage time-offs and time offs, and communicate with employees.
At the time of publication, When I Work reviews earned the following scores on popular user review sites:
- Capterra: 4.5 out of 5 based on 890+ reviews
- G2: 4.4 out of 5 based on about 250 reviews
- TrustRadius: 8.6 out of 10 based on more than 50 reviews
Top When I Work Alternatives
Best for: Retail and restaurant businesses that need free and unlimited employee scheduling | Best for: Large restaurants with complex employee work shifts | Best for: Multi-location and global companies that share employees across several business locations |
Offers a free plan? Yes | Offers a free plan? Yes | Offers a free plan? Yes |
Base monthly fee from: $19.95 per location | Base monthly fee from: $19.99 | Base monthly fee from: $4.50 per employee |
Looking for payroll solutions that include time tracking? Check out our buyer’s guide to the best payroll services.
Bottom Line
If you’re looking for flexible and affordable employee scheduling and time tracking tools, When I Work offers the essential features you need for your business. Apart from letting you create schedules, capture employee clock-ins/outs, and monitor attendance online, it has labor cost forecasting and team messaging tools that enable you to efficiently manage your hourly workforce and team communications. Sign up with When I Work for a 14-day free trial—no credit card required.
