When I Work reviews

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.

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.

When I work is a great app as far as employee scheduling and shift changes. The app has sooo many great features available and it is very affordable.

there were a few glitches with the software on ocassion when trying to pick up a dropped shift if you are already scheduled.

In terms of scheduling this is the best app, easy to see requests off or vacations, easy to set-up reminders, the shifts can be dropped and picked up with just a click away, easy to create schedule base on the sale, easy for employee chat or contact information.

I'll love for this system to be able to integrate with Payroll, but that's the only big downside. The second one is that for cross-trained employees (working several positions/roles) is not allowing the pre-set shift scheduling until you change the role that was initially assigned.

I love the ease of use. When I work is the whole package for what we needed it to do. The app does what it needs to by allowing the employees to do everything they could do on desktop. This makes them much more willing to use it and use the functions correctly.

So far we have not found something we don't like.

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.

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.

The site is very easy to understand especially for a software that is so robust. I can't tell you the value there, but it is so much appreciated. We have saved a lot of time and miscommunications while using When I work.

The attendance notifications help me to keep track of where our team is hour-wise on an individual basis and as a whole. It's nice that I am alerted, one less thing I need to remember to check on. In conjunction with the Forcast reporting, I have a very clear view of the week ahead.

The apps are handy, especially from the administration side. I am able to update time clocked hours on the fly, check everyone's schedule and separate out my own, I can even handle time off requests. I haven't ever attempted to schedule through the app, although knowing how intuitive everything is through their online site, I would venture to guess it would be a piece of cake. I know our team members enjoy having their schedules and hours readily available in their pocket as well.

We have had a couple issues with clock-ins through the apps. There have been times when it isn't recognizing the location or the punch doesn't make it all the way through. But that's it!

I would love if this software could manage our PTO as well, but we haven't found a way to make it work with how our times are calculated.

DASHBOARD : Upon logging in, the dashboard shows the exact total amount of time and money put it by all employees. That way, I can see if there is something out of the ordinary as long as I know the average expense we put on the payroll.
AS AN ADMIN/PAYROLL/SUPERVISOR: I can customize who can view and edit the time of the members in the team. Typically, I give part of admin rights to the team leaders or supervisors. This way, it saves my time in editing login errors and focus more on the whole organization. If I want to do a roll call, I can do it at my desk in one glance.
It helps me organize the schedule of the whole organization for next week's work operation and post it when it is finalized. No more excuses such as "I didn't know".
At the end of payroll period, reporting is a breeze!
AS A USER WITH LIMITED ACCESS : As a user, I have limited view of the data. I can only view my own hours. Which it is what I'm supposed to only see. I can watch my hours and limit myself to working more than 40 hours per week. I can send my Personal Time off and wait for the admin's approval. As a contractor employed by the organization, I can post my time availability. I don't have to go back and forth talking and negotiating to the supervisor. I can do this remotely with an app.

So far, I have nothing least to say about this software.

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.

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.

This product is super straight forward and very user-friendly. It is very easy to use the scheduler as well as keep up with employee hours on the Time Tracker. You can easily edit attendance if your employee forgets to clock out and sending messages to the whole group is super easy with the group message feature.

The online based platform is great and the app is the perfect way to post the schedule without having to send out emails of spreadsheets etc. Notifications come straight to your phone regarding scheduling changes, shift swap requests, time off requests, and even when your employees forgot to clock in. Notification alerts are easy to change in settings. There's even a setting to get a reminder 2 hours prior to your shift so in case your schedule is constantly changing, its so easy to keep up with it!

The satellite/gps location isn't as good as it can be with regards to clocking in. Sometimes it will not let you clock in due to being "too far away" when you are standing right at your work. The app sometimes freezes up when clocking in/out or takes a while to process a clock in. So then when you press "clock in" again, it'll actually clock you out.

After searching for a job two years ago, I found one from Craigslist. I was told to download this app and my schedule would be sent to it. Well the next day I woke up and decided to check my phone while doing so, I got a text or notification from the app. I opened it and sure enough I had to go to work in less than 10 minutes. I hurriedly put on my clothes and ran out the door. I was late on my first day. I told them the app lagged and I received my schedule minutes before coming to work. This app never got straight, I had to write my schedule down while at work.

My schedule never showed up in a timely manner. I was eventually fired then the schedule started showing up telling me I had work. How ironic is that, I didn't need notifications then, yet I was still getting them. I uninstalled the app and went back to my Event Specialist job.

Love the ease of the software, super user-friendly. Also, like that it is easy for all generations to use. Love that all requests can be made online, helping to eliminate paper.

Would like to see more options for tracking employee hours as far as the reporting goes. Also, other features like tracking employees who work different positions, and being able to report on those hours. Also would like for it to track employee hours who no longer work with us anymore. Don't like that once the employee is removed from When I Work, all of their history is removed as well.

Employees find it easy to use. Admin uses it daily

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

It's a simple and easy solution for scheduling. The managers Like being able to view on a computer , staff use the app to see their schedules.

The is no where for managers to make notes on employees regarding that schedules. - example while an employee did not show up to work - if you use the shift notes every is notified . Haven't yet been able to see if you can create a small group chat - example only managers.

It makes scheduling a simple task AND adds features like schedule templates open shift offering that are icing on the cake!
Customer support is responsive and very helpful.

I would really like a link to view an employee’s full availability directly from the weekly schedule. I have made a request, which was acknowledged in a very positive way. It hasn’t happened yet, though.