HotSchedules is a cloud-based scheduling, labor and communication management software solution serving the restaurant and hospitality industry. According to the vendor, key benefits include: Build & Communicate Schedules The scheduling and labor management software reduces the time it takes managers to create and communicate schedules. All scheduling and employee information is stored in one central location, so managers have access to time-off requests,…
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TMetric
Score 10.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
TMetric is an online time tracker designed for freelancers and teams of any size. With TMetric users can: set budgets for their projects; set rates on any task, client, project or team member; create tags and set them to any task; see their workday on a timeline; get detailed time and money reports. TMetric integrations include Asana, Basecamp, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Pivotal Tracker, Redmine, Trello, Visual Studio Online, Wrike, and YouTrack.
For small to medium-sized companies HotSchedules works great when business is very static. If you are simply using HotSchedules for a schedule writing tool, it is phenomenal. However, it does miss the mark as a labor control software. Needs more controls to keep managers aware of spending versus historical sales data.
We started using TMetric in 2016, then re-evaluated our choice in 2018 in a beauty contest with its primary competitors. Our conclusion at that time was TMetric was the only solution that would meet all of our needs.
Communication is so simple on HotSchedules. Whether it is communicating a new schedule release, or a quick note about tonight's shift we as managers are able to easily communicate and know that it will reach our team through text notifications, or email notifications.
The Meal Break planning tool is very useful in being able to help our floor leaders clearly understand and plan for what breaks are needed throughout the shift. This allows them to come up with a strategic game plan quickly and spend more time with our guests.
Shift Swaps and Releases are so seamless. This is our favorite tool as it makes helping our team cover shifts extremely easy and painless. On the flip side it also makes staff who want more hours be able to find what is available in real time.
Clocking In and out can be a little slow. It takes longer to clock in then our previous method. Before we just had a card you swiped and it would clock you in. Took 2 seconds. Now with the Hotschdules method we use it take 30 seconds or so. Not a huge issue but it can add up if you have one computer and a line of employees waiting to clock in.
Time Cards. It does not allow you to view someones current time until the "punch" has ended. If the manager would like to check what time the employee clocked in/out from lunch they have to wait until the employee has clocked out for the day before the record is generated. As a shift lead you may send and employee to lunch but forget to note what time you sent them. Awhile passes and you feel like they should be back by now, so you want to go in and see what time they left for lunch but it does not show you that punch record because the employee is still "clocked in" they are just on their "Meal Break"
The ability to customize the restrictions for Clocking in and out. You can set it up so that employees can only clock in from a specific location, however if you have a manager who is allowed to work from home they would not be able to clock in without being at the same location as set in the software. It would be nice to see it able to be customized per user.
The inability to add time into the future, such as planned PTO days and holidays.
At times, the settings can be difficult to find and navigate, but that just takes some time.
It would be nice if the web app and the desktop weren't two separate apps. If the web app had the ability to capture what you were working on, that would be fantastic, and there wouldn't be a need for a second app!
6 Years of Experience provides me the insight on the upgrades and changes that HotSchedules has done to improve the experience of its users. There are so many features that we still have not started or used to the fullest, but we believe that we are currently getting a strong value out of the money that is paid for this product.
I think usability is where this product really shines. It just plain works. It's snappy, intuitive, and gets the job done. It is incredibly easy to use with a color-coded tagging system. It very clearly details out your breaks VS billable time, and gives you detailed reports that are useful when talking with clients and/or meeting with stakeholders.
On rare occasions a phone call has been required to find the solution to a problem, the HotSchedules response staff have been helpful, courteous, and genuinely seem to care for their clients and take pride in what they do. The consistent development and fine tuning of the platform, interface, and mobile environment shows that this is not a program full of people who rest on their laurels.
During 4 years, we have not needed much support, but when we did, the responses were fast and effective (although not always written in the most comprehensible English).
I have not used any other Scheduling software for employees. As a campground manager in the summer season, we are using campground master for reservations. it is very similar in process to employee scheduling. the ability to the user of that program to set up their own parameters for time and reservations is something that would benefit the employee scheduling software.
Saving time on scheduling means our managers can focus more on guest experience, managing the floor and other areas that contribute to the success of our business.
