Homebase Employee Scheduling
reviews and complaints

Its useful for basic needs like contacting coworkers and seeing the schedule. A lot is helpful and well done. Obviously there are some things that can be improved. Ill just write a few things I really like and then a few things that would be nice to see fixed

Good stuff
- Easy Access to the weekly Schedule
-Good reminders for shifts and alerts
-Ways to talk to multiple people at once is really handy!
-The layout is really nice, props the the coders!

Some ideas for improvement

-Make it so messages sent at small intervals are connected, its really difficult to focus when they’re so far apart.

-No one usually uses the ‘Clock in’ button, so it would be awesome to see an option to remove that from the top

-A way to take surveys easily and anonymously would be an amazing add-on but thats optional lol.

-Thats all I got, I appreciate you taking the time to read this!

Overall Homebase seems to be a really good system, I really appreciate some of the functions and features it has (like messaging coworkers, seeing your money earned per shift, clocking in and out on the app, etc.). That being said, there’s one glitch/issue that drives me NUTS. There doesn’t seem to be any way to clear message notifications on this Homebase app. When I get a message, no matter how many times I close the app, open the message, scroll through all of the messages, or even delete messages, I still always have a notification that there’s an unread message. Not only is this super annoying visually, it makes me think I’ve missed something from a boss/coworker every time I open the app. It seems like such a simple thing to have read messages NOT give unread notifications, yet this app still struggles with that. If they’d fix that issue it really would be 5 stars from me.

It’s clear from the app that the developers only care about the cash out feature where they make their money and almost nothing else. The only critical reviews they respond to are about that feature. Also you get promoted after every shift if you want to cash out without the chance of turning that off. Meanwhile the daily uses of the app have significant issues:

For clocking in and out, taking breaks and etc, very often the display only changes to show the correct information after opening and closing the app to force it to refresh. It’s also just sometimes inconsistently buggy.

You can only clear the notifications of messages by completely quitting the app and reopening as far as I can tell.

And a bunch of other UI stuff is just not good.

I’m sure this app is great for my employer but for the employees they seem to only have put in the effort in the part where they make money

We just started using the Homebase app yesterday where I work and at first it sounded great. Unfortunately, after downloading the app and logging in, I was unable to do anything. I can switch between the "Dashboard", "Schedule", "Messages", and "Profile" pages but no information appears and there is a constant "loading" wheel. I am able to input changes to my profile however it never actually saves it as every time I relogin, the information I added is missing again. Many of my coworkers have had the same issue, all of us with iPhones. I restarted my phone, deleted and redownloaded the app, and ran a software update on my phone but nothing has worked. It looks like a very promising app and before this most recent update (which occurred on the day we began using the app) it seems like it had pretty good ratings. Hoping this can be improved as I am really looking forward to using it as it is meant to be used.

I am a retail employee who uses Homebase to clock hours and message managers. What I don’t like about Homebase is that it doesn’t update automatically. Like most other apps, such as social media and texting, you are notified as soon as you receive a message or you have changed your status. However, homebase takes a few minutes, usually several (like 20-30) to register that something has been changed or received. For example, if I tap the clock in button, the page layout will not change, making it seem as though I have not clocked in. If I tap a different page, such as scheduling, and then return to my homepage, then it will reload. Additionally, I messaged my manager to notify that I’d be late–my manager got the message After I’d arrived to work. Notification badges don’t dissappear for a while after notifications/messages have been read, as well.
As an employee, using Homebase would be much more user-friendly if it updated in real time.

I am an employee with the Homebase app and it’s so nice! It’s super user friendly and intuitive. It’s easy to clock in and out for everything, I get reminders when my lunch breaks are almost over, which is a life saver. The best part, however, is that it shows my earnings right on my main page! It’s so motivating to see how much I’ve earned as the day goes on. There’s also an “earnings” tab in the app so I can see how much I’ve earned pre-tax for any given week so I have an idea what my next paycheck will be. It’s so transparent! You can also take money out before payday without having to ask your employer- if you’ve logged hours worked, it’s going to allow you to take a small percentage out before payday if you need to. There’s no fee or interest- it works like PayPal or Venmo in the sense that you pay a few dollars if you want it immediately and it’s free if you wait a few days for it to process. I’ve never used it, but it’s awesome that it’s an option!

We’ve had a decent time using Homebase at my work, but everyone on our team has mentioned that it’s frustrating that the notification numbers for messages are just a running total, and they don’t update once you’ve read a message. Also some of my employees won’t get certain team messages at all- they’ve even pulled up the chats and showed me how it won’t update. As a manager it can also be frustrating to not have the option on the app to see at a glance what schedule changes have been proposed, and to try to delete them if possible. One time my app was open and my hand must have brushed it, causing some accidental changes to shifts, and I can’t see what was changed, only that there are 9 proposed changes. I’ve tried quitting and re-uploading the app- three weeks later those 9 proposed changes are still there and I can’t clear them. I can now no longer make changes to the schedule on the app because I have no idea what those accidental changes were and don’t want to approve them.

I’ve used this app for sometime now and always wished it had the option to let you clock out on the app as sometimes I forget to clock out since I’m in a hurry, luckily I work for family so I don’t actually get in trouble for it but it is still an inconvenience. Then I remember reading that there was a feature for you to be able to clock out of the app and I was so glad, but I can never find it on my app and I have looked everywhere but the only option I get is to send my manager a msg letting them know I forgot to clock out. I updated the app to the newest version just today and saw that one of the things on the new update was a problem fixed in which some people didn’t have the clock out feature. I was really happy but then got disappointed, as I was on my way home I realized I forgot to clock out but then remembered the latest update and though thank goodness it was just fixed but much to my surprise I still couldn’t find that feature anywhere within the app. I again had to resort to just leaving a msg for my manager. Wish this would get fixed.

I have always loved this app…

However lately it’s been doing this thing where it will log me out every time I’m not using the app… and it didn’t use to do that, I would always stay logged in. Now I have to enter my user name and password every single time I get on there which is a little frustrating, especially if you are using the app a lot every day. I thought at first it was happening to me bc I got a new phone but my co workers said they are having the same issue!? But truly I Iove this app bc it keeps up with my hours, I know my schedule and everyone I’m schedule to work with every day. It’s easy to switch shifts and ask for time off and keeps up with how much you make… the best part is the cash advance! It’s so great and fast if you are low on $$ in your bank account and a bill is coming out… ok seconds you have as much as you need and once you get your check, HomeBase will take the advanced money out on there own so there is no way to forget to pay it back and no late fees if you were to forget to pay it back. So yes, I’m a big fan of HomeBase!

I like the concept of this app a lot. For the most part it is very user friendly, although some of the buttons in the app do not communicate their purpose or where they will direct you as well as one might expect (design/visual problem). The only reason I am rating this is because after this last update, the calendar sync function does not work. It now requires me to "select a calendar" for me to enable the sync, but when I follow the button to do so, there are no options. I have tried toggling the "enable calendar sync" switch, deleted all calendar items from Homebase, and even tried to see if my phone's calendar settings were impeding the sync. All this to no avail. This function was the number one reason I downloaded this app, and now it doesn't do me a lot of good. I'll keep trying periodically.
Also from this update I've noticed a longer loading period for opening the app and for the information to update. Estimated hours and pay are not accurate, as some other people have mentioned before. I hope the bugs get fixed soon, because this app has a lot of potential

After 2+ years of utilization... This app is REALLY great! The only two additions I requested were added many updates prior which is why I’m changing to a 5 star (from four). After seeing so many improvements and updates beyond what was requested Homebase deserves some sound recognition. I was pretty flabbergasted to read some of the reviews from the ding dongs who rated this poorly. Maybe the App Store will allow us to rate reviews/reviewers someday. Anyway, great app. It has made my small business life manageable. One (3 actually) feature request: 1) allow for multiple rate of pay tracking for employees with more than one job code, 2) allow breaks to be calculated into estimated hours and 3) allow toggling/disabling of features that employers have no plans of using like sales so it doesn’t muddy up the dashboard/store.

Original review:
Great app. All existing functions have dramatically improved my life as a business owner saving me time and allowing me to work on scheduling, timesheets, payroll and HR on the fly! The messaging piece is perfect for my crew of 11 employees. Only two improvement suggestions...

I was hopeful when my employer moved to Homebase (from an abysmal patchwork system of Google products) this would feel like a true, modern improvement, but so far it all feels a bit buggy/unintuitive. For us (an events staffing agency) the inability to see a shift’s notes/details when it’s offered to trade/cover is a big misstep — we aren’t working in one place, and those further notes (usually client info, location, expected duties/necessary skills, exact pay rate, and such) are critical to determine if we want to accept a shift or not. Similarly, we may have shifts scheduled a month or more in advance — and it’s just outright bad UI to make anyone using this tap through the calendar one week at a time. I’m missing out on work opportunities because there’s no way to just view a list of open/available shifts — I have to tap through that awful weekly view, and hope the open shifts are still there since the notifications I do receive mostly just dump me into the Dashboard.

I can only imagine it’s mostly managers waxing poetic about this app. From this employee’s experience, it feels like I’m being forced to use Beta software gathering dust since iOS 14.

Greetings,

Most employers are using the app to post “gigs” if would be great if individuals could purchase a “LOW COST” subscription to the service where we could send a link to employers to be added to their database.

This would be useful I’m so many ways:

Example: on 6/1 5pm to 3am Ray’s Pizza posted a shift for a “pizza maker” and sent out push notifications. Also on 6/1 Patsy’s posted a shift for a pizza maker as well from 5pm to 3am.

As an individual I would have to keep logging in and out of different Homebase accounts to see what’s offered and I could miss out on a good role.

Having all accounts that I personally work with (even if it’s more than 100 restaurants) having all of my employers directly linked to me I could see all of the shifts posted in one Homebase portal. I could select the shifts I prefer which will notify the “requestor” and add me to their roster.

On my end it would show a roster of different restaurants, roles, and notes from all of the restaurants that I have selected shifts, weather forecasts, and projected income.

The way people work today is different and as cooks in New York City when one company’s payroll is short another company is abundant. 80% of us also work in a GIG structure even though we’re W-2.

use the app as an employee and as a manager.
It has some pretty decent options but has plenty of room for improvement

It is fairly basic, allows for widespread messages to be easily sent to the entire staff and some very basic sorting into employee category to narrow message audience.
However that sorting feature could use lots of improvement.
•Sorting by: name, department, job title • the ability to form and save groups for later use ... things along those lines would be really beneficial.

We are a very busy restaurant and as examples it would be very helpful to form (and save) groups such as: kitchen staff, dish staff, line cooks, servers, bartenders, cocktail servers-•, bartenders and servers, lunch servers, dinner servers, office staff, bus staff, host/hostess staff, etc AND all manner of combinations of the above groups.
The ability to make and save different groups (or target audiences) would be very useful for a variety of announcements/messages/bulletins which frequently need to be delivered to select groups of employees.
An option to form and keep groups would save lots of time and help prevent the painstaking chore of perusing the entire employee list, selecting all intended recipients and then praying no one was overlooked before sending!

I’ve never written an app review before, but felt the strong need to let other business owners know. I have almost 10 businesses using Homebase since we did our initial testing then switched to this app. Initially we did not see many issues, but you multiply that by 10 now and it’s magnified. The app crashes all the time, team members clearly clock in or out but the app does not record the time— just the basic essentials for a time keeping app that are not fulfilled. Their support is a joke until you threaten to leave then they try to get you to stay. It’s shameful that an app that is supposed to increase efficiency and time for the business owner is doing the exact opposite. My management team would bring up Homebase issues every other week. Homebase would rebuttal by saying our team did not know how to clock out and that “it can be confusing.” Stupidity. If you know the app is supposedly confusing to track time, then why wouldn’t you increase user’s experience and make it easier?! And secondly, the issues are reported by veteran employees that have been using the app and know the ins and outs since we’ve implemented it. My advice is to not use Homebase if you have more than 1 location. If you still want to use it, then mentally prepare for all the headaches you are about to get.

SEPTEMBER :
What is happening with homebase?!... chart date does not come up for me anymore and I can not edit my time card... I wish I had not updated it... it's also slow to update at the store level on our clover...ugh!... please help! At this time I have deleted it off my phone.
Some where I this update things a disjointed again or there have been some major changes... no more clocking in & out on a device other then the store. Which I guess is fine other then the other day the only way for me to fix an error was not through the store device. And some of the employee information seems hidden again but now there is a text message for us to call no show employees...Home base my suggestion is to slow down and stop trying to always get ahead of yourself...

As a couple other people stated I think the new version is to busy... I don't like that I can't see how many hours I worked and how many I was scheduled. Also our pay week is Friday thu Thursday and with new version it's Sunday to Saturday viewing only, not our actual scheduled week anymore which throws everything off in the app for me...can you tell me how to roll back to the old version?...

***Ok since this last update a few of the useful things to me and viewing the our stores actual pay week fixed... I can live with this... the few new touches and new look are pretty functional mixed back with the old version usefulness is a good mix!... changed my rating and thanks for listening to our comments and putting back what made Homebase great!..

Just an absolute joke of an app. I can’t believe this is #70 in business apps. I feel like two dogs, a bird and a raccoon could get together and come up with something better. If you’re a business owner, please do not use this. I’m sure the only reason my boss uses this is because it’s either free or really cheap. Well you get what you pay for. So many bugs, I can’t even load the messages anymore. Luckily my schedule doesn’t ever change so I don’t need this piece of garbage. You make the choice.

This app seriously is bad.
Zero stars

-too many texts from the app when the information is already on the app(yes you can turn off but a lot of people have trouble finding out how)
-Crashes all the time
-messaging is more painful than its worth
-pictures are microscopic when either sent or received
-logged me out and now my password doesn't work (yes I know it's the right one)
Like I said, if I didn't have to use it for work, this app wouldn't even be on my phone. It's not worth the space it takes up.

STOP TEXTING MY PHONE! Please! Didn't Facebook or Uber tell you it isn't cool for companies to misuse customer data anymore?

Update: thanks for letting me know how to make it stop. Just to recap, I deleted your app before ever using it, and now all I have to do to stop you from spam texting me is to re-download it, reset a password I never used and forgot months ago, go into settings, find the... wow, I'm actually too bored to continue. Here's a thought: let your users ask to be texted in the first place.

For me and all of my coworkers we are constantly being logged out. And this wouldn’t be a big deal except for that it won’t let us log back in. It freezes on me all the time and so I will go almost a full week of trying guess when my shift is because I can’t get in and look. It’s great to always send me an alert when it’s time to work, but it’s not a ton of help when it stuck on one day or doesn’t register that I have been scheduled to work. I don’t suggest using it. It has been a larger pain than it is worth.

After using this app for shortly over a year and a half it has recently gone really downhill really fast. After some updates pages on the app don’t load properly and I have to restart the app anytime I want to see the main dashboard if I accidentally switch to the schedule or timesheets page. I don’t know if this is a common issue but this app is terrible in terms of loading and usability. Use it to make one adjustment to an employee time clock and have to restart the app to do anything else. Devs, what’s going on?

Simply stated, the most important tool for timekeeping is the time clock or time sheet. The fact that I cannot get a time clock, find a time clock or time sheet IMMEDIATELY without going through all kinds of steps defeats the whole purpose. It’s supposed to be EASIER than picking up a piece of paper and completing it manually. Messaging, scheduling, time off requests etc are all nice features but they’re secondary and tertiary to the primary function of just being able to input the hours you’ve worked. I thought this was going to be a simple app?

Horrible update! Please fix this. It was fine the way it was. After the update I can't see my full week schedule or any of my coworkers. So if I wanted to ask someone to cover for me, I can't because no one is on there. Also I can't see my own weekly schedule when I click on schedule and my shifts. It doesn't not show your weekly earnings as it use to either. I believe androids do not have this problem since my coworker 's Homebase is exactly how it use to be before the horrible update. For some reason the the problem is just on Apple users. Please fix this!

I have reason to believe that a previous employer neglected to pay me for hundreds of hours that I clocked using the Homebase app. Since letting me go, the company has removed me from their Homebase, canceling my ability to cross-reference my hours clocked to my actual paystubs. What has Homebase support done to help me in this situation? Absolutely nothing. They just ignore my emails.

Update: A developer responded to my review, directing me to a different support email which is not listed on the Homebase website. I sent a message to this new email 3 days ago, but so far no response.

Used to love this app. Would try to add a scheduled shift for an employee through the app and click on “review schedule” so I could “publish” it. I click on publish and it says that it went through, but the “review schedule” button still shows. So I go on my laptop to log on and find out that it never saved my employee’s shift! Thanks to that, our client was furious that our employee did not show up to his scheduled shift. NOT my employees fault, as his schedule never saved and he was never notified by this SCHEDULING APP.

Paid the annual subscription for this and I’m close to asking for a full refund.

I’ve been at my job for about 2 months. I don’t know why but I seem to be the only one having trouble with this app. Every time I get the verification code texted to me, I plug it in, but it doesn’t log in. It’ll load for 2 seconds then just stop. Doesn’t tell me that it was wrong. Just won’t load. I’ve tried resending the code probably about 50 times now and NONE of them work. I can’t log in! Makes it hard to pick up extra shifts and to know my schedule. And managers don’t seem to have a solution to this problem. So as far as I’m concerned, this is the worst app ever. Really hope you guys fix your issue.

I do my hospitality staff schedules in excel. I only use this so that the employees can see the schedules on their phone.

The desktop version keeps on trying to get me to upgrade to paid functions that I don’t need.

Last night I tried to send out a new schedule and Home Base delayed it to send until 8:30am this morning! A delay of 12hours! I don’t need an app to prevent me from sending out a schedule on Sunday night! Very upset about this because after I thought I released the schedule to everyone I sent an email explaining it. Now I realize they must have thought I was crazy because no schedule was released.

This app is always crashing or pausing and never loads correctly. I could only click on one function and whenever I try to access a different function it would continuously load and never function right so I end up having to reload the homebase app on my phone and it’s getting really annoying. Having to close the app and open it back up again after doing one thing on the app is really really really annoying. Whenever and update does come out to fix a function, another function would go wrong with the and would stop working correctly. I wouldn’t recommend this app cause of all the bugs and glitches but it’s mandatory to have it for work, unfortunately.

This is the second employer I have used homebase with and I am just a angry and disappointed with the second as I was the first. Homebase allows your employer to change your schedule at a moments notice without so much as alerting staff that their schedules have changed. Not only is this practice immoral, it is detrimental to sleep schedules, appointments and trust. Never have I got a heads up that my schedule has changed and the employer will hold you accountable for being on time for the shift. I would like to see a feature added to the scheduling where an email is sent out to each employer who’s schedule is changing by even a minute to confirm this new agreement of labor.

Pros: I can see when a staff member has viewed a personal or group message so I know who’s paying attention.

Cons: Website and app are incredibly slow to upload.
Can no longer view applicants or messages from them.
Can’t search or sort messages so if I’m looking for an old message, I have to scroll through hundreds of old messages.
Can’t block or remove applicants after they’ve been removed from the process so have been harassed by angry applicants who didn’t get the job.
I stopped getting notifications when staff requested availability changes and have brought this to homebase supports attention months ago but nothing has been done about it and still paying full price for a service that doesn’t fully work.

Got this app after reading a positive review of free time clock apps. It’s free, for about two weeks, after which, they take every measure to make their system dysfunctional under their free plan, while trying to bait you into buying a pay plan. The free plan is essentially a platform full of pop ups advertising their pay plans, while even the most basic features (like clocking in, clocking out) will be disabled unless a manager enables it, which also seems to not be an option. I get it, people don’t want to give services for free, but if that’s the case, just make it clear from the beginning that the free plan is essentially the same as not having a time clock, or better yet, just have it be a paid service from the beginning. What a hassle.

I like the phone app but the recent changes made to the desktop version is awful. I liked the original format and layout of the previous desktop version. The new one is not very user friendly. I don’t understand why the desktop version had to change. It was fine the way it was. Too bad, I may be looking for a new scheduling program. I don’t use this app to do payroll, just scheduling. I don’t need another payroll software. I export time information into QuickBooks. The only reason I chose this program was for scheduling employees and exporting timecards because I didn’t like the scheduling program T Sheets by Intuit because it wasn’t very user friendly. Now, this program is doing the same thing, becoming user unfriendly! I wish you would go back to the previous version. Thanks.

I’m glad my place of work has moved into the 21st century and has tried to use something like this as a means of scheduling, but wow do I wish they used something besides Homebase. For such a widely used and extensive app, this is the glitchiest, most infuriating app I’ve used in a LONG time. Why am I on the App Store page right now in the first place? I’m reinstalling Homebase, because it bugged out and I was forced to reinstall the entire app just to fix it. A few days ago I was trying to clock out of work, and Homebase crashed as soon as I hit the button - forcing a restart of my entire phone, and a clock out time that was 5 mins after I actually left the building. The idea behind this app is great, but I honestly don’t believe it’s worth using when one has to deal with the laggy, glitchy nature of every feature in it.

The new update makes it very difficult to see how many hours I’ve earned. It’s pushing the cash out option really aggressively and I don’t particularly have a need for that feature. I mostly need to keep track of my hours and avoid going into overtime. The new update doesn’t show the total number of hours worked, just the amount of money I’ve earned so far.

I also find it annoying that the old version showed my shift in hours and minutes but the total number of hours in hours and decimals. Just pick one! I don’t care how it tracks time, but don’t make me jump through conversation hoops to calculate my hours! It’s a problem because the second week of the pay period has the first week of the pay period added on to it, so I have to remember how many hours I did the previous week in order to make sure I didn’t go over 40 the second week.