Question 1

How does time and attendance software track hours and stop time theft / buddy punching?

Accepted Answer

Time and attendance software records hours by storing a timestamped punch from a browser, a mobile app, a shared tablet kiosk, or a wall-mounted terminal, then applying schedule, rounding, and break rules to produce the daily and weekly totals federal recordkeeping regulations require an employer to keep [10]. Buddy punching gets addressed by tying that punch to something a coworker cannot borrow: a geofence, an image captured at the punch, a device restriction, or a biometric check [14]. Only the biometric check tests the person rather than a credential, and it also carries the heaviest legal exposure, since Illinois requires written notice and a signed release before any fingerprint or face-geometry scan and gives employees a private right of action worth $1,000 or $5,000 per violation [1]. Texas and Washington impose similar duties that only their attorneys general can enforce [3][4].

Question 2

How much does workforce management / employee scheduling software cost per employee?

Accepted Answer

Employee scheduling software priced per user costs roughly $2.00 to $9.00 per employee per month in 2026, with When I Work publishing $2.50, $5.00, and $8.00 per user per month [1], Deputy publishing $5.00, $6.50, and $9.00 [2], and Sling publishing $2.00 and $4.00 on monthly billing [6]. A large part of the market charges per location instead, roughly $24 to $150 per location per month, which is where Homebase [3] and 7shifts [5] sit. Free tiers are real but capped by headcount rather than by feature: Homebase covers one location and up to 10 employees [3], Connecteam covers 10 users across all its hubs [4], 7shifts covers 15 employees at one location [5], ZoomShift covers 20 [8], and Sling covers 30 [6]. Enterprise workforce management platforms such as Legion [10] and Workday [11] publish no rate card at all and price each deployment by quote.

Question 3

Is there free employee scheduling software, or can I just use an Excel / Google Sheets template?

Accepted Answer

Free employee scheduling software exists and a spreadsheet is legal, so the useful question is where each one stops working for you. Homebase, Connecteam, Sling, ZoomShift, and Jibble all ran permanently free plans as of July 2026, with sharply different caps: Homebase covers one location and up to 10 employees and stores free timesheets for 90 days,[1] Connecteam is free for life for up to 10 users,[2] Sling's free tier holds 30 users but excludes the time clock,[3] ZoomShift's covers 20 users at one location scheduled up to two weeks ahead,[4] and Jibble tracks time free for unlimited users.[5] Free tiers also get withdrawn, since When I Work now sells only a 14 day trial with paid plans from $2.50 per user per month [6] and Deputy starts at $5 per user per month with a $30 monthly minimum.[7] An Excel or Google Sheets template is a reasonable answer for a small, stable roster, though the Fair Labor Standards Act still requires you to record hours worked each workday and each workweek [8] and to preserve daily time records for two years,[10] which is where a spreadsheet with no audit trail becomes a problem in a wage dispute.[12]

Question 4

What's the best employee scheduling / WFM software for a small business (or my industry)?

Accepted Answer

No single scheduling or workforce management platform is best for every small business, because fit is decided by your operating model rather than your headcount. Restaurants generally need a system that reads point-of-sale data to set labor targets, which is why 7shifts publishes direct connections to Toast, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, and Aloha [4] and why Fourth syncs HotSchedules with Oracle Micros and NCR Aloha [6]. Retail and multi-site operators tend to need demand forecasting and labor budgets, which arrive on Deputy's Core plan at $6.50 per user per month [3]; skilled nursing and senior living need license checks and census-driven staffing, which Smartlinx builds for that setting [7]; and construction crews need geofenced clock-in with job costing, which Workyard sells from $8 per user per month plus a $50 monthly base fee [9]. A single-location team of 10 or fewer can run free on Homebase Basic or Connecteam's Small Business plan [1][2]. The integration to evaluate hardest is the one your labor decisions actually depend on, which is usually the POS or payroll rather than the HRIS.

Question 5

What is workforce management software and what does it actually do?

Accepted Answer

Workforce management software plans, records, and prices the hours of people who work shifts. It forecasts how much labor each location needs, builds and publishes schedules against that forecast while checking qualifications, break rules, and cost before anything is released [14], captures clock and break events, applies overtime and premium rules, and hands approved hours to payroll. The category exists apart from payroll because hours are a legal record: the Fair Labor Standards Act requires overtime at one and one half times the regular rate above forty hours in a workweek [1], counts work that was not requested but was suffered or permitted [2], and requires employers to preserve hours worked each workday and total hours each workweek [6]. Layered on top of that, Oregon [10], Seattle [11], San Francisco [12], and Philadelphia [13] require schedules to be issued roughly two weeks ahead and require extra pay when an employer changes them late. This is general information about how these systems work, not legal advice.

Workforce Management

How does time and attendance software track hours and stop time theft / buddy punching?

How much does workforce management / employee scheduling software cost per employee?

Is there free employee scheduling software, or can I just use an Excel / Google Sheets template?

What's the best employee scheduling / WFM software for a small business (or my industry)?

What is workforce management software and what does it actually do?