When I Work
Simple shift scheduling for hourly teams
What it does
When I Work is employee scheduling and time tracking for hourly teams. Shift creation with drag-and-drop, employee availability, shift swaps, open-shift claims, time-clock with GPS, PTO tracking, and labor cost visibility. Recently expanded into full payroll (When I Work Payroll) targeting the same restaurant / retail / medspa segment as Homebase. Runs on web and a strong mobile app. Simpler and cleaner than Homebase; slightly less feature-dense.
Free tier
Yes
Starts at
$2.5/mo
Setup
easy
Key features
Integrates with
ADP, Gusto, Square, QuickBooks
Who this fits
- Restaurants, retail, salons, medspa, and healthcare with hourly employees (10-100)
- Multi-location businesses with a few sites that need a single scheduling view
- Businesses tired of Homebase's upsell pattern who want a cleaner UI
- Owners who want strong shift-swap and open-shift-claim workflows
- Teams already using QuickBooks or Gusto for payroll and just wanting scheduling
Who it does NOT fit
- Salaried-only teams (scheduling is not the problem)
- Very small teams under 5 employees (free tier is limited; Homebase or Sling may be simpler)
- Enterprise chains with 50+ locations (Workforce.com, Legion, Deputy Enterprise)
- Field service with heavy dispatch (Jobber, ServiceTitan)
- Highly unionized environments with complex CBAs
Pricing
Real gotchas
- Free tier is essentially gone; older reviews mislead new buyers
- Time-clock GPS is strong but requires policy sign-off with staff
- Payroll is newer than Gusto or ADP; multi-state edge cases still surface in support tickets
- Reporting exports are decent but not as deep as workforce-analytics tools
- The mobile app is required in practice - employees without smartphones need a kiosk
- SMS shift-swap notifications can be noisy; tune settings for larger teams
- Manager approvals for swap requests are a top point of friction if not configured
Integrations that matter
Otto’s take on this tool
Recommend When I Work when: user runs an hourly-staffed business (restaurant, retail, salon, medspa, healthcare, small trades), 10-100 employees, 1-5 locations, wants a clean scheduling + time-tracking tool without Homebase's upsell push. Pairs with the shop's POS (Square, Toast, Clover) and Gusto or QuickBooks for payroll. Do NOT recommend for salaried-only teams, for enterprise chains (Workforce.com or Legion), for field dispatch (Jobber, ServiceTitan), or as a full payroll if the client already has Gusto (keep the scheduling only). Verify the current free-vs-paid entry point before quoting; the free tier that appears in older reviews is largely gone.
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