HotSchedules Reviews

Pros
The logbook feature, the advanced floor maps (which are an additional cost..), and the messaging feature.

Cons
Again the scheduling software is not very user friendly. Clearly there were some adjustments made that helped with writing a schedule, but not being able to view it as easily is frustrating.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
The communication side of it is great. I have less meetings now that I can send out mass messages. The scheduler itself is top notch. I can move shifts around quickly using the quick keys and copying schedules is a snap. Having the freedom to do my schedule anywhere and being able to approve or deny schedule changes from my phone makes those decisions more informed. We use it to document all incidents good and bad on employees, so when an evaluation comes around you have all that information at your fingertips. It makes a great reservation scheduler. The roster report is the first thing I print out in the mornings to make sure everyone is here and where they are supposed to be and if they are not I have all the phone numbers on that sheet. The fact that it gives you the number of hours for everyone helps with creating budgets for the week.

Cons
My biggest complaint is that part of the expense for the is put on the employee. I know it's very little but some employees don't have a bank account or credit card and have trouble making the purchase. It seems to me that the revenue generated by that could be built into the cost of the software on the employer side.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Hotschedules won our business by having the best Aloha POS integration of all the companies we spoke with. Employees that are added to our system are automatically synced with Hotschedules so you can quickly begin adding them to the schedule. The integration also allows us to restrict employees from clocking in too early or late with saves labor and allows you to quickly identify the less punctual employees. Finally, the integration also pulls historical sales data from our POS and uses it to establish a good sales forecast that you can use to budget your labor accurately.

Cons
The app and website are just not as intuitive and streamline as I would like. Previously we had used PeopleMatter schedule, which had a much less cluttered and more user friendly interface. Hotschedules also starts to think it knows how to schedule better than the manager and will start adding "House Shifts" to your schedule that employees can pick up, which frustrates me when I really don't need that shift covered.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I love that this software is more comman than it use to be. Most employees hired have heard or used hotschedules which makes the transition alot easier. Communication threw hotschedules makes this program a must for any business that has a decent sized staff

Cons
Software is great however it is a little pricey for what it does. Dont get me wrong its great but just a hair high

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Reporting and ease to swap shift

Cons
No way to set request off parameters by the day. Schedule writing is harder with the new version

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Intuitive User interface Easy to add new users Great scheduling utility incredible for contacting staff on a large scale Has a mobile app that users can use

Cons
The mobile app costs money so most of my staff refuses to download this app which sends them push notifications in the event I need to contact them all. I believe that since we are already paying to use the software this app should be free to download. Without a login the application is useless so the fact you need to pay to download the app is very ridiculous.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
IOS Compatibilty, cloud based.

Cons
Reporting can be cumbersome at times. Not all functions work well on Safari Browser.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
easy to use, keeps your organized, accessible from anywhere

Cons
the new scheduler takes longer to enter, and they took away the option to hover over a request off and see the reason and date requested. please bring back!

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Makes schedule making quick.

Cons
The website goes down or kicks you off for extended periods of time. I will say this happens less frequently than it used to. I have used hotschedules for almost six years.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I like that you can see your schedule for the week laid out in one spreadsheet. I also like that it gives you the option to do group messages with all of your coworkers and swap shifts if needed. This software offers a lot for your work scheduling and helps you stay organized and be flexible when you need to be.

Cons
I do not like that you have to pay for the app. I also do not like how hard it is to find someone's contact on the app and then be able to copy something like an email address or phone number. I wish HotSchedules also had a better notifications system in place.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Hotschedules makes schedule creation and updates ridiculously easy. Not only can you input the schedules you need covered to receive optimization suggestions, but once you post the schedules, you don't have to track down your staff to inform them of their schedules.

Cons
When I utilizied Hotschedules my employees were not able to input one-off requests or identify preferred shifts, limiting the efficacy of the schedule optimization features. There was also not an option to send internal communication notes to management emails so there was no way to verify when management was reading the information.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
A couple things that I really enjoy about HotSchedules is the reporting and future forecasting functions. You can also teach HotSchedules how to auto-schedule based off of those patterns from previously scheduled weeks. It is pretty user-friendly and when you launch for the first time - you have plenty of help. They give you a contact to assist you and provide plenty of step-by-step tutorials for all of the included functions of the software. They also give you styling options for how you would like to view and edit the schedules. The reporting data is quickly accessible and can be pulled from a large range of dates (this helps with payroll verification).

Cons
HotSchedules, at times, can be a little buggy. There have been instances where I have completed a full schedule and upon saving my data, it would revert to the previous schedule before the changes had been added. This can be a tad frustrating when trying to crank out schedules quickly.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Ease of scheduling . We use the messaging every night to update all on how the day went. If there are any questions their customer support is easy to get a hold of and the problem has been fixed before hanging up. We like employees hour's tracking to keep everyone at or below 40 hours a week.

Cons
I don't like having to sign in everytime I want to use it. We would like to connect this to our POS system to have other tracking capabilities but there are additional fees for that.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Requests off, availability, blackout dates, staff communication sections. The app works great for everyone.

Cons
No ease of use when making the schedule - autocorrecting number entries constantly, schedule templates aren't what I need, schedule report is difficult to read.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 5/10

Pros
HotSchedules is very convenient to use for the business and employees. I love that I can message everyone as a group, a specific job title, or individuals. I love that the employees can view their schedule in real time from anywhere.

Cons
HotSchedules is time consuming to use. The functionality of the scheduling area could be improved to save time. When it comes to syncing employees with our Micros system it takes too much time and has gotten “hung up” multiple times. Customer service gives great direction but takes too long to get an answer. The layout of the roster is hard to read and offering different layout options would be a huge improvement.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I like the ability to open up the HotSchedules app to see who's working. There are many useful tools such as messaging groups or individual staff members, forecasting hours, and looking back at previous years' staffing needs. If you have a restaurant, you should have HotSchedules. HotSchedules' support is amazing tooI never hesitate to call them if I have an issue.

Cons
Our POS imports data to HotSchedules, so we lose some of the ability to change things through HotSchedules. Instead, we change through our POS and it updates daily.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I absolutely loved HotSchedules!!! It was so easy to use, and so convenient to see my schedule in real time! It was also great to be able to send messages back and forth with other employees or mass emails for shift coverage. HotSchedules made my life as a server SO much easier and convenient!

Cons
There isn't much to complain about with HotSchedules. If I was going to suggest any change, it would maybe be to spruce it up a bit so it's a little more colorful. My schedule and messages were always in grey and black. Color isn't necessary, but it is a little more appealing.

Rating breakdown

Pros
We like to reports it's nice to get a good picture of our overhead.

Cons
The latest updates to building a schedule are a bit confusing.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Makes scheduling easier. I've never had an issues when it comes to scheduling with HS. It's a great platform especially when you operate a high volume restaurant. Hotschedules has allowed me to focus on other aspects of managing my restaurant. Scheduling literally takes about 15 minutes every week. Employees past and present have also had positive things to say about hot-schedules. Employees like the fact that you can download the app and be able to see any updates made to the schedule. Go-Hire has also been a great tool for my company. Onboarding new employees is made so much easier now with eliminating paper appplications and documents. Go hire easily let's you conduct background checks on new hires with a click of a button.

Cons
As I stated above in the describe your experience section. The fact that getting a new employee synced in hotschedules after they have been entered into Aloha takes 24 hours is really a big inconvenience. For me personally, this has resulted in delaying the start date for new hires. I have documented about twelve different support requests to the support team to help get a new hire synced faster. I suggest maybe allowing admins to manually add employees to the staff list to help resolve this issues. Operating a restaurant with high turnover, it's crucial that new hire are able to start right away with no delay. This by far the biggest and only con that I can think of with this platform.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
-It's available in a smart phone app -employees are able submit days off for approval -forecasting

Cons
Adding event to schedule calendar

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Ability to not only schedule/message in-house full time staff, but keep a running log of single event staffing as well. As a catering company you have many bodies you must manage, especially when an individual only works one event for you and that's it. With HotSchedules we're able to tabulate this into our weekly labor costs and it gives the functionality to forecast.

Cons
It's sometimes very complicated to use. You don't always know where to go for what you need and the customer service can be a little tricky to navigate- you don't always hear back from them or they're tough to reach. That being said when you do get a human- they're very knowledgeable and can help you out 100%.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
What I like most about this software is that you can send your employees messages and post schedules that will go directly to their e-mail and/or text.

Cons
What I like least about this software is that it sometimes will glitch when I'm in the middle of a schedule and then I will have to go back and redo the entire thing.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I can access my work schedule whenever I want because it is both a website and an app. It not only tells you what your schedule is, but allows you to see who else you are working with. This is beneficial if you are trying to adjust your schedule for time off so you know exactly who is available and who is not, which saves a lot of time.

Cons
If you have marked yourself as unavailable it should flag someone from being able to add you to the schedule in that slot so that the person creating the schedule realizes they have made an error.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
The accessibility was it is biggest pro. Being able to login to this application from anywhere and pickup or release shifts was great. I also loved that once a schedule was released, I would get a text notification of my upcoming shifts and the app also showed when my alcohol certification would expire.

Cons
There were no cons to this app. I really think this app is very beneficial to have. The only thing that I would change is for the app to document the clock in and out times.

Rating breakdown