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Nowsta

Workforce management tool to handle payroll & work shifts

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(3)

Nowsta Reviews

Overall rating

4.9

/5

180

Rating criteria

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9.64/10

Reviews by rating

Pros and cons

I love how user friendly and easy to use it it. The customer service is great-- shout out to Aimee.
It has made that we can increase our volume tenfold whilst maintaining superb quality. It has reduced some tedious tasks like payroll into easy to use functions.
Our Ops Director loves the ease of forecasting and entering scheduling details and the seamless way it communicates to our staff.
When an event cancels or postpones, it is difficult to remove it from the system. I've had the software reinstate staff when I went through and deleted them.
There have been periods of wicked bugginess that blocked use on a number of peoples devices.
It took me forever to do. With Nowsta, everything is right in the app and it cuts the time in half.
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180 reviews

Recommended

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Desiree J.

Hospitality, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Never Been So Efficiently Staffed!

Reviewed 3 years ago
Pros

We started using NOWSTA almost 2 years ago and it has made scheduling so much more efficient. We use it throughout our company - from servers and bartenders, to kitchen, warehouse, and office workers. The platform is user friendly for both schedulers and staff. Our Staffing Coordinator of almost 13 years says we have never been fully staffed so early for our events! And she doesn't have to rely on temporary staff as much anymore because we are staffed more efficiently. Bonus - Nowsta's email newsletters are very informative and concise in the topics of labor laws, staffing trends, and other topics related to our industry.

Cons

Nothing major that I am aware of! Overall, it works well.

MC
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Melissa C.

Food & Beverages, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 6-12 months

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Nowsta truly transformed our catering companies staffing operations!

Reviewed 4 years ago

Nowsta has eliminated our need for paper/hand written shift times, confusion over who was at what event and for how long, wondering what was the pay for that particular shift and the need to spend countless hours calculating every employees hours/pay come payroll time. Most of all, Nowsta has connected all our employees and with the app, given each the convenance of handheld information. Oh, and...

Pros

From an Admin stand point, I love how Nowsta is so easy to edit; staff information, times, position costs, literally everything! I love the availability checks that can go out as whatever I want, they do not have to be attached to an event. I love the multiple ways that I can inform my staff of shifts available via shifts requests and publishing to a first come first serve deal. It's so easy to make...

Cons

The only thing at the moment that I wish Nowsta could do is have flat rate delivery options. I currently use normal staffing hours to calculate deliveries but they should be flat rates that do not affect employees hours but we make it work. Looking forward to the upgrade that includes flat rate fees.

CR
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Christopher R.

Hospitality, 11-50 employees

Used daily for 6-12 months

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend7/10

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We like NOWSTA

Reviewed 2 years ago

For the most part...it has been very good.

Pros

Ease of scheduling. Response time from my employees.

Cons

Does not cross integrate with TPP. I thought it did...but it does not seem to do this. MAybe I am doing it wrong. Secondly, the cost of the employee per month adds up quickly.

Jo
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Jennifer o.

Events Services, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Scheduling Software You Need that your Grandma could use

Reviewed a year ago

Nowsta is always very quick to respond to questions. I feel like they really listen to their customers and take our enhancement requests seriously.

Pros

Nowsta is a full service scheduling program that integrates with our catering software. It is an amazing tool for scheduling different levels of staff for multiple events at multiple locations. But it does not stop at the scheduling step. Nowsta is also our time clock and produces all the reports we need for direct import into our payroll system. It even allows our employees to cash out prior to our regular payroll date. Nowsta is also a fantastic data bank for our employee records and it has great tools for communicating with our entire staff at one time and/or the staff of a specific event. We used to have a program for scheduling, one for time and attendance, and none for employee communication. Now we have Nowsta and we love it!

Cons

I do not like the mileage feature in Time and Attendance. It is based on time instead of distance. I would love for Nowsta to be able to calculate the driving distance from an employee's home to the venue they are working at so we could compensate for miles driven. Also our tips are often not received until after an event has taken place. I'd like to have a way of entering tip income for employees when we get it but still have it associated with the event they worked.

AS
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Alisha S.

Used daily for 2+ years

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Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support

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Overall, this program has been a lifesaver and has drastically improved our staffing process.

Reviewed 5 years ago
Pros

I have been using the software for over 2 years now and have seen it develop into the great product that it is today. What I like most is that the Nowsta team is dedicated to really understanding the needs of their end users and developing a system that is perfect for event industry professionals. We have been able to really cut down on overtime in every department, have a much higher response...

Cons

As with any system that is still in development, there are still a few hick ups in the program. The Nowsta team works diligently to iron out the kinks but this causes the system to go down for unexpected periods of time and staff is unable to clock in/out.

AM
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Aaron M.

Events Services, 201-500 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Very Pleased!

Reviewed 2 years ago

Scheduling is much easier and the user interface is easy to use and understand.

Pros

Nowsta easily integrates with other systems that make scheduling events a breeze for our company. The interface is extremely user friendly and is not cumbersome like many other systems that have been used in the past.

Cons

There needs to be an attendance (point based) system in place that keeps track of an employee calling in, being late, etc. Progressive attendance based systems are important for companies where hourly employees are expected to maintain an acceptable level of attendance. I would like to see a system added to Nowsta in the future that will make it easy to track attendance so employees can be held accountable for poor attendance.

BK
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Bob K.

Hospitality, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Great Product, Great Customer Service

Reviewed 2 years ago

I can't say enough about this platform. I've personally recommended it to other companies in our industry and can't imagine ever changing. From start to finish, the software is easy to use/learn, provides great analytics and the customer service far exceeds expectations.

Pros

We love being able to create and assign numerous roles and hourly rates to our team members; the timeclock tablet feature is great for onsite clocking in and out and the tracking/reporting tools are incredibly useful for budgeting purposes as well as budget to actual comparisons. There are just so many great features to this software and it continues to improve.

Cons

I don't believe there is anything that we like least about the software but this is more of a wish list in that we wish we could house more employee information. Again, this is not the purpose of the software but to have it all in one central location would be super convenient.

CM
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Cristina M.

Events Services, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Nowsta streamlined our event staffing

Reviewed 3 years ago

Nowsta has truly streamlined staffing our events. It's cut back on hours we spent on the front end and really helped our staff easily accept or decline shifts in an app. It was also a huge help to pay staff immediately versus waiting for our 2 week pay system via check. Staff seem to really love this option even with the fee.

Pros

Nowsta streamlined our event staffing through the app and the way we communicate with our crew. It's been a game changer for us.

Cons

We have been using Nowsta since it launched. The tech support has been wonderful at reviewing our feedback and making changes that really helped the app and our team use it. The software has had issues from time to time but it's always been resolved. The only downside on our end was setting up a direct bank debit weekly versus our original bi-weekly pay system.

JA
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Jennifer A.

Entertainment, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Best Entertainment Crewing Software

Reviewed a year ago

This software allows us work with an ever-changing employee pool to staff entertainment events. It is easy to set-up events, add employees to shifts, and be able to customize most aspects of the crewing process to meet our client's needs. It is also very convenient to have timesheets and employee attendance integrated in the same software as our calendar and crewing.

Pros

Nowsta is great for real-time staffing, planning upcoming events for clients, and for tracking attendance and employee times. I've worked with several different software packages over the past 5 years, and this is the one that I'm going to stick with because it does everything I need it to in a user-friendly way.

Cons

I would like to be able to add a little more customization to employee pay rates (not only by position, but by client as well). It would also be helpful to be able to customize overtime rules a little more.

Vendor response

Hi Jennifer, Just following up here to let you know that you can create custom pay rates on a per client basis. Here is a link to an article that explains how to set these up. https://community.nowsta.com/en/articles/3038105-how-to-add-custom-client-pay-rates-and-bill-rates If you have any questions - please let us know at support@nowsta.com

CB
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Christine B.

Hospitality, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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I refer Nowsta to everyone that would benefit from using it!

Reviewed a year ago

I can not say enough how much I love Nowsta! I am very picky with my software and systems I have in place for my business. Nowsta along with Tave (another software system) work perfect for me! The Nowsta team is wonderful! Always there to help if I have a question. Nowst is a definite game changer for me and my business!

Pros

This software keeps me organized, keeps the associates organized. I love the systems, I love the real time notifications ~ I just love everything about it!

Cons

It took me a little while to get use to the software, but it was a small learning curve for me. When I send out a message to the team ~ and then go look at the announcement in my announcement tabs, it's difficult for me to find it after I've read it, doesn't seem to be in chronological order once a message, or announcement is read. ~ Also it's very difficult to get on my nowsta page as an administrator on my phone when i'm out of my office ~ this is very frustrating and hope to find a solution for this.

BH
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Brian H.

Hospitality, 11-50 employees

Used daily for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9/10

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Great product makes my life easier

Reviewed 4 years ago

Doing payroll used to take me anywhere from 1-6 hours depending on how busy we were and how many people were working. After we switched to Nowsta, I usually have payroll done in 30 minutes. We do schedules on a weekly basis and I used to have to do the schedule in Excel, then change it to a PDF and then email it to all the staff along with where they were meeting for events. It took me forever to do. With Nowsta, everything is right in the app and it cuts the time in half. Also, with people being able to punch in from their phones, there is no longer paper needed. All of the staff is very helpful and quick to get back to you if you reach out to them.

Pros

Nowsta cuts my scheduling time at least in half. It also takes me a quarter of the time to do payroll. Easier for employees to punch in and out.

Cons

Some issues with the app freezing. People with android have had issues using the app. There is no way for staff members to put in extended periods of time off in the app (vacatin or PTO or what not)

ES
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Eric S.

Security and Investigations, 10,001+ employees

Used weekly for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Using Nowsta for Security

Reviewed a year ago

I used Nowsta in my previous role as Director of Operations for a catering company, and am now using it in the special event space for the security industry. The types of employees and scheduling utilized in each industry are vastly different, but Nowsta has been a great tool in both spaces. Particularly for security, the app allows me to assemble a vast pool of potential workers for irregularly scheduled events, greatly increasing my ability to ensure appropriate staffing levels.

Pros

Nowsta is extremely easy to set up and use. The interface for the administrator is effective, while the app and interactions with the users make it easy for them to stay current with scheduling. The customization options for roles and permissions provide a high level of precision in accomplishing specific goals.

Cons

I would like to see the ability to categorize groups of positions together with one click, to save the time of clicking each individually for each employee. I would also like to be able to edit email addresses in the system in the cases where I have made a typo or the employee is locked out of their email account.

ST
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Sam T.

Hospitality, 51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Switching to Nowsta was the best improvement we have made to our staffing department in years!

Reviewed 5 years ago

The biggest has been reduced labor because the software is so easy to use on both the admin and employee sides of things. We used to spend so much time fiddling with a product that was difficult for the employees, thereby making it difficult for admins. Hours were spent trying to figure out why they couldn't clock in/out, changing passwords, resetting accounts, an on and on. For this reason, everyone has jumped on board and really embraced Nowsta (and really loves it), which if you've every changed to a different software that you had been using for years, you know is a tall order. In addition to reduced labor, it has reduced our stress, which is hard to put a price tag on!

Pros

The user interface is very clean and easy to use. Our entire organization has rallied around the software and thoroughly enjoys using it not only to check their schedule and clock in/out, but also to communicate with their teammates, view pertinent information relating to their event, and the ability to rate staff (even us old folks born before the age of smartphones find it easy to use)! Clocking in/out is now a breeze, and the process of approving shifts for time & attendance has reduced our labor and errors tremendously. And perhaps most importantly, the customer support is extremely fast and responsive. If you ever have any question, they are certain to receive your message and get you an answer in a very timely manner!

Cons

There really aren't any cons to list here as things that we think could be improved are being addressed by their team! So, what we like least is that we didn't have it years ago!

KJ
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Kristin J.

Food & Beverages, 201-500 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9/10

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Everything in One Place

Reviewed 4 years ago
Pros

1) the willingness of the Nowsta team to help with anything you need and make the requested changes to create a more efficient user experience 2) the convenience of having everything in one place! So nice that we can do scheduling, labor projections, payroll, and communication all from one easy to use software.

Cons

1) the speed of refreshing the pages is slow sometimes, but nothing that is really bothersome. 2) it is a new software, so there are things about it that we don't like. While the Nowsta team is great about making the requested changes, they have what I can only imagine is a long list of requests that they are trying to accommodate. With that being said, some of our requests are not always met.

CY
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Camille Y.

Food & Beverages, 1-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Nowsta is a breeze!

Reviewed 4 years ago

So far so good! Its been great and easy to use. I highly recommend.

Pros

This software is easy to use and fast! I can update a schedule and the employee is instantly notified by text and email! It's so efficient and effective. I love it - it has really had things faster on the scheduling end.

Cons

No cons yet - I have found everything very easy to use!

FC
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Fletcher C.

Hospitality, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Incredibly User Friendly & Great Customer Service

Reviewed 4 years ago

We've had an excellent experience. The customer service has been out of this world. Working with the reps has been great. I never worry about being able to actively communicate with them or that we will experience an outage of any variety. Everything has been going swimmingly.

Pros

The ease of use and installation as well as the technical support received along the way. The team was also very receptive to improvements prompted by our team actively using the product in the field.

Cons

That we didn't implement it earlier. After we did, our productivity shot through the roof.

JC
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Jason C.

Food & Beverages, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Great Product!

Reviewed 4 years ago
Pros

We have been extremely happy with the ease of setup and training. The support team have been great to work with and super responsive when we have questions or concerns.

Cons

No real cons to address. It is still a work in progress and we look forward to the future changes that are coming.

EB
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Emily B.

Food & Beverages, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Makes scheduling a breeze

Reviewed 2 years ago

Nowsta is by far the most efficient and user friendly scheduling and time clock software that I have ever used! The customer support staff are awesome and respond very quickly when needed. Thank you!!

Pros

My favorite feature of Nowsta is the ability to publish available shifts to prequalified employees. I save so much time and send far less emails and text messages!

Cons

Some improvements could be made on the weekly view section. It is sometimes challenging to read the overall schedule for all departments, and there is not a way to easily print the schedule. Also, copying shifts should be faster. Maybe like a copy & paste function.

Vendor response

Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review! We're so glad you are loving Nowsta!

MD
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Michael D.

Food & Beverages, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Nowsta continues to pay for itself

Reviewed 2 years ago
Pros

When we implemented Nowsta, we saw immediate benefits. We saved a tremendous amount of time and work scheduling employees for events. Once we integrated Nowsta into our sales platform, Total Party Planner, we were speechless. This powerful one-two punch is instrumental in allowing us to get our focus off scheduling and admin, and onto growing our business.

Cons

Honestly, not much. It is easy to use, and now minimizes what was once a difficult task.

SM
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Salina M.

Food & Beverages, 201-500 employees

Used daily for 1-2 years

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Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Support at its finest

Reviewed 4 years ago

Five Stars. Polite, Professional, Collaborative and Creative. Couldnt ask for a better team to work with for staffing 300+ employees daily, year round.

Pros

how easy it is to use and how its even easier to get support from the Nowsta team at any point. The Nowsta team is always keeps it real professional and if they cant help with a solution on their end, they offer to help make one in the near future, which generally is executed in record time.

Cons

Anything I haven't liked, the Nowsta team has been able to integrate into the software for the most part.

MO
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Michelle O.

Hospitality, 11-50 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Amazing time tracking tool

Reviewed a year ago
Pros

It is very easy to use for all employees. It's easy to integrate with TPP and pay roll software. It's super easy to pull reports to check overall hours or who is on which event. I like that it tracks where people clock in and out so you can see

Cons

I haven't found anything that I dislike about the product. Whenever we have any issues the customer service has been great to assist us and try to find solutions.

HY
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Harley Y.

Hospitality, 201-500 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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The Answer To Any Hospitality Agency

Reviewed 4 years ago
Pros

I was one of the first users to Beta test this product and helped with the integration of the product. The Nowsta team always listens to my feedback and tweaked a lot of the elements to fit my particular needs. It's like having my own team of engineers to customize the product for my individual needs.

Cons

There were growing pains at the beginning, but within the past year it's been smooth sailing.

RC
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Ryan C.

Hospitality, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9/10

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Best event-based scheduling tool I've seen.

Reviewed 3 years ago

Overall, I've been very pleased. The best testament to our success with Nowsta is the praise and gratitude from my team members who use it the most. They love it far more than any other option we've tried.

Pros

Nowsta addresses and solves all the issues and shortcomings of trying to use non-event based software for an event based company like ours.

Cons

The existing reports are great, but I wish that customized reports were more readily and quickly available.

CH
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Colleen H.

Hospitality, 51-200 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Nowsta is amazing!

Reviewed 3 years ago
Pros

I really like having the ability to upload documents to events. This feature has made it incredibly easy for our team to communicate about event logistics through the app.

Cons

I wish there was a way for our managers to "Rate" our event staff after our shifts so that our Director of Hospitality could know how each staff member is performing without having to be at every event.

SH
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Stacey H.

Food & Beverages, 51-200 employees

Used weekly for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend8/10

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Organized Staffing

Reviewed 3 years ago

Nowsta has made scheduling and payroll so much easier to deal with. I don't have to hunt down staff to make sure they have their schedule, because they sign up for their shifts. I don't have to decipher time cards that have written in messages or double punches that overwrite each other. So much easier to deal with!

Pros

Since switching to Nowsta, it has become so much easier to keep staff organized and get them scheduled. The rating system also helps managers communicate about individual staff members whom may need a little extra training, or who really deserve a pat on the back. Keeping track of hours at mulitple sites is also a great asset. I really appreciate having this software available for us to use.

Cons

When an event cancels or postpones, it is difficult to remove it from the system. I've had the software reinstate staff when I went through and deleted them. I believe the administrator has brought this to your attention.