When I Work

When I Work is an employee scheduling and time tracking app for hourly and shift workers — providing schedule creation, shift swapping, time clock, and team messaging for restaurants, retail, and service businesses.

What Makes When I Work Stand Out

Free for up to 75 employees — genuinely useful for small businesses. Mobile-first design for employees to check schedules and request changes

Shift swap and open shift features reduce manager scheduling overhead

Pricing and Plans

When I Work offers a free tier that provides meaningful value for individuals and small teams, with paid plans unlocking additional capabilities as needs grow.

Who Should Use When I Work

When I Work is best for teams and individuals who need shift scheduling capabilities and where free for up to 75 employees — genuinely useful for small businesses. It may not be the right fit when free tier lacks time tracking — needs standard plan.

Verdict

When I Work delivers on its core promise as a shift scheduling tool. When I Work is an employee scheduling and time tracking app for hourly and shift workers — providing... For teams evaluating shift scheduling options, When I Work is worth considering based on its specific strengths and how they align with your requirements.

Payroll Integration

When I Work integrates with payroll systems including ADP, Gusto, and QuickBooks — syncing approved time card data directly to payroll without manual export/import. This integration eliminates a high-error manual process where timesheet totals were copied to payroll systems, often introducing mistakes that required employee correction.

Schedule Templates and Forecasting

When I Work stores and applies schedule templates for recurring time periods — enabling managers to apply last week's schedule as a starting point rather than rebuilding from blank. Basic labor cost forecasting shows total scheduled hours and estimated wage cost as the schedule is built, enabling staying within labor budget before publishing.

Overall rating: 4.1 / 5

When I Work is the employee scheduling and time tracking platform for hourly workforces — used by restaurants, retail, healthcare, and service businesses to create and manage staff schedules, track attendance, and communicate with hourly employees.

Scheduling for Hourly Teams

When I Work addresses the specific challenges of hourly workforce scheduling: accommodating employee availability preferences, managing shift swaps, handling callouts, and ensuring adequate coverage for peak periods — workflows that differ significantly from professional knowledge worker scheduling.

The drag-and-drop schedule builder enables building weekly schedules visually, copying previous schedules as templates, and publishing changes that notify employees immediately through the mobile app.

Employee Self-Service

When I Work's employee app enables self-service beyond just viewing schedules: requesting time off, offering shifts for swap, notifying unavailability, and clocking in and out through geofenced clock-ins that verify employees are physically at the worksite when punching in.

This self-service capability reduces manager administrative burden: employees manage their own availability changes and trade requests rather than calling or texting managers for every scheduling adjustment.

When I Work vs. Homebase vs. Deputy

Homebase has a more generous free tier and better for very small teams. Deputy handles complex enterprise shift patterns better. When I Work has the best employee-facing mobile app experience, making it preferred when employee adoption and self-service are the priority.

Overall rating: 4.1 / 5