The 9 Best Crew Scheduling Software For Field Teams

ByEric Czerwonka Last Updated
5 Best Crew Scheduling Apps & Software

Construction businesses that use outdated methods like Excel spreadsheets to manage scheduling are all too familiar with the frustration of manually coordinating with crews via text or call. This is extremely inefficient and hurts your bottom line.

A much more efficient way to let your workers know exactly where they need to be at all times is to use a scheduling app. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the nine best crew scheduling software to help you find the perfect option for your business. 

1. Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch is a combined crew scheduling and time-tracking app that’s popular with construction companies and field services. With it, you can:

  • Create a work schedule for your crew in just a few easy steps.
  • Assign crew members to specific projects, locations, or jobs.
  • Notify crew members automatically when their schedule is published.
  • Create repeating shifts to build schedules easily.
  • View your team members’ availability when creating shifts.
  • Allow your crew to request shift trades and covers.
  • Set up shift reminder notifications.

Let’s dig into how Buddy Punch’s scheduling features can expedite the process of creating and managing schedules for your crew.

Create crew schedules easily

Buddy Punch’s drag-and-drop scheduling tool shows a list of your employees followed by the days of the week you’re creating a schedule for. 

To create a shift, click an empty spot on the calendar. In the window that pops up, you can set the hours for the shift; specify a job code, department, or location; specify if breaks should be included; and assign one or multiple employees to the shift.

This makes it easy if all of your crew members are going to work the same hours on the same job. You can just create one shift and assign everyone to it at the same time. And if you have crews working on multiple projects, you can just create one shift per job or location and assign the right employees to those shifts. 

Repeating shifts

If your crews work the same hours every day and week, you can set a shift to repeat at a specified interval — weekly, every weekday, monthly, and more. This adds (but does not publish) the shift you created to future schedules.

This lets you build future schedules quickly. All of your normal shifts will already be on the calendar as templates. All you need to do is go in and make any edits to the employees assigned and the locations (if necessary), then you’re ready to publish.

You can also set specific end dates for recurring shifts as needed. For example, if you know you will be working on a project for at least three months, you can set up the repeating shifts to end after those three months have passed.

Locations and departments

If you have employees who work in different locations or roles, you can also specify those locations and departments on the schedule. You can create departments for roles like foreman, technician, and crew and then add locations for all of your projects. Employees will see their roles and locations on their schedules.

You can also color-code the schedule per department or location to see at a glance where everyone is working, or you can filter your schedule to show specific locations, departments, employees, or job codes while you’re building it.

Schedule notifications

Once you publish your schedule, you can send a notification that it’s been published to all of your employees, select employees, or none of your employees, depending on your preferences.

The notifications can be sent to employees via email or through the Buddy Punch app, which is available on the web and on iOS and Android mobile devices. Employees can see their schedules at any time by logging into the Buddy Punch app.

You can also send notifications to employees when their schedules change after they’ve been published so everyone knows exactly when they’re working and where they need to be at all times.

Employee availability

The availability feature allows employees (or administrators on an employee’s behalf) to enter preferred or unavailable work hours. This information can then be used when creating shifts to ensure employees’ preferences are considered.

If you try to schedule an employee during a time when they’re unavailable, Buddy Punch will alert you of the issue so you can make changes before publishing the schedule. It will also show unavailable times on the calendar so you know who’s available to be scheduled for shifts.

Shift trades and covers

When employees can’t work a shift they’re scheduled for, they can request a shift trade or cover by clicking that shift on their schedule.

If you want to manage shift trades and covers yourself, you can set it up so you get a notification and can assign someone else to the shift.

However, you can also let employees manage this on their end. They can send the trade or cover request to their coworkers who will get notified of the request. If someone accepts it, the schedule is automatically updated with the new assignments.

If you want employees to be able to manage their trades and covers but want to have an approval layer where you approve requests before they’re added to the schedule, you can do that too.

Additional features

Buddy Punch works best when you use it as a combined scheduling and time-tracking system. This opens up additional features to help you save time and reduce labor costs, such as automatic punch-outs, which automatically clocks employees out at the end of their shifts, and punch limiting, which prevents employees from clocking in before their shifts start.

Beyond its scheduling features, Buddy Punch can also be used as a time clock to track employee time overall and by project. The time clock comes with all of the features that field crews need, like geofencing, job codes, GPS tracking, and more that help you expedite payroll and invoicing and prevent time theft.

Customer reviews

Buddy Punch has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 1,000+ reviews. Here’s what a few of its customers have to say about it.

“The product is extremely user-friendly. It is very easy to clock in/out and to schedule staff.”

“Having the availability option makes keeping up with personal time very simple. The features that allow changes to time and scheduling are simple, quick, and easy to perform.

“Buddy Punch is a great product that has allowed us to better track our technicians’ hours. They are on the road 3-4 days a week, and Buddy Punch helps us know where they are when they punch in/out and whether they are staying on schedule.”

“The ease of this software helps me post schedules quickly. I have three businesses and staff that float between all. The color coding system helps me see what employee or department needs attention.”

Pricing

Buddy Punch offers a free 14-day trial — no credit card required. Its base employee scheduling plan starts at $5.49 per user per month plus a $19 per month base fee.

Want to learn more about Buddy Punch? Start a free trial, watch a recorded demo, or request a personalized demo.

2. Crew

Crew’s schedule management software is best for those looking to streamline employee communication. It has scheduling and communication tools catered to field services teams, as well as other unique features like employee surveys and employee recognition programs. Other key functionality includes:

Crew has an overall 4.7 out of 5-star rating on Capterra out of 38 total reviews. Here’s what one customer has to say about the platform:

“Before Crew, team communication was very difficult in an organization that has several job site locations. Crew has enabled everyone to stay current on changes and updates. This has had a positive effect on the service that we provide.”

3. Aspire Crew Control

Aspire Crew Control is best if you need features that are much more specific to field teams, like a customer notifications workflow that allows you to keep your customers up to date on service dates and when technicians are on their way. Other features, such as electronic proposals, can help you reach out to prospects and win more work. 

Key features of Aspire Crew Control include:

Aspire Crew Control has an overall 4.8 out of 5-star rating on Capterra out of 57 total reviews. Here’s one customer’s review of the platform:

“It was a challenge to get our foremen on board to use it. Now, they wouldn’t want it any other way. They have their schedule sent to them early in the day, and changes can be made on the fly. After the learning curve and the ongoing updates, it’s so much better.”

4. Sling

Sling’s crew management app is best for those who need a little mix of everything. It offers multiple features of other HR tools packed into one. Sling could be especially useful for smaller businesses with simple needs, as the free plan allows for up to 50 users and has all of the scheduling and employee communication features included. 

Key features of Sling include:

Sling has an overall 4.7 out of 5-star rating on Capterra out of 164 total reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“I especially like being able to copy a previously posted schedule into a future period, employees being able to post unavailability, employees being able to make time off requests, employees being able to view who they are working with on a scheduled day, and the ease in changing a schedule when a sick call comes in or an employee emergency happens.”

5. BuildOps

BuildOps is the most technical of everything on this list, and it offers a lot more specific features catered toward field teams and businesses with traveling employees. BuildOps has the unique feature of precision prospecting, where you can locate and strategize better sales opportunities. BuildOps also features both fleet control and dispatch control features for traveling employees.

Other key features include:

BuildOps has an overall 4.6 out of 5-star rating on Capterra out of 136 total reviews. Here’s what customers have to say about the app:

“Simple navigation and user-friendly interface. Clean, well-organized pages with easy-to-see information. This program easily handles our larger client asset lists and service agreements. Technician communication with dispatch is easy with job flags, and our integration with QuickBooks Online has been seamless.”

6. Pro Crew Schedule

Pro Crew Schedule is the best rostering app for project tracking and management, with its progress tracking, inventory management, pricing estimate, and profitability tracking features all giving you plenty of useful tools for making sure your business is getting work done. 

Other features that add to this are the task view and unassigned tasks that give you an easy view into the nitty gritty of what needs to be done and what you can assign to your employees. Other unique features include:

Pro Crew Schedule has an overall 4.0 out of 5-star rating on Capterra with 1 review. The review says:

“It makes scheduling very easy and fast. When we started using the program, it cut my scheduling time way down, and now I don’t have to email the crews their schedules.”

7. Rentman

Rentman is best for businesses that own and manage rental businesses, as well as those who need better control of their inventory. Rentman is specifically catered towards managing rentals, but their features for inventory and equipment management are complex and unique on this list. 

The main pull for this is the RFID tracking Rentman offers, which makes inventory and equipment tracking much easier and can save hours of time. Other key features include:

Rentman has an overall 4.6 out of 5-star rating on Capterra out of 142 total reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“Being in the warehouse, I like to start my day by browsing the ‘projects’ tab. I feel it is laid out nicely. I know right away which jobs are in the works or have the green light for me to prep. It’s a great tool for me to wrap my head around each job. I can easily go to projects and open up a production breakdown for a job. Very helpful!”

8. Assignar

Assignar is best for those who only need scheduling software. It has a few more scheduling features that might be helpful for a business that doesn’t need the time-tracking and HR features that most of the other products on this list provide. 

Assignar has some interesting features like the recommendation engine and the activity breakdown, which simplify and automate scheduling by skill and make sure you know exactly what your employees are doing and when. 

Other key features include:

Assignar has an overall 4.6 out of 5-star rating on Capterra out of 70 total reviews. Here’s what customers like about the software:

“It has a wide range of capabilities and is highly customizable. The support center always responds quickly, is super helpful, and aims to solve any issues quickly, raising them to other levels or parts of the business if they need to. I really like the insights feature and the ability for an admin user to create and play around with that.”

9. Connecteam

Connecteam is a great option for those who need more HR-centric or employee-focused features. It’s mostly focused on communication optimization between you and your employees. Connecteam is also the only option on this list that includes employee training systems within the software. Its key features include:

Connecteam has an overall 4.8 out of 5-star rating on Capterra out of 338 total reviews. Here’s what one customer has to say about it:

“Overall, the experience has been amazing. It has been a long journey, and we are still looking at rolling out some features to our teams. It has been challenging, but anytime we have had an issue, the team on live chat has been outstanding and never failed to find a solution for us.”

Runner-up software solutions that didn’t quite make it onto this list include CrewTracks, Workyard, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service. 

Choosing the right crew scheduling app for your business

With the nine options that have been explored so far, it’s still up to you to decide what to go with as everyone has different needs and budgets for their businesses. Always remember that many of these tools provide free trials and demos for you to see how well it may work out. 

If you need something that will help you communicate with your employees effectively, Crew can be great for larger operations, and Connecteam can be great for smaller businesses.

Buddy Punch can provide absolutely everything you will need and will help in all aspects of workforce management and running your business. If you need a team player, Buddy Punch is here for you.