4 Best Scheduling Software with GPS (In-Depth Look)
Businesses often turn to Buddy Punch — our scheduling software with GPS — because:
- They have employees that are out in the field (or they can’t be on site where their employees are), and they need an easy way to verify the location of employees.
- Their current scheduling method (e.g., Excel) is too inefficient, and they’re wasting too much time manually coordinating with employees via text, call, email, and so on. They want software that makes it easy to publish shifts, automatically notify employees if any changes are made to the schedule, and so on.
In this article, we’ll:
- Start by sharing how our GPS Tracking and Geofencing features work.
- Then, we’ll discuss all the various scheduling features we offer.
- Finally, we’ll list three other scheduling software with GPS and empower you to research for yourself to make an informed decision.
Best Scheduling Software with GPS
1. Buddy Punch
While Buddy Punch offers a wide range of features, in this section, we’ll focus on GPS Tracking, Geofencing, and Employee Scheduling.
GPS Tracking
If enabled, Buddy Punch will gather GPS coordinates each time an employee punches in or out. You can then review these GPS coordinates on each punch (per the above image) to verify the location of your employees.
This feature can be customized to the needs of your business.
For example, you can choose to only activate GPS Tracking for some employees:
Click here to read more about setting up GPS tracking.
Geofencing
In addition to GPS Tracking, we also offer Geofencing. Up next, we’ll discuss (1) how this feature works and (2) how it’s different from GPS Tracking.
Geofencing lets you restrict the location from where employees can punch in or out.
To do so, simply:
- Enter the location of your geofence (e.g., 123 Main Street).
- Select a radius around your location (e.g., 300 feet).
Using the above example, employees will only be able to punch in and out within 300 feet of 123 Main Street.
If they attempt to submit a punch outside your designated geofence area, they’ll receive an error message:
Click here to read more about setting up Geofencing.
How is Geofencing different from GPS Tracking?
Geofencing is a punch limiter, meaning it restricts employees from submitting a punch outside of a certain location.
On the other hand, while GPS Tracking shows you each employee’s punch location, it does not restrictemployees from submitting a punch outside of a designated area.
Geofencing is a better fit when you already know which worksite(s) your employees will be punching in and out from.
For example, if you know that your construction crew will be working at two predetermined worksites throughout the week, you can create a geofence for each of those locations.
GPS Tracking is a better fit if your employees visit several different locations throughout the day (e.g., salespeople who travel door to door). If you had five employees who punch in from eight different locations each day, naturally, it would be a logistical nightmare to create 40 daily geofences.
Scheduling Features
Watch the short video below, and in less than one minute, you’ll get a quick overview of our key scheduling features (and see how easy it is to use):
Create a Schedule in Just a Few Clicks
To create a schedule with Buddy Punch, simply:
1. Click on an open area in the calendar:
2. Enter the relevant shift details:
This includes:
- Who the shift will be assigned to (e.g., Dakota Johnson).
- Shift date and duration (e.g., Monday and Thursday from 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM).
- Whether the shift will repeat (e.g., Repeat weekly on Mondays and Thursdays).
- Location, Department Code, and more.
3. If needed, easily drag and drop shifts around the calendar until the schedule is to your liking.
4. Hit “Publish”.
Automatically Notify Employees When Their Shift is Published
Buddy Punch automatically notifies employees when their shift is published (or if any changes have been made to it) via mobile push notifications, email, or both.
This is a significant benefit to using an employee scheduling software, since you spend less time manually coordinating with employees via text/call/email while freeing up time for other areas of your business.
Click here to learn more about notifying employees of published shifts.
Repeating Shifts
With Buddy Punch, rather than constantly recreating the same shifts, you can set them to repeat at regular intervals, such as:
- Every weekday.
- Every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.
- Monthly on the first day of the month.
- Annually on January 5.
These are just a few examples. You can customize the schedule to fit your needs.
Click here to learn more about setting up Repeating Shifts.
Employee Availability
With this feature:
- Employees set their available and unavailable hours with ease (using our mobile app or any other device of their choice).
- This information is displayed on the calendar (per the above image), so the next time you create a schedule, you can accurately assign shifts.
Click here to learn more about setting up Employee Availability.
Shift Trades & Covers
Employees can easily send shift trade and cover requests to one another within the Buddy Punch app. These can be automatically approved or subject to an administrator’s approval (based on preference).
Click here to learn more about setting up Shift Trades & Covers.
Shift Start Reminder
Per the above image, you can configure an alert to be sent to employees who do not punch in within ‘X’ minutes of the start of their shift.
This can be a mobile push notification, email alert, or both.
Note that we offer many other scheduling notification features — click here to see an overview — including but not limited to Shift End Reminder, Late In and Out Alerts, Early In and Out Alerts, and so on.
Buddy Punch Offers Many Other Features
In this article, we’ve focused on GPS Tracking, Geofencing, and Employee Scheduling. However, Buddy Punch offers many other features. Click here to see our full list of Time Tracking features.
Online Reviews
As of this writing, Buddy Punch has 659 reviews and 4.8 / 5 stars on Capterra.
While you can see the full list of reviews here, below is a small sampling:
“We love the fact that we can simply step away from the old school “micro-managerial” format of chasing people’s hours down. The fact that it locates where and when the employee signs in/out is great for our management team from not only a time card perspective but also in determining where they are. We work in construction and have multiple sites in which our employees work. This tool provides me one location to see when they arrived and exactly where they are. Great benefit.”
Click here to read the full review.
“Another major perk for our catering department is having the ability to require GPS location for login when employees begin and end off-site. This feature has made labor tracking more accurate and dependable, as we no longer have to rely on the site manager to send email updates about employee punches… Setting up locations, employees and punch restrictions was extremely easy… The customer support at Buddy Punch is also quick to respond and very informative. I would highly recommend Buddy Punch to businesses looking for an affordable and effective timekeeping solution.”
Click here to read the full review.
“Poor service is one of the main reasons we left our last scheduling and payroll reporting software… The Buddy Punch Customer Service is excellent.. When I have a question, Buddy Punch really LISTENS and always walks me through the answer or offers to help themselves.”
Click here to read the full review.
“Provides accountability for our employees with the location settings such as GPS/Geofence. Provides a variety of reports that are helpful. Provides our employees with mobility–we can send them to any job site, and they have the ability to punch in/out.”
Click here to read the full review.
“I like that I can turn the GPS tracker on and off. I also like the ability to track where employees are because prior to this app we had an employee who was being dishonest about where they were and it cost us money… This program does exactly what I want it to do. I needed a simple time keeping app where I could customize things to suit each employee and I found it.”
Click here to read the full review.
Interested in Trying Out Buddy Punch?
Sign up for a free trial and/or request a 1-on-1 demo, where we’ll learn about your company, suggest how you can best utilize Buddy Punch, and answer any questions you may have.
2. Hubstaff
Hubstaff offers various features and functionality. Just to name a few:
- GPS Location Tracking
- Employee Scheduling
- Online Time Reporting
- Automated Payroll & Invoicing
- Employee Productivity Monitoring
- And more
It’s a great employee scheduling software with GPS. As of this writing, it has 1227 reviews on Capterra and 4.6 / 5 stars.
“This is great to keep track of employees who don’t work in the office… Keeps honest people honest. Has GPS tracking so you know where the employees are.”
Click here to read the full review.
3. eBillity
eBillity offers various features and functionality. Just to name a few:
- GPS Time Tracking
- Employee Scheduling
- Employee Time and Attendance Tracking
- Employee Time Approval
- Time Clock
- And more
It’s a great GPS scheduling software. As of this writing, it has 2423 reviews on Capterra and 4.3 / 5 stars.
“It tracks employee time with GPS accuracy. It can be used as a standalone solution to track time, invoice clients and run payroll or it can be integrated with QuickBooks. eBillity Time Tracker lets us manage our business online, on the phone or on the go through our GPS tracking app helping to increase revenue, reduce administration costs and improve profitability.”
Click here to read the full review.
4. Connecteam
Connecteam offers various features and functionality. Just to name a few:
- GPS Tracking
- Employee Scheduling
- Employee Time Clock
- Employee Task Management
- Employee Training
- Employee Communication
- Checklists and Forms
- And more
It’s a great employee scheduling app with GPS. As of this writing, it has 136 reviews and 4.8 / 5 stars on Capterra.
“We like the GPS location reporting of where our team members are clocking in from. Being in the construction field, our job-sites change on a daily basis. Great value for the savings we received from either accidental or intentional time punches.”
Click here to read the full review.
Interested in Trying Out Buddy Punch?
Sign up for a free trial and/or request a 1-on-1 demo, where we’ll learn about your company, suggest how you can best utilize Buddy Punch, and answer any questions you may have.
