4 Homebase Alternatives & Competitors (2024)

ByNick Murphy Last Updated

When you’re looking for a Homebase alternative, you want to make sure your new software offers the key features you need.

For example, you may be looking at Homebase competitors because you need:

  • A different type of online time clock 
  • A different payroll system
  • A different scheduling system
  • A different PTO tracking system

Or maybe you’re just unsatisfied with the Homebase user experience or pricing. 

To help you find a Homebase alternative that will work for you, we cover these 4 options.

4 Homebase Alternatives & Leading Competitors

  1. Buddy Punch
  2. QuickBooks Time
  3. When I Work
  4. Replicon

Note: To learn more about Buddy Punch, visit our site here and sign up for a free trial.

#1. Buddy Punch: Best Homebase Alternative Overall

Best Homebase Alternative Overall

In the 8+ years we’ve run Buddy Punch, we’ve had countless conversations with businesses about the challenges they faced when tracking time for their employees using traditional methods (i.e., paper time cards and timesheets, Excel spreadsheets, etc.).

Sometimes the issues discussed were specific to accuracy and efficiency, such as accurately tracking time worked and making sure employees were clocking in and out honestly. Other conversations were specific to the pains of integrating a spreadsheet with other software (like running payroll with hour worked stored in an Excel file).

Out of these conversations, we built a tool that can help your business in several key areas.

Specifically, Buddy Punch is a Homebase alternative that can help you:

  • Track time accurately.  Buddy Punch is web-based time clock software that your team can use on their smart devices (mobile phones, tablets, computers). We offer advanced time clock features (covered below) that ensure your team is clocking in accurately and honestly, such as geofencing and IP address locking.  You can also track salaried employees.
  • Easily make work schedules: You can quickly create work schedules with Buddy Punch, using features like drag-and-drop software, repeating shifts, employee availability, and shift swapping.
  • Track PTO: Buddy Punch can track your team’s PTO. Employees can check their PTO balance, see a PTO calendar, and submit new time off requests. Plus, you can customize how PTO is accrued for each employee.
  • Run payroll: Running payroll manually using inaccurate timesheets can be an inefficient and arduous process. You can use Buddy Punch as your payroll software (we offer key features like 2-day and 4-day processing, auto-payroll, and direct deposit), or you can integrate Buddy Punch with leading payroll processes (such as ADP and Gusto).

To better see if Buddy Punch is the best Homebase alternative for you, you can sign up for a free trial, request a demo, or keep reading below, where we cover how you can:

Increase Accountability for Your Team with:

Streamline Payroll with:

Simplify Scheduling with:

Below, we’ll explore each of these features in detail.

Buddy Punch’s Accountability Features

A lack of accountability from your employees when punching in/out of work leads to inaccurate timesheets. We learned this lesson in our previous business endeavor, when we struggled to track time for over 20 employees (across three different business locations).

If you can’t keep your employees honest, you’ll waste countless hours and money trying to fix inaccuracies and reduce labor costs when it’s time to run payroll.

This is why we built the following features:

Geofencing

Buddy Punch's Geofencing feature

Our Geofencing feature allows you to set up limiting radiuses to your employees’ punches, meaning if they attempt to punch outside your predetermined radius, our app will show them an error message.

To set up a Geofence, simply log in to the Buddy Punch platform, input the address you’d like to act as the center of your Geofence, and select the radius coordinates.

GPS Tracking

Punch Map in Buddy Punch

Our GPS Tracking feature leverages your employees’ mobile device GPS technology to keep track of where and when they punch in/out of work.

This information is tracked automatically, and recorded in your employees’ timecards and the Buddy Punch platform for your review.

IP Address Locking

Buddy Punch's IP Address Lock feature

With IP Address Locking, you can add an extra layer of accountability to all your employees’ punches. This feature allows you to designate a specific IP Address your employees have to be connected to before they can punch in/out of work (your office’s Wi-Fi network, for example).

To activate this feature, log in to the Buddy Punch platform and input your desired IP Address for the lock, as shown above.

Photos on Punch

Buddy Punch's Photo on Punch feature

Our Photos on Punch feature, when active, makes it so your employees need to take a photo of themselves in order to punch in/out of work, as pictured above.

These photos are then centralized in the Buddy Punch administrator dashboard, and saved in each of your employees’ timecards. You can review photos on a per-employee basis, or all at once.

Facial Recognition

Punch History in Buddy Punch

When you activate our Facial Recognition feature, our app will prompt your employees to do a biometric scan of their faces before they can submit their punches.

If our app doesn’t recognize a face, the punch is considered invalid. This prevents buddy punching (i.e. an employee having one of their coworkers punch in their stead).

These advanced clock in and clock out features are all optional. You can pick and choose which ones are perfect for your business. And this variety of features makes Buddy Punch the ideal time tracking option for all types of employees: full time, part time, seasonal, contractor workers, freelancers, and more.

Payroll Features

Even if your employees are honest when punching in and out, the payroll process is still notoriously time-consuming, error-prone and arduous.

To solve these challenges, we built the following features:

Buddy Punch Payroll

Easily Import Time into Payroll with Buddy Punch

You can run payroll directly from Buddy Punch. This means you don’t need to juggle multiple platforms: one for writing schedules, one for time tracking, and one for payroll. You can do all of it with Buddy Punch.

Buddy Punch will handle all payroll taxes and give your team a self-service portal where employees can log in and set up their banking info. This way, they can get paid via direct deposit. You can also pay employees by checks.

When you run payroll with Buddy Punch, you pick the pay period to issue. Then you can review your team’s records quickly and make any necessary changes. For example, you can add additional earnings to someone’s pay. Let’s say you have a commission structure where employees are paid out extra earnings once a month. You can take those earnings and add them to their paycheck.

Add additional earnings such as bonuses and commissions to an employee’s timecard

Sometimes a company wants a different time clock or scheduling system, but doesn’t want to switch their payroll provider just yet. In this case, you can use integrate Buddy Punch with your current payroll provider, which we cover next.

Integrations with Payroll Providers

Payroll Integrations with Buddy Punch

We integrate with most top payroll provider APIs such as QuickBooks, Paychex, SurePayroll, PayPlus, ADP, Paylocity, Workday, Gusto, Paycor, and more.

This means our app can automatically transfer all relevant payroll information (regular hours worked, PTO, overtime, etc.) to your chosen payroll provider. This is faster and more efficient than manually inputting the data into your payroll provider.

Note: Click here to see a full list of our payroll provider integrations.

Payroll Reports on Demand

Excel Weekly Time Sheet Export with Buddy Punch

At Buddy Punch, all relevant payroll data (hours & minutes worked per employee, time off data, overtime, location, and more) is automatically calculated, and can be easily exported in an Excel or PDF format. This helps bypass the challenges inherent to doing manual calculations come payroll time.

Time Off Tracking

Time Off Timecards for each employee in Buddy Punch

With Buddy Punch, you also get key leave management features. Employees can request time off (paid or unpaid) with just a few clicks within our app.

This information is then sent to you, the employer, for approval.

To find all time off requests pending approval, log in to the Buddy Punch administrator dashboard and look for the ‘Pending Approval’ sign, as pictured below:

Time Off Pending Approval in Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch also offers an in-app time off summary.

Your employees can take advantage of this summary to easily check their time off balance, future balance, or look at their history of time off taken.

Time Off Summary and PTO History in Buddy Punch

Track Employee Hours by Jobs, Projects, or Locations

Hours Report by Location, Department, Position, Time Off

Per the screenshot above, Buddy Punch comes with several different “Hours Reports”, segmented by “Location”, “Department” or “Position”, which you can generate with just a few clicks. We also offer a “Time Off Report”.

For a more detailed explanation of how our reports work and how to set up codes for your team to punch into, see this video.

Accruals

Time Off Accrual Rules in Buddy Punch

You can use our Accruals feature to manage all your business’ accrual needs without breaking a sweat.

Simply navigate to the accrual rules section of the administrator dashboard and create accrual rule(s), which can be based on hours worked (total), or on a specified pay period including annual accrual.

Scheduling Features

Last but not least, Buddy Punch offers several basic scheduling features that our customers find helpful.

These features include:

Drag & Drop Scheduling

Drag and Drop Scheduling in Buddy Punch

To make the schedule-crafting process simple and effortless, we set out to build our scheduling functionalities following a Drag & Drop principle.

First, decide on what shifts will best fit each of your employees by clicking on the empty slot next to their name to create a new shift. Then drag and drop to visually reorganize shifts until the result is one you’re happy with.

Repeating/Recurring Shifts

Recurring & Repeating Schedules in Buddy Punch

To reduce the time you spend making schedules for your team (by not having to create multiple drafts of a schedule from scratch) use our Repeating/Recurring Shifts feature, which allows you to have schedules repeat over specified regular periods.

These include weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

Employee Availability

Scheduling: Open Shifts in Buddy Punch

When creating employee schedules, one of the biggest hurdles is not knowing in advance what shifts your employees would like to work. To bypass this hurdle, we built an Employee Availability feature, which makes it so your employees tell you about their shift preferences in advance.

To do so, your employees log in to the Buddy Punch app, navigate to the “Employee Availability” section, and select the shifts they prefer to work — subject to your approval.

Our administrator dashboard will be automatically populated with all that information when you next set out to build schedules for your team.

Punch Limiting

Add a New Punch Limiting Rule in Buddy Punch

To prevent your employees from punching in a few minutes early or punching out a few minutes late, use our Punch Limiting feature.

Using the example in the above screenshot, employees wouldn’t be able to punch 15 minutes before or after their scheduled shift.

Notify Employees When You Publish Their Shift

Publishing a Schedule in Buddy Punch

Employees can easily access their work schedule, no matter when and where, as long as they have access to the Buddy Punch mobile app or website.

Additionally, you can make it so that each time a shift is published, your staff is notified via email or mobile push notification (not unlike text messaging).

Buddy Punch comes with many other notifications for schedules, including:

  • Shift Start Reminder & Shift End Reminder
  • Late In Alert & Late Out Alert
  • Early In Alert & Early Out Alert
  • And more

Additional Features

We’ve detailed each of Buddy Punch’s key features when it comes to accountability, payroll and scheduling. But that’s not all we have to offer! Our platform comes with many other features, which you can pick and choose from to best fit your business needs.

These features include:

Interested in Learning More?

To learn more about Buddy Punch and all its key features, watch our demo below:

If you’d like more information about our platform, sign up for a free trial or schedule a 1-on-1 demo.

#2. QuickBooks Time (Formerly TSheets): Best Homebase Alternative for Payroll

QuickBooks Time (formerly known as TSheets) is another SaaS time clock app that was initially created to solve small businesses’ time tracking and accountability needs. They have since expanded to also cover scheduling and other aspects.

QuickBooks Time is one of the biggest players in the space, which is why we’ve written an article on how Buddy Punch differentiates from them.

As we discussed in that article, there are two key aspects that differentiate Buddy Punch from QuickBooks Time:

  1. Buddy Punch’s intuitive and easy-to-use app interface.
  2. Buddy Punch’s large emphasis on customer support.

#3: When I Work: Best Homebase Alternative for Scheduling

If you’re a project manager looking for a time clock app whose strength lies in scheduling, then When I Work may may be the best fit for you.

Unlike Buddy Punch and QuickBooks Time, When I Work was conceived as a scheduling software first, and then expanded to cover time tracking, accountability, and payroll-related features.

#4: Replicon: Best Homebase Competitor for Enterprise Companies

Unlike Homebase competitors like Buddy Punch, QuickBooks Time, and When I Work, Replicon is a tool built specifically to serve enterprise companies.

Replicon customers can customize their time-tracking, payroll, and scheduling setup however they like, and get assigned a customer support representative whom they can call whenever they need. That said, Replicon comes with a higher price tag compared to other time clock apps.

Note: We’re proud of what we’ve built at Buddy Punch. Our tool helps you spend less time worrying about time tracking, scheduling, and payroll. To learn more about Buddy Punch, visit our site here and sign up for a free trial or book a 1-on-1 demo. 

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