Buddy Punch vs. Deputy

Buddy Punch vs. Deputy: Side-By-Side Comparison

Buddy Punch vs. Deputy: Detailed Comparison

Buddy Punch and Deputy are both effective time tracking and scheduling apps, but each one excels for different types of companies. Read on to determine which tool is right for you.

Buddy Punch offers more location-tracking features

While both tools have location-monitoring features like GPS on punch and geofencing, Buddy Punch is more flexible in the usage of these features. 

Buddy Punch’s GPS on punch feature logs employee locations on their timesheets when workers clock in and out, same as Deputy. However, Buddy Punch also allows you to track employees’ locations in real-time across the entire workday. You can see where everyone is located at any time on a map and access breadcrumb trails of their movements.

Additionally, Buddy Punch’s geofencing features allows for more customization in the size of your geofences. A geofence in Buddy Punch can be as small as 50 meters and as large as 1,500 meters, while Deputy’s geofences can only be as small as 100 meters and as large as 1,000 meters. 

Deputy offers more advanced scheduling features

Both tools let you create employee schedules, track employee availability, and enable shift trades and covers. Both let you schedule employees by both position and location. However, Deputy has two features that Buddy Punch lacks: auto scheduling and labor forecasting. 

Deputy’s auto scheduling is an AI-powered feature that builds schedules based on forecasted sales, delivery orders, foot traffic, and other trends based on data collected.

Deputy’s labor forecasting lets business owners optimize their company by using data pulled from labor percentage, job demand, and other benchmarks. This tool can also make use of hour and wage budgets for cost-effective scheduling. 

Buddy Punch excels in ease of use and customer support

Deputy’s live chat uses chatbot automation to funnel your questions towards prewritten responses. Technical help requests are routed to their help center or directed to email.

Compare this to Buddy Punch, where live chat immediately puts you in contact with a human support agent who understands the product inside and out.

From customer support to the application itself, Buddy Punch is a user-friendly tool designed to help even less tech-savvy workers make the most of it. As one customer says: 

The difference in the two platforms can be seen in their customer reviews. On Capterra, Buddy Punch has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 in both the ease of use and customer support categories. In contrast, Deputy is rated 4.5 out of 5 for both ease of use and customer service.

Deputy offers more integrations

Deputy has a wide range of integrations available, with a list of over 50 options across categories including payroll, point of sale, human resources, and others. If you have software you’re attached to, it’s more likely that Deputy works directly with it than Buddy Punch.

That said, Buddy Punch is far more capable of functioning as an all-in-one employee management tool that could replace your need for third-party tools. In addition to offering a number of integrations with payroll tools, Buddy Punch also has its own built-in payroll feature. 

Buddy Punch offers greater accessibility

Both Deputy and Buddy Punch offer employees numerous ways to clock in and out across web, iOS, and Android devices. Users can punch in using usernames and passwords, single sign-on, and facial recognition. But Buddy Punch offers a couple of additional options, allowing employees to clock in/out using QR codes or letting supervisors punch for everyone at once.

Additionally, Buddy Punch doesn’t require that your employees have unique email addresses in order to create accounts for them. A single admin email address can be used to create accounts for all employees. This makes it a better option for businesses where employees aren’t all automatically assigned company email addresses.

Buddy Punch’s commitment to convenience and accessibility can also be seen in its individual features. It has an automatic punch out feature that will automatically clock out employees at the end of their shifts and a punch limiting feature that prevents employees from clocking in before they’re scheduled to work. These are especially useful for preventing unplanned overtime.

Who Deputy is right for vs. who Buddy Punch is right for

If your primary goal is to get an advanced scheduling tool that will save you time creating work schedules, Deputy is probably the right choice for your team. It’s a great option for retail and service businesses that have irregular busy and slow periods because it can help you identify trends and create schedules that accommodate them automatically.

However, if you’re looking for an advanced time tracking tool that also has great employee scheduling features, Buddy Punch is right for you. It’s the more feature-rich option for time tracking, it’s simpler to use, and its customer support team is readily available to help everyone on your team get up and running with the software.