Buddy Punch vs Ximble

We learned the hard way how difficult it can be to find time tracking & employee scheduling software that feels perfect for your business. When we first decided to ditch manual methods of monitoring hours in favor of time tracking software, we went through dozens of options before we realized none of them were what we needed. Without any buying guides to keep us informed, we had to go through trial and error until we eventually decided to build our own tool, and Buddy Punch was born.

Times have changed since then. Time tracking options have evolved, and we have more information at our fingertips than ever to make smart purchasing decisions. To contribute to the empowering of consumers, we’re going to go over how Buddy Punch compares to one of our competitors, Ximble (now known as Paycor Scheduling).

Buddy Punch is our own software, created to work for businesses of any size (small business or enterprise) as an all-in-one solution. As such, it contains options for time tracking, employee scheduling, payroll management, and more. Despite having a varied list of features, we built our tool with a focus on ease of use so that anyone, employee or employer, can enjoy the benefits.

Ximble (now known as Paycor Scheduling) is a merger that combines Ximble’s time tracking and scheduling features with Paycor’s design and usability, all in the name of dynamism and flexibility. The end result is meant to be responsive scheduling and hassle-free shift swapping. They go out of their way to say this tool is particularly useful in the Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Restaurant industries.

Both tools come equipped with the basics when it comes to tracking billable hours throughout the workday. Features like real-time time clocks, mobile punching into timesheets, PTO, and overtime calculation & management are built into both tools. This includes highlights such as GPS tracking on clock in and clock out, Geofencing, functioning as both a Web-based tool or a mobile app (for iOS or Android) for comprehensive work hour tracking, and more. That said, there’s an argument that most of these features should be included in a modern software option by default at this point. When we dive into more specific features, we start to see that Buddy Punch has options that Ximble/Paycor lacks.

For example, Biometric Facial Recognition. While Ximble/Paycor Scheduling once had this feature, it was discontinued as of January 5th. Thankfully, Buddy Punch’s Facial Recognition is still functioning and completely usable for customers. This option helps cut down on the possibility of time theft by taking a webcam photo every time an employee punches in. This is then compared to screenshots on file to verify that someone clocking in is who they claim to be.

There are other features too, such as Buddy Punch’s Job Codes function which lets you create a custom code for each task in your business. When employees punch in, they can pick a job code to begin tracking, which lets you see how long certain tasks take to complete for the sake of calculating labor costs. This is a powerful feature for workforce and profitability optimization.

Buddy Punch also has an option for project management via the Managers feature, which allows you to elevate an employee to have control over other team members’ schedules. This level of delegation allows you to set an incentive for workers to strive for while the promoted Manager helps keep their subordinates on task.

Due to the array of time tracking features Buddy Punch contains that Paycor does not, we’ll say that Buddy Punch is a stronger pick in the time tracking category.

Here’s another category where there is plenty of overlap between the functions both tools have. Both Buddy Punch and Ximble/Paycor Scheduling allow you to create schedules through a drag & drop functionality, allow for employees to trade and swap shifts, have a function to force breaks (Automatic Breaks for Buddy Punch, while it’s called minimum rest times in Paycor), and send out weekly schedule updates/notifications through either email or SMS, depending on your settings.

However, only Buddy Punch has a Punch Limiting feature which can be used to automatically exert control over your workforce. This prevents employees with a habit of clocking in early or late from accidentally triggering overtime throughout the week.

On the flipside, Paycor has a Budget Planning feature which Buddy Punch lacks. This lets you select a dollar amount you don’t want to exceed for each day of the week, based on the pay rates of your staff.

Because both of these tools have the main scheduling options business owners would want, with a few different choices to decide between based on your personal preferences, we’ll say that this is a tie in the employee scheduling category.

The comparison between these two tools in the Payroll category is an inversion of what we at Buddy Punch normally see with competitors. Buddy Punch is one of a few time & workforce management options that comes with Built-In Payroll as a paid add-on for easy access, which is usually a huge distinguisher from our competitors. But since Ximble was integrated into Paycor, it comes with payroll built into every pricing plan by default. This is likely because Paycor is more of a HCM (Human Capital Management) tool than a time management tool. Buddy Punch’s Built-in Payroll and Ximble/Paycor’s Built-in Payroll share many of the same features:

  • Payroll Tax Compliance
  • Direct Deposit
  • Employee Self-service
  • Automated Payroll Runs
  • Payroll Reports

In this regard, we’ll say that Buddy Punch and Ximble/Paycor are tied in the built-in payroll category (though our next section will highlight one very big drawback to this on the Paycor side).

That said, Buddy Punch includes many common Payroll Provider Integrations, which Ximble/Paycor lacks. If you’re particularly attached to your third-party payroll provider, that’s one reason to prefer Buddy Punch. Our API integrates directly with popular payroll systems such as:

  • ADP
  • Paychex
  • Zapier
  • QuickBooks (one of the few that Ximble/Paycor also includes)

This category is another close one, but since we built Buddy Punch to integrate with the most popular payroll providers on the market (until we developed our own in-app solution for all payroll concerns) we’re going to give Buddy Punch a small edge here.

Perhaps the most important category at the end of the day: how much does each software option cost? It’s important to note that Ximble/Paycor no longer provides their pricing directly on their website, instead requiring businesses to reach out and inquire to find out details. However, we can see the prices they used to display. Another caveat: this is the pricing that they provided for small businesses, between 1-39 employees. Prices for mid-size companies or enterprises would likely be even higher.

Ximble/Paycor Scheduling was, at its cheapest, $99 per month, with an additional $5 per month being charged per employee. That is a steep price difference compared to Buddy Punch, which costs $7.99 per month per user plus the $19 base fee at its most expensive when it comes to pricing plans. With the built-in payroll addon added, you’re looking at paying an additional $39 per month plus $6 per user, which still puts you at a cheaper price for Buddy Punch’s most expensive plan compared to Ximble/Paycor’s least expensive plan.

This category isn’t even close in our opinion. Buddy Punch is significantly cheaper if your goal is attendance tracking, to manage employee schedules, and streamline payroll. Ximble/Paycor only makes financial sense if you’re particularly attached to other HCM features such as Wage Garnishments or Career Management, and even then you’d have to for the more expensive plans (which were once priced as expensive as $199 per month and $14 per employee per month).

The winner in the pricing category is Buddy Punch.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about these two attendance software options, but we’re far from unbiased, even if we’re trying to be. Let’s get a perspective from a different source: paying customers on the popular software review site Capterra.

Buddy Punch has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on Capterra, based on 967 reviews. Meanwhile, Ximble/Paycor has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 2778 reviews.

Additionally, Capterra measures four different categories from reviewers: ease of use, customer service, value for money, and likelihood to recommend. Buddy Punch has a score of 4.8 out of 5 in the first three individual categories, and 92% rating in the “likelihood to recommend” to a friend or colleague. In comparison, Ximble/Paycor is rated 4.3 for Ease of Use and Customer Service, and slightly lower at 4.2 for Value for Money. Additionally, its likelihood to recommend score is significantly lower than Buddy Punch, coming in at 73%.

By all metrics it appears that customers prefer Buddy Punch, so our software wins in this category.

While in several categories these two employee time, task management & scheduling, and payroll tools were actually quite comparable, we’d say that Buddy Punch is superior to Paycor and Ximble if you’re particularly concerned about time tracking options or affordability. That said, choosing which one is “best” really comes down to the unique demands of your workforce, as well as your general management style.

We built Buddy Punch to be a comprehensive solution for managing employee hours, scheduling, and payroll, all while maintaining an intuitive, user-friendly design. Between our myriad features and stellar user reviews, we’re proud to say we believe we accomplished this goal.

If you’re intrigued by this showcase and want to give Buddy Punch a try, you can sign up for a 14-day free trial here. You can also view a demo video here or click here to request your own one-on-one walkthrough. Buddy Punch can be used via web on Windows or Apple Desktop, or as a mobile time tracker via the apps available on mobile devices (iPhone and Android smartphones as well as tablets).

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Other Comparisons

With a robust collection of features and scalability, Buddy Punch truly is a notch higher than all the other time clock products in the market. Find out more about how we compare to the competition.