Software for employee management is sold by its modules and used for its documents. The record per person; the contract, the handbook acknowledgment, the onboarding checklist, the hours, the reviews and the write-ups against it; each asked for when due, signed, locked and exportable. That is the product. Scheduling, messaging and the dashboard are packaging, useful or not. The tools on this site print every document free, without an account; this page is the test to run and the prices from the vendors' pages.
The documents
The employee contract tool, the employee handbook template, the onboarding checklist and the employee review template on this site print the four every small employer needs from the first hire. The software's job is to sign, lock and keep them against the person.
The chase
The review on the date, the handbook re-acknowledged on a change, the timecard approved before the run on the DOL rule cited below. On the trial, date one hire a month back and watch who is told. If nobody is told, the software has a calendar and not a chase.
The packaging
Scheduling, shift swaps, messaging, a dashboard. Worth having when the record underneath is right; a distraction when it is not. Test the record first. A shift-swap feature on top of a record that cannot find last year's review is a feature on top of nothing, and the trial should start with the record.
The price
From the vendors' own pricing pages, cited below: Homebase lists its Essentials plan at $30 per location per month billed monthly or $24 billed annually, with unlimited employees, and a Basic plan at $0 for one location with up to 10 employees; BambooHR starts at $10 per employee per month for Core and $17 for Pro; Deputy's Core plan is $6.50 per user per month. HeadcountDesk Pro is $24 per month per location.
Questions people ask about software for employee management
Is a bigger suite better?
Only if the record is right; a suite with a weak record is an expensive dashboard.
How do I move to another product later?
By export; check that one person's whole record exports in one action before you buy.
What is free here?
Every document tool, without an account.