When I Work

This was the first job I had that has used an app for clock in and clock out and to keep track of accumulated hours. It is very easy to use, I required no training prior to using it. It is easy to confirm shifts that are scheduled in advance because they pop up to confirm when you open the app. It is also very easy to take lunch breaks from the home screen and see the elapsed time. I also really like that the hours are calculated as soon as you clockout and you are able to add a note if you clocked in or out late.

I did not like the mass amount of emails about my shifts when I first started using the app, my schedule was pretty much the same every week so once I disabled the emails I don't see anything wrong with the app.

Looks slick, appears to offer a lot (which it does, at a cost, see below...)

Customer support is very responsive - live chat, email, etc. I may not like their answers (see below) but I can't fault their timely attention, their patience, their attentiveness.

1. Pricing Practices

The page at wheniwork.com/pricing says nothing, just that schedulling is free for less than 75 employees (and anything over is a "contact us for enterprise" price, which is fine). Great, I think, I'll sign up, start working with it.

Glad I didn't invest much time. I set up a few employees, downloaded the apps, started working out the wrinkles. And after a few hours of looking, and testing, and reading, it looks good, but...

...then I discover that basic features like scheduling more than 10 days ahead (!) are paid-for. So is time tracking. Etc. That's ok to charge, but not ok to deceive - and there's *no* simple way right now to see a comparison of features and costs before getting signed-up.

And this is not a small bump. You can't bolt-on a little extra. To get a proper working app, the minimum number of users they offer 20 minimum and the time attendance module adds something like 50% on top.

But really it is transparency and deceptive practices that have *really* turned me against this product in a *very* short period of time - and that is *very* sad. If they'd allowed me to choose up front to devote my time, great; but they didn't.

I had to ask support what "long-term scheduling" meant (that being something not included in the free plan). That means more than 10 days... No other warning of that, that I could see. I feel deceived.

2. App Reliability

Others have mentioned glitches. I started working with the iPhone app - it stopped working for some tasks. I contacted support who said it was restricted to my account only, and they would get their developers to look at it. So I stopped using the iPhone app. My wife's Android phone wouldn't recognise her (valid) phone number when accepting a request to log in. So 2 strikes there. Your mileage may vary.

3. Limited Integrations

A few years ago, WIW posted on their Facebook page that they used Xero. Some commented then - why no integration? No answer. Years later, still no integration with Xero. No Zapier integration, either.

The cynic might think that WIW gets kick-backs / referral fees / bonusnes from Quick Books, Gusto, etc. which is why they're the (very limited) integration "partners". There's an API of course, if I had time.

Again, I'd forgive that for a free / cheap deal. But it isn't a free / cheap deal *for a working scheduling solution* - a schedule that doesn't reach into next week is *not* a working schedule.

So, yes, I'm annoyed. I feel like I've wasted my time. I feel like I've been deceived. I feel like I signed-up and invested time based upon what is almost a lie. And that sucks - not least because it was so needless. The product isn't awful, the pricing (whilst I may not like it) isn't the worst out there. The limitations are limitations, but every product has some.

And that, really, is sad.

The silver lining is that the free plan only launched yesterday. So perhaps they'll think again about the offering. And my experience is unlikely to be the same as that people had before me. But it is what it is today - so much so that I've signed-up for GetApp just to leave this review.