SocialSchedules reviews

As a GM I love OpenSimSim it’s very user friendly

Budgeting wasn’t working at first but then did work.

It's​ free! We were using an app called Deputy, and we had to pay for what open sim offers​ for free and its great as a manager, and our staff loves it! '

There is no direct message board for all staff notes, id love to be able to communicate with my team throughout a week this way

I like that it's easy to see when you and/or your peers work on the web version of opensimsim. It's easy to set-up for your work weeks too so it'll accurately show how many hours you're getting in a week, and it being easy to customize is a nice feature too.

Sending messages to your peers is really slow. Even with a perfect connection it might take serveral (1-5 minutes) to send a message. Also, there was a problem my peers and I had with signing into OpenSimSim. I wish they had a feature to upload your schedule to a third party app such as Google Calendar or being able to do it on your phone using your Apple calendar. So that way my spouse and I can plan around my schedule. Another con is that it'll automatically sign you out every week. We had assigned computers at work so having to sign into my computer every single day is a waste of time.

Communication feature - direct messages to specific colleague(s)
Manage time off requests which then show in schedule
Mobile version - inc notifications on shifts
Coverage graph (able to see how many colleagues scheduled per hour/per day)
Best of all, it has a FREE version

Some limited functionality on mobile version.
For example, can only manage/create schedules on pc version.
Time off requests need to be managed on pc version as this way allows to view existing time off to prevent allowing too many staff off. On mobile version, this is difficult to manage.
Can't track holiday allowances - possibly icing on the cake
Generally though, con's are hard to argue because it is free and it does just what I need it to do

Easy to use and navigate. Support is always quick to help when we have an issue. They gladly take our feedback on improvements and listen when we make suggestions.

That we can't incorporate all of it into our system. They have a time/attendance but since we have a POS system that does that, we haven't used that portion.

The ability to share information with my employees.

Bugs? Sometimes cells are shaded when they shouldn't be.
Would like notes easier for my employees to see.

SocialSchedules allows you to see your workweek schedule at a quick glance and also allows you to see what coworkers are scheduled the same day you are. There is also a chat feature to allow you to send messages to coworkers.

The chat feature does not do a great job of notifying when someone has sent you a message. A better notification system would make this software perfect.

A coworker had previously used it . I like that my employees can put in their availability and trade shifts with each other

I’d like to have a counter or additional notes next to each employee on their shifts and hours preferences. I have some employees that only want 20 hours a week or two days even though their availability is wide open. These details I have to remember.

I love the ability to love prior schedules and just paste to future weeks. We have been using OpenSimSim for more than 2 years and it was a huge improvement from the manual process we used. The ability to use the app for our associates has greatly improved our scheduling efficiency and reduced the errors in availability and scheduling.

We have had no issues with the software.

-I am able to check my schedule
-request any type of break or day off with this app
-simple design and looks good

-could upgrade the theme or design for better look however still nice

UI is easy to understand and accessibility on both mobile and desktop is really nice. I'm constantly referencing my phone to check when other employees are going to be working so I know how to balance the workload and who to send tickets to. I work in I.T., so knowing who is working when is really important for handling clients requests quickly. OSS is easy to navigate.

There are several discontinuities in the functionality. I can view other workers schedules on desktop, but ONLY on days when I'm working. But on my phone, I can view other workers schedules throughout the whole week by turning my phone on its side. It really doesn't look great to have my phone out while at work, so this is frustrating.
Additionally, requesting time off and changing individual availability (not just regular weekly availability) is a pain and can't be done through both mobile and desktop app. There are many things I can do ONLY on mobile or ONLY on desktop, but not both.
Sometimes when changing my daily availability on desktop, the visual block may look like it's between two different times, but the actual time it states is several hours later.
There are many similar bugs and discontinuities between the mobile and desktop apps.

Love the interface. Communication process is great and customer service is amazing.

-want to be able to easily black out dates for time off requests.
-a way to force staff to look at messages even or notes and “agree” that they have read them would be awesome.
-would love to have an interface to build “standard shifts” that you can then just mine from and add a little easier.
-also on the time off requests it would be helpful to have a limit on requests. So for example, if 3 people are already requested the 10th of the month off and we had set the limit at 3 requests, no one else could request off or make them u available.
-admins should representative the only ones to be able to edit workers availability

The blackout dates would for sure be the most helpful though. And ensuring that an alert is sent to employees when blackout dates are entered by managers.

The best part about this product is the ease of use and functionality from a team member perspective. This a very easy to use software for team members to understand, learn and utilize on a daily basis.

There are several limitations concerning this software from a management/admin perspective. Specifically to my unit, the use of sections is limited too much, including being able to view things by section. This software seems ideal for a place that has 1 location (a restaurant) and is able to split people into several sections. However, my account has upwards of 15 locations (which doesn't even take into consideration that there are several accounts within my company), which make it hard for me to view and manage my team's schedule in that regard.

Ease of use by managers, administrators and regular staff. Straight forward and up to date, even old timers can quickly gain the skills to use opensimsim. I love how you can select particular staff, times, breaks and see a total hours per week. Shift dropping and swapping is also a function that helps take stress off myself as a coordinator. the messaging tool is great also and saves some time in last minute needs and cuts out emails.

This software works perfectly for my personal use.
Another department here onsite use opensimsim for their rostering but use the publishing option to send out shifts for the whole department at once. They do seem to have trouble working around this but are quite new to the tool as well

I like that you can see who is all working for the week. I like how it prints out the responsibilities per each person.

That you cant upload Docs for the staff to see, no files to put things for the staff to see on sales, labor or any sort of spreadsheets.
You cant do the scheduling on your mobile device. You cant see the reason why people have took off via mobile

I like how easy it is to add new employees to the system. I like how the everyone can know what they need to through the app. I also like the budgeting feature to help keep our production costs down. I also like the messaging feature, I don't use email anymore.

One thing I don't like is how I can't assign more tasks or positions to one person per shift, or maybe I just don't know how. Another thing is, sometimes I would like to see all of my employees schedules at once instead of scrolling up and down.

I am involved in a totally volunteer environment and this is the best option for us to control the shifts. It allows for members to be responsible for their own work shifts. We have members from 14 - 89 and they all use it.

I wish I could customise each week. As in we only patrol or do shifts on weekends and public holidays so really most weeks Mon to fri is blank. Would be better if not there at all. Minor bug and really only applies to our organisation.

Firstly I use the standard version so it's free, one of the only free rostering software packages I could find

Lack of auditing tools. I would have liked to be able to track back who has authorised annual leave and also have the ability to input sickness etc

It's Free! It's a smooth running app. It's convenient, user friendly and my staff loves using it!

Nothing.

I have been using it for more than a year to organize my 25 workers and it has been incredible!! Every worker can easily access his/her schedule on the app and the administrators can easily modify schedules or add/delete shifts as necessary.
I don't know how we survived without this app for so long. Obviously there was a great deal less organization back then.
I recommend it to everybody that needs to have the schedule always at hand, specially when you have multiples sites and workers on a day to day basis.

If I had a doubt it took me a bit to solve it, although when I needed extra help I could do it with a live chat.

There is nothing about this software that I do not like and I cannot thing of one thing I like most above about it.

The only complaint I have, and it's more like a wish list item, is that as the manager, I cannot modify and/or enter a time-off request for employees or modify an employee's availability who as agreed to accept a shift outside their availability.

The scheduler is intuitive and suggests common shifts along with templates making the uploading of the monthly schedule a breeze. Letting my staff have the freedom to trade and give away shifts, with an automatic schedule update saves me time. I like that I am always informed of activity regarding shifts. Love the chat option.

Sometimes when inputting shifts, lines are unclear leading me to misalign. Having a history of a staff member after they quit/ are fired would be useful.

I like the cut and dry presentation of the schedule. Easy to see and easy too schedule. Gets the job done for various sized companies. I can create as many schedules as I need to.

Somewhat challenging to drop, switch, and add some schedules. It makes sense when changing it on the back end. But for some of my employees, it is difficult for some of them to make the drop or switch (If available).

I appreciate that it is very easy to use. It is intuitive​ and for a small business owner like myself, does the job well. I like the swapping shift options, as well as being able to see the labor costs.

I wish it would somehow incorporate break times so we can make sure to note that in the actual schedule instead of the notes. I also wish they would somehow integrate​ more seamlessly with our POS system I hear d it's happening soon, so that's good news!

OpenSimSim is incredibly easy to implement. Adding new employees to schedules takes a few minutes, so overall very quick and straight forward. Managing multiple locations is convenient and simple.

Overall, no complaints. Great experience so far.

Nothing noteworthy. If I had to pick I would say I wish the iOS phone app had better UI for managing the schedule. It seems like the website it still best for creating schedule conveniently.

But not something that is a concern for us, using the website is easy enough.