SocialSchedules Reviews

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

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

I like that I am able to check my schedule online with ease. I am also able to request time off and that can make it easy so I do not have to come into the office to request.

I don't know if this was an option that my employer chose, or if it is part of your software, but I would like to be able to see who is scheduled throughout the week. This can solve some confusion if a shift is covered or give you the ease of looking to switch shifts or ask others to cover a shift for you.

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.

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

The design is easy and simple to see. Updates are made real time and notifications are sent.

There are functionality limited to mobile, and this is extremely unhelpful when I’m working at a customer service position where I’m not supposed to look at my phone.

Cons on the computer:
-I cannot see who else is working when I’m not working that day.
-I cannot see a list of people and their shifts the way I can view it on mobile.
-When I make the window size smaller (when I have to sometimes for my work), the application won’t let me view anything.

Overall cons:
-Setting availability/unavailability is a nightmare. It just takes so much time, especially when my hours are variable. There must be a better way to design this.
Also, this function is limited to the web app — why design the software where the functionality is half and half between different platforms?
-is there a way to change the view setting to “Month”? That will make the schedule easier to see.
-The notifications are exsessive — I get one when my schedule is changed, then published. For one change, I get four notifications (2 app, 2 emails).

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

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.

The ease of use, it's so helpful to have the schedule on you whenever you need it. It's made it way easier for my staff to get there shifts covered on their own. Allowing the app to assign sections to my staff it has given me the tools to help maintain order on my sales floor as well. I don't know how I worked for so long without it!

Mostly it's been a positive experience, the only thing I think would make it better would be holding the same layout as the computer when converting to the weekly schedule on the phone. And as a administrator being able to see what i have unpublished on my phone as well. And also it would be nice to be able to black out days employees couldn't drop shifts, just how there is the feature to do that with the time off requests. But really it's been an amazing tool to have!

I like that the software works on multiple operating systems as well as moblile devices. I find the 'landscape' feature when a mobile phone is turned sidways to be especially helpful and well thought out. I really like genaral ease of use for scheduling, removing, and adding workers, arranging time off, basically keeping everyone in communication (and thereby accountable).

I have not discoverd how to do all my managent tasks from my phone, and thus must always use my computer. I don't know if that's an option, but it hasn't been intuitive enough that I have figured it out (or important enough that I have spent time to figure it out). I wish that when people sent messages that they were more flagged or intrusive, I have a lot going on and sometimes I miss messages sent through OpenSimSim... Like a pop up window or something?

Based on the manager/administrator role, it was fairly easy to use and understand. Some of the features are very nice, specifically the ability to add hour variations.

For the employee view, it is not as user friendly. It would be nice for the employee to choose their view - whether they want to only see their schedule or certain people's or everyone's that they have access to instead of having to go into each day and choosing to see who else is on. The schedule defaults back to the first date published or created which is inconvient and frustrating. If there is more than 1 person working on the schedule, it is impossible to tell and to see if any changes were made, the page needs to be refreshed every time. There are also some limitations with the swap shifts as our employees may only swap a few hours rather than a whole shift but they can't choose specific hours. It is a complete shift swap only. Additionally, it would be good to be able to schedule lunch or break times without them counting towards the variance. There is also no way to track if someone is unexcused without it counting into the variance total unless the view is filtered.

Making a Schedule is very easy, especially on the following week as you just have to 'tweak' it.
The employees like how easy it is to request time off.
The timeclock works on Kindles, so a Timeclock kiosk is very inexpensive and even works during a power outage.

You need to play by their rules, and their is very little personalization possible (for example we prefer to schedule in 2 week sets, but you are forced into a single week at a time)

It should be able to export directly into Quickbooks, but we have to manually enter the times

There should be a section for entering each employee's availability so you don't schedule them outside of their available hours. This is a HUGE oversight.

Cost. For the features it offered, it seemed to be a good value and they didn't insist I use their credit card processor. My staff hasn't had really any difficulty using the program. It seems very straightforward.

Not that I have a lot of experience with this type of software but setting up some of the till-order details seemed like it could be more stream-lined. I know it is not specifically designed for restaurants but it would be great if it included more sub category options instead of having lots of multiple choice product group. Also, being able to have a negative charge option would be helpful when somebody want to remove an item from the meal.

If is easy to use, quick to put shifts on and for staff to select them. Since implementing it has definitely sped up the process of staff g jobs.

Would love to introduce the time management aspect of the software to save staff having to sign a form. However because you have to pay for each user and we have 88 that don't work all the time. It is not a cost effective option for us. If there was a monthly set fee that we could pay for the option that would be far better.

I use this to schedule a team of work-study students in my office, so it was important to me to use a system that would allow people to drop shifts without needing to find a cover and to post open shifts that any worker can sign up for- this fulfills both of those needs. I love seeing a weekly view and daily view, being able to sort alphabetically and by time of shift for the day, being able to save a schedule template for a week so that I don't have to manually schedule shifts every week (their weekly schedules are the same), and I love how easy the app is to use so that I can manage the schedule while I'm out of the office.

I created a fake employee account when I was first starting to use this system so that I could see how things look/work from the worker perspective, and then had difficulty deleting my fake worker account. Customer service helped me out with this, but it would be nice if there was a feature that let administrators toggle to the worker view just so that they have an idea of what schedules/notifications look like to their workers.

Can be used from anywhere, allows staff to say when they are not available, alerts them when they have been given a shift and allows them to swap. I don't need to rely on my fading memory anymore or sticky notes or diary entries, simply awesome :)

So many buttons to print the same report every week but this is a minor inconvenience for the benefits being offered

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.

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.