Mike comes to your office to vent. He complains about his schedule. He’s burned out from overscheduling. You looked at your records, and to your surprise, his observation was true.
You apologize, stating you intended no harm. Indeed, you didn’t, but Mike bears the same name as your son, so he’s the first name when you’re assigning shifts. But that’s not the only problem you’re facing.
Just this week alone, you’ve fielded multiple complaints from your customers. The main issue is that five field service workers failed to report to their assigned job site.
There was no prior warning or call to help you prepare. You had to reach out to over 50 workers before you got someone closer to the client’s location and with the right expertise.
These are some of the challenges field service businesses, service-based shops, and most shift-related businesses face with appointment scheduling.
The best scheduling apps can eliminate these challenges and bring more structure, transparency, efficiency, proactive responsiveness, and more to your scheduling process.
In this article, we’ll review each of these apps and share their main features.
I want a scheduling program with:
Show me the best scheduling programs for my industry:
1
Best scheduling program for field services and construction businesses
93 reviews
115 reviews
Workyard has a suite of features to ease your scheduling woes. The Scheduling app is specially designed for construction and field services businesses. Say goodbye to “no call, no show” issues with access to the real-time locations of your workers. This information helps dispatch the closest and most equipped personnel to emergency tasks.
With a digital calendar, you can quickly see assignments for each day and the field worker assigned to the jobs. These details prevent assigning two workers to the same order. Workers can also easily see what their week would look like, which makes for better planning.
Additionally, your field workers rarely need to come to the office except maybe to restock critical inventory. With Workyard, you can send clear instructions about the job assigned with attachments such as pictures, notes, and a checklist.
Furthermore, stop overestimated wage costs from overestimated billing. See when workers arrive and leave a location with the GPS Time Clock feature.
As a business owner, you will only pay for the exact time employees spend doing their assigned tasks. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes saved here and there adds up at the end of the year.
Explore Workyard’s scheduling app and other features with a free trial today.
Key Features:
- Time Tracking/Time Clock
- Real-Time GPS Tracking
- Geofencing
- Reminders & Notifications
- Document Sharing/Upload
- Task/Project Tracking
- Field Dispatch
- Payroll/Payment Integrations
- Reporting & Analytics
- Job/Labor Costing
- Mobile App
Best Suited For:
- Construction & Specialty Contractors
- Field Services
- Oil & Gas
- Manufacturing
- Facilities/Property Management
- Healthcare
Pricing
- Free trial
- $50 per month company base fee for the Time Tracking and Workforce Management plans
- $6 per user per month for the Time Tracking subscription plan
- $13 per user per month for the Workforce Management Plan
- Businesses with potentially over 50 users can get discounted custom pricing
Try Workyard free for 14 days.
No credit card needed.
2
Best scheduling program for 1 on 1 meetings and consultants
35,274 reviews
11,109 reviews
Calendly simplifies the process of getting the best time for a meeting. It’s the perfect tool for scheduling an introductory call, sales demo, interview, and general consultations.
Users can send their Calendly link to others, who then choose their preferred date and time-based on the user’s availability.
Users can customize their availability by setting up different rules. Examples include time gaps between meetings and how soon someone can sign up for an appointment.
Calendly integrates with other calendar apps like Google Calendar and Outlook. This integration provides a more accurate view of your schedule and prevents double booking. Reduce manual work with automation that helps you program reminders and thank you notes.
Lastly, you don’t have to worry about time zone differences with Calendly’s intelligent time zone detection. This feature automatically ensures each user is seeing their local time.
Key Features:
- Reminders & Notifications
- Document Sharing/Upload
- Reporting & Analytics
- Customer Self-Scheduling
- Mobile App
Best Suited For:
- Facilities/Property Management
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Creative Services
Pricing
- Free trial
- Standard - $12 per seat per month
- Teams - $20 per seat per month
- Enterprise - custom pricing and valid for businesses with 30+ users
3
Best scheduling program for 1 on 1 meetings and consultants
26,360 reviews
4,462 reviews
Get a branded booking page with Acuity Scheduling, where your customers have more visibility into your schedule. They can secure a date and time for your service with a booking fee that protects you from casual bookings.
Customers can choose from various payment processing channels, and you can store their credit card details to enforce late cancellations or no-show fees. You can enable customers to set up recurring payments and order gift cards.
Collect customer details with intake forms, which can help you reach customers with promotions and important news about your business. You can leverage a suite of tools to keep your customers loyal.
Key Features:
- Reminders & Notifications
- Document Sharing/Upload
- Task/Project Tracking
- Reporting & Analytics
- Customer Self-Scheduling
- Mobile App
Best Suited For:
- Facilities/Property Management
- Leisure & Hospitality
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Creative Services
Pricing
- Free trial
- Emerging - $20 per month; works for only one staff or location
- Growing - $34 per month; works for only six staff or location
- Powerhouse - $61 per month; works for only 36 staff or location
4
Best scheduling program for non-desk teams
690 reviews
2,226 reviews
Connecteam lets you quickly create schedules with a simple drag-and-drop process.
Don’t know where to start? Connecteam comes with templates that you can adopt for your unique needs. Additionally, you can duplicate existing schedules and set recurring shifts for days and weeks. You can see each employee’s qualifications, preferences, and whether they’re available or not.
Never fail regulatory compliance as Connecteam helps you set limits like maximum working hours per week. Connecteam also automatically flags inconsistencies in your schedules, which prevents errors like overscheduling or back-to-back shifts.
You will likely never field complaints about favoritism again, as Connecteam guarantees equal shift distribution. Staff can choose to reject or accept their schedule, which helps you avoid last-minute cancellations and no-shows.
Key Features:
- Time Tracking/Time Clock
- Real-Time GPS Tracking
- Geofencing
- Reminders & Notifications
- Document Sharing/Upload
- Shift Planning
- Field Dispatch
- Payroll/Payment Integrations
- Reporting & Analytics
- Mobile App
Best Suited For:
- Construction & Specialty Contractors
- Field Services
- Manufacturing
- Facilities/Property Management
- Leisure & Hospitality
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Creative Services
Pricing
- Free plan employee scheduling software
- Basic – $29 per month for the first 30 users. $0.5 per month for each additional user
- Advanced – $49 per month for the first 30 users. $1.5 per month for each extra user
- Expert – $99 per month for the first 30 users. $3 per month for each added user
5
Best scheduling program for commercial service business
1,083 reviews
713 reviews
With ServiceTitan, you can schedule jobs for weeks and months in advance. This feature is helpful, especially when you have a major and complex project on the horizon.
Your workers can plan and let you know if they’ll be available. You can also categorize each task with custom tags. These tags can be about anything, including the required language, prior rescheduling, tools needed, and more.
ServiceTitan shows visibility into a tech’s current location, which may help you assign emergency tasks. Beyond pinpointing location, you can also see how much time they’ve spent on the job and queue new tasks for workers nearly done with their current call.
Key Features:
- Time Tracking/Time Clock
- Real-Time GPS Tracking
- Reminders & Notifications
- Document Sharing/Upload
- Task/Project Tracking
- Field Dispatch
- Payroll/Payment Integrations
- Reporting & Analytics
- Customer Self-Scheduling
- Job/Labor Costing
- Mobile App
Best Suited For:
- Construction & Specialty Contractors
- Field Services
Pricing
- ServiceTitan has three plans, including Starter, Essentials, and The Works. Pricing for all three plans is unavailable publicly, but each plan is on a per-technician basis.
6
Best scheduling program for online businesses
37 reviews
131 reviews
Zoho Bookings is an effective appointment-scheduling software for virtual meetings. Your customers can choose the best date and time and equally pay for your time from within the same app.
Zoho Bookings also automatically creates your user-friendly interface based on your industry. One of the key features of Zoho Bookings is the ability to qualify appointments based on preset questions. These questions help you filter and accept only clients that meet your predefined criteria.
Increase the odds of customers turning up for their meetings with automated reminders via email and text.
You can schedule virtual and offline meetings with integrations to tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Lastly, you can link Zoho Bookings to your CRM to manage and follow up with your customers.
Key Features:
- Reminders & Notifications
- Document Sharing/Upload
- Payroll/Payment Integrations
- Reporting & Analytics
- Customer Self-Scheduling
- Mobile App
Best Suited For:
- Construction & Specialty Contractors
- Field Services
- Facilities/Property Management
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Creative Services
Pricing
- Free plan for one staff and only online meetings
- Basic - $8 per staff per month
- Premium - $12 per staff per month
7
Best scheduling program for individuals and freelancers
5,384 reviews
32,083 reviews
Doodle is similar to other scheduling apps like Calendly. It also has features like a bookings page, enforced rules, use of limits, and more.
One of its noteworthy features is the ability to send out polls to a group asking for their preferred time for a meeting or class. You can then use the top-ranking option to create a scheduled meeting.
Doodle excels at scheduling 1:1 meetings between colleagues, teachers, students, and family members. It eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails, texts, or calls to find a convenient time.
Key Features:
- Reminders & Notifications
- Reporting & Analytics
- Customer Self-Scheduling
Best Suited For:
- Retail
- Creative Services
Pricing
- Free plan; limited to one user
- Pro - $14.95 per user per month; limited to one user
- Team - $19.95 per user per user per month
- Enterprise - Custom pricing
8
Best scheduling program for restaurants and shift-heavy businesses
30,310 reviews
61,284 reviews
One of the most notable features of When I Work is auto-scheduling. With this feature, you only need to create the shifts and specify the qualifications for that role.
The app automatically assigns workers to the shifts based on availability and qualifications. You can also attach a checklist to ensure each worker completes a specified set of tasks.
Speaking of availability, your workers can request time off from the app. You can either approve or reject the same. The former is registered and considered during scheduling.
Workers can also trade shifts. This feature takes some of the load off your hands and reduces no-shows. There’s no late scramble to fill unfilled spots.
Key Features:
- Time Tracking/Time Clock
- Reminders & Notifications
- Document Sharing/Upload
- Task/Project Tracking
- Shift Planning
- Payroll/Payment Integrations
- Reporting & Analytics
- Job/Labor Costing
- Mobile App
Best Suited For:
- Construction & Specialty Contractors
- Field Services
- Facilities/Property Management
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Creative Services
Pricing
- Essentials - $2.50 per user per month
- Pro - $5 per user per month
- Premium - $8 per user per month
9
Best scheduling tool for international businesses
235 reviews
TimeTap offers features like custom booking sites, custom reports, client management tools, payment processors, custom form fields, screening questions, and tools to schedule group classes.
As an online tutor, multiple students can schedule appointments for recurring classes. This feature also works for multi-day seminars or conferences.
The client management tools help you collect and store customer details in a lightweight, in-built CRM.
You can collect your preferred customer information during the booking with custom form fields and screen customers with questions to ensure they’re qualified for your services. TimeTap also has multiple translations, which is great if you serve customers with different languages.
Key Features:
- Reminders & Notifications
- Payroll/Payment Integrations
- Reporting & Analytics
Best Suited For:
- Field Services
- Healthcare
- Creative Services
Pricing
- Professional - Starting price of $28.45 per month
- Business - Starting price of $50.95 per month
- Enterprise - Custom pricing
10
Best scheduling tool for home service businesses
5,485 reviews
2,911 reviews
The core features of Jobber’s scheduling solution include online booking, job scheduling, calendar management, team push notifications, and automated visit reminders.
With the booking system, you can automatically add the job to your calendar based on your preferences.
You can also manually create a task and add it to your team calendar with a few clicks. You can easily see who’s available and who’s not. Customize your simple digital calendar with options like color coding and filters.
You can easily message your team members if the job details change. You can also schedule messages so that customers are prepared for the worker’s visit.
Key Features:
- Reminders & Notifications
- Document Sharing/Upload
- Field Dispatch
- Payroll/Payment Integrations
- Reporting & Analytics
- Customer Self-Scheduling
- Mobile App
Best Suited For:
- Construction & Specialty Contractors
- Field Services
- Facilities/Property Management
Pricing
- Core - $69 per month; only one user
- Connect - $169 per month; up to 5 users
- Grow - $349 per month; up to 15 users
Frequently Asked Questions About Scheduling Programs
Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about scheduling software:
Electronic scheduling software has the following benefits:
Never miss a booking with 24/7 availability
One of the biggest benefits of electronic scheduling software is its 24/7 availability, which means you don’t have to miss out on business.
Without adopting scheduling tools, you may miss many deals or orders because prospects try to reach you during off hours. Such customers are likely to move on to your competitors.
Eliminates errors
These apps also eliminate errors from your schedules. Manual methods with pen and paper and Excel are prone to errors and inconsistencies.
Scheduling becomes more complex when employees ask for time off, and you must juggle multiple preferences. Features like a digital calendar provide better visibility and a more seamless way to create schedules that work for everyone.
Improved efficiency and resource management
Scheduling software also improves your efficiency. These tools significantly reduce the time you spend creating schedules and ensuring they’re error-free.
Most come with automation that removes recurring tasks like sending reminders from your weekly to-do lists.
Improved customer experience
Another benefit of scheduling apps is that they strengthen customer experience. Scheduling apps like Workyard that use GPS to choose the closest field workers to a customer provide prompt services that delight clients.
In addition to helping you manage employee scheduling, the ability to gain insights into how you work with data analysis and custom reports is another reason to adopt electronic scheduling software.
Better task management
You can provide detailed instructions for field workers or employees with checklists and notes. Workers can send in pictures and notes to confirm that they’ve completed their assigned tasks.
This creates a history that’s easy to trail should there be customer complaints.
Workyard is the best scheduling app for small and large field service businesses. It has features like GPS Time Clock, Labor Compliance, Reporting, Scheduling, Job Tracking, Job Costing, and numerous integrations to extend its functionality.
When I Work is another option for service-based small businesses with multiple locations, while Calendly is perfect if you run a small freelance consulting business.
Doodle and TimeTap have native ways to integrate with iCal or Apple Calendar. With Workyard’s API, you can connect it to any tool, including iCal.
Doodle can cater to group bookings and makes it easy to schedule large-scale events like a webinar or class. Zoho Bookings also offers two types of group bookings, namely series and drop-in. Acuity Scheduling also allows you to create a group class.
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