Your team is the biggest asset in your community. They run the ship. They’re there day in and day out, caring for seniors, serving meals, handling medications, and running tours.
And, as the backbone of your business, they’re also one of the most significant expenses.
If you’re running an assisted living facility or nursing home, you’ve likely thought about streamlining your time-tracking. And for good reason, time tracking is difficult and error-prone. Using technology to track and report hours removes an administrative headache.
So, we want to help you through your search. We’ve highlighted 5 of the best software we found that can be applied to a senior living setting.
There is a ton of time tracking software out there, however, most of the software available is not purpose-built for senior living. This means you’ll need to make these tools fit into your community. We’ve selected products that can easily be applied to an assisted living setting.
Team members should be able to clock in and out in 1-2 minutes. And managers should be able to navigate the platform and complete their tasks quickly. These tools should help your team, not take more of their time away. Also, getting team buy-in is going to be far more difficult with a new program that’s difficult to use. We’ve narrowed down our list to tools that are easy to use.
Most managers and teams are busy caring for seniors, handling emergencies, and any of the hundred other duties the day may bring. The last thing they should worry about is having to attend multiple training sessions or have to read a manual just to get started.
These programs are easy to get up and running and can be learned intuitively on your own time.
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Coast has built an app that’s sleek and easy to use. We’ve spent time using this program and were surprised at the functionality of it, how easy it was to pick up, and how comfortable the user interface is.
It’s no surprise that they’re used across various industries, from restaurants, hotels, gyms, and are now finding a niche in senior living.
They have a free plan that you can use to get going, though the functionality is a tad limited, it’s a great way to see if it's right for your community.
Pros
This program is feature-rich. As a manager, you can do a lot: You can schedule your team, send messages, create digital checklists, and create work orders. Staff can access the schedules, swap shifts, clock in, and communicate with colleagues.
Through their manager portal, you can manually create reports to track things, like hourly breakdowns and lists of employees. These reports can get quite detailed as well.
Cons
Their strength is also their biggest weakness. There is a lot is going on, which can feel daunting. A lot of the functionality they have built is for other industries, so although there are some key features for senior living, there’s a lot that won’t be used.
For example, a chat window shows up on every screen, whether you’re scheduling your team, planning tasks, or running reports. Which feels a tad bit unnecessary and distracting.
Huddle was built specifically to tackle the challenge of managing senior living teams in a fast-paced environment. It’s easy to use, loaded it with key features, and has a purpose-built user portal for nurses and care teams.
There’s a lot of automation that’s industry-specific, like generating key reports and overseeing certification expiries like first-aid (you’ll also get notified if someone’s expiring in the next 30 days).
Pros
The features are aligned with assisted living teams. Most of the essentials are covered, including a clock-in system, scheduling for managers, team database, certification tracking, and timesheet export.
One feature that stands out is the manager-to-user communication. A manager can send out an announcement that notifies their team directly on their smartphone (via the user app)
There’s also a live dashboard that shows key performance indicators for communities. For example, employee turnover, hours worked, hourly breakdowns per community. This is tracked and reported automatically, so you don’t have to worry about pulling reports every month.
Cons
The program’s features mainly revolve around the core needs of teams, so you’ll see fewer bells and whistles than others on the list. For example, you won’t have task management, team profile photos, or direct email integration.
This is the only program on the list that we haven’t had the opportunity to try, as they don’t offer free trials. Though it does look promising, it offers a robust set of offerings, and seem to be purpose-built for assisted living communities.
Their pricing isn’t listed, we would expect that this lands somewhere in the premium-priced category.
Pro
They’re the only other software on this list, aside from Huddle, to specifically service the senior living industry. Meaning their software is easier to use and catered explicitly to healthcare professionals.
This platform looks seriously robust; they have talent acquisition, workforce management, engagement & retention, payroll, reporting, and even an OnShift Wallet for hardship loans.
Cons
Their mobile app appears to lack functionality, from the reviews we’ve seen in the Google Play Store. Also, the screenshots we’ve seen indicate that the user interface is a tad dated. But, again for complete transparency, we haven’t had the opportunity to try this platform.
Their pricing isn’t transparent, so we’re not sure where they are listed. They don’t offer free trials, so you’ll need to register for a demo to determine whether this program is good for you.
If you’re based in Canada, you’re out of luck as well, as they currently only service the US.
We’ve spent a fair bit of time exploring this application; there’s a lot to dig into. Like Coast, Homebase is a feature-rich platform that finds its place throughout a wide array of industries.
It’s well-liked, with high ratings in Google and Apple app stores and in popular rating websites like G2.
There is a free plan to get started with the program. Though it is limited to certain features, it provides enough functionality to test drive.
Pros
This software has a depth of features you can use in your community, from time tracking to reporting and seemingly everything in between. We were surprised to see just how much you could do with it.
Their user interface is easy to navigate and feels very modern, unlike much other time-keeping software on the market. It’s easy to pick up and get going, it will take you at most a half-hour to feel comfortable with it.
Cons
Because this software is designed to serve many different industries, it doesn’t feel like it’s meant for a senior living setting. There are so many bells and whistles designed to accommodate other users that it can be cumbersome to accomplish a task.
For example, if you navigate over to the Timesheets section, looking to export this week’s hours for payroll. You’ll be met by a lot of different functionality (like estimated hours and cash tips) that don’t feel all that relevant for an assisted living community. We found this rang true in other sections of the app as well.
Clockify is an agile, easy-to-learn software for tracking time and expensing and reporting. It has a desktop and mobile app. It’s a sleek, easy to pick up a program that is well designed and comfortable for just about anyone. It’s also likely the most used program on this list, their website boasts having over 124,000 users sign up in any given week.
Pros
This tool comes complete with many features, like time tracking, a calendar, timesheet records, expenses, and reporting.
It’s completely free, which means unlimited users, projects, and tracking. They seemingly have no plans to charge for it.
And, it’s trusted by a ton of organizations; they’ve been rated 4.5 stars on Google Reviews with 1,400+ ratings, and have an army of user sign-ups every week.
Cons
The major drawback of this tool is that it’s hard to perform bulk actions that a manager would need, like mass scheduling or team communication. This means that it may be more difficult for managers to efficiently complete their tasks.
This may be better suited to administrative teams who want to plan for projects or work with contractors and want to keep better records. Or for individual team members to keep track of their times.
And there you have it. Our list of the best time-keeping software for the senior living industry. Our recommendation is to just try something and see what works best for your community. If you aren’t using software to keep track of time, any of these programs will be a massive step in the right direction.
If you are using time-keeping tools but aren’t satisfied then we would recommend looking into an industry-specific tool, like Huddle or OnShift. We’re happy to answer any questions you might have about applying tools to your community, just send us an email.
