Appointment scheduling software for business is an important solution for small and medium-sized businesses or local service providers to manage their customer’s availability and book appointments in a convenient way. The system helps you operate efficiently, increase your productivity and reduce the time spent on managing bookings manually.
DRoster
DRoster is for organizations and businesses that need to schedule unlimited shifts, positions, duties, and employees with one program.
Whether you manage a bar, delivery service, catering company, real estate agency, coffee shop, or retail establishment, DRoster offers an industry-neutral design so you can customize the app to your specific needs, regardless of your organization’s size.
In addition to DRoster’s customizable properties and unlimited positions and employees, you have access to templates for recurring shifts, on-board reports, and the ability to create minimum and maximum weekly hours to ensure zero overtime.
While DRoster is better suited for larger organizations, it, like the previous entry on this list, is a native application — downloaded directly to your computer — so it doesn’t incorporate the flexibility, scope, and user-friendliness that the best cloud-based options offer.
And while DRoster does offer a free version of its program, the functionality is limited. If your business needs advanced features — like batch delete, copy duties to future dates, and reporting — you’ll have to pay for the premium version of the software.
If you’re looking for a turn-key solution for all your workforce management and optimization activities, look no further than the last entry on our list.
ABC Roster
ABC Roster is a free software application specially designed to assist in the complex task of organizing your team’s shift schedules.
Built for small businesses with a limited number of employees, it has since expanded to serve larger businesses such as charities, hospitals, and museums as well as the food and beverage departments in hotels and restaurants.
ABC Roster aims to be efficient and user-friendly while providing you, the manager, with a convenient and intuitive way of creating schedules quickly.
The main features of ABC Roster revolve around an easy-to-use interface that allows you to manage all aspects of scheduling — including employee availability, days off, leave, events, bookings, and more — from one screen.
And with ABC Roster’s automated planner feature, the program can generate schedules for you at the touch of a button. Just review the schedule to make sure all shifts are covered according to your business’s needs, then export the schedule to Microsoft Excel, PDF, or HTML document and email it to your team directly from the application.
ABC Roster is a free employee scheduling software tool that is simple and focused solely on scheduling your team. Those benefits, though, are also part of what makes the app limited in its scope and usefulness for most businesses.
ABC Roster does nothing but schedule employees. If you need more integration to help you control labor costs, deal with overtime, and monitor paid time off, a more powerful program may be a better choice.
Another factor that may affect your decision is that ABC Roster is a native application, meaning that you download it to a phone, tablet, or computer and it runs ONLY on that device.
ABC Roster is not a cloud-based tool, so it doesn’t benefit from the power, reach, and usefulness that users of those types of applications enjoy.
Asana – Best for Kanban-style task scheduling
Asana’s Kanban-style boards schedule tasks and track their progress in the pipeline.
Asana is an app designed to break tasks down into manageable pieces and then assign them accordingly. Asana also has a Kanban board view that lets you visualize your progress.
Asana’s calendar feature lets you track your employee’s tasks and see which team member is working on what task and at what time. You can use this information to keep track of important project deadlines and milestones. Based on that you can adjust the shifts and give in-app feedback. You can schedule multiple projects and assign tasks to your team. You can sort scheduled tasks by team member, due date, and priority. You can also add milestones to a task and set deadlines for each phase of the project. The product is mobile-friendly with iOS and Android apps.
Asana integrates with Jira, Slack, Google Calendar, and other apps.
Asana is free to use for up to 15 people and there are no limits on the number of projects.
Acuity Scheduling – Best appointment-based shift scheduling
Employee scheduling with customer self-service for by-appointment businesses and services.
Acuity Scheduling is a cloud-based software that integrates with your email calendar. The software is particularly good at handling complicated scheduling scenarios by allowing for post-booking flexibility like resetting of the booking amount and rollover of remaining appointments. It has an easily navigable schedule editor and scheduler. If you are an online trainer, consultant, or course creator, Acuity scheduling allows for scheduling for packages, memberships, and group classes for recurring billing. This can be particularly helpful if you are an online trainer, coach, or consultant. You also have the option to share your calendar with your clients via Facebook and Instagram.
Acuity Scheduling has time zone and multi-location support and provides for employee self-service. The reporting dashboard is clean and provides detailed reporting and analytics. Acuity Scheduling integrates smoothly with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Calendar, Facebook, Instagram, Zoho, video conferencing software, and over 500 more with a paid plan through Zapier. Acuity Scheduling integrates with online payment processors like PayPal, Stripe, and Square.
Acuity Scheduling is free to use for 1 calendar. After your free 7-day trial of the paid plans, you can downgrade to a free account by going into the “my account” menu and clicking “downgrade” beneath the free plan box.
- Free to use up to 5 employees
Findmyshift – Best drag-and-drop scheduler
Easily add and categorize time-offs for maternity, holiday, sickness, vacation, or personal.
Findmyshift is a web-based employee scheduling software that makes it easy for managers to schedule their staff. It helps in creating a roster in minutes with their drag-and-drop calendar interface. The free-form editor lets you add as many items to as many cells you like, based on your requirements. You can also create and store templates of repeating shift patterns. This will help you in scheduling faster.
Findmyshift allows managers to manage staff by finding the right person for the job at any given time. Findmyshift can do this with its rota feature, letting you see who’s available and who’s not when allocating shifts. The rota feature can also come to use when allocating time-offs as it will tell you if the employee has any shifts scheduled in that period. You can also keep the time-off requests private to avoid any staff conflict. The mobile app provides an excellent platform for employers to search, filter, and manage their employee’s availability in real-time.
Findmyshift integrates with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and other communication apps.
Findmyshift is free to use up to 5 employees.
Wrike – Best free employee scheduling app with Gantt chart visualization
Wrike’s Gantt chart feature lets you visualize every project step to track progress against deadlines and milestones.
Wrike.com is a cloud-based solution for scheduling and managing your small business team.
Wrike lets you create and manage multiple projects from one single platform. You can update project timelines with a drag-and-drop editor and collaborate among teams in real time. Wrike has a Gantt chart that lets you have a bird’s eye view of project progress and a holistic view of the work space and dependencies. You can create tasks and link them using dependencies, then track them based on milestones and deadlines. The real-time visualization of performance via reports and analytics makes life easier, as you can see the growth levers and clogs clearly.
The product’s in-built communication and messaging tools make collaborating on scheduling notes a team effort whether you are working task-by-task or looking at the big picture stuff. Support is available via live chat and email. There are also video lessons to guide you through building your very first schedule or launching a calendar from their templates list.
Wrike integrates with Slack, Trello, and Gmail.
Wrike is free to use with up to 2GB of storage space.
BEST FOR TEAMSDoodle
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LEARN MOREWhy We Chose It?
Doodle can organize meetings for large groups where everyone’s schedule varies.Pros & ConsPros
- Makes it easy to meet in a team
- Zoom and Slack integrations
- Connect with 1000+ apps through Zapier
Cons
- No phone support
- Priority support is only available for enterprises
Overview
Founded in 2007, Doodle is a provider of online scheduling services. Its primary goal is to make it easier for people to schedule meetings or events with other people who may have conflicting schedules, earning the nod for best team scheduler. Doodle lets you organize meetings with large groups of up to 20 people where everyone’s time zone varies.
Doodle is a simple and easy-to-use web-based scheduling application with apps for iPhone and Android. It makes this possible through an intuitive interface that allows users to see availability across multiple time zones. You can sync your Google calendar, Office 365, or iCal to avoid double bookings. Other features include the Doodle poll, which lets participants vote on the ideal time to hold a meeting. Doodle also has integrations with Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, keeping everyone on the same page about the meeting.
The software offers a 14-day trial with no credit card commitment. Once the trial expires, pricing starts at $6.95 per month for the pro plan with only one user. There’s an $8.95-per-month plan for teams that includes five to 20 users. If you’re an enterprise, you can contact Doodle for custom pricing.
Doodle’s support is available online, and users like the fact that they can collaborate with every team member despite their schedule.
BEST FOR CALENDAR MANAGEMENTCalendly
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LEARN MOREWhy We Chose It?
Calendly offers multiple app integrations and can sync with several calendars, so you’re never double-booked.Pros & ConsPros
- Syncs with multiple calendar programs
- Free 14-day trial
- Buffer times in between meetings
Cons
- Limited features for the free plan
- Pricing is user-based
Overview
Calendly was founded in 2013 by Tope Awotona and it currently manages scheduling for over nine million businesses and individuals. The scheduling software has a valuation of over $3 billion and acts as a personal assistant for several companies. The ability to sync with multiple calendars makes Calendly the best scheduling software for calendar management.
The software connects all your calendars to avoid double bookings. You can easily set up and customize calendars based on your needs. It has a buffer feature, allowing you to take a break in between meetings before the next appointment. In addition, Calendly detects time zones and automatically shares the right time to meet with customers based on their location.
Calendly has more than 700 app integrations with Zapier and three pricing tiers: free, premium, and pro plans. The free plan offers basic features and gives access to one calendar, but you can schedule unlimited appointments. The pro plan is $10 per month and supports two calendar connections, while the premium plan costs $15 per month with up to six calendar connections.
Calendly has a free 14-day trial with access to all features. It’s cloud-based and also available on the go with mobile apps for iOS and Android. Payment integrations include Stripe and PayPal.
Calendly provides online support via email and live chat. Users like the multiple integrations and the ability to sync with several calendars.
Conclusion
It’s a powerful, web-based appointment scheduling solution for small businesses or local service providers to manage appointments with their customers in a convenient way, without emailing back and forth constantly.