Honest Review:

Connecteam

By Asim Qureshi, CEO Jibble

May 5th 2023

As a CEO of a time tracking software company I need to know what my competitors are up to. That means I’m often researching about and/or playing around with their products, you know, it’s part of the job. Here, I share my findings of that research, giving credit to those competitors where credit is due and being honest about which products I believe you really need to avoid. And so, there you have it, this review, and in it, I try to be honest, fair, and insightful…

This review covers:

• Overview
• What Users Like
• What Users Don’t Like
• Pricing Plans
• Standout Features
• Positive User Highlights
• Negative User Highlights
• Ratings from Other Reviews

Overview

Let’s talk about Connecteam. It’s a time tracking software and app that allows businesses to stay on track of their office and remote teams. Features include a time clock, timesheets, task management, team communication, and scheduling.

Connecteam’s time tracking feature is pretty smooth. Staff can clock in and out instantly and employers can get real-time alerts about employee activity. The software offers automated timesheets and live reports with greater insight into team progress. What’s cool is that managers can monitor employee attendance and manage absences, overtime, and break hours. I also really like the task management feature that allows for in-team and real-time communication and collaboration. Furthermore, shift and calendar templates offered by the software make shift scheduling much more convenient.

However, Connecteam’s shortcomings have a material impact on the rating score I’m going to give it, especially regarding its weak mobile app, which has a 3.8 star rating on the Google Play Store (in the US). The mobile app’s low rating comes as a result of frequent crashes. And the scheduling feature has bugs and errors -which is a bit of shame as well as annoying.

What Users Like

• Easy-to-use software
• Responsive customer service
• Team collaboration features
• Informative quiz feature
• Detailed documentation for projects

Pricing Plans

Connecteam has three pricing plans, Basic, Advanced, and Expert, and a free version for small companies. The free version offers the most popular features and allows up to 10 users. Users can pay monthly and annually, but they get an advantage of an 18% discount if they pay yearly.

Basic: At US$29/month, with an additional $0.5/user/month for every user after the initial 30 users, this plan offers multiple communications features such as private chats, creating surveys, time tracking with GPS location, and many scheduling functions.

Advanced: At $49/month plus $1.5/user/month for every additional user after 30 users, this plan offers all Basic features, along with schedule templates, advanced settings, and customizations.

Expert: At $99/month, with $3/user/month for more than 30 users, this plan presents users with location management and live GPS tracking, sharing in-app links, and onboarding customization options.

Standout Features of Connecteam

1. Time Clock and Timesheets

Connecteam’s time clock contains numerous sub-features such as timesheets and GPS tracking. Employers receive alerts when employees clock in or out, hit overtime, or forget to clock out. This functionality is available on desktop, mobile app, or a tablet kiosk, so it is suitable for both desk-based teams and field workers.

The weekly timesheets help finalize payroll, which is not a software feature, but multiple payroll platforms can be integrated into Connecteam. Employers can always stay on track of employee work hours, overtime, and breaks and ensure they clock in only at the job location with geofencing. Similarly, GPS tracking further increases accuracy in timesheets by verifying and cross-checking employees’ logged work hours.

2. Attendance, Overtime, and Breaks

Employers can control employee absences with Connecteam and customize various absence types, such as maternity leave and PTO. Businesses can ensure they are never understaffed by deciding which absences to approve and having a record of them. Users can further automate paid and unpaid hours, stay on top of payroll and create smooth and efficient work processes within the organization. Employers can also set break and overtime limits for their employees to avoid workplace violations.

3. Automated Reports

Automated reports offer organizations a complete overview of all their employee data and digitalize their work processes. The information collected into archives can be accessed at any time by managers and used to monitor employee work patterns and automate payroll. Real-time reports additionally help team managers get necessary insights and make better decisions for their teams and the firm.

These reports can be customized and generated to measure specific aspects such as tasks, employees, and much more. Users can also create timesheet reports for an overall work summary for a clear perspective on employee productivity levels. They can further use templates for their reports, which can be exported and shared with the relevant parties.

4. Task Management and Scheduling

Connecteam allows users to automate tasks, manage them all in one place and carry out task-specific communications within the team. Managers can efficiently create and assign tasks to their teams with full details of deadlines, sub-tasks, and media attachments included, as well as turn on alerts and reminders about task status. Besides that, team managers get a complete overview of all ongoing tasks in a clear, organized manner and monitor recurring tasks using customized forms and checklists.

With the scheduling feature, users can check the availability of employees and create a schedule that suits everyone. Employees can also request their preferred shifts and share them with detailed instructions. This allows managers to keep track of PTO, absences, and overtime of employees, which further assists in payroll. Additionally, Connecteam offers users a variety of shift templates, such as recurring schedule templates.

Selected Positive User Feedback: 

• “Team communication and training materials are easily accessed and created without a large learning curve. Customer service is very responsive and works tirelessly to fix software issues that arise.” – Audrey H. (Source Capterra)
• “The mobile app is clear, looks great, and even incorporated our logo into the initialization window.” – Sarah (Source Software Advice)
• “It has a lot of features that are useful and automated like auto reports and end-of-shift reports.” – Hussaina D. (Source G2)
• “Had an issue with uploading photos not working and wouldn’t let me clock in or out. 2 am, sent an email. I got a response in minutes! Within 2 hours, was able to clock out and in, and they explained the issue and that they were going to send out a fix for the photo uploads issue the same day.” – Jon Goldsberry (Source Google Play Store)
• “The simplicity and scope of the software. It packs so much in a while, keeping it relatively easy to use and administer.” – Jason G. (Source Capterra)
• “This app has everything a small business needs to run a field crew. No monthly fees under 10 staff.” – Andrew McAlpine (Source Google Play Store)
• “Using the app on mobile phones, we are now paperless, the technicians can clock on and off easily and can write their repair notes effectively, and with the touch of a button, it goes back to the office in real-time.” – JoAnna (Source Software Advice)
• “The many modules available from HR to timekeeping, to scheduling, to communications, to location tracking (if needed). This program has it all!” – Rani P. (Source G2)
• “We use the desktop version, and employees use the app installed on a tablet. We love the simple features for tracking employees, schedules, and their log-in times.” – GamesForUs (Source Google Play Store)
• “I love the support team; they respond quickly and resolve my issues in minutes… I have LOTS of questions, and they always get me back on track when I am stuck.” – Scott (Source Software Advice)
• “I had one question about the software, and within 5 minutes, I had a great and personal explanation about the job scheduler.” – Anne B. (Source Capterra)
• “The main thing that caught my attention was how customizable and user-friendly it was. It has MANY features and allows you to create the workspace needed for your business.” – Noam M. (Source G2)
• “The time clock and messaging features attracted me … I love the task management. I LOVE the workflows – solved a big problem for us.” – Jason S. (Source Capterra)
• “The features that won me were the messaging capabilities, the training portals, and the quiz features. In our industry, we change sales often. I love having a quiz feature to publish the sale and make sure my team is updated on all of the ins and outs.” – Sierra (Source Software Advice)
• “The photo uploads, checklist features, and location tracking help to provide digital documentation for each assigned project.” – Verified User in Facilities Services (Source G2)

Selected Negative User Feedback:

• “App only supports Android and iPhone. No desktop app for Windows or Mac available.” – Scott W. (Source Capterra)
• “Can’t sort by work teams in either desktop or app, only by start times so can’t easily see which team members are on shift.” – Will Saari (Source Google Play Store)
• “Every new feature you need requires an upgrade to a higher package to make us pay more.” – Hussaina D. (Source G2)
• “Our previous scheduling software had more clarity and control over schedule creation, shift swapping, time-off requests, and general management. ConnectTeam has a functional scheduling feature … but this aspect could use some improvement.” – Sarah (Source Software Advice)
• “The scheduling module is full of bugs (the shifts tend to disappear or duplicate shifts appear for whatever reason, some jobs were sent to the wrong user, the schedule is often slow, especially on mobile phones).” – Verified Reviewer (Source Capterra)
• “Constantly crashes. I’m literally just tapping on a single item to type the abbreviation for not applicable, and it either sends me to the home page or closes the app altogether.” – Forest A. (Source Google Play Store)
• “Multiple times, I have clocked out for my shift for it not to work, and yes, I went through every page and clicked confirm. Also crashes a lot when trying to clock in.” – Steph Sheedy (Source Google Play Store)
• “Some great features are only for the higher tier subscriptions which as a smaller company is a bit costly.” – Jose (Source Software Advice)
• “I’ve been using the app for my company for a few years, and it worked fine for a bit, but now it has constant issues. My team has reached out to customer service multiple times, and issues never get resolved. Shifts get deleted, hours change, and shifts get double booked. Customer service is incompetent. I’d look elsewhere for a scheduling app. There are too many bugs/issues.” – Brett W. (Source Google Play Store)
• “My biggest annoyance with it is the “most used” job selection. I mainly work in the office 4/5 days a week, but sometimes have to work specific jobs that I only select once and then don’t re-use. But in the “most used” job selection, “office work” doesn’t come up despite being my most selected job by far. I always have to search for it. Meanwhile, all the one-off jobs I’ve done pop up first!” – Sydney Erin (Source Google Play Store)
• “Anytime I try to add or take a picture it just closes/crashes the app.” – Sphynx Inc. (Source Google Play Store)
• “I think the pricing model could be a little more flexible for 11 – 30 level organizations, but offering a free version for firms under 11 employees helps a lot with that.” – Jason G. (Source Capterra)
• “Basic features are missing or are tied to plan upgrades – for instance, you cannot share a Workflow (form) in the app unless you’re on the Expert plan ($191 a month).” – Grant A. (Source G2)
• “I wish this had a payroll processing feature so it could be a complete all-inclusive program. I export my team’s time clock and send it to payroll. If payroll could log in and distribute, that would be amazing.” – Sierra (Source Software Advice)
• “The software is only for the team, and there are not many options for the customers of the business.” – Stanislav V. (Source Capterra)

Ratings from Other Reviews

(As of 05/05/2023)

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.3/5
• Software Advice: 5/5
• TrustRadius: 8.8/10
• App Store: 4.2/5 (in the US)
• Google Play Store: 3.8/5 (in the US)

Final Thoughts

Connecteam’s time tracking and employee management software offers features ranging from smooth clocking in and out to live reports for extensive insights. Employers can record daily or weekly timesheets and automate payroll. They can further monitor employee breaks, overtime, and absences. What’s cool is the software has a GPS tracker and geofencing functionality to verify logged hours. It also offers real-time communication and collaboration through the team management feature, which is very handy.

However, I’m not a fan of Connecteam’s Android app. It has a rating of 3.8/5 stars on the Google Play Store (in the US) owing to its substandard functionality and frequent crashes – which is quite inconvenient for field workers looking to track time on the go. And the software’s scheduling functionality isn’t as smooth as I’d like either, it has a lot of bugs and frequently crashes.

In conclusion, Connecteam is an ok time tracking and scheduling solution, which doesn’t really do anything really well. And frequent crashes in its Android app make me question the software’s usability for businesses with field/on-site workers.