Homebase vs. Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) 2024

In a tough economic climate, small business managers need to use all the tools at their disposal. That’s probably why you’re looking at popular HR platforms like Homebase and Tsheets (now Quickbooks Time) to automate the way you run your operations and help you manage your team.

But it’s important to find a solution that suits your needs, or your HR tools will end up slowing you down instead of making your life easier.

If you want to know upfront whether Homebase or Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) would be a better fit for your business, look no further. We’ve compared the two in terms of features, pricing, and key qualities so you can make an informed decision.**

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Why choose Homebase over Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) in 2024?

Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) may have a powerful time tracking tool, but it doesn’t compensate for the platform’s lack of other essential features. You can’t run payroll, hire new staff, or communicate freely with your team like you can with Homebase. And not having all your key tools in one platform means integrating with other tools and having to switch between different windows to get everything done.

Homebase also offers better value than Quickbooks Time. We don’t charge for basic features like scheduling, time tracking, and timesheets, and our plans include unlimited employees — even the free one. Tsheets only has paid plans and charges per employee as well as per location, so you end up paying more for fewer features.

Comparison chart: Homebase vs. Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) at a glance

Employee scheduling	✓	✓
Time tracking	✓	✓
HR tools	✓	✗
Team messaging	✓	✗
Labor compliance	✓	✗
Support for departments or worksites	✓	✓
Hiring tools	✓	✗
Payroll	✓	✓ — via integration with Quickbooks Payroll
Project management	✗	✓
Mobile app	✓	✓
Early pay access for employees	✓	✗
Customer service	✓ — phone, chat, and email	✓ — phone, chat, and email
Pricing	Plans range from free to $100 per location per month Homebase payroll costs $39/month base fee and $6/month per active employee	Plans range from $20 per month plus $8 per employee to $40 per month plus $10 per employee
Cost for the most comprehensive plan for a business with 1 location with 20 employees	$80/monthly (annually) $99/monthly (monthly)	$240/monthly

How Homebase and Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) stack up against each other

While Homebase is an all-in-one team management solution, Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) only focuses on scheduling and time tracking. That means Homebase has more tools, but Quickbooks’ tools have more functions. For instance, Quickbooks doesn’t have payroll or hiring features like Homebase, but its time tracking tool lets you check your team member’s current locations.

So, the two platforms are better for different use cases. Homebase is ideal for restaurants, retail shops, and hospitality businesses where busy managers need to be able to get everything done on the go within one platform. They simply don’t have time to learn about new apps, integrate them with their existing software, and switch between various platforms for different tasks.

But if your business has remote teams that move around throughout their work days, like delivery crews or repair people, Quickbooks may be your best choice. You may need the platform’s more versatile time tracking tools to monitor off-site employee working hours. For example, the ability to check the current location of your workers could help a taxi company monitor drivers who aren’t reporting their mileage accurately.

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An in-depth breakdown of Homebase’s fees and features

Caption: Add your team’s availability to easily create instant employee schedules with Homebase.

Scheduling

Homebase has similar scheduling features to Tsheets (Quickbooks Time). You can’t assign employees to specific jobs like you can with Quickbooks, but you can give them determined roles instead. For example, if you run a cafe, you can state whether a staff member is a cashier, a barista, or both. Then, you can assign them that role (and its associated duties) for a specific shift.

Homebase also has a useful auto population tool that Quickbooks doesn’t. That means you can simply enter your opening hours, the roles you need, and your staff’s availability to generate schedules automatically. Not only does that save you time, but it’s also a completely fair and impartial way of allocating desirable shifts.

Time tracking

Homebase’s time tracking tool shares the same features as Quickbooks timesheets. However, we include our time clock and time tracking features in our free plan and charge less to access extra features like clock-in verifications and overtime alerts.

Payroll

From $39 per month and $6 per employee, you can add Homebase’s payroll feature to whatever plan you choose. That means you can schedule your staff, track their time, and run payroll all in one place. Homebase can also file our taxes for you so you can avoid costly errors.

And if your business is already using a specific payroll system, not to worry. Homebase also has a variety of built-in payroll integrations, including Paychex, Ripping, ADP, Quickbooks, and Square Payroll.

Although Quickbooks Time also integrates with popular payroll tools like Gusto and ADP, it doesn’t have a built-in payroll feature. This is a major disadvantage because you may have to download and pay for extra software on top of the monthly Quickbooks fee. It also means having to manage two apps with different interfaces.

Caption: Homebase lets you pin announcements to your dashboard, so staff won’t ever miss important news.

Team messaging

One of Homebase’s standout features is the messaging system. You can invite your entire team to download our mobile app and easily stay in touch with them with our chat feature. It includes everything from standard direct messages to shift reminders and shoutouts for special achievements. You even have the option to filter employees based on who’s working and message that specific group instead of checking the roster.

Although Quickbooks has notifications, alerts, and project notes, it doesn’t have a team messaging system or chat app. This may make coordinating your team more challenging, especially if you have many off-site or remote workers.

HR and compliance tools

Homebase offers a range of tools and services to assist you with managing your staff and keeping your business compliant:

• Alerts for compliance issues like changing labor laws or employee documents approaching their expiration date.
• Access to certified HR experts to check your internal policies and advise you on tricky situations like terminations.
• A custom-made employee handbook.
• Document management for all your staff’s paperwork, like tax forms and contracts, including secure storage in the Cloud.

While you can contact Quickbooks support for help with the scheduling and time tracking tools, the platform doesn’t offer advice on HR or compliance issues. You’d have to integrate with another app to access those services.

Caption: Homebase has hundreds of job description templates so you can customize and create professional ads.

Hiring and onboarding tools

Unlike Quickbooks, Homebase has tools to see you through every stage of the hiring and onboarding process. Here are the features our users can enjoy:

• A library of easily customizable job description templates for your ads.
• Automations that post your ads to dozens of job sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and Glassdoor.
• Applicant screening questions that eliminate candidates who wouldn’t be right for the role and save you time at the interview stage.
• An overview of all your applications and their progress.
• Welcome packets to send new hires with all the essential onboarding documents, like contracts and employee handbooks.

Mobile app

As of January 2023, the Homebase app has a 4.4 rating on Google Play and a 4.8 rating on the App Store. It’s free to download, and you and your employees can use it to access scheduling, time tracking, and even payroll tools. The Homebase app also supports team communication so everyone can message each other individually or as part of custom groups.

Homebase pricing

Homebase’s free plan gives your small business all the essential features you need, like scheduling, time tracking, and team messaging. And not only that, it includes unlimited employees at one business location.

Otherwise, Homebase has three paid plans. And unlike Quickbooks Time and many of its competitors, we charge per location rather than per employee. Here’s how our pricing system works:

• $20/month: All the features from the free plan but with extra tools like shift notes, late alerts, and message confirmations.

• $48/month: More advanced time tracking tools and granular permissions.

• $80/month: Includes HR and compliance support, onboarding tools, and document management and storage.

Payroll has its own separate paid plan at $39 monthly plus $6 per employee, which you can add to any of our monthly plans. In contrast to Quickbooks, it’s an upgrade, not a separate app, so you can run payroll within Homebase instead of introducing extra software.

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An in-depth breakdown of Tsheets’ (now Quickbooks Time’s) fees and features

Source: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/time-tracking/shift-scheduling-software/

Caption: Tsheets (now Quickbooks Time) scheduling lets you assign jobs as well as shifts to your employees.

Scheduling

Tsheets’ (now Quickbooks Time’s) main feature is its scheduling tool. Similar to Homebase, it lets you create timetable templates, make edits, and publish schedules to the app instantly. Then, you can automatically notify your employees their schedule is live so they can check their upcoming shifts.

But there are three key differences between the Quickbooks and Homebase scheduling tools:

1. Quickbooks has the option to assign specific jobs to people. This may be handy for businesses with remote workers who travel to clients, like movers or home care workers. On the other hand, Homebase lets you assign shifts by role, which makes it easier to schedule for restaurants and salons with many different types of staff.
2. You have to pay for Quickbooks’ scheduling tool, but Homebase scheduling is free.
   
3. There’s no auto population tool on Quickbooks. With Homebase, you can simply enter your team’s availability and click the ‘auto populate’ button to fill in your schedules.

Time tracking

Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) and Homebase have almost identical time clocks. Like Homebase, the Tsheets time clock lets employees sign in and out of their shifts with an app and uses GPS to verify their locations. And administrators can track clock ins, receive alerts about late arrivals, and send staff reminders, too.

The two platforms also let you create virtual fences around work sites, so remote employees can only sign into their shifts once they’ve arrived at the right location. This is handy if your business is on a large property where it’s difficult to oversee all staff at once — like a winery or a boat rental facility — or your teams work off-site — like construction crews and festival workers.

However, it’s important to note the Quickbooks time tracker charges for all its tools, while Homebase includes time tracking and timesheets in the free plan.

Source: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/time-tracking/whos-working/

Caption: Tsheets (now Quickbooks Time) lets you pinpoint remote workers’ locations with their ‘who’s working’ map tool.

Remote team management

Quickbooks Time has a unique ‘who’s working’ feature. Basically, you can check every member of your team’s location on a map. This is especially useful for businesses with traveling staff, like flower delivery drivers or home repair people. One drawback is the ‘who’s working’ feature requires your team members to keep their locations switched on for their whole shifts, which may raise privacy concerns and drain their phone batteries faster.

Project tracking and management

Quickbooks has dedicated project management tools, which Homebase doesn’t. On the dashboard, you can see an overview of all your ongoing projects. You can estimate hours for each task, assign them to individuals and/or teams, and track progress. Employees can also post updates about projects in the app’s feed and add photos too. And once the project’s finished, you can automatically create invoices for clients.

Although Homebase doesn’t have a dedicated project management tool, it has some equivalent features. You can create departments, assign employees to them, and track their total hours. Likewise, you can create specific groups inside the chat app for updates and questions, as well as write shift notes into the schedule.

Mobile app

As of January 2023, the Tsheets (now Quickbooks Time) app has a 4.6 rating in the App Store and a 4.3 rating in Google Play. And like Homebase, it lets you access many of the Quickbooks timesheets and scheduling functions. Administrators can edit schedules, track hours, and verify clock ins. Managers can also invite employees to download the app for free and use it to sign into their shifts.

Quickbooks also lets you access the ‘who’s working’ feature on the app so you can check on your team’s whereabouts. But like the desktop version, Quickbooks Time’s mobile app doesn’t share Homebase’s chat feature, so you can only comment on specific projects.

Tsheets (Quickbooks Time) pricing

Quickbooks Time has two paid plans, but you can also sign up for a month-long free trial.

The Time Premium plan costs $20 monthly and $8 per employee and includes basic scheduling and time tracking tools, including the ‘who’s working’ feature.

You can also upgrade to the Time Elite plan for $40 monthly and $10 per employee, which adds project management and geofencing tools.

Homebase vs. Tsheets’ (Quickbooks Time’s) integrations compared

Homebase vs. Tsheets’ (Quickbooks Time’s) scalability

When it comes to scalability, Homebase has multiple advantages over Quickbooks Time. The biggest one is Homebase charges by location, so you don’t pay anything extra as you hire more staff. All Tsheets’ pricing plans include a flat fee and charge per employee, so your costs increase exponentially as your team does.

Quickbooks also doesn’t have all the essential features included within its platform. That means growing businesses have to buy more software and learn how to use it as they go. And if you’re busy taking care of day-to-day tasks, running your business, and training new staff, you may not have time for this.

Last, there are only two Quickbooks Time paid plans, so you may end up paying for features you don’t need yet. Homebase has four tiers, so you can gradually add tools as you need them. That’s especially beneficial for small businesses with tight profit margins.

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**The information above is based on our research on Homebase vs. Quickbooks Time (Tsheets). All user feedback referenced in the text has been sourced from independent software review platforms, such as G2 and Capterra, in February 2023.