Buddy Punch Review: Our In-Depth Analysis & Final Verdict
David Kariuki
Last update on:
Apr 18, 2024
Published on:
If your business still relies on manual tracking processes, it can be challenging to monitor and track hours worked for every employee, their schedule, and when they are clocked in or out.
In an era where manual time tracking processes such as manual time entry and data adjustments are considered the most time-consuming parts of the business process, as portrayed by 50 percent of professionals who lack an automated system, these legacy processes can affect your businesses resources and workflow.
Time tracking apps can help streamline time tracking and eliminate the frustration of clocking in and out for employees. To save you the hassle of going through all the time tracking softwares in the market by yourself, we tested and reviewed Buddy Punch, a time tracking solution for both employees and employers.
In this Buddy Punch review, we will reveal the critical features of Buddy Punch, including the pros and cons, pricing plans, and online user reviews.
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Easy integration with multiple punch-in options: Facial recognition, username and passwords, PIN code, and QR codes
Geofencing features
What We Don’t Like
Difficult correcting if you wrongly punch in or out
Lacks an online timer to track billable hours
No phone support
What is Buddy Punch and How Does It Work?
Buddy Punch is a cloud-based, fully integrated online time tracking and employee scheduling software. It’s designed to help business owners and team leaders track the working hours of their employees.
In our Buddy Punch review, we found that employees can easily clock in and out of their shifts from their respective workstations using their mobile phones. Buddy Punch’s online time clock lets organizations stay on top of attendance, time off, and overtime in real time.
Employees can punch in or out on a browser, iOS, or Android apps. Employers can view who punched in, at which GPS location, and even limit where they can clock in or out.
Buddy Punch cloud-based time tracking solution also provides a payroll processing solution. We discovered that this module is equipped with a detailed reporting system that automatically calculates payroll based on employee paid and unpaid time, accrued vacations, and sick leaves. It’s easy to sync Buddy Punch with other software, including Workday, QuickBooks, Paychex, and other software to simplify the user’s payroll system. Furthermore, employees get push notifications to let them know when they should be working or in case they’ve forgotten to punch in.
Buddy Punch App Review: Standout Features
Buddy Punch offers several features and functionalities from time-clocking and flexible punch options to simplified payroll and budgeting.
We’ll explore buddy punch features in detail to give you an overview of what we found out from each feature. This might help you make the right decision when choosing a time-tracking software.
Punch Time Clock (Clock-in/Out Options)
Unlike other time tracking software we have reviewed in the market with only a clock-in/out option, Buddy Punch time clocks allow employees to punch in/out either through a four-digit PIN code, username with password, facial recognition using a webcam, or QR codes. Simply log in to your account, punch in and out, then submit the report for approval to your manager.
When it comes to QR codes, users can generate and print unique codes for employees. That said, this clock-in/out option is available for users that can access Buddy Punch through the Google Chrome web browser and mobile app as long as there is access to an internet connection.
In addition to these four clocking-in and out options, it’s also possible to use SMS to capture employee attendance. To make it even more convenient, employees can clock in and out of their workstations instead of going to a centralized time-clocking PC or other equipment. That said, companies that still want to centralize time clocking can set up a dedicated PC where employees can swipe their unique QR codes. This feature is handy for field employees who have unstable internet connections and want to clock in or out.
In addition to providing seamless clocking in/out options, Buddy Punch also allows managers to monitor employees' hours in real-time to stay ahead of attendance, time-off requests, and overtime. If you need to reduce the time you spend manually reviewing, inputting, verifying, and analyzing employee timesheets, then Buddy Punch will make the process easy.
Employee Scheduling
Scheduling is key when it comes to employee management. And Buddy Punch doesn’t disappoint.
Create multiple schedules in minutes and send them to all employees with a click of a button. With Buddy Punch, you get access to a drag-and-drop scheduler that allows you to create, edit, assign, and share shifts with staff. You can also easily add specific locations, jobs, codes, track time, or swap shifts within a few button clicks.
Interestingly, Buddy Punch features an automatic punch-out functionality that automatically clocks out an employee once their schedules end. This is among the unique features for managers whose staff have a problem with time keeping and those that often forget to clock out. It also ensures that all employees clock out at the end of their shift.
Since Buddy Punch is made with both managers and staff in mind, employees can easily view their schedule anytime to help them plan their tasks accordingly. Managers can send notifications to either one person or department or the whole staff with a click of a button.
Punch Limiting
Punching in early or punching out late for employees can affect scheduling and lead to additional working hours for the week.
Punch limiting on Buddy Punch helps solve this problem because it limits when and where an employee can punch in or out. Employers can specify a timeframe for an employee to punch time.
The interesting part is that you can use punch limiting with scheduling or without scheduling. The only difference between the two is: With scheduling, you will have to specify how many minutes before or after a shift an employee is allowed to punch time. Without scheduling, you will need to specify the timeframe an employee is allowed to punch time.
For both scenarios, an employee will receive an error message if they try to punch time outside of that timeframe.
Job Codes/Department Codes
Job Codes, also known as Department Codes, are another feature in the Buddy Punch system that allow users to track the amount of time and activities employees spend working on certain custom tasks.
To get things rolling, employers use job codes to assign unique codes to every task or project, and employees can then clock in and out for that specific job code to track the time they spent on it. Not only does this information allocate costs accurately, but it also comes in handy when organizing projects, analyzing productivity and generating reports on the performance of specific projects.
What stands out when using job codes is that employees can edit custom codes any time during their shift to adapt to changes in the work plan. All the time spent on every job can be viewed on every employee’s time card and your reports. Buddy Punch job codes should be a priority if you want to keep track of time and resources used in specific projects and also ensure projects are done within the stipulated time and budget.
Geofencing
The geofences feature on Buddy Punch allows users to only clock in/out at respective job sites using GPS technology.
The employer creates a radius as a geofence, and the employees are required to be within a specific radius of that location to clock in. If they’re not within the specific location and IP address, they receive an error notification and can’t track time.
This feature works well with the IP lock feature, which restricts clocking into a certain device or location, making it easier for users who are constantly on the road.
It has multiple radius options ranging from 150 feet and 500 feet to 1,000 feet, 2,000 feet, and 5,000 feet.
We set the geofence radius options to be 150 ft and 500 ft to see how it performed.
We discovered that Buddy Punch would only clock in when you’re within that specific radius. If you try to clock in or out outside the geofenced area, you get an error and can’t track time. You must come back to the area to be clocked out.
However, Buddy Punch failed to clock us out automatically once we left the geofenced area.
Overall the geofencing feature offers more accurate records of when and where their employees are working, which helps with scheduling, payroll, and compliance with company rules.
PTO (Paid Time Off) Tracking
It’s possible to track all types of PTO, from sick leaves and vacations to personal leaves and holidays, with the Buddy Punch PTO tracking feature.
Employees can enter it directly on their time card approvals, request time off and see their current balance of unused time off. Employers, on the other hand receive a notification to either approve or deny time off requests and view the summary of all time off requests, including balances for all employees.
The interesting part is that employers can automate the PTO management process by letting employees add it without requiring your approval. This functionality allows you to spend less time managing personal or sick leaves and get more time to streamline your operations, no matter the company size. It’s also a useful feature to help streamline the request and approval process and ensure employees receive the right payment for their time off.
We discovered that Buddy Punch offers an Accrual feature if you want to track the total time available and time used. What caught our interest in this feature is that all work hours count toward time off accruals, including regular, double time, and overtime calculations. This means that employees earn as many accruals as needed based on a per pay period, hours worked, and yearly basis. Employees can view all the PTO accruals created on the Time Off page.
Reports
Buddy Punch offers several different reports that you can customize to meet your business needs. This includes PDF or Excel exports.
Employers get a 360 view of every process required to push a project to the next level. These reports provide a bigger picture of what is happening with individual employees, departments, and the whole team. You can access payroll reports, PTO summaries, daily hours, in and out activities, and more in one spot.
You can export all these custom reports in one click of a button and understand what to adjust to make your business processes better.
Integrations
As far as integration is concerned, Buddy Punch fairs well. It allows integration with other software, including Zapier, ADP, QuickBooks, Gusto, SurePayroll, Paychex, Paylocity, and more. The integration helps teams seamlessly track their work without problems and makes coordination easier for invoicing, billing, and payroll tasks.
It’s not only a reliable tool to track time but also a good project management tool.
Single Sign On (SSO)
SSOs are popular for improving automation, enabling customized workflows, and streamlining user authentication – without sacrificing their safety. Buddy Punch allows you to access several SSO providers and multiple applications with a single set of login credentials.
SSO allowed us to log in on Buddy Punch, and automatically sign in into other applications integrated with the SSO System – without having to log in again. Not only does this improve security by limiting the number of times employees have to sign in, but it also increases productivity by reducing the amount of time a user spends signing in and out of different iOS or Android apps.
What Customers Say About Buddy Punch
While we think Buddy Punch does a pretty job in terms of ease of use and fairly affordable time tracking solution on the market, we also wanted to know what customers say about the software.
Here are some Buddy Punch reviews from customers and industry experts.
Buddy Punch offers three pricing plans: Standard, Pro, and Enterprise payments plans plus a free trial as well.
Here are the Buddy Punch pricing tiers in detail:
Standard Plan: At $3.99 per user/month (billed annually) or $4.99 (monthly) + $19 base fee. Includes core time tracking, mobile apps, GPS on punches, and more.
Pro Plan: $4.99 per user/month (annually) or $5.99 (monthly) + $19 base fee. Adds scheduling features to the Standard offerings, such as employee scheduling, shift trades, and schedule notifications.
Premium Plan: $6.99 per user/month (annually) or $7.99 (monthly) + $19 base fee. Expands on Pro with real-time GPS tracking, activity reporting, and a real-time location dashboard.
Enterprise Plan: Customized solutions that include all Premium features plus Single Sign-On (SSO) and API access. Contact for pricing.
A free trial is available.
What Are The Alternatives To Buddy Punch Time Tracking Software?
Although Buddy Punch is packed with impressive features, it falls short when it comes to automatically tracking the actual location of employees when they start and stop their time including real-time synchronization across all devices.
This is where a time tracking software like Timeero excel to automatically track employees location in real time and provide the latest data in real-time.
Let’s discuss more about the features that make Timeero stand out.
Streamline Your Time Tracking Process with Timeero: The Smarter Alternative to Buddy Punch!
Thanks to Timeero’s GPS and time-tracking capabilities, managing employees has never been this easy. Timeero offers plenty of interesting features that stand out from the rest of the time-tracking software.
The software allows you to monitor employees’ time, location, and mileage in real-time and use this information to gain insight into employee activity and schedule effortlessly.
Let’s discover more about how Timeero differs from Buddy Punch review and why it’s an excellent alternative.
Intuitive, User-Friendly Platform
Timeero's intuitive and user-friendly interface makes it easy for users to manage time, track hours, and monitor the progress of projects.
Since it’s designed with simplicity and efficiency in mind, workers and managers can view time-tracking data, including worked hours, tasks, and team members. One outstanding feature of Timeero is its ability to track your time in real-time using the mobile app. You can punch in and out, log hours, and access task information from your phone – all with just a few clicks. This is also among the many reasons why people choose Timeero over Buddy Punch.
Real-Time Tracking
Timeero features an easy-to-use and intuitive app that allows employees to clock in and out with the help of geofencing easily. Quick clocking in and out automatically creates a timesheet entry that is accessible to the managers and administrators for approval.
Timeero: Time and Mileage
Clock-in and out reminders come in handy to remind the employees to punch in or out once the employees arrive at or leave the geofenced radius.
This helps ensure you capture all the billable hours and accurately track your time. What’s more, employees can review their timesheets via the app and receive alerts on any potential changes.
With Timeero, you will never miss out on what is happening with your employees and business as a whole.
Employee Scheduling
Are you tired of the stressful scheduling of tasks for your employees? Timeero can help save hours a week with employee scheduling functionality similar to the one on Buddy Punch. But unlike the Buddy Punch scheduling, Timeero offers schedule templates that employers can reuse for recurring shifts. This makes it easier for employers to create schedules consistently.
Timeero: Scheduling
Additionally, Timeero allows users to request for changes in their shifts or swap shifts with each other, and employers can approve or decline them.
On Buddy Punch, shift changes must be initiated by managers. Once a shift has been assigned, the employee is notified through mobile or email notifications to either accept or decline the shift.
GPS Tracking and Geofencing
With the best GPS tracking app, businesses can accurately track the location of their employees in real time.
Timeero provides accurate location and information on all employees and what tasks they are currently working on.
The mobile app allows employers to check on employees at any time during the shift, view the routes they are taking, and receive real-time notifications every time an employee enters or leaves a geofenced area. Businesses can set geofenced locations to restrict punching in and out of a workstation and set clock-in or out reminders to ensure employers do not forget to clock in or out.
When using GPS tracking for employees, be mindful of their privacy rights. Create an employee GPS tracking policy outlining its use and ask employees to review and sign it before installing any GPS tracking apps.
Time Off Tracking
Timeero has a way of making managing employee time off run smoothly. When an employee requests time off using the mobile app, employers receive instant notifications and can access them for approval.
Timeero Time-Off: Admin View
Employers can set employee time-off tracking and even add time-off requests for their employees – a feature that distinguishes Timeero from other time-tracking applications.
Timeero App: Time Off Request
Buddy Punch Review: The Bottom Line
Now that you clearly understand what Buddy Punch has to offer, you have a better chance of making the right decision.
In our Buddy Punch review, we found that It's an affordable web-based SaaS time and attendance tracking tool with various features including time tracking, scheduling, payroll, and integration. Users appreciate its simplicity and ability to track time anywhere on the mobile app and web. Buddy Punch will be a good option if you’re looking for a fairly priced and effective solution to track employee time.
That said, if you desire more functionality and extensive feature options, all at an affordable price, then Timeero is your best option.
FAQs
Is Buddy Punch Free?
Buddy Punch offers three pricing plans: Standard, Pro, and Enterprise starting from $3.99. A free Buddy Punch trial is also available.
Does Buddy Punch track your location?
Buddy Punch features GPS tracking, which records the location once employees and managers clock in and out. However, it does not track location during shifts or at any other time except when punching in and out.
Does Buddy Punch have an app?
Yes. Buddy Punch has a mobile app with all the clock in and out options as well as other features such as scheduling, time off, time cards, and more.
How do I cancel my Buddy Punch subscription?
To cancel your subscription on Buddy Punch, go to settings and click billing on the top. On your billing page, hit the Cancel Account button.
Say goodbye to manual time tracking and say hello to Timeero.
The smarter way to track your employee's work hours, GPS location, mileage, and schedules.
David is a content writer passionate about all things SaaS and technology! With over seven years of experience, David knows how to craft content that captivates his readers and effectively communicates their value and offerings. When he is not writing, he is at home reading, out playing soccer, or exploring new places.
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