When I Work shift scheduling and schedule builder
The schedule builder is When I Work's flagship feature.
The schedule builder is When I Work's flagship feature. The visual weekly grid displays shifts by employee or by position, with color coding for roles and visual indicators for conflicts, overtime risks, and availability issues. Managers create shifts by clicking on time slots, assign employees from a qualified-staff dropdown, and publish the entire schedule with one click.
Schedule templates let managers save and reuse common schedule patterns. Copy-from-last-week functionality clones the previous week's schedule for quick adjustments. Managers can also create recurring shifts that automatically populate on a weekly, bi-weekly, or custom cadence.
Open shift posting and employee self-selection
Managers can post unfilled shifts as open shifts visible to all qualified employees. Employees opt in through the mobile app, and managers approve the selection. This is useful for covering call-outs, adding extra coverage for busy periods, or offering additional hours to employees who want them. The feature reduces the phone-call scramble that managers typically deal with when a shift needs last-minute coverage.
Availability management and time-off requests
Employees submit availability preferences — days and times they can or cannot work — through the app. Time-off requests follow a similar workflow with manager approval. The scheduling interface displays availability alongside the schedule grid, so managers can see at a glance who is available for each shift. Approved time-off automatically blocks those employees from being scheduled during their absence.
When I Work time clock and attendance tracking
The time clock (Advanced plan) lets employees clock in and out through the mobile app or a web browser.
The time clock (Advanced plan) lets employees clock in and out through the mobile app or a web browser. GPS verification captures the employee's location at clock-in, and geofencing can restrict clock-in to approved locations. The time clock records shift start, end, break times, and total hours worked.
Timesheets aggregate clock-in data into weekly summaries that managers review and approve. Flagged entries — late arrivals, early departures, missed clock-outs, overtime triggers — are highlighted for manager attention. Approved timesheets export to connected payroll systems.
GPS verification and location capture at clock-in
When employees clock in via the mobile app, When I Work captures their GPS coordinates and displays the location on a map in the manager dashboard. Geofencing can restrict clock-in to within a configurable radius of the workplace. This prevents off-site clock-ins and provides location verification for businesses with distributed teams or multiple locations.
Overtime alerts and threshold notifications
The system monitors hours worked against configured overtime thresholds — typically 40 hours per week for federal rules, with configurable daily thresholds for states like California. Managers receive alerts when employees approach overtime, giving them the opportunity to adjust upcoming shifts before overtime costs accrue.
When I Work team messaging and communication
Built-in messaging supports one-on-one conversations, group chats, and broadcast announcements.
Built-in messaging supports one-on-one conversations, group chats, and broadcast announcements. Managers can message individual employees about shift-specific topics, send group messages to teams or locations, and broadcast announcements to the entire workforce. All communication happens within the When I Work app, keeping scheduling-related conversations separate from personal messaging.
The messaging is intentionally lightweight — text messages and images, no threads, no file sharing, no video. The simplicity keeps the feature focused on operational communication: shift reminders, coverage requests, schedule change notifications, and team announcements.
Broadcast messaging for team-wide announcements
Broadcast messages reach all employees or filtered groups (by location, role, or team). Read receipts are not available, but delivery is confirmed through push notifications. Broadcasts are useful for weather closures, policy updates, holiday schedule changes, and other information that needs to reach the entire team quickly.
Shift-specific messaging and coverage requests
Managers can message all employees working a specific shift or request coverage for an uncovered shift through the messaging system. The contextual messaging — attached to a shift rather than sent as a general broadcast — ensures the message reaches the relevant employees and provides the necessary schedule context.
When I Work shift swapping and trade management
Shift swapping lets employees trade shifts with qualified coworkers directly through the app.
Shift swapping lets employees trade shifts with qualified coworkers directly through the app. The swap process can require manager approval or auto-approve when both employees meet eligibility requirements (right role, not exceeding overtime thresholds, no schedule conflicts). The feature puts schedule flexibility in employees' hands without requiring manager intervention for every change.
The swap workflow includes safeguards: only qualified employees can accept swaps, overtime rules are enforced automatically, and managers receive notifications when swaps are processed. This prevents unauthorized schedule changes while still empowering employees to manage their own availability.
Auto-approval rules for qualifying shift trades
Managers can configure auto-approval rules that allow shift swaps to proceed without manager intervention when both parties meet defined criteria — correct role, no schedule conflict, no overtime trigger. This reduces the administrative burden on managers while maintaining schedule integrity. Auto-approval rules are configurable per location or team.
Shift drop and pickup workflow
Employees who cannot work a shift can drop it back to the open shift pool, where qualified coworkers can pick it up. The drop-and-pickup workflow functions like a marketplace for unwanted shifts, providing a structured alternative to the informal 'can someone cover my shift' text messages that managers typically mediate.
When I Work payroll integrations and timesheet export
The Advanced plan integrates with major payroll providers including ADP, Gusto, Paychex, QuickBooks, and Square Payroll.
The Advanced plan integrates with major payroll providers including ADP, Gusto, Paychex, QuickBooks, and Square Payroll. Approved timesheets export directly to the connected payroll system with hours, overtime, and pay rate data. The integration eliminates manual timesheet data entry that creates payroll errors in disconnected systems.
For payroll providers without a native integration, When I Work supports CSV export of timesheet data that can be imported into virtually any payroll system. The export includes configurable fields for hours, rates, job codes, and department codes.
Native payroll provider integrations
Native integrations with ADP, Gusto, Paychex, QuickBooks, and Square Payroll support automatic timesheet sync on configurable schedules. The sync maps When I Work employees to payroll provider records, transfers approved hours with overtime and rate calculations, and confirms successful data transfer. Setup is self-service and typically takes 15 to 30 minutes.
CSV export for non-integrated payroll systems
When I Work generates downloadable CSV files from approved timesheets with configurable column mappings. The export can match the import format of most payroll systems, though manual upload and verification are required. This workaround is functional but adds administrative time compared to native integrations.
When I Work reporting and labor cost visibility
Reporting in When I Work covers scheduled hours, actual hours worked, labor costs, overtime tracking, and attendance patterns.
Reporting in When I Work covers scheduled hours, actual hours worked, labor costs, overtime tracking, and attendance patterns. The Advanced plan adds labor cost reports that compare budgeted versus actual costs by week, location, or team. Reports are viewable in the app and exportable for external analysis.
The reporting is adequate for basic operational visibility but does not reach the analytical depth that multi-location operations managers typically need. There are no custom dashboards, no POS revenue integration for labor-to-revenue analysis, and no trend visualization beyond basic period-over-period comparisons.
Labor cost reports and budget tracking
Labor cost reports show total scheduled cost, actual cost, and variance by week, department, or location. Managers can set budget targets and track performance against them over time. The cost calculations use configured pay rates and overtime rules. The reports are useful for basic cost monitoring but do not provide the forecasting or optimization capabilities that platforms like Deputy offer.
Attendance and punctuality tracking
Attendance reports track late arrivals, early departures, no-shows, and missed clock-outs by employee over configurable time periods. The data helps managers identify attendance patterns and address issues before they become chronic. The reports are employee-level — there is no aggregate attendance analysis by team, location, or day of week.
