Honest Review:

Connecteam

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

Here is where it gets really complicated. Connecteam has three Hubs or variants that cater to different needs, namely Operations, Communications, and HR & Skills. Each Hub has one free plan and three paid plans that range from Basic to Enterprise.

The Operations Hub is designed for time tracking, job scheduling, quick tasks, and forms. The Communications Hub has features focused on keeping everyone looped in with chat, updates, directories, surveys, events, and knowledge base. The HR & Skills Hub is optimized for time off, courses, quizzes, documents, recognition, rewards, celebration, and timeline.

Users get to choose which Connecteam hub(s) they need the most, and at which tier. So, for example, if a business needs all the Expert-tier Operations Hub features but also needs core Communications Hub features, they can get the Operations Expert Plan and the Communications Basic Plan together, and their bill will be for the price of both plans combined.

If in the future the company discovers a need for the Advanced-tier HR & Skills features, they can certainly avail of that as well, and they will be billed for the two previous plans plus the HR & Skills Advanced Plan. If they suddenly don’t need a certain plan anymore, they can unsubscribe from the plan that they wish to drop and they will only be billed for the ones they still opt to maintain. This scheme ensures that clients can tailor the features of Connecteam to fit their needs, and they only pay for the features that they use. 

Still with us so far? Alright, let’s continue with a closer look at the pricing and features for the plans offered by Connecteam.

Connecteam Free Plan

The Connecteam Free Plan offers everything a small business needs to manage employees, with seats for up to 10 users and access to all hubs and features at no cost to businesses, for life.

Connecteam Basic Plans

The Connecteam Basic Plans have a fixed price of $29 per month with grouped seats for 30 users plus $0.50 per month for each additional user when billed annually, or a fixed price of $35 per month with grouped seats for 30 users plus $0.60 for each additional user when billed monthly.

Features for the Connecteam Operations Hub in this tier include time tracking, all report types, GPS, unlimited jobs, payroll software integration, shift info (location, notes, media & files), past-due tasks quick view, and the ability to save tasks as a draft, filter dates for more than 30 days, claim open shifts, and add images to a form. 

For the Connecteam Communications Hub, this tier includes features such as private and team chats, chat message read receipts, media & file attachments, and the ability to allow post comments & reactions, view post insights, add custom work contacts to the directory, add location, description, and files to events, create surveys, and create a knowledge base with usage insights.

The Connecteam HR & Skills Hub in this tier has features such as unlimited folders in libraries, unlimited sub-folders, user timeline, export reports, and the ability to search and filter insights, manage employee time off, filter dates for more than 30 days, and see course completion status.

Connecteam Advanced Plans

The Connecteam Advanced Plans have a fixed price of $49 per month with grouped seats for 30 users plus $1.50 per month for each additional user when billed annually, or a fixed price of $59 per month with grouped seats for 30 users plus $1.80 for each additional user when billed monthly.

Features for the Connecteam Operations Hub in this tier include everything in Operations Basic, plus smart groups and admin permissions, geofence for the time clock, recurring shifts and templates for the schedule, recurring tasks, kiosk-only clock in and out, auto clock out, advanced filtering & bulk actions, and the ability to lock days in timesheets.

For the Connecteam Communications Hub, this tier includes all the features in Communications Basic, plus smart groups and admin permissions, chat message read receipts, and the ability to decide who can do what on the chat, start a chat from anywhere on the platform, add a live poll to a post, customize post background color, customize user field display in the directory, create anonymous surveys, and duplicate the knowledge base.

The Connecteam HR & Skills Hub in this tier has all the features in HR & Skills Basic, plus smart Groups and admin permissions, advanced settings and customization, advanced filtering & bulk actions, unlimited courses, full access to course objects settings, and unlimited documents.

Connecteam Expert Plans

The Connecteam Expert Plans have a fixed price of $99 per month with grouped seats for 30 users plus $3 per month for each additional user when billed annually, or a fixed price of $119 per month with grouped seats for 30 users plus $3.60 for each additional user when billed monthly.

Features for the Connecteam Operations Hub in this tier include all the features in Operations Basic and Advanced, plus in-app links (shortcuts), multi-branch/location management, live GPS tracking (Breadcrumbs), process automation, conflicts & custom limitations, new device login alert, and the ability for users to view & edit their profiles.

For the Connecteam Communications Hub, this tier includes all the Communications Basic and Advanced features, plus a larger knowledge base storage, new device login alert, process automation, in-app links (shortcuts), and the ability for admins to schedule posts or set them as recurring, require reading confirmation for posts, pin posts to the top of the feed, and for users to view & edit their profiles.

The Connecteam HR & Skills Hub in this tier has all the HR & Skills Basic and Advanced features, plus new device login alert, process automation, in-app links (shortcuts), courses object timing, custom publishers, onboarding customization, and the ability for users to view & edit personal profiles.

Connecteam Enterprise Plans

Connecteam Enterprise Plans for all three hubs include all the features of all lower tiers, plus a personal account manager, private branding, SSO, 2FA and biometric lock, API access, and a lot of other features that can be customized for the unique needs of enterprise-level businesses. Interested parties can get in touch with Connecteam to inquire about features, solutions, and pricing.

1. Accurate Employee Time Clock and Mistake-free Timesheets 

Connecteam empowers employees to capture accurate hours with their easy-to-use time clock with advanced GPS capabilities.

Teams can simplify time tracking with quick and easy clock-in and clock-out using on-site kiosks, desktop apps, or even on the go with a single touch on their smartphones. This opens up a whole world of possibilities for companies with on-site or on-the-road operations such as construction, field service, logistics, retail, and hospitality businesses.

Employers also get an edge in ensuring employee attendance and time-theft avoidance with Connecteam’s geofencing and geolocation features. GPS tracking allows admins to determine the exact places employees clock in and out from, while the geofencing feature allows them to set up virtual perimeters to restrict where they can begin and end tracking hours. They can even use Breadcrumbs technology for live tracking to see employee movements on a map as they happen while on the clock. This helps ensure employees’ safety and efficiency, safeguards project profitability, provides important documentation, and gives admins the peace of mind brought about by the knowledge that time theft and buddy punching is virtually impossible when GPS-powered time tracking is as sophisticated as Connecteam’s.

With Connecteam’s GPS time tracking, admins can also view how much time employees spend on specific locations, jobs, or clients, which gives businesses invaluable and actionable insight into resource allocation. This is extremely useful for billing, invoicing, and ensuring the profitability of any project.

The hours captured by Connecteam’s time tracking features are automatically organized on digital timesheets that can be seen, reviewed, and corrected by users before payroll. The software automatically flags irregularities to ensure that employees are paid what they are due and that employers are protected from costly payroll mistakes. The payroll process is made even easier by the ability to automatically calculate work hours, breaks, and overtime. Connecteam also allows employers to apply different rates for various employees or jobs, saving businesses precious time, tons of effort, and ultimately, money.

Once timesheets are ready to roll, they can be seamlessly exported into Connecteam’s payroll integrations, Xero and Gusto, or any preferred payroll software.

2. Robust Attendance, Overtime, and Break Management 

Employee attendance is one of the key factors that affect the success — or failure — of most businesses. Employers must ensure that physical sites are manned at all times by competent and qualified employees who follow reliable shift, time off, and break schedules. With Connecteam’s attendance, break, time off, and overtime management tools, the chaos and confusion of staying on top of schedules and enforcing attendance policies are made easy and reduced to a mere series of clicks.

Using the employee attendance policy template provided by Connecteams, employers can help instill the value of showing up and being present among the ranks. Data gathered from time tracking and GPS tracking help employers gain insight into who’s showing up at the right place and at the right time, who’s late, who didn’t clock in or out when and where they are expected to, and who simply didn’t show up. These insights will help in the shaping and implementation of corrective and disciplinary actions to ensure that everyone stays in line and that disruptions caused by tardiness and unexpected absences are minimized. 

And when employees do need to be away from the action as mandated by law with breaks and time off, Connecteam does the heavy lifting and streamlines the handling of time off schedules, requests, and approval. It also makes compliance with state break laws a breeze with intuitive scheduling that allows for flexible, fully customized, and automated break scheduling tailored to the unique needs of any business. It can even be set up so that employees themselves can request when to take their breaks, giving them full control of their schedules and ensuring that they get the downtime they deserve while also keeping the staffing needs of job sites in consideration.

On the other hand, overtime usually means more expenditures for the company. Connecteam helps teams comply with company policies and state laws on overtime by minimizing unnecessary overtime with planning and restriction features, customizable rules, and automatic clock-outs for employees who go into unapproved overtime. Connecteam also saves businesses time and resources by automatically calculating overtime pay and exporting them to payroll with ease. 

3. Connecteam Automated and Highly-Detailed Reports

Reports are the backbone of business decisions and the bane of those tasked to write them. While their importance in guiding future actions cannot be overstated, the process of creating reports can be a total nightmare for those who are stuck in the pen-and-paper system.

With Connecteam, reporting is made easy by using accurately captured data from the employee time clock, GPS tracking, expense tracking, and project documentation. The software organizes all the data into orderly and easily digestible information that can be presented in any way that suits business needs using powerful filters that get to the meat of the matter. This is especially useful in client invoicing and ensuring that payroll is never late, ever. 

Best of all, they can be automatically sent to intended recipients as PDF or Excel files in-app or via email regularly without any manual input from users — it’s a set-and-forget situation that only requires admins to set up parameters in the beginning and then never again. The reports will come in on time, every time, for as long as they are needed. The Connecteam auto reporting feature is a great way to get the exact information a business needs, minus the hassle. 

4. Connecteam Task Management and Scheduling

Last but definitely not least on our list of Connecteam’s standout features are its scheduling and task management tools. I believe in saving the best for last, so here we are with this segment discussing how automated scheduling and task management is a literal game changer. 

Creating a well-rounded employee schedule is probably the most thankless and time-consuming task for business owners because there are just so many factors to consider, such as availability, qualifications, time off, preferences, and a whole lot more. With traditional paper-based and spreadsheet systems, this process is guaranteed to take a lot of agonizing hours, and the result almost always contains inconsistencies and errors that would require even more time to rectify.

Connecteam takes the stress of the process away and allows admins to painlessly create employee schedules that make the best out of available resources with its auto-scheduling feature. Automating the process reduces mistakes, ensures consistency, saves time and money, boosts productivity, and helps keep employees happy. 

Creating and editing shifts on Connecteam become just a matter of dragging, dropping, and labeling. Entire schedules can be copied week after week, cutting back on time needed for planning and drafting. They can also be collaborative when admins allow employees to set their availability and share the responsibility of coverage. Scheduling conflicts such as double bookings and scheduling the wrong employee are flagged with alerts, which help in making sure that everything is in order before deployment. Best of all, shifts can be instantly communicated, accepted, rejected, or swapped in-app, reducing the time spent on back-and-forth so employees can focus on actual work. 

In addition, Connecteam makes task management easy with task automation which comes with detailed descriptions, file attachments, due dates, subtasks, and more. Push reminders nudge teams to send real-time progress updates and pursue completion. Dedicated and task-specific communication channels ensure that all information and updates regarding the task are received by concerned parties. Recurring tasks can be set up and managed in a breeze. And best of all, admins can have full oversight of tasks in the very palm of their hand with smartphones, so work can happen even when they’re on the go.

I just wish the developers would address the bugs plaguing the scheduling system, because they detract from the experience and the thoughtfulness of this feature’s design.

(As of 07/08/2023)

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.3/5
• Software Advice: 5/5
• TrustRadius: 8.2/10
• App Store: 4.3/5
• Google Play Store: 3.9/5 

Connecteam would be a brilliant solution for businesses that wish to improve productivity and team connectivity as it is meant to save a lot of time with intelligently designed features that automate almost all aspects of work… but only if it could address certain flaws. Case in point: Connecteam’s Android app leaves much to be desired with its constant glitches and crashes, which is most likely why it earned a measly 3.9/5 stars on the Google Play Store. And for all the stellar functions of its automated scheduling system which could have made the agonizing process of scheduling a breeze, the experience is marred by bugs that detract from its shine — I wish the developers would do something about this because it would be such a waste if they let it stay this way.

Connecteam has all the bells and whistles, and while having a literal army of features can be great, it can also be a software’s downfall. Setup has a very steep learning curve and users are bogged down by unwieldy navigation in certain features such as the superfluous processes of the Workflow feature. They could have used some of the time spent on adding unnecessary stuff to ensure that integrations, especially with Google Calendar, work well instead.

On the flip side, its auto-reporting function is something that I’m truly a fan of because it allows users to get the information that they need, when they need it. The attendance, overtime, and break management tools are brilliant and very intuitive, taking away the hassle traditionally associated with those processes. 

In conclusion, Connecteam is a very promising solution for businesses who want to boost productivity with an all-in-one tool jam-packed with features and built with flexibility and customizability in mind. However, be prepared for a protracted setup as admins and employees may take time to familiarize themselves with the software — expect a few slip-ups and be patient. And if you’re willing to gloss over the bugs, crashes, and unreliability of the mobile apps, I’d say go get it. But if you can’t risk that for your business, you better look elsewhere.