Getting through your job list each day is crucial to the success of your small business. It’s easy to lose track of the seemingly endless tasks that keep things running smoothly. All of a sudden, you’re running around trying to fix the mess that forgetting to take out the trash last night caused in the storage room. Without an easy way to assign, delegate, and monitor the progress of your daily workload, you risk forgetting something that can snowball into a big problem later on.
But keeping track of everything is tough. Employees forget to follow checklists, they don’t always track time properly, and you can’t always be at your desk to keep an eye on things. That could be why you’re looking for job tracking software to take all the messy administrative work out of your hands.
Knowing where to start when researching the best job tracking software for your small business can be overwhelming. So, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of our top picks for 2023, giving you time back to focus on higher-priority work (and maybe even take some time off!)
In this post, we’ll look at:
- What to consider when searching for a job tracking software
- The key features, pricing, and benefits of each tool
- Our top pick out of the six best job tracking platforms currently on the market
The top 6 job tracking software for small businesses
- Homebase: Best all-in-one solution for managing hourly teams
- Wrike: Best for interactive Gantt charts
- Monday.com: Best for project templates
- ClickUp: Best for low-budget teams
- Zoho Projects: Best for automating tasks
- Todoist: Best for keeping track of simple tasks
What to look for in a job tracking app for your small business
Before we take a look at our top job tracking apps for 2023, here’s what to keep an eye out for when choosing a solution for your small business:
- A fully functional mobile app that’s easy to use on your feet: Being involved in the day-to-day running of a small business means that you likely don’t have time to sit for long stretches and manage all your jobs. A tool that moves with you is ideal for someone who’s on the go all day, cutting out the time you need to spend at a desk.
- Affordable pricing that can adapt to your business needs: Small businesses often don’t have the luxury of a large budget. Your finances likely dip and rise depending on what season it is, staff turnover, and whether you’ve got anything left in the savings pot. So, it’s essential to choose a platform that has cost-effective paid plans and maybe even a free plan so the cost doesn’t cut into your budget too much.
- An app that’s designed specifically for hourly teams: Control the chaos by using a solution that can handle the needs of hourly teams. Last-minute shift changes, unexpected staffing shortages, and overtime can all be tamed using a simple solution like Homebase, which was created with small businesses in mind.
- Beginner-friendly so team members can pick it up and use it from day one: There’s no time to waste when you’ve got a lot on your plate. That’s why an app that staff can pick up and use from the get-go is essential to keeping your small business running smoothly. Slow onboarding will become a thing of the past with a beginner-friendly app that looks good too.
- A wide range of integrations that you can adapt to the way you do business: If you’ve already got well-established processes, the last thing you need is a tool that can’t fit in with them. Look out for a solution that easily connects with the technology you already use, improving the way you work rather than making it harder and taking time away from other pressing tasks.
A detailed breakdown of the 6 best job tracking software for small businesses
1. Homebase: Best all-in-one solution for managing hourly teams
Homebase was designed with a simple goal in mind: to help owners and managers run their small businesses with one simple app. It empowers them to manage employee scheduling on the go from just about anywhere, turns any device into a time clock, and makes payroll preparation easy-peasy. It’s the ideal solution for a restaurant manager, bar owner, or local hardware store with an hourly team.
Basically, Homebase is a one-stop shop for all your small business needs.
Our platform is also affordably priced with plans that suit most budgets — as well as a free plan — from a brand new cafe with two employees to a booming bar with closer to thirty.
Communication and collaboration tools
Homebase’s team communication tool makes it easy for employees and managers to stay in touch. There’s no more need to create endless group chats. Instead, you can keep everything in one place and rest assured that everyone has all the information they need to get their jobs done.
Inevitably, things go wrong at work, and knowing the who, what, and why behind those situations is crucial. One way to do that is by keeping a note of everything that happened throughout the day with shift notes. With Homebase, they can be attached to the day’s schedule to make sure every employee rostered for that shift knows exactly what’s coming up or may have gone wrong before they signed in. No need to scramble for information when everything’s available in one place.
Homebase also helps team members work better together by encouraging employee shout outs on shift, giving people a little morale boost when things get overwhelming. Everyone loves a little praise every now and then, so it’s great to show team members some love and let them know you appreciate their hard work.
A wide variety of integrations
The last thing you need when running a busy hourly team is to have to learn a whole new process or change your point-of-sale (POS) system and adapt to a new app. That’s why it’s so convenient that Homebase has a range of integrations that can supercharge our existing features, saving you the hassle of starting from scratch with a new payroll system or POS if you don’t want to.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| All-in-one solution for small businesses | Emphasis on features for small businesses |
| Convenient for both employers and employees | May include more tools than you need |
| Built-in payroll tool | |
| Team communication app | |
| Beginner-friendly | |
| Time clock that creates automatic timesheets | |
| Free plan and affordable paid plans |
Pricing
Homebase offers four tiers of plans:
- Basic — Free for one location and up to 20 employees. It includes basic scheduling and time tracking and employee management tools like messaging, point-of-sale integrations, and access to email support.
- Essentials — $24.95 per month per location. Everything in Basic, plus payroll integrations, team communication, performance tracking, advanced time tracking and scheduling, and access to live support.
- Plus — $59.95 per month per location. Everything in Essentials, plus hiring tools, retention and performance tracking, time off controls, and departments and permissions.
- All-in-one — $99.95 per month per location. Everything in Plus, with HR and compliance, new hire onboarding, labor cost controls, and business insights.
What customers say
The average customer ratings on G2 and Capterra are:
2. Wrike: Best for interactive Gantt charts
Wrike is a work management platform that allows you to create personalized workspaces, work dependencies, and Gantt charts — as well as track time and get real-time updates — all in one place. Visualize tasks with project dashboards where you can filter tasks by assignee, status, due date, and important milestones. Wrike’s mobile and desktop apps also mean you can work from anywhere, providing the flexibility you need to grow your small business and help it thrive.
Top features
- Customizable project dashboards
- Pre-built project templates
- Interactive Gantt charts
- Built-in time tracking feature
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free plan with unlimited users | Limited storage space per user (2GB) on the lowest-paid plan |
| Straightforward, easy-to-personalize interface | Designed for SMB project management rather than hourly teams |
| Over 400 integrations |
Pricing
Wrike has five tiers of paid plans:
- Free — Web, desktop, and mobile apps, project and task management, board view, and table view for $0 per user/month.
- Team — 2-25 users, unlimited projects, unlimited tasks and subtasks, interactive Gantt charts, automation, and custom workflows for $9.80 per user/month.
- Business — 5-200 users, folder structure and nested projects, project blueprints, automations, resource management, workloads, and time tracking for $24.80 per user/month.
- Enterprise — Business plan features, plus 5 to unlimited users, custom access roles, customizable user types, and admin permissions. Contact Wrike for pricing.
- Pinnacle — Enterprise features, plus 5 to unlimited users, advanced reporting features, budgeting, and billable hours. Contact Wrike for pricing.
What customers say
Capterra: 4.3/5 (+2000 ratings)
G2: 4.2/5 (+3000 ratings)
3. Monday.com: Best for project templates
Monday.com is a cloud-based work management platform that streamlines workflows and organizes your projects in a well-designed, attractive online space. Its user-friendly look cuts back on training time and allows business owners to focus their energies on growth and development. It’s equipped with a free project template library that’s useful for those who don’t have enough time to sit down and create custom workflows. There are over ten different views, so you can visualize your workspace in a way that suits you and set up automations to reduce the time you have to spend on tracking due dates.
Top features
- Over 200 project templates
- Team collaboration features like chat and notifications
- Project scheduling
- Time tracking
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| User-friendly | Designed for larger businesses rather than hourly teams |
| Attractive design | |
| Lots of integrations |
Pricing
Monday.com has one free plan and four paid plans:
- Free: The Free plan includes up to 3 boards, unlimited docs, 200+ templates, up to 2 team members, and an iOS and Android app.
- Basic: Everything from Free, plus unlimited free viewers, unlimited items, 5GB storage, prioritized customer support, and the ability to create a dashboard based on one board for $8 per seat/month.
- Standard: Everything from Basic, plus timeline and Gantt views, a calendar view, guest access, automations, integrations, and the ability to create a dashboard that combines up to 5 boards for $10 per seat/month.
- Pro: Everything from Standard, plus private boards and docs, a chart view, and time tracking for $16 per seat/month.
- Enterprise: Everything from Pro, plus enterprise-scale automations and integrations, enterprise-grade security and governance, and advanced reporting and analytics. Contact Monday.com for pricing.
What customers say
Capterra: 4.6/5 (+4000 ratings)
G2: 4.7/5 (+8000 ratings)
4. ClickUp: Best for low-budget teams
ClickUp takes the stress out of team collaboration and task management. It’s a cloud-based work management platform that’s suitable for teams of all sizes. Its highly customizable workspaces allow you to create workflows and processes that are unique to your business and streamline your day-to-day tasks. Its built-in time tracking tool is excellent for understanding where employees are working most efficiently and where they’re losing productivity. Make sure your work doesn’t get siloed with collaborative documents, comments, notifications, and mentions. Teams can easily communicate with each other through the chat tool as well.
Top features
- Customizable workspaces
- Built-in time tracking feature
- Real-time reporting dashboards
- Task management with bulk rescheduling and assignation
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highly customizable | Can be laggy |
| Free version offers a wide variety of features | Takes time to learn all the features |
| Automations are easy to set up | |
| Great for interdepartmental communication |
Pricing
ClickUp offers one free plan and four paid plans:
- Free Forever: 100MB storage, unlimited tasks, unlimited free plan members, collaborative docs, whiteboards, everything view, Kanban boards, native time tracking, and in-app video recording.
- Unlimited: Everything in Free Forever, plus unlimited storage, unlimited integrations, unlimited dashboards, unlimited Gantt charts, unlimited custom fields, email in ClickUp, and resource management for $5 per member/month.
- Business: Everything in Unlimited, plus Google SSO, unlimited teams, custom exporting, advanced public sharing, advanced automations, and advanced dashboard features for $12 per member/month.
- Business Plus: Everything in Business, plus team sharing, subtasks in multiple lists, conditional logic in forms, custom role creation, custom permission, and increased automations and API for $19 per member/month.
- Enterprise: Everything in Business Plus, plus white labeling, advanced permissions, enterprise API, team sharing for spaces, default personal views, and a customer success manager. Contact sales for pricing.
What customers say
Capterra: 4.7/5 (+3000 ratings)
G2: 4.7/5 (+8000 ratings)
5. Zoho Projects: Best for automating tasks
In Zoho Projects, all of your work information is stored in a digital cloud space where you can easily create tasks with assignees, dependencies, due dates, and time sheets. The projects tab gives you an overview of all the jobs that you’re a part of, keeping all your tasks in one handy space. Dashboards provide a high-level overview of the status of each job that’s assigned to your employees. Other support tools include time tracking for team members and the ability to log, track, and resolve issues within the tool itself. The Blueprints automation feature allows you to create project blueprints and design workflows with a handy drag-and-drop function.
Top features
- Task management and automation
- Built-in time tracking feature
- Customizable charts and reporting
- Team collaboration tools like chat, forums, and documents
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Unlimited projects | Free plan doesn’t offer many features |
| Native time tracking tools | |
| Easy task automations | |
| Mobile app for Android and iOS devices |
What customers say
Capterra: 4.3/5 (+300 ratings)
G2: 4.3/5 (+300 ratings)
6. Todoist: Best for keeping track of simple tasks
Building a to-do list is made simpler with Todoist. The hint is in the name. Get your tasks out of your head and into Todoist’s straightforward list creation tool. Make it as simple or as advanced as you need by adding due dates, reminders, priority levels, or checklists. Collaborate with team members via comments and move tasks into projects with a simple drag-and-drop feature. You can easily delegate tasks to other team members so you can go check out that new coffee machine you’ve been eyeing up.
Top features
- Quick-add to capture tasks in seconds
- Recurring due dates
- Sections and subtasks
- Task reminders
- Notifications for comments and complete tasks
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Simple and easy-to-navigate design | Lacks features for hourly teams, like time tracking |
| Wide range of integrations |
Pricing
Todoist offers one free plan and two paid plans:
- Free: Five active projects, five collaborators per project, 5MB file uploads, three filters, and one-week activity history.
- Pro: 300 active projects, 25 collaborators per project, 100MB file uploads, 150 filters, reminders, unlimited activity history, themes, and auto-backups.
- Business: Everything in Pro, plus 500 active projects per member, 50 people per project, team inbox, team billing, and admin and member roles.
What customers say
Capterra: 4.6/5 (+2000 ratings)
G2: 4.4/5 (+700 ratings)
Which job tracking software is best for your small business?
The best job tracking apps will take the stress out of delegating tasks, help monitor employee productivity, promote collaboration and communication, and give you time back to focus on your small business’s growth and bigger-picture goals.
Any of the options on this list might provide you with the solution you’ve been looking for, depending on your needs and preferences.
But overall, an all-in-one team management solution like Homebase is ideal for the majority of small businesses. With features like shift notes, you can rest assured that no task gets left unfinished and no employee misses an important event taking place that day. And there’s no need to lose any time adapting to new workflows when Homebase can integrate into the way you already do business with ease.
Forget worrying about whether the last item on your to-do list got checked off, and leave it to Homebase to help you figure it out.
Remember: This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.
