topic Re: Sling in Back Office & Team

Sling

Tracerland11 — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 07:33:50 GMT

Hi everyone,

I am wanting to get everyone's feedback on scheduling apps. Currently, we use Homebase but their latest updates and continuing issues with syncing with Toast have made it a nightmare. I am looking at options to maybe switch but wanted opinions on which apps everyone uses and the pro's and con's that you have had. I was thinking sling originally, but after looking at the reviews on google play, I am thinking maybe its not good, Seems that it doesn't work very well for android users. What is everyone's thoughts on sling or other scheduling apps that can be integrated with toast?

Re: Sling

rcmck — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 22:16:45 GMT

Currently using sling, use it on android daily as well with no issues. (has 4.5 rating in play store). Integration has worked well and I assume it will just get better since toast owns it now. I don't use it for any schedule enforcement so I can't speak to that but it adds employees with no issues and can sync projected sales with just a click. Also shows scheduled hours in time management entries in toast backend which is nice. Wish it would auto invite employees though, still have to manually do that after adding employees.

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 07:37:50 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

I'm wondering if you can give me some insights on these issues we currently have with homebase and tell me if there are the same issues with sling?

Right now I have two main issues:

The first is a sync issue. Since homebase did their most recent update, every person must have the job they are scheduled for attached to their toast profile. Before it used to let me schedule people even though they didn't have that matching, mainly for myself and my manager as we would jump in and take shifts when they needed to be filled but we would schedule them on homebase so that we would remember. Now, if its not in both places, homebase wont sync the schedules at all, my manager is still having the issue for some reason, it wont show the job as synced, and have called homebase for help and they are somewhat of a joke for customer service, but only between the hours of 8am-8pmEST, and no weekends.

The second issue is with mobile. Whenever I make a change to the schedule via homebase mobile, I still have to log into the web application, either via my phone or a computer to "send to Toast" as they don't automatically do that. So when we make changes on the fly, we would still have to go in and send them to toast before the changes would be official. Not to mention that if I want to add a job to an employee, I cannot do that via the mobile app, and it won't let me via mobile web, it has to be done via computer, believe me I have tried every setting to be able to make it work and cleared out every cache known to mankind to be able to do it.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how sling handles those issues.

Re: Sling

rcmck — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 18:12:20 GMT

No issues with scheduling employees for jobs they don't have (I don't know how toast treats this though with schedule enforcement) I feel like it won't sync in this case because of the lack of the job in toast, I can test that for you though if you do use schedule enforcement.

Timesheets can be edited from sling or toast and sync instantly. As well as using the timeclock feature of the app or from the toast pos, can use both now for clocking in or out and it syncs instantly.

No issue with schedule changes from the app, works the same as the website, though obviously the website is a lot easier to use for making entire schedules. Adding jobs to employees (at the moment anyway) should be done from toast backend and it then sync to sling. If you were to give an employee a job in sling it would get overridden by toast when it syncs.

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 01:57:40 GMT

We do use schedule enforcement as we had some past employees that would come in and clock in several hours before their shift. We also don't use homebase mobile clock in as all the timekeeping and payroll is done thru toast. I would assume new employees would have to be input in the same manner for the sync to work properly, toast payroll-->toast pos-->homebase. Changes to jobs and wages would also follow the same route but currently I have to manually update in homebase. Full schedules are built via web but we do make changes almost daily depending on the situation or who's scheduled for what, otherwise a shift trade is done.

If you wouldn't mind testing the schedule enforcement, I would appreciate it and thanks for all your help.

Re: Sling

rcmck — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 20:37:43 GMT

Okay, I don't have payroll but yeah it is basically top down like you described, but changes to jobs etc. do sync to sling automatically. Only thing you have to manually do is employee deactivations, they don't sync down. I don't mind testing, will test it on the next day we are closed and get back to you.

Re: Sling

rcmck — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 18:37:39 GMT

So I tried the enforcement out after scheduling an employee for a job they don't have and they were still able to clockin at the scheduled time with the job they do have in the POS, without a manager passcode.

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 06:32:42 GMT

Sorry for the delay getting back to you. I've had trouble logging in. I think that you also have to have schedule enforcement done in toast as well as in sling. see the screenshot. We've had trouble in the past with employees clocking in an hour or two before their shift just to get the extra money without doing anything. So that's a must to be able to have, not sure if you had both enabled or not. Thanks for looking into everything though.

Re: Sling

rcmck — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 22:01:12 GMT

Sorry, my reply may have sounded like I was having an issue, what I meant to say is that scheduling an employee with a job they don't have in toast (one of your concerns) did not stop enforcement from working correctly, it allowed them to clock in at their scheduled time.

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 21:26:45 GMT

Thanks again for being a guinea pig for me. I really do appreciate it. It seems that there is only a minor glitch on the schedule enforcement for sling, your employee was able to clock into a correct time for a shift but a wrong job title. While we have it set that they can't clock in unless it's A) 15 minutes before their scheduled time and B) the correct title for their designated shift. Is that something you can also test, do you have an enforcement of only allowing them to clock in so many minutes early? I am curious if they tried to clock in 30-60 minutes before the allowed time, like ours is set at 15 minutes before their scheduled time, if it would still allow them or if they would have to wait? Fixing a wrong job isn't as crucial as making sure they don't clock in for time they shouldn't be there just trying to milk the time clock, if that makes sense.

Sorry if I am being a pain, I really do appreciate you testing these issues for me. It's helping me gather information before I take it to my boss to make a big change.

Re: Sling

rcmck — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 19:35:05 GMT

No problem! Yes they were able to clock-in when scheduled from sling with a job they don't have in toast system, the time restriction was still enforced (I believe that was one the things you wanted to be able to do without having to give an employee a job first, I think you said it was more for managers filling in)

I tested today with scheduling a job that they DO have and it did not allow them to clock in with their other job, so it did enforce the job as well as the clock-in time. I have my settings set to 15 minutes and I was not able to clock-in before that.

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 05:42:37 GMT

Awesome!! Thanks again for going thru the motions. Do you mind if I ask how much you pay for sling? We currently pay $600 annually for Homebase, I think Sling was a little more if I remember right. Is there other perks that could justify the price difference or if you know that they give a break for paying annually rather than monthly?

Thanks again, you've been a huge help. I really appreciate it.

Re: Sling

rcmck — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 23:02:25 GMT

There is a difference in price for monthly vs annual if you purchase though sling, the price is per employee so it depends. I pay though toast which is 70 a month for unlimited employees and the top plan with all features, so I guess a little more. I'm not sure how the features compare, I'm sure each one has something the other doesn't. There is a 15 day trial available through the toast shop.

Re: Sling

Bonnimae — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 22:37:54 GMT

Did you end up making the switch from Homebase to Sling?

We are currently using Homebase and it has been nothing but a hot mess. I am doing some final research on making the switch to Toast Payroll and Sling. If you've made the switch, has it been an improvement? Would you have any warnings or suggestions for me to help make the transition smoother?

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 22:41:04 GMT

I have not made the switch yet, rcmck has been kind enough to do some testing for me and so far from what he has said, I feel that I will be able to talk my boss into making the switch. I've been fighting with homebase for over two years trying to get some changes made that would be so beneficial to those that use it and they've not only not done them, they've made things so much worse since their last update.

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Mon, 19 May 2025 07:59:25 GMT

Just started our 15 day trial of sling pro, I was trying to wait for life schedules to slow down but then realized that I just had to do it cause life plans will always plan as I wait for the right time. I will post updates as I notice things or as I figure things out.

So far there is a slight learning curve from homebase, but that's to be expected. It's going to take me a couple days to figure out settings and find where some are if they are there. One thing I have noticed was how the scheduling works, part of that learning curve or setting, I would be able to see the day schedule as the earliest person scheduled would be at top, working down for later times in the day, that kind of throws me off a little bit but like I said, could be a setting, will be scouring those in depth as the days go by.

I am also testing the tasks feature, will be going thru those and seeing how they turn out, see what feedback I get from the co-workers about them as well.

The mobile app seems to navigate fairly easily, we will be testing that out as well to see how it fairs to what we are used to. I will be going over things with a fine tooth comb with issues I know I have had with homebase to see how well it works. One thing I have noticed is that you can't exit the sling app by pressing the back key(android), you have to use the home button or the recent apps to close out of it, minor issue but if we make the full switch, I will make sure that I email them about improvements such as that. They might have a love/hate relationship with me by the time they get to know me.

As far as transitioning from homebase to sling, that part seems to be really easy. Although I made the mistake of integrating sling thru my toast account instead of the owners, caused a slight mishap but was able to fix it quickly. So make sure you are the owner or can get them to do it before you sign up. Importing the schedule from homebase was easy, since it was synced with toast, was able to import what was there, everything matched. I do like that wages and roles were imported, that's soooo nice. Having to go in, on a computer mind you couldn't do it from mobile web with homebase since their last update, to add jobs and wages was making my life miserable.

So from what I can gather, I would say that it will be a good scheduling app, seems like it will import everything from toast payroll, to toast pos, to sling automatically. SOOOO NICE!!!! Early stages of testing so will see how things go and what issues we come up with if any. Most will probably be settings that will just have to be changed.

Re: Sling

Talie — Mon, 19 May 2025 18:51:04 GMT

Yes, please share because I am dealing with the same issue.

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Mon, 19 May 2025 20:22:14 GMT

Are you currently with homebase or sling? What issues are you having so that I can be on the lookout for them or maybe have a solution for them? I'm still in the process of getting my team to switch for a short duration for testing but will be posting as much as I can.

Re: Sling

Tracerland11 — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 11:12:00 GMT

Just finished our 2 week trial, decided to make the switch. Have found that one of the issues I mentioned earlier about scheduling showing the earliest shifts first was a setting, found in the group by function, so that made it nice to be able to see that sorted first in to last.

Also trying out "Day Parts" where you can sort the schedule to show morning, lunch, or dinner service, that does seem useful to me to be able to create those and see who you've got scheduled at the different hours as well.

Being able to select departments and only copying that department over to another week is really nice. In homebase, it was copy all or nothing, kind of sucked when multiple people do the scheduling. Sling you can select one, multiple or all departments and copy whichever over.

A couple issues I've ran into though, have had a couple shifts that did not sync to toast and when changing shifts around on mobile it seemed to have the same issue of not syncing. However, they thought it might be part that we still had homebase integrated with toast and that it was trying to dual sync and causing the issue of that, toast did say it shouldn't be a problem and sling was on the fence about it, so I wasn't surprised that there were syncing issues. This week will mark the first full week of only having sling integrated so time will tell. One other sync issue is that sling doesn't show me as clocked in even if I clock in early, but again could be the dual sync causing the issues.

Re: Sling

Rob — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 20:53:26 GMT

Thanks for keeping us updated about your experiences, I'm definitely curious to see if having only Sling integrated solves the syncing issues as well!