What it does
Hoq Crew runs the hourly side of a small business. You build the week's schedule, people clock in on their phone or a shared tablet by the door, and Crew flags missed breaks and overtime against the rules for the place each location is in.
At the end of a pay period you finalize it. Crew freezes hours, overtime, tips and sick leave earned, then gives you the file your payroll service takes: Gusto's upload, RUN Powered by ADP's time sheet import, ADP Workforce Now's paydata file, or a plain CSV. Tips can be pooled by policy and filled hour by hour from the till in Hoq Commerce.
New hires fill in their packet on their phone before day one. SSNs and bank numbers are encrypted with a key kept outside the company file. Crew also keeps time off, certificates, the OSHA 300 log, final-pay deadlines by state, and a private calendar feed for each person.
The whole company is one file in your own Hoq Storage. One download gives you a zip with spreadsheets and a SQLite database any tool can open.
In numbers
5places a location can follow for break and pay rules: federal, Washington, Seattle, Oregon, California
9jurisdictions with final-pay and leaver rules, counting federal and Seattle
3payroll import formats: Gusto, RUN Powered by ADP, ADP Workforce Now
2languages for staff: English and Spanish
Specifications
| Where your data lives | One file per company in the owner's Hoq Storage. |
|---|---|
| Labor law by place | Each location follows federal rules or Washington, Seattle, Oregon or California law; Colorado, Idaho, New York and Texas are covered for final pay, leaver papers, injuries and retirement programs. |
| Rule sets are opt-in | Nothing is checked against a rule set a location has not turned on. |
| Payroll files | Gusto upload, RUN Powered by ADP time sheet import, ADP Workforce Now paydata, hours-only CSV or full CSV. |
| Clocking in | From each person's phone, or a shared kiosk tablet by name and a 4 to 8 digit PIN, with optional photo at each punch. |
| Tips | Pools by location, period, week or day, with steps by role; card and cash tips from Hoq Commerce split among whoever was on the clock each hour. |
| Sensitive numbers | SSNs and bank numbers are encrypted with a key kept outside the company file and shown as the last four only. |
| Calendar | Each person gets a private feed of shifts, time off and company holidays for Apple, Google or Outlook Calendar. |
| Languages | English and Spanish for the phone, kiosk, new-hire packet and job pages. |
| Leaving | One zip with the company file, spreadsheets of people, time cards, shifts and payroll, the uploaded documents, and a SQLite database. |
| Roles | Owner runs everything; managers run schedule and time cards without seeing pay; employees see only their own. |
Features
263 features, all in beta. Listed from the product's feature ledger; each row shows the day it was last checked.
| A company is a file | Keeps each company's people, schedule, time cards, tips and notices in one file in the owner's Hoq Storage. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Company time zone | Shows and takes every shift and punch in the company's own time zone, through daylight-saving changes. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Owner, manager, employee | Lets the owner run everything, managers run the schedule and time cards without seeing pay, and employees see only their own clock, shifts and notices. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Sign in with your email | Lets anyone added with an email open the company by signing in to Hoq ID with that address. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Agent tools | Gives every action to agents as tools, with read-only keys that cannot change anything. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Crew list | Lists everyone on the crew with how they sign in, their kiosk PIN and, for the owner, their pay. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Add a person | Adds someone by name, with email, phone, department, usual location, hire date and birth date. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Kiosk PIN | Sets a 4 to 8 digit PIN that is stored scrambled and never shown again, and refuses one digit repeated or a run like 1234. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Invite by email | Emails someone where to sign in and with which address, in the company's name with replies to the manager, plus their new-hire packet link when they have one. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Set your own PIN | Lets each person pick or change their own time clock PIN on their phone. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Taken off the crew | Ends someone's sign-in while keeping every record of their work. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Managers for some locations | Limits a manager to the locations the owner picks: they see and schedule only those people and shifts, and publishing publishes only theirs. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Pay for a trusted manager | Lets the owner allow a manager to see pay rates and run payroll, sick-leave corrections and the ESD and labor reports. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Week board | Shows a week of shifts by person, with open shifts, drafts and each person's hours. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Add and change shifts | Adds a shift by clicking a day, with role, location and unpaid break, and rolls a closing shift past midnight. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Conflicts as you type | Refuses a double booking or a shift during approved time off, and warns about overtime, short rest and availability before you save. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Publish | Keeps new shifts as drafts until you publish the week to the crew. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Copy last week | Copies a week's shifts into another as drafts, keeping the same wall-clock times. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Schedule on a phone | Shows the week as a day-by-day list on a phone, with a button to add a shift to any day. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Week templates | Saves a week's shifts as a template and puts it on any week as drafts at the same wall-clock times, skipping and listing clashes. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Coverage targets | Sets how many people each location needs, on which days and between which times, for any role or one role. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Covered or short | Shows each coverage window on the week as covered, covered only by open shifts, or short, counting the thinnest moment and naming the gap. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Who can cover | Lists who could take a shift, best first with the reasons, and who cannot and why. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Fill the week | Suggests someone for every open shift and a new shift for every coverage gap, never double booking or quietly pushing anyone into overtime, and adds the ones you keep as drafts. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Works at several locations | Lists the locations someone works at, so each of those locations' managers can schedule them. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Connect your Hoq apps | Connects Crew to your Hoq Commerce, Service, Chat or Books by picking the workspace by name, Crew gets its own key through Hoq ID, nothing to copy, and disconnecting takes it back. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Sales forecast | Forecasts each hour's sales for a week from the same weekday and hour over the last four weeks of Hoq Commerce, and shows the people each hour needs. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
4 more in Schedule
| Staff to sales | Fills the week to the sales forecast at each location's labor target and fewest-on, instead of fixed coverage targets. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Minor work hours | Warns when a shift would take someone under 18 past the daily, weekly, school-day or time-of-day limits of the rule sets on, and never suggests them for it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| School breaks | Marks school breaks as company dates so minors' school-week limits lift on those days. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Notice warnings | Says when published shifts went up with less notice than a predictive-scheduling rule set asks for. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Clock in and out | Lets an employee clock in and out and take a rest or meal break from their phone. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| A retried punch lands once | Records a punch only once even when a phone sends it twice. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Paid and unpaid breaks | Counts rest breaks and any break under 20 minutes as paid time. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| On the clock now | Shows who is clocked in and who is on break. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Pay period view | Shows every punch in a pay period, paid hours per person and late or early flags against the schedule. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Corrections with a reason | Requires a reason to change, add or remove a punch, and keeps every change with who made it and why. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Close a pay period | Locks a pay period's time cards and tip pools. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Kiosk by the door | Lets people clock in and out on a shared tablet by tapping their name and typing their PIN. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Kiosk break question | Asks the break question on the tablet right after someone clocks out there. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Kiosk photo check-in | Takes a photo at each kiosk clock-in and clock-out when the owner turns it on, kept with the time card so nobody clocks in for someone else. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Kiosk links | Makes a link for one tablet at one location, shown once, that the owner can turn off at any time. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| PIN lockout | Locks a person out of a kiosk after five wrong PINs, and the kiosk after twenty, for fifteen minutes. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Works without signal | Keeps punches made on a phone with no signal, with the time they were made, and sends them when signal returns. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Where a punch was made | Records where the phone was when someone clocked in or out and flags punches made away from the location, without ever refusing them. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
18 more in Time cards
| Location areas | Sets how far from a location a punch still counts as there, using the device you are holding. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Answer a changed time card | Shows employees every change someone else made to their time card, with the reason, to accept or dispute. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Disputes for managers | Shows managers every disputed change with what the employee said. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| No times in the future | Refuses a corrected or added punch time that has not happened yet. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Clock in to a job | Lets people pick the Hoq Service visit they are booked on, or type what they are working on, when they clock in. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Switch job | Ends one time card and starts the next at the same moment when someone moves to another job, even with no signal. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Job on every card | Shows and lets managers correct the job, L&I risk class, trainee category, permit and supervising electrician on a time card. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Rule sets by location | Turns on the labor rules that apply at each location, starting with Washington; nothing is checked against rules a location has not turned on. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Where a location is | Each location names the place whose law it follows, federal only, Washington, Seattle, Oregon or California, and Crew uses it for final pay, personnel file requests, injury reporting, the safety program and state retirement; picking a place turns its rule sets on. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Switch a rule area off | Lets the owner send one area at a location (final pay, file requests, injuries, safety or retirement) back to federal rules while the rest of the place's law stays on. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Someone working elsewhere | Lets the owner hold one person to another place's law, for someone who works away from every location. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Job sites | Keeps where each job is; a time card at a job in another state is checked under that state's break rules and premiums, and someone who did most of their hours there in the last 30 days gets that state's final pay. Jobs from Hoq Service take their state from the address. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| More states | Knows the final pay, leaver papers, deductions, payouts, injury reports and retirement programs of Colorado, Idaho, New York and Texas, alongside Washington, Oregon and California; Colorado's breaks with pay for each rest missed, and New York's minor hours. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Break checks | Flags time cards that went too long without a meal or rest break, had too few rest breaks or a meal that was too short, by the person's age. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Breaks due | Shows people on the clock, and their managers, when their next rest break and meal are due, and when they are overdue. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Oregon and California rules | Checks Oregon meal and rest breaks by length of the work period and California meals, start-by times and rest counts, alongside Washington. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Break question at clock-out | Asks people when they clock out whether they got their breaks, chose to skip the meal, or missed one and why, and puts the answer on the time card. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Meal waivers | Lets a chosen-to-skip meal count only where the rule set allows it for a day that long. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Tip pools | Pools card and cash tips for a location over any run of days. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Split methods | Splits by hours worked, by hours weighted by role, or in equal shares. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Preview before splitting | Shows each person's card, cash and total share before anything is recorded. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Tip policies | Sets which locations pool together, how often (pay period, week or day) and where the money comes from. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Split in steps | Gives a share of the pool to some roles first, then the rest to others, by hours, role points or equally. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Pool per period | Makes each period's pool from the policy and fills it per location and day from the till and the cash counts. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Missing cash counts | Flags each close that has no cash count yet. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Typed tip amounts | Lets a manager type card or cash for a day, which stays when the pool refills. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Approve a pool | Records each share for payroll and locks the pool until it is reopened. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Tip pooling law | Says what each location's state allows, including New York refusing one pool across locations. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Who is left out | Leaves out owners, managers and non-sharing roles, and says why for each person. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Tips from the till | Fills a pool from Hoq Commerce (and the Square sales it brings in): card and cash tips hour by hour for the location's shop, each hour split among whoever was on the clock then, read again whenever the pool is opened. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Tip jar count at close | Asks the last person to clock out at the kiosk to count the cash tips, with no PIN right after clocking out; anyone can count or recount later with their PIN, managers on the web, and every count is kept. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Jar cash spread by sales | Spreads the counted cash over the day's hours by what each hour sold, so the rush shares in more of it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Send a notice | Sends a policy or announcement to the whole crew to read and sign. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Typed signature | Has each person sign by typing their name. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Who has signed | Shows who has read and signed and who has not. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Signed text kept | Keeps the exact text each person signed, even after the notice is changed. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Install on a phone | Adds Hoq Crew to a phone's home screen as an app. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Schedule posted | Tells each person on their phone when shifts for them are published. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Shift moved or cancelled | Tells the person when their published shift changes time, is given to someone else, comes to them or is cancelled. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Notice to sign | Tells everyone who still has to sign a notice when it is sent. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Time card changed | Tells the person when a manager changes their time card, with the reason. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Seen, not just sent | Has the phone report when a notification is shown and when it is tapped, and counts opening Crew as seeing it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Email when the phone stays quiet | Emails anything not seen on the phone within 15 minutes, and straight away for people with no phone set up, several at once folded into one message. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Who has seen the schedule | Shows managers, for each published week, who has seen it, who was emailed and who has no way to be reached. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Remind | Reminds everyone who has not seen a week yet, by phone and email. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Premium pay | Adds the pay rule sets owe on top of hours, California's extra hour for a missed meal or rest, predictability pay and rest-between-shifts pay, to the payroll and the payroll files. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Payroll preview | Shows each person's regular hours, overtime, pay rate, pay before tax and tips for a pay period. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Overtime by workweek | Pays time and a half past 40 hours in a workweek, counting the whole week even when it runs into another pay period. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Daily overtime | Pays overtime past a daily limit when one is set, without counting the same hours twice. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Finalize a pay period | Freezes a pay period's hours, pay and tips, locks its time cards and records sick leave earned. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Undo a payroll | Reopens a finalized pay period with a reason and takes back the sick leave it recorded. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Payroll export | Downloads a finalized payroll as an hours-only CSV for a payroll service, or a full CSV with pay and sick leave. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Gusto import file | Downloads a finalized payroll as Gusto's payroll upload: hours, overtime, cash and paycheck tips by name, blank instead of zero, sick hours in the note. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| ADP import files | Downloads a finalized payroll as RUN Powered by ADP's time sheet import or ADP Workforce Now's paydata file, using the company's own ADP earnings codes. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Expense reimbursements on payroll | Adds every approved, unpaid expense to the next payroll and its files: a reimbursement code line in RUN Powered by ADP, a note for Gusto and Workforce Now. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Pay problems flagged | Marks people still clocked in, with no pay rate, paid below the minimum wage you set, or over their sick leave. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Paid time off policies | Earns each kind of time off by hours worked or a set amount a year, with a cap, carryover into a new year, a waiting period, and the notice a request needs. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Balances | Shows each person what they have earned and what is not yet asked for, and lets the owner correct a balance with a reason. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Request rules | Refuses a request with too little notice, before the waiting period ends, or for more than is available, unless the kind allows going below zero. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Washington special variance | Lets a 16- or 17-year-old with a signed variance work up to 28 hours in a school week and 6 on a school day. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Ask for time off | Lets employees ask for sick, vacation or unpaid time off, and withdraw a request that has not been decided. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Approve or deny | Lets managers approve time off or deny it with a reason the employee sees. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Sick leave earned | Earns one hour of sick leave per 40 hours worked, overtime included, without losing the minutes in between. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Sick leave balance | Shows each person their sick leave, takes approved sick time from it, and warns when it goes past what was earned. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Year-end carry-over | Carries at most 40 hours of sick leave into a new year. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| Correct a balance | Lets the owner add or subtract sick leave with a reason, for example when moving from another system. | Checked 2026-10-03 |
| New-hire packet | Gives a new hire a link to fill in their paperwork before day one, with no account and on any phone. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Signed forms | Collects their details and an emergency contact, each signed by typing their name. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Tax and bank details | Collects the W-4 answers and direct deposit details when the owner turns them on, checking the SSN and routing number as they type. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Encrypted SSN and bank numbers | Encrypts SSNs and bank numbers with a key kept outside the company file and shows only the last four, unless the owner asks, which is logged. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Handbook signatures | Asks every new hire to read and sign the notices everyone must sign. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Paperwork deadlines | Puts Form I-9 (three business days after the first day) and the state new-hire report on the manager's list with their due dates. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Packet progress | Shows managers which steps each new hire has finished and what they signed. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Fresh links | Makes a new packet link that turns the old one off; links last 30 days. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Upload a certificate | Lets people send a photo or PDF of a card or certificate, stored in the owner's Hoq Storage. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Check documents | Lets managers view each document and approve it or reject it with a reason. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Required documents | Makes a document required for everyone, and lists who still owes one. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Certificates gate roles | Refuses to schedule someone into a role that needs a certificate they do not have approved and in date on that day. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Workplace posters | Adds a notice listing the posters federal and Washington law require, with links to the free official copies. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Schedule changes | Keeps every change to a published shift with who, what, the days of notice and whether they asked for it, and the predictability and rest-between-shifts pay owed. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Breaks report | Lists every time card in a date range that broke a break rule, with the rule, and which locations were checked. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| L&I quarterly hours | Adds up hours actually worked by L&I risk class for the quarter, counting overtime once, leaving out paid leave and owners without coverage, with the due date. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Risk classes | Takes each hour's risk class from the time card, then the person, then the location, then the company, and flags hours with none or split across classes. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Salaried L&I hours | Reports salaried people at the hours they worked or at 160 hours a month, one method for everyone. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| ESD and Paid Leave figures | Gives each person's paid hours for the quarter, paid time off included and rounded up, with wages and tips from payrolls paid in the quarter, for the owner only. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Electrical trainee hours | Totals a trainee's hours by L&I work category for an affidavit of up to 24 months, with the certified electrician who was on the same job each time. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Trainee checks | Flags trainee time with no electrician on the job, less supervision than the category needs, too many trainees per electrician, or after the certificate expired. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Labor against sales | Shows labor hours and cost by day, or by hour for one day, beside sales from Hoq Commerce less tax and tips, as a labor percentage. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Report downloads | Downloads the L&I, ESD and trainee reports as spreadsheets. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Read from Hoq Service | Reads each person's booked visits from the company's Hoq Service with the owner's read-only key, matched by email. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Read from Hoq Commerce | Reads sales from the company's Hoq Commerce with the owner's read-only key, with each location matched to a shop. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Keys kept sealed | Keeps the connection keys encrypted outside the company file and never shows them again. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Team chat | Makes a crew channel and one per location in the company's Hoq Chat, invites everyone with an email and puts them in their channels once they join. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| News in chat | Posts a line in the crew channel when a schedule is published or a notice goes out. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Take everything with you | Downloads one zip with the company file, spreadsheets of people, time cards and every change to them, shifts, time off, signatures and payroll, every table raw, and the uploaded documents. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Opens without Hoq | Puts the whole company in the zip as a SQLite database any tool can open. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Private details only on request | Leaves SSNs and bank numbers out of the export unless the owner asks for them in plain text, which is logged. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| How long to keep it | Says in the export how long Washington wants the records kept. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Close the company | Revokes everyone's sign-in, stops kiosk, calendar and packet links, disconnects connected apps and archives the company, keeping the file in the owner's Hoq Storage. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Leaving checklist | Starts a checklist for someone leaving with their last day, why, whether you would hire them again, and the things to get back. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Final paycheck date | Puts the final paycheck on the list by the law where they work: Washington's regular payday, Oregon's next business day or five-day rule, California's immediately or 72 hours, counting notice, weekends and company holidays. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| What the last check carries | Works out wages through the last day, overtime, tips, premiums and expenses owed, plus time off paid out where California law or your policy says, and sick leave only for a Washington construction worker who leaves before 90 days. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Late final pay | Records when the last check was paid and, if late, shows the days late and the penalty exposure under that state's law. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Papers to give them | Adds the papers that state wants handed over to the checklist with official links: Washington's unemployment benefits sheet, California's change-in-relationship notice and For Your Benefit. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Reason letter clock | Starts a 21-day clock when someone let go in Washington asks in writing why. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Before you go | Asks the person on their phone where to send their last pay stub and W-2, signed by typing their name. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Finish on the last day | Takes them off the crew on or after their last day, ending sign-in, kiosk PIN and links, and keeps every record. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Bring in from WordPress | Brings people, locations, roles, templates and history from our earlier WordPress HR plugin into a new company, showing what will come across first. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Times kept as entered | Turns schedule times the old plugin stored in UTC into the company's wall-clock times as they were when entered. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Test accounts left behind | Leaves out test accounts and past draft shifts, and says how many. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Calendar to schedule | Opens a day on the schedule from its shift count on the company calendar. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Month calendar | Shows each person their month of published shifts, time off and company dates, and managers the company's month with who is off and how many shifts each day. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| When I can't work | Lets people say when they cannot or can work, every week on a weekday or on one date, all day or between times, and lets managers set it for them. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Availability on the schedule | Flags a shift outside someone's stated availability without refusing it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Phone calendar feed | Gives each person a private link that keeps their shifts, time off and the company's holidays and closures in Apple, Google or Outlook Calendar. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| New feed link | Makes a new calendar link that turns the old one off. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Holidays | Puts company holidays on everyone's calendar without refusing anything. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Closed days | Refuses shifts on days a location, or the whole company, is closed, and templates skip those days. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Time-off blackouts | Refuses time-off requests during busy periods and tells the person why. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Pick up open shifts | Lets people ask for an open shift, checked against their other shifts, time off and certificates. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Give a shift up | Lets people ask a manager to find cover; the shift stays theirs until someone takes it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Hand a shift to a coworker | Offers a shift to a named coworker, who says yes or no. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Swap shifts | Offers your shift for a coworker's; once they agree and it is approved, both move at once or neither does. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Approval your way | Has a manager approve every trade, or lets pick-ups, hand-offs and swaps go through once both people agree; giving a shift up always needs a manager. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Names on the schedule | Lets the owner choose how names read on the schedule only, goes-by and last name, legal name, goes-by name alone, or goes-by name and last initial (Alma C.), while the directory keeps everyone's usual name. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Day view | Shows one day of the schedule as a timeline, everyone working as bars across the hours, open shifts, the time now, and adds a shift from any row. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Hours per day | Shows the hours scheduled each day, and the week's total, with shifts nobody has yet counted apart as open. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Planned breaks | Shows the meals and rests each shift will owe under the location's break rules and the person's age, when, and the window for a meal, on the schedule, as suggestions. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Sales on the schedule | Draws forecast sales hour by hour on the Day view, with people on against people needed, and each day's forecast sales on the Week view, from Hoq Commerce. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Labor % before it happens | Shows what the schedule as it stands will cost as a share of forecast sales, per day and for the week, in red past the location's labor target; only to those who see pay. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| This time of year | Adjusts the sales forecast by how the same weeks went last year once a year of sales exists, and says when it is working from recent weeks only. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Like-day forecast | Forecasts each day from the same weekday within three weeks of it, this year and the two before, and says how many past days it rests on. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Half-hour sales | Shows forecast sales in half hours on the schedule's Day view. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
3 more in Shift trading
| Schedule by location | Shows one location's shifts and people at a time when a company has more than one location, and remembers the choice. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Trades to approve | Shows managers every trade waiting on them, to approve or turn down with a reason the person sees. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Trade notifications | Tells the coworker about an offer, managers about a request waiting on them, and both people the outcome. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Task lists | Sets up opening, closing and other checklists per location, for chosen weekdays and roles, with a time they are due by. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Add to my Todo | Puts a task-list item on your Hoq Todo list; ticking it in Crew finishes the Todo task, unticking brings it back. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Readings and photos | Lets an item be a tick, a reading with an allowed range, a short note or a photo kept in the owner's drive. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Out-of-range alerts | Records a reading outside its range with what was done about it, and tells managers. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Tasks on the phone | Shows people today's lists where they are working, to tick off from their phone. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Task history | Shows each day a list was due at a location: done, late or missed, and readings out of range. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Manager's log | Keeps notes one shift leaves the next, tagged, per location or for every location, pinned on top until a date. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Courses | Builds short courses from reading, video links and quizzes with a pass mark. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Who takes them | Gives a course to everyone, to chosen people with a due date, or makes a role need it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Courses gate roles | Refuses to schedule someone in a role whose course they have not finished. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Course player | Lets people take a course on their phone step by step, marks wrong quiz answers, and asks for a signature at the end. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Progress | Shows managers who finished, who is overdue and whose course changed since they finished. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| How-to library | Keeps recipes and how-tos per location or for everyone, searched by every word without accents. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Job posts | Writes a job with pay, hours, a description and screening questions, as a draft, open or closed. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Public job pages | Shares a link to each job and to a page of all open jobs, with an application form that works on any phone and turns away simple bots. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Applications | Takes one application per email per job with answers and a resume, and marks, never drops, anyone who misses a must-have answer. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Applicant board | Moves applications from new to screening, interview and offer, with notes, stars and a timeline. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Interviews | Books an interview and emails the time and place to the applicant. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Hire | Makes the applicant a person on the crew with sign-in, and can send the new-hire packet and how to sign in. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Applicant emails | Tells applicants their application arrived, and can send a kind note when turning them down. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Offer letters | Writes an offer from your letter templates with the start date, pay, hours and reply-by date filled in, editable before sending. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Sign to accept | Emails the candidate a link to read the frozen letter and accept it by typing their name, which hires them at the offered pay from the offered day and starts their new-hire paperwork. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Offer outcomes | Lets them turn an offer down with a reason, lets you withdraw it, and marks it expired after the reply-by date; managers are told either way. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Spanish | Shows a person's phone, the kiosk when they tap their name, the new-hire packet and the job pages in Spanish when they choose it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Notices in Spanish | Keeps a Spanish version of each notice, drafted with Hoq Intelligence and checked by a manager, and records which language someone signed. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Review templates | Builds reviews from rating and written questions, each asked of the person, the manager or both. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Reviews and check-ins | Runs a review where the person fills their part and the manager theirs, then shares it for them to read and acknowledge with a comment; check-ins keep notes and goals. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Private notes | Keeps a manager's private notes on a review that the person never sees. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Raises with reviews | Records a new pay rate with a review that takes effect on its date once shared; managers without pay access never see it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Goals | Keeps goals that carry from one review to the next, marked done or dropped. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Reviews due | Lists who is due a review 90 days after starting and every year after. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Pulse questions | Asks everyone or one location a short anonymous question, and shows results only once five people have answered. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Shout-outs | Lets coworkers and managers thank each other, with the person told and a feed for everyone. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Owner overview | Shows today, what needs attention, the pay period's wages, overtime and premiums, labor % this week, people and turnover with reasons, days to hire, hours by week, the latest pulse and shout-outs. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Monday email | Emails the overview every Monday morning in the company's time zone to anyone who turns it on. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| My jobs | Shows someone who works for several Hoq Crew companies all their shifts, hours and pay estimates in one place, and flags shifts at two jobs that overlap or leave no time between. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Receipts | Lets an employee ask to be paid back for something bought for work, with a photo or PDF of the receipt. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Mileage | Pays miles driven in their own car at the IRS business rate of the day driven (72.5¢ to June 30, 2026, 76¢ from July 1), or the company's own rate. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Approve or turn down | Lets a manager approve an expense or turn it down with a reason, tells the employee either way, and can undo a decision until payroll pays it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Managers see their own people | Shows a limited manager only the expenses of people at their locations. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Public works projects | Keeps each prevailing-wage project with its job, county, L&I intent number, prime contractor, rate effective date and payroll week. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Rate tables | Holds each classification's base and fringe rate and its overtime code, with codes 1, 1B and 1C built in and any other entered from L&I's Benefit Code Key. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Weekly certified payroll | Works out each worker's straight and overtime hours per day on the project from every hour they worked that day and week, priced at the project's rates, with gross for the project and for all work. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Sign and amend | Signs each week with the deductions and net pay from the paystub, numbers it, keeps amendments, and signs no-work weeks. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| WH-347 copy and CSV | Prints a signed week laid out on the WH-347 columns with the statement of compliance, and downloads it as CSV, showing only the last four of an SSN. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Report an injury | Lets anyone report a work injury from their phone and tells managers at once; nothing about reporting counts against them. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Recordable or not | Works out whether an incident goes on the OSHA log from the facts, with each treatment checked against OSHA's first-aid list, and says why. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Days away and restricted | Counts days away and on restricted duty from a dated work-status timeline, from the day after, weekends included, 180 at most. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Who to tell by when | Shows the reporting clocks for the state: Washington DOSH within 8 hours of any hospital admission, deaths in 8 hours, the log in 7 days, Oregon's Form 801 and California's DWC-1. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| OSHA 300 log and 300A | Prints the year's log for a location and the summary to post from February 1 to April 30, with average employees and hours from time cards, and says whether the location has to keep a log at all. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Privacy cases and edits | Keeps a privacy case's name off the log and keeps every change to an incident with who made it. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Notes and warnings | Lets a manager draft coaching notes and verbal, written or final warnings with what happened, what is expected and what happens next. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Sign as received | Freezes the words when issued and asks the person to sign that they received it, not that they agree, or records that they declined with a witness. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Their statement | Lets the person add their own statement, kept with the record, as Washington allows. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| File requests | Tracks a request to see, copy or correct a personnel file with the state's deadline: Washington 21 days (also for people who left in the last three years), Oregon 45, California 30. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Print their file | Prints a copy of someone's file: details, signed forms, reviews, notes and warnings with statements, signed notices and pay periods, with sealed numbers left out. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Plans | Keeps medical, dental, vision, life and retirement plans with each coverage level's cost to the person and the company per pay period, with health waiting periods capped at 90 days. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Sign up or waive | Lets people choose a plan or waive it on their phone, signed by typing their name, with family members and beneficiaries. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| When people can choose | Opens choices at hire, during open enrollment, and for 30 days after a life event (60 for Medicaid or CHIP), with coverage starting on the date the rules say. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Who is in | Shows per plan who signed up, who waived and who has not answered. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Deductions on payroll | Puts each person's benefit deductions and retirement savings on the payroll and notes them in the Gusto and ADP files. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| State retirement programs | Reminds a company with no retirement plan about Washington Saves (with last year's hours from time cards), OregonSaves and CalSavers. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Written safety program | Keeps each location's written program with the sections its state requires: Washington's seven orientation items including hazardous chemicals, California's IIPP elements, and construction's crew meetings or Code of Safe Practices. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Safety orientation sign-off | Asks everyone at the location to read the program and sign their orientation, and asks again whenever the program changes. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| What each location owes | Works out the meetings due: Washington monthly safety meetings, or a committee once 11 or more are on the clock at once; weekly toolbox talks and walk-arounds in construction; Oregon committees and quarterly inspections; California tailgate meetings every 10 working days. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Meetings with sign-in | Records safety meetings, toolbox talks, committee meetings and inspections with what was covered and hazards raised; people sign in on their phone for two days after. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Recommendations answered | Keeps each recommendation with the date management will answer by and the answer. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Staff directory | Lists everyone with their title, where they work, who they report to and a line about them, with pictures. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| People choose what is shared | Shows a coworker's phone, email and birthday (month and day, never the year) only if they chose to share it; managers always see phone and email. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Org chart | Draws who reports to whom from each person's manager, refusing loops. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Birthdays and anniversaries | Shows shared birthdays and work anniversaries in the next two weeks. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Engagement surveys | Sends a survey to everyone or one location, always anonymous, with results shown only once five people have answered. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| New-hire check-ins | Asks each new hire a few questions at 30, 60 and 90 days. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Exit interviews | Asks each person who leaves why, and whether they would come back. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Results | Shows averages and spread, counts per choice and written answers, and for named surveys who said what. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Payroll into Hoq Books | Posts each finalized payroll to the company's Hoq Books as one balanced entry, wages, card tips and expenses paid back, benefit deductions held, wages payable before tax, with the accounts the owner chose; undo voids it, and a retry never makes a second entry. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Certificate reminders | Emails and pushes the person 30, 14, 7 and 0 days before a certificate or licence expires and when it has, and tells managers from a week out. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| New-hire paperwork reminders | Sends a new hire one email listing the paperwork due by tomorrow or late, with their packet link, and tells managers when any is late. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Agents from Grimaste | An agent you give Hoq Crew in Grimaste can work in one company through Crew's MCP door, using your key, labelled as itself. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Per-area permissions | The owner sets each agent, area by area, to off, look only, ask first or change; a new agent may do nothing until then. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Ask first | An agent's change in an ask-first area waits in Settings › Agents until the owner approves it or turns it down. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Agent changes in the activity feed | Everything an agent changes is recorded under its name, including changes the owner approved. | Checked 2026-10-04 |
Works with
- Hoq CommerceCard and cash tips come in by the hour from the till, and labor is shown against sales.
- Hoq ServiceEach person's booked visits are read in, and jobs carry their state's rules.
- Hoq BooksA finalized payroll posts to the books as one balanced entry.
- Hoq ChatCrew makes a channel per location and posts when a schedule is published.
Your data
| Where it is kept | One file per company in the owner's Hoq Storage. Connection keys and the key for SSNs and bank numbers are kept outside it. |
|---|---|
| Getting it out | One zip: the company file, spreadsheets of people, time cards and every change to them, shifts, time off, signatures and payroll, every table raw, uploaded documents, and a SQLite database. SSNs and bank numbers are left out unless the owner asks, which is logged. |
| If you leave | Closing the company revokes every sign-in, stops kiosk, calendar and packet links, disconnects connected apps and archives the company. The file stays in your Hoq Storage. |
APIs and standards
- JSON API: POST /api/crew/w/{key} with a Bearer key
- MCP server at /mcp/crew for AI agents, set per area by the owner
- Private iCalendar feed per person
- Standard: iCalendar (RFC 5545)
- Standard: CSV
- Standard: Gusto payroll upload
- Standard: RUN Powered by ADP time sheet import
- Standard: ADP Workforce Now paydata
Compared
| Checked 2026-11-01 | Hoq Crew | Homebase | 7shifts | When I Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid tier | No public price yet | Essentials $30 per location per month1 | Essentials $39.99 per location per month (annual billing implied)2 | Essentials $2.50 per user per month3 |
| Free plan | No public price yet | 1 location, up to 10 employees1 | 1 location, up to 15 employees2 | No, 14-day trial3 |
| Gusto payroll file | Yes, with cash and paycheck tips | Yes; tips and break penalties do not transfer4 | Yes, listed partner5 | Yes, listed sync6 |
| ADP payroll file | RUN and Workforce Now | RUN7 | RUN and Workforce Now5 | Yes, listed sync6 |
| Built-in payroll | No | Yes, add-on from $49 per month plus $6 per employee1 | Yes, 7shifts Payroll5 | No3 |
| Tip pooling | Included | Tip Manager add-on, $25 per location per month1 | Tip Management add-on, $49.99 per location per month2 | Not published3 |
| Predictive scheduling | Rule sets for Seattle, Oregon and California | Does not automate Fair Workweek, by its own comparison page8 | Automated for Seattle, Oregon statewide, and several CA and IL cities9 | Not published3 |
| API | JSON API and MCP for agents | Yes, tier not stated1 | Limited by plan10 | Premium only3 |
| Where data lives | A file in your own Hoq Storage, exportable as a zip with SQLite | Vendor cloud1 | Vendor cloud2 | Vendor cloud3 |
- https://www.joinhomebase.com/pricing
- https://www.7shifts.com/compare/7shifts-vs-wheniwork/
- https://wheniwork.com/pricing
- https://support.joinhomebase.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014420112-Integrate-with-Gusto
- https://www.7shifts.com/ai-info/
- https://wheniwork.com/solutions/payroll-integrations
- https://support.joinhomebase.com/s/article/Homebase-and-ADP-RUN-Integration-Guide
- https://www.joinhomebase.com/compare/homebase-vs-harri
- https://kb.7shifts.com/hc/en-us/articles/48814451240723-What-s-New-February-2026
- https://developers.7shifts.com/docs/plan-requirements