Honest Review (2024)

ClockOn

As a CEO of a time tracking software company I need to know what my competitors are up to. That means I’m often researching about and/or playing around with their products — you know, it’s part of the job. Here, I share my findings of that research, giving credit to those competitors where credit is due and being honest about which products I believe you really need to avoid. And so, there you have it, this review, and in it, I try to be honest, fair, and insightful…

What Don’t Users Like About ClockOn?

• App usability issues
• Software is hard to learn without support
• “Help” section is useless
• Fully compatible with Windows only 
• User-end visibility on STP reports isn’t great
• Roster templates exist but don’t always work

2. Desktop Version

ClockOn has a detailed, customizable desktop version that allows managers and owners to manage all of their payroll-related issues in one place. There are additional features available to this version, such as fingerprint scanning.

What sucks is that this version is only useful for Windows users, and thus a large market of other OS users, especially iOS users, is not being catered to. The desktop version is also a little difficult to set up, and even after the software has been set up, navigation may still be a bit difficult. While there are extensive help articles available, they are quite lengthy and can be confusing for the average user.

3. Employee Web Portal

ClockOn’s employee portal is handy and allows easy clocking in and out, access to rosters and payslips, and viewing and updating personal information at any time. Employees can add in their breaks, check their rosters, edit timesheets, request leaves, and view the portal on their tablet, mobile, or desktop. What’s great is that the web portal is available on all ClockOn subscription plans and can be customized to have geofencing as an add-on. 

4. Automated Timesheets

ClockOn’s automated timesheet feature uses a rule setting engine to help users automate normal, overtime, and penalty work hours, leave accrual, super percentages, etc. The set rules can be duplicated for multiple employees. Overall, this is a useful feature that makes payroll processing even more efficient.

Positive User Highlights

• “ClockOn makes payday quick and simple and when I have needed help me set up something new the support team have responded quickly and have always come back to me with a solution to my problem.” Mara (Source Capterra)
• “If I have an issue it is a small enough company where I get to talk to a real person who actually cares and is really helpful. It’s an easy package to use.” Sue (Source Software Advice)
• “I just subscribed to ClockOn for our small business (2 employees) STP payroll submission to ATO. It is free, not too difficult to use and did the job! What a breeze after a year of coping with Free Accounting Software that is not free anymore.” Mattieb (Source Product Review)
• “It is a one stop solution to ALL payroll matters – from setting and costing rosters, to capturing actual times worked by who, and then easily sorting the payroll calculations and required reporting. All in one place – simple.” Leanne (Source Software Advice)
• “I love how everything is automated and the payroll report options.” Bradley (Source Software Advice)
• “All initial setup of payroll database entry was done by Clockon personnel which eliminated the hassle of setting up myself. Clockon is overall fairly easy to use as long as there isn’t much variation to regular employee payments.” Clara (Source Software Advice)
• “The company was so obliging in teaching me. It was extremely easy to understand the product. I have used it for two years now & I am very happy with the customer support extended to me. I will definitely recommend the product to anyone.” Rowena (Source Software Advice)
• “Very helpful when it came to transferring data from my old system, and creating data files for Clock on. Very helpful for any followup tweaking of those staff profiles.” Gregg (Source Capterra)
• “The software works well. It is simple to use and was very simple to configure. I had setup another payroll system recently (not for myself) and Clock On is much more user-friendly.” Gordon (Source Capterra)
• “Easy to use. Support was good. Can see all the important info on one screen.” Naresh (Source Capterra)

Negative User Highlights

• “The software is quite extensive and to learn the software competently would require a lengthy period of time.” Clara C. (Source GetApp)
• “We have had a lot of issues with the ClockOn Go app. Our employees are constantly complaining about the app not registering breaks and freezing.” Caterina A. (Source GetApp)
• “Not self explanatory or easy to back date. I had to pay someone to do this work.” Lisbeth H. (Source GetApp)
• “Some of the self help instructions are very complicated to follow. I had to end up contacting support.” Diane D. (Source GetApp)
• “The customer service was garbage considering I paid for data entry and a first time run through training. Each day I tried to contact I had to wait for an email response 24 hrs later. I nor my business have time for waiting for support. We decided to run Clock on at a loss expense and moved on..” Tania & Lee S. (Source GetApp)
• “Sometimes when a feature hasn’t been used for a while I forget how to do it. Help section isn’t always useful. Staff on phone are better” Jane G. (Source GetApp)
• “Still learning all the shortcuts, perhaps a cheat sheet would be handy.” Jessica A. (Source GetApp)
• “The loading time is sometimes long. As cloud base data it takes ages to load timesheets and clockon people.” George (Source Capterra)
• “Implementation is hit and miss – they are eager to sell you features that don’t work eg. templates to reuse so you don’t have to re-create rosters from scratch all the time. Unfortunately the information saved in the templates cannot be recalled or reused.” Paul (Source Capterra)
• “The roster making is sometimes a bit tricky.” Lynette (Source Capterra)
• “It would be good if it worked on other operating systems apart from Windows. A cloud service would be best.” Greg (Source Capterra)

What are ClockOn’s Ratings from Other Review Sites?

(As of January 2024)

• Capterra: 4.1/5
• GetApp: 4.1/5
• App Store: 1/5
• Software Advice: 4/5
• ITQlick: 4.3/5

What’s My Final Verdict on ClockOn?

ClockOn is definitely a powerful software that is useful for small to medium-sized businesses as it is budget-friendly and customizable. For example, one can opt for the desktop version, outsourced payroll processing, etc. I found the desktop version and individual module pricing to be ClockOn’s biggest selling points.

Whichever package a business gets, all of its employees can easily access information such as payslips, rosters, and timesheets from the Employee Web Portal. ClockOn’s support team is on point and guides users through any issues they may have.

However, there are major pain points that are not being addressed by ClockOn. For instance, the mobile app is poor and frequently crashes. This is especially true for the iOS version. Similarly, the  company’s desktop version is only viable for Windows, leaving Mac users dissatisfied.

Another issue is customer reliance on support. ClockOn’s help articles are complex and confusing, and the software is hard to set up. This means that most users inevitably end up paying $95 to get it up and running. Other issues include roster templates that don’t always work and no visibility of STP reports at the user’s end.  

All things considered, ClockOn is still good value for money. Users can relax knowing their ATO requirements are being met with STP processing. ClockOn’s major selling points such as good customer support, reasonable pricing, and automation options are exactly what make it attractive to businesses, and with a little more focus on existing user pain points, it can be quite impressive.