Best for
Best for UK security guarding companies that want rota, officer compliance records and billing in one system priced per worked officer.
Shift Scheduling Comparison
BOOK ON vs. Humanity Schedule
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for organisations with frontline shift workers that need schedules checked against labour rules, from a single site to many locations.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | BOOK ON | Humanity Schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From £2.95 / worked officer / month One rate with all platform features included. Each officer who worked at least one shift in the calendar month is counted once; controllers, managers and office users are not counted. No VAT is added while the vendor is not VAT registered. | From $2.75 / employee / month Essentials plan for up to 250 employees, billed annually. Professional starts at $3.75 per employee a month billed annually, with volume discounts; Enterprise is quoted on request. The vendor states annual billing saves 20% against monthly billing. Managers and administrators with a login count as employees, and employees added mid-term are prorated. |
| Free trial | First partial calendar month free, no credit card required; the next complete calendar month is the first chargeable one | 30-day free trial of the Professional plan, no contract or credit card required |
| Users | Not stated | Organisations scheduling frontline staff in shifts; TCP names healthcare, manufacturing, business services, hospitality, retail, construction, education, public safety and government |
| API | Not stated | Open API, available as an add-on on the Professional and Enterprise plans |
| Hosting | Not stated | Cloud, in the browser, with mobile apps for iOS and Android |
| Made in | United Kingdom | Not stated |
| Shift planning and templates | Shifts added per client, site and day with start and end times; Copy Roster carries a whole week forward and Copy Shifts repeats a pattern across days, and an existing rota can be imported from Excel | Drag-and-drop schedules in daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly views, filtered by department, location, date and position, with schedule templates, one-click publishing and unlimited schedules and locations on every plan. Professional adds auto-fill of empty shifts by availability, skills and labour rules, re-assignment of vacant shifts by seniority or weekly hours, and Demand Scheduler, which builds a schedule from a forecast; shift tasks are an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise. |
| Shift swaps and open shifts | Counters show unassigned and unconfirmed shifts; the planner fills them through the Near By Officers search by postcode and radius, and a no-show shift is reassigned to a replacement and confirmed | Employees swap, pick up, release and drop shifts with automatic or manual manager approval, request coverage from colleagues and pick up full or partial open shifts in the app or by text. A released shift or a last-minute callout can start AI-assisted backfill, which ranks replacements by availability, pay, location and workload and sends SMS offers in phases until someone accepts. |
| Availability and time off | Leave requests are queued for HR with the number of days and whether they are paid, then approved or rejected; leave policies are applied per employee with a simultaneous-leave limit and carry-over setting, approved leave is visible when the roster is built, and unplanned absence is recorded on an Absentees screen | Employees set ad-hoc or recurring availability and request time off from the mobile app; managers see upcoming time off, leave balances and pending approvals, with custom leave types on every plan |
| Time clock and attendance | Yes, book on and book off from the officer app with time and position recorded against the rostered shift, or by the control room from the roster; those records become the timesheet, with planned hours shown next to hours worked | Clock-in and clock-out for shifts and breaks on the mobile app, timesheets for every employee, and geofencing with GPS location tracking on every plan; the app also offers webcam capture and passwords for clock-in security, and a dashboard shows who is clocked in, late or on leave |
| Labour cost and forecasting | Each shift carries its pay rate and charge rate, Change Rate sets night, weekend or bank holiday rates for one shift, planned hours sit next to actual hours, and a finance dashboard shows revenue, cost, profit and margin by contract | On Professional, a budget view compares the daily and weekly hours and cost of scheduled shifts with a budget, Demand Scheduler forecasts demand from uploaded historical data, a staffing checker compares coverage with demand by hour and position, and an HPPD scheduler compares scheduled nursing hours with targets. Labor Optimizer, an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise, combines clocked hours with upcoming shifts to project weekly hours and cost and flag potential overtime, with optional daily email or SMS alerts. |
| Breaks, overtime and labour rules | A seven-day consecutive-work alert on the manager dashboard lists officers who have worked every day of the past week, the officer roster flags double-booking and rest-period problems, and the vendor lists overtime detection and cost alerts | On Professional, a rules engine with built-in or custom policies, paid and unpaid meal and rest breaks, minor rules synced with school calendars, Fair Workweek guardrails for advance notice and right-to-rest, overtime thresholds based on FLSA, state or industry rules, skills and certifications, a conflict checker before and after assignment, and event logs of every schedule edit and request |
| Payroll export and integration | Payroll is generated in BOOK ON Accounts from approved shifts for a chosen period and frequency, with payslips; statutory calculations and HMRC submissions stay with your payroll software or bureau, and how the output is passed to them is agreed during onboarding | Payroll export of timesheets on every plan; HRIS and HCM integration that syncs scheduling data, employee details and leave balances is an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise, with ADP, Oracle, Workday and BambooHR named |
| Team messaging and notifications | Confirmed shifts appear in the officer app, which also carries employer notifications and a news feed; the control room works with handover tickets | SMS, email and in-app notifications for published schedules, changes and shift assignments, shift reminders 1 or 24 hours before a shift, a message wall for announcements and events, and messages to employees; Professional adds employee communications |
| Platforms and mobile app | Officer app for iOS and Android, free on the App Store and Google Play, which needs a connection to send a book-on, check call or report; the office side runs as a cloud web platform | Web app plus mobile apps for iOS and Android, also compatible with Apple Watch |
| Integrations and API | Excel import for existing rotas; exports to accounting and payroll packages are confirmed during onboarding for the packages a firm uses | Open API as an add-on on Professional and Enterprise for custom solutions; payroll export on every plan and HRIS/HCM integration from Professional, with ADP, Oracle, Workday and BambooHR named |
| AI features | No | stated Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Phone, Email helpdesk | Email helpdesk, Phone |
| Onboarding | Guided onboarding | Not stated |
| Company size | Not stated | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Not stated | ADP, Oracle, Workday, BambooHR |
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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price BOOK ON From £2.95 / worked officer / month Humanity Schedule From $2.75 / employee / month
- Free trial BOOK ON First partial calendar month free, no credit card required; the next complete calendar month is the first chargeable one Humanity Schedule 30-day free trial of the Professional plan, no contract or credit card required
- Support BOOK ON Phone, Email helpdesk Humanity Schedule Email helpdesk, Phone
- AI features BOOK ON No Humanity Schedule Yes
- Shift planning and templates BOOK ON Shifts added per client, site and day with start and end times; Copy Roster carries a whole week forward and Copy Shifts repeats a pattern across days, and an existing rota can be imported from Excel Humanity Schedule Drag-and-drop schedules in daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly views, filtered by department, location, date and position, with schedule templates, one-click publishing and unlimited schedules and locations on every plan. Professional adds auto-fill of empty shifts by availability, skills and labour rules, re-assignment of vacant shifts by seniority or weekly hours, and Demand Scheduler, which builds a schedule from a forecast; shift tasks are an add-on on Professional and included on Enterprise.
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
BOOK ON
Strengths
- One published rate of £2.95 per worked officer, with all platform features included
- Controllers, managers and office users are not counted towards the bill
- Approved shifts feed timesheets, payroll and client invoices from the same record
- SIA licence, BS 7858 vetting and right-to-work records held against each officer
- Officer app for iOS and Android for booking on, check calls, patrols and incident reports
Limitations
- Licensing and vetting records are built around UK security rules (SIA, BS 7858, ACS)
- Exports to accounting and payroll packages are confirmed per package during onboarding rather than listed
- Minimums, setup and contract length are set in each company's commercial agreement, not on the pricing page
- The vendor states its records support SIA, ACS, BS 7858 and ISO work but do not award certification or guarantee compliance
Humanity Schedule
Strengths
- 30-day free trial of the Professional plan, with no contract or credit card required
- Essentials includes clocking in with geofencing and payroll export
- AI-assisted backfill sends SMS shift offers to ranked replacements until one accepts
- Rules for breaks, minors, Fair Workweek notice and FLSA overtime thresholds on Professional
Limitations
- Auto-fill, demand forecasting, labour budgeting and compliance rules need the Professional plan
- Open API access is an add-on, and HRIS/HCM integration is an add-on below Enterprise
- Essentials is limited to 250 employees
- Enterprise pricing is quoted on request
Plans
Pricing
BOOK ON
- Subscription £2.95 Per qualifying worked officer per month, with Operate, Compliance and Accounts included and no feature tiers. Subcontractor billing is subject to client approval.
Humanity Schedule
- Essentials $2.75 / employee / month Billed annually, for up to 250 employees. Drag-and-drop scheduling, shift swaps, availability and time off, multiple locations, notifications, clock-in with geofencing, basic reporting, payroll export, mobile apps and 24/7/365 customer support.
- Professional $3.75 / employee / month Starting price, billed annually; volume discounts may apply. Adds auto-fill and demand-based scheduling, employee communications, compliance rules, labour cost and budgeting, skills and certifications, advanced reporting and SSO/SAML. Shift Tasks, Labor Optimizer and Open API access are add-ons.
- Enterprise Not stated Custom quote. Adds Shift Tasks, Labor Optimizer and HCM integrations; Open API access is an add-on.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
BOOK ON
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Humanity Schedule
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
BOOK ON https://bookonsolutions.com/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-04
Humanity Schedule https://tcpsoftware.com/products/humanity/ · checked against the official source on 2026-11-06
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.