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. When I Work
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for hourly teams that need a published rota and a GPS time clock whose hours go straight into payroll.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | BOOK ON | When I Work |
|---|---|---|
| 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 $2.50 / user / month Essentials $2.50, Pro $5 and Premium $8 per user per month, each with unlimited users. Time tracking and attendance is offered as an add-on toggle on every plan. |
| Free trial | First partial calendar month free, no credit card required; the next complete calendar month is the first chargeable one | 14-day free trial, no credit card required |
| Team size | Not stated | Priced per user per month, unlimited users on every plan |
| Users | Not stated | Hourly and shift-based teams in restaurants, retail, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, construction, call centres, franchises, events and non-profits |
| API | Not stated | Yes, API key access and webhooks on the Premium plan |
| Hosting | Not stated | Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps and a shared-device terminal |
| 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 | Auto scheduling, multi-week and multi-location scheduling and reusable custom schedule templates from Essentials; Pro adds advanced scheduling, scheduling rules and role permissions |
| 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 | OpenShifts and shift swapping from Essentials, with managers keeping final approval; Pro allows overlapping OpenShifts |
| 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 | Availability, time-off requests, qualifications and shift preferences in one place; managers approve or decline requests on web or mobile, and auto scheduling fills shifts from availability and qualifications |
| 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 from mobile, web, tablet or a dedicated terminal, with GPS captured on every punch, geofencing that limits clock-in to the work location, photo clock-ins for identity verification, break logging, real-time overtime alerts, manager approval of timesheets and an edit log for the audit trail |
| 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 | Forecast tools from Essentials track scheduled against budgeted hours, with labour costs in the scheduling view; Pro adds custom unit forecasting and labour sharing |
| 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 | Overtime and maximum-hours alerts while scheduling and when an OpenShift or trade would add overtime, plus break logging on the time clock |
| 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 and point-of-sale integrations from Essentials, among them Rippling, Gusto, Square Payroll, Paychex, QuickBooks Online and OnPay, which take the approved timesheets |
| 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 | In-app team messaging from Essentials, with notifications to managers about time-off requests and staff nearing their hours |
| 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, plus iOS and Android apps; the time clock runs on mobile, web, tablet or a dedicated terminal |
| Integrations and API | Excel import for existing rotas; exports to accounting and payroll packages are confirmed during onboarding for the packages a firm uses | Prebuilt payroll and operations connectors for Rippling, Gusto, Square Payroll, Paychex, QuickBooks Online, OnPay, SimplePay, GoCo and ResaleAI, Zapier for anything else, and API key access with webhooks on the Premium plan |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | more entries Phone, Email helpdesk | Chat |
| Onboarding | Guided onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Not stated | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Not stated | Rippling, Gusto, Square Payroll, Paychex, QuickBooks Online, OnPay, SimplePay, GoCo, ResaleAI, Zapier |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
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 When I Work From $2.50 / user / month
- Free trial BOOK ON First partial calendar month free, no credit card required; the next complete calendar month is the first chargeable one When I Work 14-day free trial, no credit card required
- Support BOOK ON Phone, Email helpdesk When I Work Chat
- 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 When I Work Auto scheduling, multi-week and multi-location scheduling and reusable custom schedule templates from Essentials; Pro adds advanced scheduling, scheduling rules and role permissions
- Shift swaps and open shifts BOOK ON 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 When I Work OpenShifts and shift swapping from Essentials, with managers keeping final approval; Pro allows overlapping OpenShifts
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
When I Work
Strengths
- GPS, geofencing and photo clock-ins tie every punch to the scheduled location
- Auto-scheduling assigns shifts by eligibility, availability and approved time off
- Forecast tools put a sales and hours budget next to the schedule while it is built
- Unlimited users on every plan, from $2.50 per user per month
Limitations
- No client invoicing: the timesheet is built for payroll rather than for billing work
- API key access, webhooks and single sign-on require the Premium plan
- Time tracking and attendance is an add-on toggle rather than part of the plan price
- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
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.
When I Work
- Essentials $2.50 Per user per month. Unlimited users, auto scheduling, multi-week and multi-location scheduling, schedule templates, forecast tools, in-app team messaging, OpenShifts and shift swapping, help centre and live chat, and payroll and point-of-sale integrations.
- Pro $5 Per user per month. Everything in Essentials plus advanced scheduling, scheduling rules, role permissions, labour sharing, custom unit forecasting, 24-hour callout reporting, custom reporting, overlapping OpenShifts and timezone toggling.
- Premium $8 Per user per month. Everything in Pro plus API key access, webhooks and SAML single sign-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.
When I Work
- 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
When I Work https://wheniwork.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-16
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.