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What Is Deputy Scheduling? What It Does and Costs

Deputy builds the rota for shift teams and clocks people in against it. Here is what it does, what each plan costs, and the $30 floor.

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Plans and prices read off deputy.com on 31 July 2026.

Definition

What Deputy is, in one sentence

What it is

Deputy is workforce software for shift-based businesses that builds next week's rota and then clocks staff in against it. A manager lays out who works when, or lets Deputy fill the grid from demand, availability and cost rules. Staff see the week on their phones, swap shifts and book leave. When they turn up they clock in, and Deputy checks the punch against the shift they were rostered on. It also reads award, break and overtime rules, so pay rates apply without a manager working them out. Two things catch people out: there is no free plan, and every monthly account pays at least $30.

Who needs this

Managers running hourly staff across shifts, usually in hospitality, retail, care or a chain of sites. If your weekly headache is covering Saturday and keeping wage cost under the sales it brings in, this is built for that. If your headache is proving how many hours went to which customer, Deputy is the wrong shape of tool and so is most of this category.

In practice

What teams actually use Deputy for

These are the jobs Deputy is bought to do. All of them sit in the product itself, apart from payroll and HR, which are sold on top at extra cost per person.

Filling next week's rota

The main job. Deputy can build the week for you from who is available, what the site needs and what the wage bill is allowed to be, then a manager tweaks it and sends it out. Auto-fill is the feature people actually name when they say Deputy saved them time.

Swaps and cover

Someone drops Friday. They offer it, a colleague picks it up, a manager approves, and the week updates for everybody at once. Deputy also posts unassigned shifts as open so anyone qualified can claim one without a phone call.

Clocking against the shift

A punch is not just a timestamp in Deputy. It is measured against the shift the person was rostered on, so a late start or an unplanned hour shows up as a variance rather than getting buried in a weekly total.

Deputy's shared tablet clock

Deputy runs a clock on a tablet by the door with face unlock, which is how it stops one person punching in for another. It is a Core-tier feature and above, not on the cheapest plan. We have nothing like this at all.

Award and overtime rules

Deputy reads pay rules and applies the right rate for nights, weekends, holidays and overtime as timesheets build. For businesses under predictive scheduling laws or complex awards, this is usually the reason they picked it.

Wage cost against sales

Managers watch what the week costs while they are still building it, and compare forecast against actual once it is done. This is the number a multi-site operator cares about most, and it is why Deputy sells upward into chains.

Availability and leave

Staff set the hours they can work and request time off in the same app. Deputy shows both while the week is being filled, so nobody gets put on a day they already booked off.

Payroll, at extra cost

Deputy Payroll is powered by Paycor and costs $8 per user a month plus a $49 monthly base fee. It is US only and needs an annual Core or Pro plan. Deputy also passes approved hours to outside payroll and till systems.

Pricing

What each Deputy plan costs and includes

Deputy replaced its old two-plan pricing, so half the reviews you will read quote tiers that no longer exist. These are the plans on deputy.com today, and all three carry the same monthly floor.

Comparison dimensionLiteCoreBest fitPro
Price per user a month$5$6.50$9
Minimum spend a month$30, whatever your size$30, whatever your size$30, whatever your size
Free planNone, trial onlyNone, trial onlyNone, trial only
Rota building and swapsBasicAuto-fill and micro-shiftsAuto-fill and micro-shifts
Time clock and timesheetsBasicAuto approvalAdvanced timesheets
Face unlock on a shared tabletNoYesYes
Geofenced clock-inYesYesYes
Pay rule and award handlingBasicAdvancedAdvanced
Wage budgets and forecastingNoYesYes
Single sign-on and site hierarchyNoNoYes
PayrollNot availableAdd-on, annual plansAdd-on, annual plans

Read off deputy.com/pricing on 31 July 2026, before tax. The $30 monthly minimum has applied since 1 September 2025. Payroll is $8 a user a month plus a $49 base fee, US only.

Fact sheet

Deputy and TimeTracker side by side

These answer different questions. One decides who works Saturday and what that costs. The other decides what already-worked hours are worth. Every figure came off the vendor's own pricing page.

Deputy

Rota building and attendance for shift teams, with pay rules applied as timesheets build. No free plan, and a $30 monthly floor.

Best for
Hospitality, retail and care businesses rostering hourly staff, where wage cost against sales is the number that matters.
Pricing
No free plan, trial only. Lite is $5 per user a month, Core $6.50 and Pro $9. Every monthly account pays at least $30 regardless of headcount. Payroll, HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ all cost extra per person.
  • Auto-fill rota from demand and cost
  • Shift swaps and open shifts
  • Face unlock on a shared tablet
  • Award and overtime interpretation
  • Wage budgets and forecasting
  • Payroll and HR as paid add-ons
Compare the alternatives
Best fit

TimeTracker

Hours recorded against the work that paid for them. Every entry lands on a client, a project and a task, so an invoice can be built from it.

Best for
Teams who charge customers by the hour, or whose recorded hours get checked by somebody later.
Pricing
Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Paid is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly. No minimum spend, so a small team pays for exactly the seats it uses.
  • Hours by client, project and task
  • Exact and rounded durations both kept
  • Approvals that lock the period
  • Location rules with geofence and IP
  • Time off with real accrual policies
  • Free for 3 people, no floor
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Pros and cons

The real strengths and limits of each

TimeTracker is ours, so weigh the second card accordingly. The rules were the same for both cards: as many limits as strengths, no invented features, and prices taken straight from each vendor's site on the date below.

Deputy

Best for

Shift businesses whose weekly problem is covering the rota and keeping wage cost in line.

Pricing

No free plan, trial only. Lite $5, Core $6.50 and Pro $9 per user a month, with a $30 minimum monthly spend since September 2025. Payroll is $8 a user plus a $49 base fee.

Checked 31 July 2026

More on Deputy

Deputy does the job TimeTracker does not do at all. It builds the week, fills the gaps and applies the pay rules, then checks each punch against the shift the person was actually rostered on. For a restaurant group or a care provider under complicated award rules, that is the whole problem handled in one product from $5 a person a month.

Where it wins

  • Auto-fill genuinely saves hours on a weekly rota, and it is the feature customers name first
  • Award, break and overtime interpretation is strong, which is the compliance reason most buyers choose it
  • Every punch is measured against a rostered shift, so variances are visible instead of buried
  • Wage cost against sales is tracked while the week is still being built, not after payroll
  • Face unlock on a shared tablet stops one person clocking in for another

Where it falls short

  • No free plan. There is a trial and nothing else, and plenty of reviews still imply otherwise
  • Every monthly account pays at least $30, so a team of four on Lite pays $30 instead of $20
  • Add-ons stack up fast. Payroll alone is $8 a user plus a $49 monthly base fee
  • Face unlock and wage budgets need Core, so the $5 Lite plan is thinner than the headline suggests
  • No client billing, budgets or invoicing, so it cannot tell you what a customer job cost
  • Built around shifts, which makes it heavy for a team that only logs project hours

TimeTrackerOurs

Best for

Teams who bill customers for hours, or who have to show what a job actually cost.

Pricing

Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Paid is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly. No minimum spend.

Checked 31 July 2026

More on TimeTracker

TimeTracker is not a rota tool and is not trying to become one. It answers a different question: where did the hours go, and will that answer hold up when somebody checks it. Hours land against a client, a project and a task, and the period locks once it is approved. If nobody bills or audits your hours, you do not need this.

Where it wins

  • Sign off a period and it stops being editable, with anything touched afterwards written to the audit record
  • Round to 6, 15 or 30 minutes and the untouched duration is still stored beside it, so you can show either number
  • A geofence, an IP range or an accuracy limit can refuse a punch made from the wrong place, and you can see who a rule catches before switching it on
  • Leave balances accrue on a real policy, with opening balances, requests and sign-off
  • Three people cost nothing and no floor applies, so a very small team pays for what it uses

Where it falls short

  • Nothing here builds a rota, trades a shift or records who is free. Deputy owns that, and it is most of why people search this
  • Three times the seat price, at $15 against Deputy Lite's $5
  • Penalty rates and award rules are not interpreted, so complicated pay has to be worked out somewhere else
  • There is no tablet by the door and no face unlock like Deputy's, because each person signs in as themselves
  • Punching in needs a live connection, so a site with patchy signal is a problem
  • Payroll leaves as a CSV file you upload yourself, with no direct link to a provider
See all Deputy alternatives
Which to pick

Do you need the rota, or the receipt?

Choose Deputy when…

  • You publish a rota every week and staff trade shifts.

    Deputy builds and fills the week. We have none of this.

  • Penalty rates, awards and break rules have to be applied correctly.

    Deputy reads the rules and applies them as timesheets build.

  • Staff share one tablet at the door instead of using phones.

    Deputy runs a shared clock with face unlock. We do not.

  • You watch wage cost against sales while building the week.

    That is Deputy's core report and the reason chains buy it.

  • You have 40 hourly staff and the per-seat price matters.

    Deputy Lite is $5 a person against our $15.

Choose TimeTracker when…

  • A customer queries your invoice and wants the detail.

    Every hour already carries its client, project and task.See how

  • You round what you charge but must prove the true figure.

    The raw duration survives rounding and is kept alongside it.See how

  • Signed-off hours must not shift quietly afterwards.

    Sign-off freezes the period and logs anything touched later.See how

  • There are three of you and a $30 monthly floor stings.

    Three seats cost nothing here, and no minimum applies.See how

  • A punch should only count from somewhere you approved.

    Geofences, IP ranges and accuracy limits decide that.See how

FAQ

Common questions about Deputy

These come from the People Also Ask box and the review pages that rank for this term, answered straight.

What is Deputy used for?
Deputy is used to build a weekly rota for hourly staff and then record whether they turned up. Managers fill the week or let Deputy auto-fill it, staff swap shifts and book leave on their phones, and each clock-in is checked against the shift the person was rostered on. It also applies award, break and overtime rules to the hours.
Is Deputy free?
No. Deputy has no free plan, only a trial, and paid plans start at $5 per user a month. There is also a minimum monthly spend of $30, so a team of four pays $30 rather than $20. If a genuinely free tier is what you need, TimeTracker is free for 3 people with no minimum, and our alternatives roundup covers the rest.
How much does Deputy cost?
Lite is $5 per user a month, Core $6.50 and Pro $9, before tax. Every monthly account pays at least $30 whatever its size. Payroll adds $8 a user plus a $49 monthly base fee, and HR, Messaging+ and Analytics+ each cost $1.50 to $2 a user on top. Prices read off deputy.com on 31 July 2026.
Is Deputy the same as a sheriff's deputy?
No, and this trips a lot of searches up. Deputy here is a workforce software company at deputy.com, based in Sydney. The word deputy also means a person appointed to act for someone else, including a deputy sheriff, and there is a 2020 TV drama with the same name. If you wanted the job or the show, this page is not it.
Does Deputy have a time clock?
Yes. Staff clock in from a phone, tablet, web browser or watch, and Deputy geofences the punch so it can be blocked from the wrong place. Face unlock on a shared tablet needs the Core plan or above. Our time clock app blocks off-site punches too, but everyone signs in as themselves and there is no shared device.
Does Deputy run payroll?
Partly. Deputy Payroll is powered by Paycor, costs $8 per user a month plus a $49 monthly base fee, and is available in the US on annual Core and Pro plans only. Deputy also sends approved hours to outside payroll and till systems. TimeTracker does neither. We export timecards, leave and balances to CSV and you load the file yourself.
Is Deputy good for a small single-site business?
It depends on headcount. The rota tools work fine at any size, but the $30 monthly floor means anything under six people on Lite pays for seats it does not use. A team of three pays $360 a year for three seats. Below that line the price stops making sense and a per-seat tool with no floor works out cheaper.
Can Deputy handle complex pay and overtime rules?
Yes, and it is the main reason buyers pick it over cheaper rota apps. Deputy applies award rates, penalty rates, break rules and overtime as the timesheet builds, so managers are not working them out by hand. Advanced rule handling sits on Core and Pro rather than Lite. TimeTracker does not do this at all.
Does Deputy track time against clients and projects?
No. Deputy records hours against shifts and locations, not against a customer job, and it has no billable rate, budget or invoice. So it will not tell you what a piece of work cost or what to charge for it. That gap is what our timesheets and invoicing are built to fill.
What are the main complaints about Deputy?
Three come up repeatedly. The pricing restructure raised bills for some teams and the $30 minimum catches small ones out. The app does not work offline, so a site with poor signal has a problem. And reviewers report the Android tablet app lagging behind the iPad one. Support quality is the fourth, mentioned less consistently.

Need the hours, not the rota?

If you publish a weekly rota, buy Deputy. We mean that. But if your real question is what last month's hours were worth, and whether that answer survives a customer querying the invoice, start with us instead. Three people cost nothing and there is no monthly floor to clear.

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