Kronos Review and Pricing

Pricing

Kronos prices its Workforce Ready Time Keeping solution monthly and by quote. Its pricing is not as transparent as many of the newer cloud-based time and attendance software systems. In fact, it only sells the system directly to businesses with more than 100 employees. Smaller organizations must work through a local reseller that may set its own prices. 

The local reseller we contacted charges a base monthly fee of $40 and a per-employee fee of $3.80. The additional features cost another $25 per month, such as the mobile app, notifications, PTO management, scheduling, and a points system to track tardiness and unapproved absences. There was also a one-time implementation cost of $500, plus $4 per employee.  

The local Kronos reseller said it also leases traditional (physical) time clocks to businesses. These devices cost $100 to $140 per month. 

Using the following example, a business with 50 employees could easily pay $700 to set up the system and about $355 per month to use it.

• Time clock rental: $100 per month
• Setup: $500, plus $4 per employee
• Monthly: $40, plus $3.80 per employee
• Additional features: $25 per month

Prices may vary from seller to seller. Be sure to get a price quote for your business from your local reseller (if you’re not buying directly from Kronos) so you can get a clearer understanding of the costs. Kronos does not offer a free trial of its software.

Features

Kronos Workforce Ready Time Keeping includes a host of scheduling tools that let employers assign schedules to employees or employees to schedules. If your daily or employee schedules need to change, you can mass-edit schedules to make changes for multiple employees at a time.

The system’s physical time clock, Kronos InTouch, is a 7-inch, full-color touchscreen clock that allows staff members to punch in and out using a finger, proximity reader, or badge swipe. The clock isn’t just for clocking in and out, however. After logging in to the system, employees can view their schedules and request time off through Kronos InTouch.  

For remote employees, the Kronos Workforce Ready mobile app is available on iOS and Android devices. With the app, employees can punch in and out, review their schedules, view their time-off balances, and submit requests. The app features GPS tracking that records employees’ locations when they clock in and out. Managers can use the app to see which employees are clocked in and approve time-off requests.  

Another benefit of Kronos is the notification system and reporting. You can set the system to alert you to any missed time punches, early or late arrivals, and extended lunches and breaks. Workforce Ready also offers about 20 standard reports, including a detailed audit trail so that you can monitor administrative changes. 

The Kronos Workforce Integration Manager lets you interface the time and attendance system with your HR or payroll software. Kronos offers additional modules for talent acquisition, performance management, compensation management, Affordable Care Act compliance, and a marketplace that lets you buy complementary third-party products and services right from the system.  

Pros and Cons

Pros

Kronos Workforce Ready Time Keeping is a cloud-hosted system, so you can access it from any web browser. The system is compatible with Windows and Mac computers. Once logged in to the system, employees can clock in and out, review their schedules, and request time off. 

The manager dashboard gives you a quick overview of the system and real-time insights into your labor data. From the dashboard, managers can approve timecards, correct exceptions such as missed punches, respond to time-off requests, view vacation schedules, and manage daily, weekly, and monthly schedules.

This system lets you set different permissions for individual staff members. For example, you can give administrative personnel access to timesheet approval, allowing them to view and approve employee shift-change requests, as well as access to the application’s scheduling features. You can restrict employees who don’t have managerial responsibilities to accessing their own individual data.

Cons

The biggest negative of Kronos for a small business is the price. We were impressed with the system and all it has to offer, but it’s priced for larger businesses. If your business has fewer than 100 employees, you will have to work with a local reseller instead of directly with Kronos, and the reseller may set its own prices. 

This also means you won’t have direct access to Kronos should something go wrong with the system. Instead, you will work with your local reseller to correct any issues.

Kronos isn’t as easy to install as its cloud-based competitors, and there is no live chat support, so you won’t have a quick way to get answers to your questions.  

A small potential drawback is that the system doesn’t integrate with rugged time clocks. If you have employees in the field, such as on construction sites, they’ll have to clock in and out through the mobile app. 

Customer Support

Kronos offers customer support by phone and email. However, your local reseller might have different contact methods.  

To test the customer service Kronos offers, we contacted the company by phone. While we were pleased with the support we received as a potential customer, if you have fewer than 100 employees, you must work with a reseller to receive support.

When we first contacted Kronos, the friendly representative asked for some information on our business, including its size and what we were looking for. We got a call back the following day from a representative of the local reseller, who answered all of our questions and gave us a detailed price quote. 

We can’t say what it would be like to work with a reseller in your area. The potential inconsistencies in the service of different local resellers is one of the risks of this structure.

Kronos offers online training resources to help you and your employees learn about specific features at any time from your desktop or the mobile timesheet app. This is a convenient way to train new employees or review updates to the system.  

While Kronos is not an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau, the company does have an A+ rating on the site and has not had any complaints filed against it in the past three years. Users on review websites rate the software between 2 and 5 out of 5 stars, with most of the sites rating it about 4 out of 5 stars.

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