Calamari Reviews

Super software for leave management

Comments: The move from custom-built software was quick and intuitive. I use calamari as a user, as a decision maker, and as an admin.

Pros:

I created an account in calamari because I needed only a single feature - leave management. Calamari is perfect at that and suits my needs.It is fast, and intuitive and it does exactly what it should!

Cons:

I dislike two views, currently, we have one for the calendar and a second for creating applications.THis should be unified, because currently when creating applications we don't other team member's absences.

Good system, great customer service, just missing a few features

Comments: Overall I am happy with the product and I think for the price it is OK.Once overtime features and better admin controls are implemented I will give this 5* all round.It's so close to being amazing!

Pros:

It's very easy to useThe app and web version have a very modern feel unlike s a lot of the other HR systems out there.The admin and set up process are very easy and intuitive, and even our technophobe employees had no issues with signing up and getting used to it.The customer service team is friendly and always quick to reply with any questions or issues we have.The whole system is very fast and processes all tasks very quickly.There's a very good selection of clocking methods: QR scanner, mobile app, website, iBeacon, API.They have one of the most advanced and open API protocols I've seen from all my tests and being a high tech firm I was keen to have this option to facilitate any implementation in the future.

Cons:

Although the product is nice it does feel like it's behind competitors in some aspects.I get the feeling the development team is too small and I'd certainly like more action on the features we have requested.There are a few translation mistakes we have spotted but they never affected usability.The team management isn't as dynamic as expected.Admin features are missing (seeing acitvity logs to see what users changed what data at what time/date etc), and I would like more control and settings available on some parts too.Some of the exported reports seem to have been coded by different people because the table headers and names are not consistent throughout, again only a small problem, but this probably wouldn't happen with a bigger firm.Overall the main downside is that these features missing and little errors now and again make me feel like we are beta-testing the product for them, but paying market rate for the privilege.

Decent value for money timekeeping app

Pros:

Monthly subscription cost and easy to use.

Cons:

such a bland and unhelpful interface. no Auto clock in / clock out

Excellent, low-cost solution for Non-profits!

Comments: By switching our leave management and time tracking to Calamari, we have greatly reduced the amount of administrative hours spent on tracking PTOs and ensuring staff are working an appropriate amount of hours. The Slack integration has also been a huge bonus - staff don't need to log in to yet another app and instead can manage time off and clocking in/out right from the Slack app that they already use all day long.

Pros:

Calamari has an easy to use, simple user design that was easy for our team to switch to. The support team is always very helpful in onboarding our organization and answering any questions to date. My favourite part is the Slack integration; my team uses Slack for daily communication, so having the ability to do practically anything you needed for time tracking and leave management within Slack has been extremely convenient.

Cons:

One feature that I think may be lacking is the work schedules. As office workers a team's schedule is usually pretty similar from week-to-week, however, we offer flexible work schedules that have varied number of hours or days that are worked every other week. Calamari currently doesn't have the ability to customize work schedules to this level, which has led our operations team to have to put in more hours than we would have liked in setting up work schedules to properly reflect scheduled number of hours. I would also think this would be a major downfall for any organization that schedules shifts for their employees.

Calamari - managing your team's availability is couple simple clicks

Comments: Overall I'm very happy we are using Calamari, and I would gladly consider adding more modules but they need to be as flexible as leave management and allow us to customize as per our needs.

Pros:

The price and simplicity of setting it up and then maintenance. Connection to Slack. Open API that we could use to connect to Float. Very nice and responsvice customer service (dziękuję pani Kasiu!!)

Cons:

The UI experience is simple but the user experience is not always what I would hope for. The Calendar view, the way administrators need to click through to everything, often the lists refresh unexpectedly and I'm getting lots between what I expected and what is displayed.

Calamari - weird name, great product

Comments: Very positive experience and once set up, we have been able to use the system reliably with no help needed from support

Pros:

Very simple to deploy with a transparent pricing structure

Cons:

In reality, nothing. The product is easy to customize and adapt for specific use

The easy & o365 Integrated PTO Tracking we needed.

Comments: For our primary need in tracking PTO, calamari is exactly what we needed. The integration is seamless, and the UI is as simple as it can be, considering the many variables that come into play when HR vacation policy needs to be flexible across the whole business per employee.

Pros:

PTO tracking systems are the primary purpose we use and love calamari. The fact that we are able to use calamari to track vacation days, and control approval but also to have email prompts and sync a calendar to our o365 email calendars - thats what is critical for us. The options for types and levels of employees allows HR vacation policy to be flexible across the whole business per employee.

Cons:

Time clock and time sheets may become more of an important tool for us, but at the moment we only use it for part-time remote staff. The ability to print reports, and export pdf options are limited, making discussion and clarification with employees challenging unless they lean-in to read your computer screen. For this purpose, our ability to use calamari for this purpose is limited.

Excellent, efficient software for small teams and businesses

Pros:

Especially for a smaller business, the level of visibility it gives us over everyone's leave / absences and the benefit we gain from being able to plan around this. Not to mention integration into Slack and Outlook Calendar which really just helps to elevate Calamari as a great cloud solution for our needs.

Cons:

When we switched our financial year away from the calendar year, it took us a little while to get our head around how to set that up in Calamari, but we reached out for customer support and they guided us through the process. It's fiddly but the support team are on hand to help with any enquiries.

The best you can have in your company

Comments: We use the Calamari system in the full range of modules in our company, it definitely facilitates and automates our work, which was previously limited to paper form. Now we not only protect the environment, but also use a modern tool.

Pros:

The system is simple and very comfortable for use by employees. Ease of administration is also a big plus.

Cons:

There is no such thing :) You can't stick to anything

Very good software for good money

Comments: Very good customer service

Pros:

Ease of use and pricing. It is very good for small companies like mine but also for bigger enterprises. I have recomended them to my customers and they are happy with Calamari too.

Cons:

It is hard to learn it at the begining but customer support is very helpful in this area.

Leave Tracking Platform That Checks All of the Boxes

Pros:

Calamari is an outstanding tool for leave tracking. In the 2+ years our company has used Calamari, we have heard nothing but positive feedback from employees and managers. The approval flow and seamless integration with Slack have significantly reduced the approval time for requests. Calendar and notification functionality keeps stakeholders informed of employee availability. Complex accrual rules are easy to configure and the Calamari customer service team is always at the ready to assist when needed. It's a top not platform that gets the exact job done that we need. I recently provided feedback that we hoped the reporting tool could include archived employees so we export historical data on time off trends. Calamari took this feedback and was able to implement a new solution that recently went live. I appreciate them listening to us and building a solution!

Cons:

The .csv importer can be a little finicky. Rarely am I able to complete an upload task without needing support from the Calamari team. The good news, however, is that they are immediately responsive and help me troubleshoot the error. If this could be resolved it would help me rely less on their customer support team, but it's a minor annoyance.

Offer great policy integration

Pros:

We could build in our leave policies so that Calamari enforces the rules automatically (e.g., who is eligible to take school visitation leave, awarding some leave annually and some by days worked, different minimum durations for different leave types, etc). It offers very granular control over the setup, and is very intuitive and smooth once setup.

Cons:

The downside of having such detailed control options is the steep learning curve in the implementation process. Fortunately, the customer support staff are great and really helpful with figuring everything out. I'd like Calamari to implement an "edit" feature for approved leave requests, which would be more convenient than cancelling and resubmitting.

Clock and Leave Management

Pros:

We use mainly the time tracking and leave management features, and it works well.

Cons:

I would like to have a feature to evaluate work performance for employees.

Good but Not Great

Comments: We moved from paper forms to online. Calamari has a nice visual to it, and seemed to me to be intuitive to use. Set up was mediocre; I think it could be easier but also in testing other products, it's not the worst. We chose to use just the time off portion and not the clock in/out option. This does mean, however, that the time accrued for PTO is not accurate, and while I have told my staff that the accurate accounting is on each paystub, they are frustrated by that.
Additionally, while I feel the system is really self-explanatory, people seem to have trouble with requesting partial days, changing the type of PTO requested (vacation, sick, etc), and requesting multiple days at once.
The customer service is good; they are happy to answer questions you may have.
I decided to look into their clock in/clock out option, to streamline three products that we use, but I did not like the options of a mobile app, web app, or beacons. I didn't like that the beacons did not take into account lunch breaks. I could set a lunch break for everyone, but then if they took 45 minutes instead of an hour, or 1hr5min, it doesn't take that into account.

Pros:

I wanted a product that fit in our budget, that could keep track of time off requests online. I was tired of paper floating everywhere! Calamari fit that bill.

Cons:

There is no way to edit your time off request. If you make a mistake, the entire request has to be deleted, then the manager has to approve the cancellation, then you can resubmit the request. It's a lot of steps.

Almost invisible and very flexible absences tracking tool

Comments: It takes a while to set up Calamari properly but after you do (and you can always reach out to their support and receive answers and detailed instructions in short time) it works on its own and you just invite new people as they join the team. We have switched from our previousOn a daily basis, I almost don't notice we use Calamari because no one reaches out to me with any issues or questions on how to use it.

Pros:

- thanks to Calamari shared calendars being easily added to GCal we can automatically see any planned absences in the team (holidays, remote work, business trips, sick leave etc) directly in our GCals (previously we had to keep a separate shared team GCal for these and add absences manually) - everyone is able to check their current entitlement anytime with just a couple of clicks and request their time off on the go - no need to send emails to multiple people in the company to request time off and have it registered (this was solved with a customised approval flow) - appointing the substitute can be done at the stage of requesting time off - you can send all notifications to Slack and track status of your request from there - multiple, customisable approval flows and absence types - customised holiday calendars which can be linked to individual users or teams (very helpful especially in Germany) - no need to track the absences manually: it takes a couple of clicks to generate absence reports and requests required for payroll - very responsive and competent support

Cons:

I only wish that we used Calamari on the company level. With other team being first to register for it, we can't fully integrate with GSuite and it takes up to 24 hours for the Calamari shared calendar to sync with GCal.

Leave Management Tracking

Comments: Great SAAS that is available for a great cost. We didn't need anything super powerful. We actually have the same functionality for free with our ADP software, but pay for Calamari because it is easier from a management perspective.

Pros:

The software is very flexible with regards to being able to track a variety of leave methods. We have different people at different levels of the company who get various entitlements and Calamari was able to handle it all. We also are able to track our business travel of our sales managers through the system which is helpful too.

Cons:

The app is fairly easy, but the user interface could be a bit easier for users who are not as computer savvy. It could be a little more clear on what time they have less what time is scheduled for their net time leftover.

Leave Management Made Easy

Comments: Hassle-free leave and attendance management system with always smiling customer support team.

Pros:

As a startup, I was looking for a perfect solution for leaves and attendance management. By using Calamari, you can approve your employee’s leaves from your fingertips. And every detail you need is available on their dashboard.

Cons:

Having issues sometimes with the attendance management as the beacon system doesn't work with us well yet. Hopefully, they will fix it in future as I have faith in them.

Excellent HR Management tool

Comments: On the few occasions that we have required support or assistance they have been extremely attentive both through the live chat feature and over emails. We've received 5 star service at every turn. Our thanks go to their team for being so responsive.

Pros:

We use Calamari for a range of HR activities. The most useful features that we use on a daily basis include: 1. Absence Requests: Employees are able to request paid time off / vacations / unpaid leave etc in a formal and structured manner. The approval process is easy to calibrate and set up for managers. Provides an easy process where documentation can be added to support requests (such as medical leave notes). 2. Calendar feature: When payroll exceptions need to be considered, the calendar feature is an easy way to make any adjustments that need to be made. It also enables you to plan for staggering of vacations for employees inside the same department. 3. Employees: Easy to create a database of all employees where information from starting dates, salary etc. can be recorded and quickly accessed. 4. Reports: Functional and and easy to prepare using this feature.

Cons:

As far as the requirements of our business go, Calamari offers all the necessary features (and additional ones) that we need. We have no complaints regarding the software that have come up in the time we have been using it.

absence management and clock in/clock out were never so easy

Comments: Super easy leave management and clock in/clock out (using beacon).

Pros:

It's a new way of absence & leave management. You can plan and track all types of vacation, paid time off, sickness and you can do it without old, annoying paper forms. You'r always few mouse clicks from your dreamed vacations ;) Another wery importand feature is clock in/clock out - it's super easy to use especially with bluetooth beacons support. Place a token in your office reception and install/configure calamari app on our phone. That's all! You can forget about clockin in/out ever again. It will by done automaticaly when you enter/leave your offiice. If you don't want to use beacons or when you'r work from home you can still clock in/out "manual" from mobile app. It's worth to mention that calamari has super helpfull customer service.

Cons:

Beacon support for Android phone still need some fine-tunning compareing to iOS version. Except that - it's just perfect!

Good software but expensive for us

Comments: It is an excellent software that does what it says. For us and for every company that does not have budget for many SaaS, the price is too expensive. As responsible for the IT internal services, we probably will change the software in the next year for a cheaper one because we are an ONG Foundation and we cannot afford it. For the rest of SaaS we use to have specific budget agreements for non-profit or educational institutions.

Pros:

usability the software is mature enough

Cons:

I would say that the price is our worst handicap By other hands, I would like to have more functionalities like HR (contacts, payrolls, etc) management.

Lightweight and easy to deploy

Comments: It has saved me and my team a lot of time and confusion! This is the best solution by far that we have found.

Pros:

It was simple to on-board the team to this software and it has been smooth to operate since.

Cons:

The UI is difficult to navigate at times and there were several issues in our initial set-up.

The best tool for the absence management

Comments: Thanks to Calamari, managing absences and holidays of all the employees in two offices, in two different countries is now fairly simple and efficient. Each office may have its own rules and holidays and yet, thanks to the shared calendar and employee catalogue, we have a full transparency of whom, when and why has a day off.

Pros:

- Simple and yet powerful management of absences (approving holidays through Slack is such a time saver) - Extended setup possibilities for the absence types (accrual rules) - Possibility of configuring everything, including holidays calendars, types of absences, contracts and approval processes - Slack and google calendar integrations - Great customer care and fast feedback, our issues with Slack integration were solved pretty fast

Cons:

- The look and feel of the web app is a bit outdated (but it's simple and clean which is good) - UX is a bit clunky from time to time (especially when you have multiple accrual rules to work with under one absence type)

Calamari perfect for our company's needs

Pros:

Very easy to use and it's user friendly. Perfect software for our company esp. to keep track of both PTO and PSL requests. It was very easy to learn on how to use this and easy to set up.

Cons:

It doesn't integrate with ADP for PSL leave so I have to update the PSL hours manually every month.

Do something with calendar view! PLEASE!!!

Pros:

Policies for determining the number of days off, the possibility of using various acceptance flows, and great preparation for Polish labor law - are really great elements of Calamari.

Cons:

I will write it again - calendar view .... It is impossible to describe how bad, illegible and useless this element is. I haven't seen anything like this for many years - it looks like from Windows 98. With over 30 people in the team, it practically does not provide any meaningful functionality. Please, PLEASE do something with that. Just take o look at ANY OTHER software using calendar view, and change yours.

Thanks for your job But can help us more

Comments: We have, thanks to Calamari, our hours project under control.

Pros:

Easy, quick to learn, possibility to change different kind of project during the day.

Cons:

I cannot automatically set the clock to the nearest quarter of an hour more when the employee arrives late in the morning or in the end of the day. Example, 8:03 should be automatically shifted to 8:15 or 17:38 --> 17:30