Calamari Reviews

Pros

We have decentralized operations, and our managers and HR love being able to see presence and location statuses of our employees in real time, and at a high level.
The Calendar function in the leave module allows for great oversight and enables more efficient resource management and allocation.
The time-sheet and leave reports available are robust and we love the download to excel feature, this perfect tabular format allows for deeper dives on trends, pivot tables etc within Excel.
It really is simple to use for employees and managers. The app keeps things simple to enable clocking in/out and applying for leave.
Really just very easy to navigate, after training our managers, no one has had to come back to us on how to navigate the system.
There are several clock in methods which allows for flexibility, eg smartphone clock-in, QR scans, and browser check-ins.
I must also commend the support team for providing excellent back-end support for our administrators! Keep up the great work and service

Cons

A few improvements could be made, such as allowing for attachment uploads from a smartphone for leave applications and for locations to be tagged when clocking in with a QR code.

Pros

We like this tool, because it's synchronized with other tools used in our organization (e.g. outlook Calendar, Jira, Optima, Slack, Office365). It is very userfriendly and intuitive and can be customized the way we need. We have a lot of different types of agreements and hence a lot of different absence types - and the system enables to configure everything the way we need. Additionally we are delighted with a customer support.

Cons

Lots of possibilities to customize ( absence types, calendars, working shifts, approval processes etc.) makes the system more complex to configure and it looks difficult at the beggining, but - when you start to udnerstand different dependancies and how it's built - is stops to be a problem. Customer support is of absolutely marvelous, always responsive and very, very helpful.

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.

Cons

i signed up. received the email, followed the link and only get a green screen asking you to "wait for a while".

and after a few HOURS ( you get it right, hours ), that so-called "while" is still there. refresh / quit browser do no help. same link goes to same screen with same words.

i received the mail at 0100, tried it on 0300, get the same result. so i contacted them via the webform.

i checked back on 0700. my mailbox got nothing - not even a acknowledgement of receiving my email, and surely nothing about why the while is still staying. and yes - same signup link still goes to the same page with the same words.

i'm still hopeful, so tried again on 1900 on the same day. now the best part arrived - the same link i tried said "my license expired and my account is blocked".

so, what Calamari suggesting, is that my signup license is "looking at their green screen and wait for a while" - but hey, i haven't looked at that for 14 days yet, why have my license expired SO SOON???

is Calamari a hoax for getting my email? the other "positive" reviewers sound SO TRUE, i just can't tell how can that be. i'm not suggesting fake accounts with fake reviews, but i doubt for this kind of performance and stability, how can i handle the attendance / leave management thing of my whole company to it ?

Pros

Months ago, we scoped out our requirements for a PTO management tool. Calamari checked off every box! Coupled with outstanding and responsive customer service, we couldn't have asked for a better experience.

The process of requesting and approving time off requests, particularly the Slack integration, are a MAJOR upgrade from our previous platform.

Cons

The .csv upload tool can be a little tricky to figure out, but the customer service response is immediate and helped resolve the issues. Onboarding couldn't have gone any more smoothly.

Pros

This is the easiest software there is for my employees, who often struggled with more complicated ones. Also my favourite part is the ease of contact with customer service who are very fast, helpful and friendly and always solve my problems even when it's something specific for my organisation.

Cons

I have no negatives here. I can see that things that might be done a bit better (but don't disturb daily work) are developed and introduced to make everything better :)

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.

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.

Pros

Very user friendly interface encourages our team members to use Calamari regularly.
The tool is also very simple to use so all in-house communication is strengtened because of that.
The Success team writes back within minutes and helps with literally everything so the communication between us/ our team and Calamari is great.

Cons

There are still some HR-friendly feautres to add. For now we find that Calamari is more intuitive for team members rather than Administrators.
For example, the ability to see the history of different kind of contracts and calculate the leaves accordingly, or setting reminders about medical check-ups and OHS is something we still hope to see.

Pros

It’s easy to use from both the admin and user side. I can easily set parameters for versions levels if workers based on years experience or area they work in.

Cons

Can’t think of any cons. The customer service is great and it’s a fair price for a great product

Pros

I like that I don't have to think about it much, love the Slack integrations for my team and how easy it was to transition from our old process into Calamari. It's simple, clear, and for a small team it has everything I need. The customer support team has always responded promptly when I need anything, and we were even able to extend our trial period in the beginning and converted to a paying customer shortly after.

Cons

So the most annoying thing, and this is a small issue, is not being able to select a range of dates on the calendar by clicking on the days themselves. Again, it's a small thing, but it's something I'm used to in other situations, and so I frequently make the mistake of forgetting it's not possible on Calamari. I suppose the other thing is that it's not always immediately clear how to make use of some of the finer features, and so I simply haven't been bothered to find out if they're even there. For example, I spent a little while searching once for whether we could only make it possible for employees to request annual leave in the future if they will have accrued it by the specified date (and not just if they have already accrued it, if that makes sense), but it wasn't obvious how to do so or even if it were possible, so I just kind of left it. These relatively minor complications are the kind of thing that someone in a rush will just leave in the moment, because they've more important things to do, but will be annoying over time.

Pros

I truly like that this tool is really complete. It has almost everything you can think of regarding the employees schedules, if you need the users to punch from different locations or to punch from different means like mobile phone or web browser, this tool has it all, it even has the option to print QR codes, you can print the code and place them strategically on your office so the employees can go and scan the code to punch. I also like that it has integration with G Suite and Slack, you can use these tools to import your employees, which makes it really easy to start.

Cons

The only thing that I don't like is that you need to enter the work days of the employees, you need to specify the time the employees work a day, but if you work in a company where the schedules are updated a lot, this part might be a little cumbersome. Apart from that, all good, the tool has it basically all you need for maintaining your employees schedules.

Pros

it is easy to adapt to any situation, easy to modify and very easy to use. The implementation of the software might take quite long at the beginning, but once it's working, it takes less than 5 min to add new users, adapt their activity rate or week types. The leave module is very practical, especially because anyone can check the absence/presence of all team members. The integration with Outlook and Microsoft Office is a great advantage.

Cons

The only thing that could be improved is to add the possibility to set up a date when there is a change of activity rate or week type for an employee.

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.

Pros

We were looking for a tools that helped to keep our staff able to manage their hours and leave but also remain within a system that was SSO. Functionality, the more integrated with our identity provider (Microsoft 365) the better for our managment and for staff ease of adoption. Calamari has worked out great.

We also appreciate that Calamari worked with us in our unique position to put together a pricing option that considered the blended nature of our staff needs. This was a large value-add.

Cons

We like that Calamari remains under development. It would be nice if it was able to integrate further with the growing system of time and shift managment in Microsoft Teams. This may be a limitation of Microsoft’s structure but we would love to see it nonetheless.

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!

Pros

Manages employee hours, vacations, and sick days without a glitch. Also works great with iBeacon. I purchased and configured an iBeacon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019G0VS64/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), and configured it to work with the free Calamari app on each employees mobile. The result is that the software could keep track of every employee the second they walk in, and their last exit from the office every day.

Cons

I have not really had anything that I didn't like. I had trouble deleting employees who left our company, but the support staff were very prompt, helpful, and friendly.

Pros

The product has allowed us to bring our clocking in system alongside our Holiday requests, it gives us a better overview of which staff are working and when. The timesheet feature allows us to easily work out hours worked at the end of each month so that payroll becomes much easier to control. Having the ability to export to excel makes reporting simpler and less time consuming.

Cons

We would like to be able to set up shift patterns for staff on a rolling basis. Some staff members will work different shifts each week so rather than a project A or B we would like to see multiple shift patterns to click on to clock in and email notifications to be sent to management should staff members be late or not attend a shift.

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.

Pros

ease of implementation, good contact with support, ease of use, mobile version , integration with Slack, Google Suite, Jira, ease of renewing the subscription, the development of the application functionalities

Cons

I only miss one functionality - the automation of moving approved hours/days from one absence type to another

Pros

I really enjoy the ease of use and how the customization. We have unique time off policies and teleworking policies. The system can accommodate all type of policies.

Cons

The sync or integration with Google was a little challenging. We had to contact the support team a few times to get it fully integrated and working properly. However, the support team was responsive and helpful.

Pros

Calamari helps my company handle holidays. It allows me to easily control, monitor all absences and what is really helpful helps me to decide if I should accept holiday request, when someone in my team had requested and this request has been already accepted! That is the core functionality for me :)
I really love integrations that Calamari provides me!
At first: GSuite (by Google) - I do not have to worry about creating new accounts and I can see all of absences in my Google Calendar (this is my favorite) .
Another huge integration is with Slack, which is main messenger in my company. I can just accept and decline requests without login in into Calamari!
On the other hand I really like is Calamari support, those guys (especially Hubert) are fast as lightning, very thoughtful, proactive and they for sure will help you configure your instance. Communication with them is pleasure :)

Once Calamari is configured is maintenance-free, and very very comfy!

Pros

However, Kamil is a great help, very patient when I suddenly get called into a conference meeting and is always willing to support and understand your needs.

Cons

The only down side is that it only has holiday and absence on there and nothing else.

It would be brilliant if Calamari explored the market and expanded the systems functionalities such as adding a performance management section, recruitment section and incorporated all HR jobs into one system.

Pros

We love Calamari! From new users who find the interface very simple to use from administrators who can customize teams, approval flows, weekly schedules, accruing PTO, and reporting, Calamari does it all! There are always new updates which we are loving and find them super easy to implement and make our experience even better. Highly recommend this product!

Cons

The only improvement that I would suggest would be to allow the employee list to be sorted by your preference. Such as the ability to put the last name first; Smith, John.

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.