Bloomily vs. Homebase

Homebase in its own words

Homebase says it lets you "build schedules, track time, run payroll and hire in one easy app" (Homebase). It is a staff tool. Its education and caregiving page aims to keep you "adequately staffed for patients, clients, or students" (Homebase for education and caregiving).

On that page, Homebase describes digital time clocks on computers and smartphones, with GPS and geofencing to confirm where staff clock in. Break and overtime rules can follow federal, state or city law, and hours, breaks and overtime are calculated into timesheets. When you publish or edit a schedule, your team hears about it by text, email and the app. Managers can message one person, a group or the whole organization (Homebase for education and caregiving). Homebase also runs payroll, "with wages, taxes, and tips calculated for you" (Homebase). Its pricing page lists background checks run inside Homebase (Homebase pricing).

Where Bloomily fits a preschool or camp better

A staff app knows when people worked. Bloomily keeps that time beside your rooms or camp groups, your families, and each person's CPR and First Aid dates.

Hours without a second app. Staff clock in from a phone or the tablet at your door. Breaks are tracked, and overtime adds itself up. When the period ends, timesheets export a payroll-ready CSV for whoever runs your payroll (Bloomily staff time).

Ratios from who is really there (preschools). At 7:30 AM you see who opens, who called out and which room still needs a teacher. Each room shows who is in it and whether it has enough teachers (Bloomily for preschools). Those ratios come from real check-ins of children and staff, not from the schedule (Bloomily classrooms).

A camp day run from a phone (camps). Counselors check campers in and out from the staff app on iPhone. Campers sit in groups, and counselors share a photo album with each group (Bloomily camp registration).

Certificates that do not lapse quietly. CPR and First Aid are tracked for each person and flagged before they lapse (Bloomily for staff). Nine staff roles decide who sees what: an assistant sees their room, and a director sees the whole program (Bloomily security).

Families in the same picture. Families use a parent app on iPhone and Android (Bloomily for parents). They are notified when their child is checked in or out (Bloomily parent app).

Using Homebase and Bloomily together

Homebase's clearest case is pay. If Homebase runs your payroll today, or you hire through it, you may want to keep it for those jobs. Bloomily does not run payroll or hiring. Its timesheets give you a CSV to download and upload to your payroll company. Ask Homebase whether its payroll can take hours from a file like that.

Pick one time clock. When staff clock in to two apps, the two sets of hours drift apart. In a preschool, clocking in through Bloomily matters: room ratios update from real staff check-ins, not only children's.

Maybe your children and families already live in another program system. If you only need schedules, a time clock and pay for your team, Homebase describes that staff side on its own pages.

Moving from Homebase to Bloomily

Your Homebase account holds your team. Bloomily's import starts with your families. Bring the list you keep today, as it is. AI help does the reading. A spreadsheet, another system's export, a PDF or a photo of a paper list. It reads children, families and pickup people, and nothing saves until you approve it. Your staff are not part of that import.

When you are ready, send each family one invite. Their child is already on their account. Keep your old system running beside Bloomily as long as you like (Switching to Bloomily). That can include keeping Homebase for payroll.

Questions to ask in both demos

• Can a schedule be built by classroom, and warn when a room falls below its ratio?
• Where does the count of children come from: real check-ins, or numbers typed in from another system?
• Can CPR and First Aid be tracked per person, with a warning before each one lapses?
• Can a counselor clock in and check campers in from their own phone?
• Is there anything for families, such as messages, photos or daily reports, or is it staff only?
• Can a pay period's timesheets be locked, with a record of every edit?
• How do hours reach your payroll company, and in what file?

Which one fits your program

Keep Homebase in view when payroll and hiring are what you need most from a staff app. Choose Bloomily when staff hours should sit next to your rooms or camp groups, and your families. See Bloomily for preschools, Bloomily for camps, Bloomily's preschool pricing and Bloomily's camp pricing.