Papershift vs. Breathe

Managing rotas can become quite challenging due to unexpected staff absences and varying availability levels. Papershift addresses this issue effectively by allowing staff members to request leave and specify their availability, which enables the automatic generation of weekly rotas with merely three clicks. Whether you need to allocate employees to different shifts, teams, roles, locations, or clients, Papershift ensures that scheduling remains simple and manageable! You have the option to either drag employees into preferred slots or rely on the auto-assign feature to do the work for you. Effortlessly oversee holidays, employee availability, qualifications, and contracted hours while establishing specific viewing and editing permissions for each individual user. The Papershift Plan App grants employees immediate access to their shifts and job notes, along with the capability to request time off and apply for open shifts. If allowed, they can even place themselves directly into the shift schedule. By gathering all absence management functions within a single platform—such as online holiday requests, monitoring annual leave entitlements, and customizable absence categories, including sick and parental leave—Papershift guarantees that every detail of scheduling is handled efficiently. This streamlined approach not only enhances communication among team members but also significantly reduces administrative burdens, benefiting all parties involved in the scheduling process. Ultimately, Papershift serves as a comprehensive solution for effective workforce management.

If your employee details are spread across spreadsheets, emails and disconnected apps, Breathe brings them together. It's a UK HR platform launched in 2012 for small and medium-sized businesses. More than 17,000 of them use it, along with over 1,000 UK HR consultancies. Three everyday HR problems Breathe fixes Information everywhere: one central, accurate record for every employee. Endless chasing: staff book leave, sign documents electronically and follow shared workflows. A small HR team: start with the essentials and add more as you grow. The essentials: Core HR Store records and documents securely, manage holiday and leave, track sickness and absence, and let staff update their own details. Collect e-signatures, set goals, run one-to-ones and reviews, and spot trends with built-in reports. Optional extras Rota, Time and Attendance: plan shifts and track hours Expenses: claims, receipts and manager sign-off Recruitment: advertise roles and follow each candidate Health and Safety: risk assessments, incidents and compliance evidence e-Learning: assign UK-specific courses and see who's completed what Breathe is also building an AI Assistant to answer HR and policy questions, and plans to launch payroll in late 2026. Who gets the most from it UK organisations with up to 200 people, particularly charities, schools, healthcare, retail, start-ups and professional services firms with lean HR. If you need multinational payroll, global compliance or enterprise workforce planning, weigh it up first. Pricing, support and security Plans start from £24 a month for your whole organisation, with no long-term contracts or hidden fees. Try it free for 14 days, with UK-based support from setup onwards. Breathe holds ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 accreditation and keeps your data in UK data centres, protected by encryption and access controls.