Temporary Staffing Software: What Scheduling Tools Miss

Temporary staffing software (the German market calls it "Software für Zeitarbeit") manages scheduling, timesheets and invoicing for staffing agencies. What none of the tools ranking for that term handle: finding candidates for a hard-to-fill role before anyone is in the database at all.

Which vendors actually rank for German temporary staffing software?

Search the German term and you land on a small group of back-office systems: Zoho Workerly, Timecount, the 28-year-old ZAS from software-zeitarbeit.de, ZeitarbeitDeluxe from S&U Software, and Personal-DIALOG from Data Dialog. Capterra shows up too, as a directory with star ratings but no named prices or head-to-head comparisons. All five cover the same core: master data for staff, clients and assignments, shift scheduling, time tracking, and billing toward both clients and payroll.

The difference is in how deep each one goes on Germany's temporary employment law (AÜG) and in how they price. ZAS and ZeitarbeitDeluxe were purpose-built for classic Arbeitnehmerüberlassung decades ago, deadline monitoring and pay-supplement calculations included. Timecount started in workforce scheduling for security, events and catering, and is still building out classic temp-staffing compliance — more on that below. Zoho Workerly is a general scheduling tool with no visible AÜG features at all.

What does temporary staffing software actually cost?

The honest answer: in most cases, you only find out after the demo. Only two of the five vendors publish a number at all. ZAS sells a one-time license instead of a subscription — €2,295 for three users, then €349 per additional user, which comes to €2,993 for five users, plus an optional €999 for the DATEV payroll export. Timecount doesn't publish a license fee, but does state two concrete side costs: hosting from €79/month and a one-time setup fee of €295 to €999, depending on the product line. Support during onboarding costs an extra €119 net per hour, €129 afterward.

Zoho Workerly stays free permanently up to five temp workers and two active jobs — beyond that, an online calculator computes a per-worker price dynamically, without publishing the underlying rate as text. ZeitarbeitDeluxe and Personal-DIALOG don't publish any figures at all: "quote on request" is the only answer either site gives. That's not unusual in a market with very different agency sizes, but it makes comparing vendors up front nearly impossible without picking up the phone.

At how many temp workers does a license pay for itself over spreadsheets?

A calculation with its assumptions laid out, not a claim. We start from the one number that's actually public: the ZAS base license at €2,295 for three users. Spread over an assumed 36-month usage period, that's €63.75 in fixed monthly cost. Three assumptions go with it, stated rather than hidden:

• Without software, manual follow-up per temp worker per month — checking timesheets by hand, recalculating the equal-pay supplement, tracking deadlines in a spreadsheet — takes roughly 15 minutes of a scheduler's time. That's a practitioner estimate, not a study.
• Fully loaded scheduler time costs about €35/hour. That's the same figure market researcher recruitpilot.co uses for recruiting admin time (source: recruitpilot.co/blog/zeitarbeit-software-preise, published May 25, 2026).
• The software eliminates the entire manual follow-up, not just part of it — a generous assumption that deliberately favors the software side of the calculation.

Under these assumptions, even a small one-time license pays for itself at a low double-digit number of active temp workers. For vendors with recurring license fees instead of a one-time purchase — which is most of the market — the math shifts, because the fixed cost never goes down the longer you use the software. If you're holding a quote with a recurring fee, run the same formula with your own monthly price instead of the €63.75.

Which AÜG obligations does the software actually need to cover?

Three points decide whether a German staffing agency faces fines or back-payments, and none of the portals ranking for this search term check them vendor by vendor: equal pay (matching a comparable permanent employee's pay after at most nine months, sooner without a collective agreement), the maximum assignment period ("Überlassungshöchstdauer," generally 18 months with the same client, extendable by collective agreement), and industry pay supplements ("Branchenzuschläge") under the relevant wage agreements. We checked all five vendors against these three points on September 10, 2026 — based solely on what their own websites state.

Worth noting: the only vendor that ranks on page one for this search term and names all three points explicitly is a 28-year-old program sold as a classic one-time license. The newer, more modern-looking interfaces are either still retrofitting classic temp-staffing compliance, or never scoped it in the first place.

Where does temp-staffing software stop — and what's actually missing?

Every one of the five programs assumes the right person already exists as a record: in your own candidate pool, in the worker database, or as a fresh applicant. None of them takes over the search for someone who isn't in any database yet — say, for a hard-to-fill role where your own pool is empty and a client needs staff on short notice. Scheduling, time tracking and billing are back-office systems for an existing roster, not sourcing tools. That's not a criticism of the vendors — it's simply a different category, one they never claimed to cover.

Sprad builds software that lets staffing agencies actively search for matching candidates and have outreach run automatically through to a booked meeting, instead of only managing whoever already showed up. Agencies that regularly need new candidates for hard-to-fill roles, rather than just scheduling an existing pool, can find that use case described under people search.

Does a temp-staffing suite replace a CRM or an ATS?

Partly, not fully. Personal-DIALOG describes itself as covering "from acquisition through to dunning," which gives it CRM-adjacent functions for clients and prospects. ZeitarbeitDeluxe even parses résumés and builds qualification profiles to send to clients — closer to applicant tracking than pure scheduling. Still, the core stays the same across all five: they manage a known roster of workers, clients and assignments. A dedicated CRM for new-business acquisition, or a standalone ATS for inbound applications, isn't what they replace — both directions lack the depth, because the software prioritizes the middle ground between them.

Frequently asked questions about temporary staffing software

How much does temporary staffing software cost per month?

There's no single answer, because three of the five vendors we checked don't publish prices at all. What is public: ZAS sells a one-time license from €2,295 for three users, and Timecount states hosting from €79/month plus €295–999 setup. The actual license fee stays individually negotiated at almost every vendor.

Does temporary staffing software automatically cover AÜG rules?

Only at some vendors, and to different degrees. ZAS, ZeitarbeitDeluxe and Personal-DIALOG name equal pay and the maximum assignment period explicitly on their websites. Timecount announces these features for classic temp staffing without stating, on its own page, that they've fully shipped yet. Zoho Workerly mentions none of the three.

Does the software replace sourcing new candidates?

No. All five programs checked manage people already on record — as applicants, temp workers, or pool contacts. Actively finding someone who isn't registered anywhere yet requires a separate sourcing tool, for example for a hard-to-fill role with an empty internal pool.

Is software worth it for a small staffing agency?

By our own disclosed calculation, a one-time license like ZAS pays for itself at a low double-digit number of concurrently managed temp workers, assuming 15 minutes of saved admin time per person per month at €35/hour. With recurring subscription models, the payoff usually comes later, because the fixed cost never decreases.

What's the difference between ZAS and Personal-DIALOG?

ZAS is an MS Access-based one-time license with published prices, originally built for smaller staffing firms. Personal-DIALOG is an industry solution with over 30 years on the market, its own AÜG compliance assistants and a mobile app, priced exclusively on request.

How long does implementation take?

Only Timecount indirectly puts a number on it, via the €295–999 setup fee, without stating a timeframe. The other four vendors don't publish implementation duration; you'd need to ask in the first sales conversation.