COATS has sold small temp agencies on a truth since 1995: one database, front and back office connected, nothing keyed twice. We think that idea was right then and is right now — we just think 2026's version of it should also answer your client's texts and rank your fill. Their side of this page is from their site. Ours has the prices on it.
All-in-one since 1995 — integrated CRM, payroll, accounting, one database. Their site, their words.
One platform, 2026 edition — clients text, AI ranks, a human approves, QuickBooks squares. Priced below.
Nothing keyed twice. Ever. We just disagree about what “once” should look like now.
COATS was right in 1995. That's the compliment and the problem.
Per their own site: one database, fully integrated CRM, payroll, and accounting, front and back office connected, serving temp agencies across industrial and clerical work since 1995. Thirty years of the same promise, kept.
Let's be plain about something rare in software comparisons: we believe their core idea. “Never enter the same information twice” is the correct religion for a temp agency, and COATS preached it before most of today's platforms existed. If you searched for an alternative anyway, it's probably not because the idea stopped being true — it's because you've started wondering what that idea should look like three decades later.
Our answer: in 2026, “entered once” should mean the client enters it — by text, at 3:12 on a Wednesday — and it's an order, a ranked fill, a timecard, an invoice, and a QuickBooks entry without anyone retyping a word. Same religion. Newer testament. As always: their side of this page is from their site, ours is priced on it, and there's no checkbox table anywhere.
Is TempGuru a COATS alternative? Yes — for small and mid-size temp agencies that share the one-system philosophy but want the modern version: a built-in ATS and CRM (on Pro), clients ordering by text through Guru, AI-ranked fills a coordinator approves, geofence clock-in, same-day invoicing, and books that sync to QuickBooks. Published pricing: $254–$424/month plus 2–2.5% on billed shifts.
Thirty years of trust is a real asset. If what you have works and payroll-inside-the-package is how you like it, this page won't talk you out of a system that's earning its keep.
“Never key it twice” grew up. Now nobody keys it once.
The 1995 breakthrough was connecting the front and back office so data flowed instead of being retyped. The 2026 breakthrough is moving the point of entry out of your office entirely.
Walk the route on the panel. The client's own text is the order record. The roster's raised hands are the candidate pool. The geofence clock-in is the timecard line. The client's thumbs-up is the approval. By the time your coordinator has done the one thing software shouldn't do — decide who works — the invoice is essentially written, and QuickBooks already agrees with it.
That's not a feature list; it's the same no-rekeying doctrine COATS taught the industry, pushed one step further: the data is born where the work happens, not where the desk is.
In any demo — ours included — follow one order and count the keyboards it touches. The 1995 answer was “one.” The 2026 answer should be “zero of yours.”
Your best client is about to text somebody. Make it your system.
Open-enrollment week, a benefits office short four people, a manager with nine minutes between meetings. That's who your software actually serves.
On Pro, that manager texts Guru the way they'd text a colleague — and gets a colleague's answer. The thread on the panel is the whole transaction: four temps ordered, a bilingual requirement added, last November's crew requested by memory, and the system did the remembering. No portal password, no PDF order form, no “I'll get that entered this afternoon.”
Your coordinator sees all of it, owns the fill, and approves the crew. What they stopped doing is stenography.
Ask every vendor one question: show me the client's side of an order, start to finish, on the client's own phone. Then count what the client had to learn. Ours is a phone number.
One database that stores. Or one system that thinks.
A shared database was the great advantage of its era: everyone finally looked at the same record. The next advantage is a system that does something with the record before you ask.
When an order opens on Pro, the AI is already working the history that one-database systems spent decades accumulating: who showed up, who ran late, who worked this client before, who raised a hand ten minutes ago. It hands your coordinator a ranked list with the reasoning visible — November's crew flagged, the double-booking risk scored down — and your coordinator makes the call, every time. Decision support, not automation: the posture aligned with NYC's AEDT rule and Colorado's AI Act.
Around the software, Pro includes the operator-written AI-for-staffing playbook and a weekly cohort on AI lead generation and AI-built websites. In every demo you take, ask the same thing: rank a live order for me, right now, and show me why. We'll go first.
What should a small temp agency expect from AI in staffing software? Ranked candidates on live orders with visible reasoning, no-show risk flagged early, complete custom reports built on request — and a human coordinator approving every assignment. That's how TempGuru Pro ships, included at $424/month.
Small agencies deserve a price they can read.
If you're evaluating COATS alternatives, odds are you run exactly the kind of agency we published our pricing for: Essentials $254, Pro $424, Scale from $999 — per month billed annually, plus a 2–2.5% service fee on billed shifts.
Monthly is $299 and $499. Setup is $0 on every plan, with roster, client, and rate migration done with you and included. Branches are $99. We don't write other vendors' quotes and won't pretend to know them — the point of printing ours is that you shouldn't need a discovery call to learn a number. For a lot of small agencies, Essentials at $254 is the whole decision.
Migration included means exactly that: your roster, your clients, your rates arrive with you, and starting costs the plan price and nothing else.
How much does TempGuru cost for a small temp agency? Essentials is $254/mo billed annually ($299 monthly); Pro is $424/mo ($499 monthly); both plus a 2–2.5% service fee on billed shifts. No setup fee, migration included, pricing public at tempguru.co.
Their virtue is everything inside. Ours is everything yours.
COATS integrates payroll and a complete accounting platform into the package — per their site, that's been the design since the beginning, and for agencies who want the whole money layer under one roof, it's a genuine draw.
Pro draws the line differently: the platform runs everything from clock-out to invoice — geofenced time, self-assembling timecards, exception flags, client approval by text, same-day billing — and then hands the ledger to QuickBooks, where your accountant already lives and your history stays portable no matter what software you run in 2031. Friday of enrollment week on the panel: last clock-out 5:02, invoice gone 5:41, books already square.
Neither philosophy is wrong. One asks your vendor to be your back office; the other asks your vendor to make your back office effortless and then stay out of its way.
Decide where you want your general ledger living before you demo anything — inside the staffing package, or in the QuickBooks file you already own. That single answer sorts this whole category.
After thirty years of one system, switching feels enormous. It isn't.
The longer an agency has run on one platform, the scarier the move sounds — which is exactly why we made the cost of finding out zero.
No setup fee on any plan. We carry your roster, clients, and rates across ourselves, included. Your data is exportable every day you're a customer — a one-system philosophy should never mean a one-exit contract — and billing is annual or monthly with both prices printed above.
What's waiting on the other side is the week on the panel: orders that file themselves, a returning crew the system remembered before you did, a Friday that billed itself by 5:41. The quietest week your agency has had in years, on purpose.
Take the desk you'd never trust to new software — that's the one to demo with. If Pro can't make it boring in an hour, keep what you have.
Thirty years earned a demo. So did the next thirty.
Do the fair thing: put your current system and Pro in front of the same order, the same client, the same Friday — and watch which one your coordinators reach for.
Follow the order from the client's phone to the reconciled ledger. Count the keyboards. Count the minutes from clock-out to invoice. Ask where your data lives, and what leaves with you if you ever go. You already know our prices — they're on this page — so the only question left is the one demos were invented for: which system makes your Tuesday smaller?
The agencies already running on Pro.
“I've been staffing events for over thirty years, and I've never seen anything like Pro. The software just runs, start to finish. This industry has never had a tool like this.”
“I run a same-day labor company, not a tech company. Pro made AI something my front desk actually uses every morning. We're filling more orders, and we finally show up when people search for labor in Knoxville.”
“We're a specialty shop, so knowing the work and moving fast is the whole game. Pro put AI into our daily operations. My team runs the desk with it now, answers quicker, and we're getting found for the exact roles we staff.”
Asked before switching.
Is TempGuru a good COATS alternative?
For small and mid-size temp agencies, yes — it keeps the one-system philosophy and modernizes the entry points: clients order by text through Guru, AI ranks the fill with a coordinator approving, geofence clock-in feeds same-day invoices, and books sync to QuickBooks. Pricing is public: $254–$424/month plus a 2–2.5% service fee.
COATS integrates payroll — does TempGuru?
TempGuru runs the money path from clock-out through same-day invoicing and e-signature, then syncs everything to QuickBooks, where your accountant keeps the ledger. If you specifically want payroll processing living inside the staffing package, that's COATS' design per their site — weigh that difference honestly.
What does it cost to move off a system we've used for years?
With us: the plan price. There's no setup fee on any plan, and we migrate your roster, clients, and rates with you, included. Annual billing is $254/$424; monthly is $299/$499.
Will a long-time client roster survive the migration?
Yes — roster migration is part of every onboarding, work history included where you can export it. Returning-crew intelligence starts working as soon as the history is in.
Do my clients have to learn a portal?
No. They text Guru: orders, spec changes, rehire requests, timecard approvals, invoice questions. The gray-label Client Hub exists for the minority who want a dashboard.
Does TempGuru handle clerical and office temp work?
Yes — admin, front desk, and office support run on the same order-to-invoice loop as industrial shifts, with the same ranked fills and geofence clock-in. One platform covers a mixed desk.
Is my data portable afterward?
Always. Exportable every day you're a customer, annual or monthly billing — a one-system philosophy shouldn't come with a one-exit contract.
When is COATS the better call?
If your agency wants payroll and full accounting living inside one vendor's package and values a system it has trusted for decades — that's their lane, per their own site, and it's a legitimate one. If you want the one-system idea with clients on text, AI in the fill, and books in QuickBooks, book our demo with your hardest desk.
