Recording working time digitally: time clock, app or your own solution

In many businesses time recording still looks like this: in the office everyone enters their hours in an Excel sheet, on the shop floor there is a paper timesheet, and the fitters write down their hours from memory on a Friday. At the end of the month someone collects it all, checks the sums and passes the hours on to payroll.

That was enough for a long time. But recording working time is no longer a matter of good housekeeping, it is an obligation. And with every new employee, collecting the hours takes more effort.

What already applies

On 14 May 2019 the European Court of Justice ruled (C-55/18) that employers must set up an “objective, reliable and accessible system” for measuring working time. On 13 September 2022 the German Federal Labour Court concluded from this (1 ABR 22/21) that employers in Germany are already obliged to record their employees’ working time. The basis is the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Arbeitsschutzgesetz), section 3(2) no. 1.

The court left open exactly what form the recording has to take. Current law does not yet prescribe a particular method.

What the draft law proposes

The Federal Ministry of Labour has published a draft bill amending the Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz). It has not been passed (as of September 2026). According to reports so far, it proposes:

• The start, end and length of each working day are recorded electronically.
• Recording happens on the day the work is done, not at the end of the month.
• Employees may record their own hours. Responsibility stays with the employer.
• Trust-based working time remains possible. Hours are still recorded.
• Smaller businesses are to get transition periods and exemptions.

The details may still change as the bill goes through parliament. What is known about the draft so far is summarised in our news item Working time recording: what the draft amendment proposes. What applies to your business is a question for your lawyer, your tax adviser or your trade association. This article describes what time recording has to do in practice; it does not assess the legal position.

What good time recording has to do

Quick, and on the same day

Clocking in, clocking out, breaks: if that takes more than a few seconds, it gets forgotten or filled in later. Recording has to happen where people work: at the entrance, at the computer, on the phone.

Traceable

Who entered what and when, and who changed it later? Corrections are normal, someone forgot to clock out. But they have to stay visible. An Excel sheet in which anyone can overwrite anything does not do that.

Your business’s rules

Flexitime, shifts, overtime accounts, night and weekend supplements, on-call duty. Time recording should know the rules, not just collect clock times. Otherwise someone ends up working it all out by hand at the end of the month again.

Permissions

Employees see their own hours, managers those of their team, payroll everyone’s. Working hours are personal data. Decide beforehand who may see what. More on this in roles and permissions.

Handing over to payroll

The benefit comes when hours are not typed in a second time. Many payroll programs and DATEV can import hours, often as a file in the right format, and where possible directly. Ask your tax adviser in what form they need the data.

Office, shop floor, field: who records how

• Office: at the computer or in the browser, one click when logging on and off.
• Shop floor and warehouse: a terminal at the entrance with a chip or card. No phone needed, no password.
• Installation and field service: on the phone. The app has to work without a signal and transmit later. People on building sites need travel time and working time kept apart.
• Temporary staff and mini-jobbers: often only a few hours, but they have to be recorded just the same.

In the field, working time sits close to the hours billed on jobs. It is worth asking whether both are recorded in one place. More on this in capturing orders on a phone.

Time clock, app or your own solution

For most businesses a standard app is the right place to start. There are plenty of them, and they cover the usual rules well. First check whether your payroll or your job management software already includes time recording.

Your own solution rarely pays off for working time alone. It pays off when hours are recorded anyway in an application you use for jobs, assignments or inspection reports. Then fitters enter their time once, and it counts for payroll and invoicing alike.

Why rollouts fail

• Staff learn about time recording from a circular email. Explain beforehand why it is coming and you will meet less resistance.
• The works council is asked late. When technical time recording is introduced, it usually has a say. Involve it early.
• The rules have never been written down. How is a business trip counted, how is the drive to the site? If nobody knows, no software can know either.
• Corrections are still made by word of mouth. Then the data in the system is wrong, and a list appears alongside it again.

Questions before you decide

• Where do your people work: at a desk, on the shop floor, on the road?
• What rules apply to breaks, overtime and supplements?
• In what form does your payroll need the hours?
• Should working time and job hours be recorded in one place?
• Who may correct hours, and how does that stay visible?

Start with the rules, not the device. Once it is clear how hours are counted in your business, choosing the solution is usually quick.