Hour by Hour, Workday by Workday. Is Manual Time Tracking Sensible?

1. Why time recording is necessary in the working world
2. Is there an obligation to record time?
3. Use these tools for your time recording
4. Manual or smart?

Daily recording of hours worked is a part of the day-to-day business for most employees. At the latest since the judgment on time recording of the European Court of Justice, your employer must document your working hours. In many sectors, such as trades, working hours even form parts of the billing and thus need to be reliably recorded. In this article, we will look at the different methods of time recording, the advantages and challenges of manual working time recording, and of course, we will once more provide you with useful tools to document your working hours.

Why time recording is necessary in the working world

Recording your working hours serves to protect workers. It shows how many hours you work per day. Depending on how many this is, you are entitled to a legally mandated break – after six hours you must take a 30-minute break, and after 9 hours, 45 minutes.

Moreover, documenting your working hours makes your overtime transparent. If your company offers flexible working hours or wants to introduce them, time recording offers you the advantage that you always know how long you still have to work, even if you start or finish work at different times on different days of the week.

For tradespeople, the timesheet even forms part of the basic equipment. They have their customers sign off on it after completing the work to be able to issue a correct invoice.

Is there an obligation to record time?

Your daily working hours and breaks must be recorded by your employer in accordance with § 26 of the Working Hours Act, to verify compliance with regulations laid down in the labour law.

These methods of time recording are available

There are various methods for recording your working hours. However, it is important that you do not mix them. What's more, your employer has a right to direct. That means: If your employer has specified a type of time recording, this must be used uniformly by all employees. But let's first take a look at the different methods for time recording.

1. The timesheet: You've definitely seen it before – the timesheet is the classic method of time recording. Here, you record your time spent on a project or on a workday as well as your breaks and absences by hand on a sheet of paper, which you then pass on to your supervisor or the HR department for recording and billing. Given that your receipts must be kept, this method not only increases the manual effort in recording, transferring and evaluating, but also the piles of paper in your colleagues' folders. Therefore, this method of time recording is only suitable for very small businesses.
2. The Excel sheet: Time recording using an Excel template is the digital version of a timesheet. You can quickly and easily enter your start and end times in the clearly structured columns and automatically see how many hours you have worked.
   The method is more sustainable than the paper-based recording on a timesheet, but it also entails a high administrative effort because every employee must keep their own sheet for data protection reasons, which must then be passed on to the HR department and manually recorded.
3. The hardware/electronic time recording: This method conceals the principle of the traditional time clock. You clock in and out at a terminal using a card or a chip. A corresponding software automatically books your times in the background with all relevant information and assigns them to your person. This relieves you and your HR managers alike. As this form can be associated with higher costs, it is often only worth it for businesses of a medium size.
4. Web-based, mobile time recording: You don't want to spend money on expensive hardware, but still want to record your working hours digitally? Then web-based working time recording is the right method for you.
   Your data can be accessed from anywhere through the software used, and you can record your working hours even when working from home or on a business trip. Working time recording can therefore be done via laptop and also via an app on your smartphone. Many tools also have extensions through which you can submit and manage your leave requests or digitally plan your team's shifts. With this method, however, it is important that you ensure that the providers comply with the GDPR.

Now that you know all the methods of time recording, you will find that both manual and electronic time recording bring various advantages and challenges. While manual recording of your working hours is cost-effective, the times you entered must be manually checked and then transferred. In addition, it can happen that approval of your times by your supervisor is forgotten. What's more, this additional effort is more error-prone than automated, electronic time booking. With electronic time recording, you also document compliance with statutory breaks and rest periods and always have an overview of your holiday days and your overtime.

Use these tools for your time recording

Enough of theory, let's get to practice. In everyday work, it's usually about efficiently completing tasks. So why should you make your working time recording unnecessarily complicated for all those involved?

With a time recording software you clock in with a click in the morning and to your breaks and out again in the evening. In addition to various evaluations, you can also use functions for holiday planning and leave applications as well as view and manage absences within your team. On the software review platform OMR Reviews you will find a selection of exciting time recording software. Using real feedback from users, you can find out which tool is best for you and your company. Our detailed Tool-Talk Time Recording or our Software Guide Time Recording can also support you in making a decision.

Manual or smart?

Manual working time recording, whether on a timesheet or an Excel list, can be inefficient and offers increased error potential. By using digital time recording in your company, you can record your working hours in the office, at home or on the go to the second – and while doing so, you also save costs. This way, you can devote yourself to your core tasks and your colleagues in the HR area can create your bills with just a few clicks. The best solution for your company always depends on the individual conditions. But even with working time recording, you can apply a well-known proverb: Your (working) time is money!