Working-time records and clock-in apps

“Clock-in app”, “mandatory time record”, “digital time control 2026”. Three searches. One duty already in the Workers’ Statute, article 34.9: a daily record of each worker’s concrete start and end time, kept four years, available to the worker, their representatives, and the Labour Inspectorate.

The statute does not say “app”. It does not say OCR. It does not say Verifactu. It does not ban spreadsheets. It wants a daily record, organised by collective agreement or, failing that, by employer decision after consulting representatives. Digital is allowed. A system nobody can read on a Friday is how the eternal spreadsheet fails.

This page does not treat a future decree as if it were already in the BOE. If a vendor says “from 2026 paper is void”, ask for the article. What is worth doing is ending Monday fights with unsigned sheets.

What the record must contain

• Who the worker is.
• The day and the concrete start and end times — not an abstract “eight hours”.
• How the system is organised and documented.
• Retention: four years.
• Access: the person, representatives, Inspectorate.

Breaks, remote work, split shifts and travel are where spreadsheets break. If the tool cannot record the odd case, the record lies. A lying record is worse than none on inspection day.

Clock-in apps: what to buy

A decent app: each person clocks start and end (phone, shop tablet, kiosk), a timestamped trail, a named person can correct with a reason, an export an inspector understands, and it does not live only on the shift lead’s phone.

A useless app: theatrical geofencing that dies in the basement, “AI infers the shift” with no tap, a pretty dashboard that cannot export four years. Price and “free” matter; processor and hosting matter more.

Do not weld clock-in to Verifactu. Different duties. The clock does not issue invoices. The SIF does not satisfy 34.9.

Kit Digital and process management

Some digitising agents sell clock-in under Kit Digital process management. It fits if you actually implant a flow: joiners, clocking, incidents, export, training. It does not fit if the voucher pays for a logo and the spreadsheet still runs Monday.

Our process-management offer is “automate a flow that already exists”. A working-time record can be that flow. AI, if it appears, is for repeated incidents — not for inventing a leaving time.

Free, price, real cost

Free clock-in apps exist. The real cost is onboarding and retention. A €3/user plan nobody uses is dearer than an €8 plan that exports on Friday.

Budget: a named owner, one session with the team, a PDF/CSV export test, and who covers August.

What we will not claim

We will not say invoice OCR is a time clock. We will not say Verifactu meets 34.9. We will not say a future decree has already banned paper if the BOE has not. Serious work is: daily record, start and end, four years, real access.

A small shop versus two sites

A bar with four people can clock on a tablet at the till, export once a month, and keep the file next to the rota. The owner is the named person. August cover is whoever holds the keys. That already beats a WhatsApp of “I stayed late”.

Two warehouses and eighty people need joiners and leavers, a substitute when the shift lead is off, a written rule for remote days, and an export that survives a change of app. If the vendor locks the four-year file behind a lapsed licence, you do not have a record. You have a subscription.

Write the odd cases before you buy: split shift, travel day, union hours, a missing clock-out. If the demo cannot show those, the inspection day will.

Inspection day, without theatre

The Inspectorate wants to see the system, not a speech. Pull one person, one week, start and end, and the correction log if someone edited a time. If that takes an afternoon of screenshots, the tool failed. If it takes two clicks and a PDF, you did the job.

Do not “prepare” the file the night before by filling gaps from memory. That is how you turn a missing record into a false one. Better a hole you can explain than a tidy lie.

Frequently asked questions

Is the working-time record already mandatory?

Yes. Article 34.9 already requires a daily record with start and end. Press talk about future digital reinforcement is not current law unless you can cite the article.

Do we need an app?

You need a system you can show. An app is a means. A well-kept spreadsheet can comply; a spreadsheet overwritten every Friday cannot.

How long must we keep it?

Four years, available to workers, representatives and the Inspectorate.

Does Kit Digital cover it?

It can sit in process management if you actually implant it. The voucher does not forgive an empty record.

Next: automating operations. If the bottleneck is clock-in or shift incidents, write with headcount and sites.