For years, plenty of German employers treated time sheets as optional. Trust-based schedules, scribbled notes and the occasional spreadsheet seemed good enough. That stopped in 2022, and today the real question is no longer whether you must record working time, but whether your method would survive an inspection.
Where the obligation comes from
- In September 2022, the Federal Labour Court (BAG, case 1 ABR 22/21) ruled that employers must have a system that captures their staff’s working hours.
- The judges did not wait for lawmakers. They derived the duty from the existing Occupational Health and Safety Act.
- A 2019 European Court of Justice decision had already pointed the same way.
- Company size makes no difference. The duty applies to everyone.
What actually needs to be documented
The essentials are simple: when work began, when it ended, and how long the breaks were, for each person and each day. Overtime falls out of those figures. The court did not prescribe a format, so paper, a spreadsheet or dedicated software can all work, as long as the records are complete, accurate and can be produced on request. Remote work, shifts, night work and travel between changing job sites all belong in the picture.
Trust-based hours are not an exemption
- You may keep a culture where people organise their own schedules.
- Start and end times still need a paper trail.
- It doesn’t matter whether employees enter the times or you do.
Reform is coming, but the ruling already applies
- The federal government has been working on an amendment to the Working Time Act that would put the duty into the statute.
- The amendment would likely favour electronic recording, with transition periods.
- A draft appeared in June 2026, but nothing has been passed at the time of writing.
- Until it is, the court’s decision is the rule that counts, so waiting is a risky strategy.
Turning raw times into usable answers
Recording is only half the job. A list of start and end times doesn’t tell you whether a day was lawful. This is where the Arbeitszeitrechner earns its place. Enter the start, finish, and breaks, and it returns net working time instantly, with overtime and night hours separated out.
It works on three levels:
- Daily: checks a single shift.
- Weekly: shows how a long Tuesday balances against a short Friday.
- Monthly: adds everything up against contracted hours, which helps part-timers and shift workers with changing schedules.
It also shows warnings when entries clash with the limits in the Working Time Act, for example:
- too little break after six or nine hours
- a day stretching beyond the permitted maximum
Spotting that while planning costs nothing; discovering it during an audit does.
One honest caveat: the calculator is a checking and planning aid, not an archive. Keep your official records in a system that stores entries reliably, and use the tool to verify the figures.
A routine that works
Pick one method and tell everyone. Record times on the day, not at month-end. Look at weekly totals for patterns before they become problems. And remember that the Working Time Act already expects records of time beyond eight hours a day to be kept for two years.
Recording working time stopped being optional years ago. The employers who handle it calmly are the ones who built a simple habit around it and checked their numbers regularly.
Ready to check your own numbers? Try the free Arbeitszeit-Rechner and see your daily, weekly and monthly working time in seconds.
