Employee Time Tracking and Working Time Records

Learn why employers track working time, what working time records should contain, how legal requirements differ by jurisdiction and how to track hours without employee surveillance.

Employee time tracking is the process of recording the hours an employee works and, where relevant, how that time is allocated across projects or activities. Employers use these records for payroll, overtime, project costing, capacity planning and compliance with applicable working time rules. Time tracking does not have to mean employee surveillance. A good system records the information a business genuinely needs while remaining transparent and proportionate.

What is employee time tracking?  

Employee time tracking is the process of recording the time an employee works.

Depending on the organisation, this might include:

• start and finish times
• total hours worked
• breaks
• overtime
• time spent on particular projects
• time spent on particular activities
• different working arrangements or schedules

These records are often maintained through Timesheets  or dedicated time tracking software.

The purpose is not simply to count hours.

Reliable working time records can support payroll, overtime calculations, project management, resource planning and compliance with applicable working time requirements.

Time tracking is particularly relevant for organisations with:

• hourly or overtime based pay
• project or client based work
• remote or hybrid employees
• flexible working arrangements
• multiple teams or locations
• a need to understand project costs and capacity

As an organisation grows, keeping these records accurate and consistent can become increasingly difficult if information is spread across spreadsheets, emails and separate systems.

What does the law require from employers?  

There is no single working time rule that applies to every employer around the world.

Requirements depend on the country, the employee’s status and the applicable employment legislation.

However, employers in many jurisdictions are required to maintain records relating to working time.

Working time records in the European Union  

A significant development in the European Union came from the Court of Justice of the European Union in its 2019 judgment in CCOO v Deutsche Bank.

The Court concluded that Member States must require employers to establish an objective, reliable and accessible system that makes it possible to measure the duration of time worked each day by each worker.

The judgment is closely connected to the rights established by EU working time legislation, including limits on working time and requirements for daily and weekly rest.

The precise rules and implementation can differ between Member States, so employers should also consider the national legislation that applies to them.

Working time records in the United Kingdom  

UK employers also have record keeping obligations connected with working time.

The Working Time Regulations contain requirements relating to matters such as maximum weekly working time, night work and rest.

The exact records an employer needs will depend on the circumstances and the particular requirement being demonstrated.

Employers operating in the UK should therefore consider the current Working Time Regulations and official guidance when deciding what records they need to maintain.

Working time records in the United States  

In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act includes record keeping requirements for covered employers and workers.

For non-exempt workers, required records include information about hours worked each day and the total hours worked each workweek.

Employers operating in the US should consider the applicable federal requirements as well as any additional state or local rules.

What should a working time record contain?  

The answer depends on the applicable legislation and the organisation’s working arrangements.

From an operational perspective, however, useful working time records commonly include:

• the employee
• the date
• hours worked
• breaks where relevant
• overtime where relevant
• the project or activity where this needs to be recorded
• changes or corrections to submitted records

The important point is consistency.

If working time needs to be demonstrated during an inspection, payroll query or employment dispute, fragmented information can make it much harder to establish what actually happened.

A structured process gives employees and managers a clearer source of information.

Does time tracking require employee surveillance?  

No.

Recording working time and monitoring employee behaviour are not the same thing.

Time tracking can be as straightforward as asking employees to record the hours they have worked and, where useful, the project or activity those hours relate to.

Employee monitoring can go much further and may involve:

• screenshots
• keystroke monitoring
• webcam monitoring
• location tracking
• application usage monitoring
• continuous activity tracking

Those practices raise different questions around privacy, proportionality, data protection and workplace culture.

Guidance from data protection authorities such as the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office emphasises that employee monitoring should be lawful, necessary and proportionate. Employers should also consider whether a less intrusive approach can achieve the same purpose.

This distinction matters.

An employer may have a legitimate reason to know that an employee worked eight hours. That does not automatically mean the employer needs screenshots of the employee’s computer throughout those eight hours.

Time tracking built around trust  

For many organisations, particularly professional and knowledge based teams, a simpler approach can work better. Employees record their own time and are trusted to do so accurately.

This might mean recording:

• hours worked each day
• the project they worked on
• the activity performed
• overtime where relevant

Employees should also understand what information is being collected and why.

This creates a clearer relationship between the organisation and the employee. The employer gets the working time information it needs without automatically turning time tracking into continuous behavioural monitoring.

Good time tracking should make work more transparent, not make employees feel watched.

Why do businesses track employee time?  

Legal requirements are only one reason to maintain working time records.

For SMEs in particular, the same information can also support several everyday business processes.

More accurate payroll and overtime  

When hours are recorded consistently, payroll teams have a clearer basis for calculating hours and overtime where these affect pay.

Clear records can also make payroll questions easier to investigate and resolve.

Better project costing  

For project based businesses, knowing how much time a team spends on a project helps reveal the actual cost of delivering the work.

A project may appear profitable based on its invoice value while consuming significantly more employee time than originally planned.

Without time data, that difference can be difficult to see.

Better capacity planning  

Managers need to understand whether teams have enough capacity for existing and upcoming work.

Working time and project data can help identify where workloads are concentrated and where additional capacity may be required.

Clearer records during disputes or inspections  

When working time information is stored consistently, employers have a clearer record to refer to when questions arise.

That is preferable to reconstructing working hours afterwards from calendars, emails, messages and separate spreadsheets.

What happens when working time is not tracked consistently?  

Not every organisation needs detailed project level time tracking.

But when a business does need working time information, failing to record it consistently can create problems.

Payroll becomes harder to verify  

When working hours or overtime affect pay, missing or inconsistent records make calculations and corrections more difficult.

Project costs become less visible  

A team can spend considerably more time on a project than planned without the additional cost being immediately obvious.

Over time, this can affect margins and make future estimates less reliable.

Capacity decisions rely on assumptions  

Without reliable information, it becomes harder to understand whether a team is genuinely at capacity, whether work is distributed unevenly or whether additional hiring is necessary.

Records have to be reconstructed  

When an employment question, audit or inspection arises, organisations may need to piece information together from multiple sources.

Maintaining structured records from the beginning is generally much easier than reconstructing them later.

Spreadsheets or time tracking software  

A spreadsheet can be perfectly adequate for a very small team with simple requirements.

The challenge comes as the organisation grows.

More employees usually mean:

• more timesheets
• more corrections
• more projects
• more approvals
• more reporting
• more people needing access to the information

At that point, maintaining several spreadsheets can become an administrative process of its own.

Dedicated time tracking software can centralise these records and make it easier for employees, managers and HR teams to work with the same information.

The question is therefore not whether every company needs specialised software.

It is whether the current process still works reliably as the organisation grows.

What to look for in time tracking software  

For an SME evaluating a time tracking system, more monitoring is not necessarily better.

A useful system should make it easy to:

• record working time
• assign time to projects or activities
• review submitted records
• correct mistakes
• understand team and project workloads
• produce useful reports
• control who can access working time information

It should also be clear to employees what is being recorded.

For organisations already using an HR system, there is another consideration. Working time does not exist in isolation.

It can relate to employee records, leave, absences, payroll processes, reporting and access permissions. Keeping these processes connected can reduce duplicate administration and fragmented information.

A trust based approach with Worklogs  

Worklogs  is HR Omni’s time tracking module.

It is designed around a straightforward principle. Employees record their own working time rather than being continuously monitored.

Time can be recorded against projects and activities, giving organisations visibility into how working time is distributed without relying on screenshots, keystroke logging or hidden behavioural tracking.

For managers and HR teams, this provides a central place to review working time information and understand how time is being allocated.

For employees, the process remains transparent. They know what they are recording and what information the organisation can see.

Because Worklogs is part of the HR Omni platform, working time can sit alongside other HR information rather than being maintained in a completely separate system.

Learn more about Worklogs  and how it can support employee and project time tracking.

Start tracking working time with HR Omni  

If spreadsheets and fragmented timesheets are becoming difficult to maintain, you can create an HR Omni account and start using Worklogs.

References and sources  

• Court of Justice of the European Union — CCOO v Deutsche Bank (2019) 
• UK Information Commissioner’s Office — Employment practices and monitoring 
• ACAS — Working time rules 
• US Department of Labor — FLSA Recordkeeping Requirements 

This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Working time and record keeping requirements vary by jurisdiction and employment circumstances. Employers should check the legislation and official guidance that applies to their organisation.