Automating time tracking means: employees clock in, clock out, and log breaks in a few seconds via app, terminal, or chip. Project hours are booked directly to the order or customer, and flexitime and overtime accounts keep themselves up to date. The checked hours flow into your payroll via an interface, so nobody has to retype timesheets at month-end.
Hours sit on slips of paper, in Excel, or in someone's head, and at month-end someone reconciles it all by hand. Whoever enters it late estimates, whoever checks it has to search, and payroll waits until the last minute for the final timesheets.
Five routes we build again and again for SMEs. Your payroll software and your workflows stay the same, only the paper slips and the Excel list disappear.
Employees book with one tap: a phone app in the office and at home, a wipeable terminal at the workshop door, a chip or card in production. The entry is in the system the moment it happens, not reconstructed from memory at month-end. The system deducts breaks automatically according to your rules.
Savings 2–5 h of re-entry per weekBeyond plain attendance, employees book their time to a project, order, or cost center, chosen from a short list instead of 200 open numbers. That way you see per order what the working time actually cost, and the follow-up costing is correct the next day. The project hours can be reused directly for invoicing the customer.
Impact Order costs traceable per projectThe system compares target against actual, keeps the flexitime account up to date, and shows overtime and shortfall hours according to your rules. Night, Sunday, or holiday surcharges are calculated using the stored rates instead of someone looking them up by hand. Employees and HR see the same status, which removes the argument at month-end.
Impact Flexitime account always currentThe checked monthly figures flow into your payroll via an interface, for DATEV payroll via the import of movement data, for other payroll software via its own data route. Instead of retyping timesheets, HR releases the hours and hands them over in one step. That saves the second entry, and the transposed digit hiding inside it.
Savings Duplicate entry in the payroll run eliminatedEvery entry is logged with a timestamp and origin, and later corrections stay traceable as a change instead of overwriting the original time. That way you meet the duty to record working time with proof that stands up to an audit, unlike an overwritable Excel list. Who changed what and when is always provable.
Impact Audit-proof record instead of ExcelWhich tool fits depends on your payroll software and on whether you already work in Microsoft 365 or need a dedicated terminal on the shop floor. We only commit after the as-is assessment, not based on a partner program.
Data hubTakes in the entries from app, terminal, or time-tracking system, checks them for plausibility, and writes the monthly figures into your payroll software. Runs on a server in a German data center on request, so your employees' working-time data never leaves the building.
Microsoft worldIf you work in Microsoft 365, we build time booking as an app and let Power Automate pass on the values. For access to an on-premises payroll system, for example via the on-premises data gateway or a premium connector, the usage included in Microsoft 365 isn't enough: those are paid Power Automate licenses. We work this out with you before implementation, so the license doesn't become a surprise later.
Legacy system without an interfaceSome payroll or industry software simply has no import interface for movement data. Then a software robot takes over the handover exactly as a human would type it, just without transposed digits and outside working hours. That's the bridge when a software switch isn't on the table right now.
We work at a fixed price instead of an open timesheet. After the initial analysis you know what it costs before we start.
In 60 minutes we walk through your current process: how bookings are made, how overtime arises, how the hours reach payroll today. Afterward, both sides know whether automatic time tracking pays off at your company's size.
Together with you, we define what gets booked and by which rules the system calculates: breaks, surcharges, flexitime limits, project structure. You receive a quote with a fixed price and fixed scope, no open timesheet.
We start with one department and let the new system run in parallel with the old list for a few weeks. Only once the booked hours and the payroll run match do we roll out to the remaining teams.
You receive documentation, a briefing for payroll, and an audit trail: for every monthly figure, it's traceable which bookings it came from. You keep control, and we stay on as your support if you wish.
Once the hours are booked cleanly, it quickly becomes clear that shift scheduling is also still running by hand in Excel and needs the same employee data. On the page about automatic shift scheduling you can see how the two fit together.
In the free initial analysis, we go through your time tracking together and work it out: 60 minutes, no obligation, with an honest assessment of whether automation pays off at your company's size. If a simple time clock is enough for you, we'll say so.
Employers are required to record their employees' working time. The Federal Labour Court ruled on this in 2022; it doesn't prescribe a specific software, but it does require a reliable and traceable record. An overwritable Excel list only weakly fulfills that, while a system with an audit trail withstands a review. The exact legal design belongs in the hands of your lawyer; we provide the technical foundation for it.
That's the actual point of the exercise, because time tracking without a payroll connection just creates a second set of figures. We hand over the checked monthly figures via your payroll software's interface, for DATEV payroll via the import of movement data, for other systems via their own data route. If your software has no import route at all, a software robot takes over the entry. We check which route works before the quote, not after.
In many cases, yes, because often what's missing isn't the recording device but the automatic handover to payroll and project evaluation. In the initial analysis we look at what your existing system offers via an interface and build the automation around that. Only if the legacy system offers no data route at all do we talk about switching, and even then honestly, with the effort and limits involved.
Not necessarily, because for office and home office work an app on the existing phone or computer is usually enough. A fixed terminal or a chip reader pays off especially where employees don't have a work phone, for example in production or on a construction site. We clarify what makes sense for you in the initial analysis; the biggest cost driver is rarely the hardware, but rather a clean connection to payroll.
That depends on the number of employees, your payroll software, and how well it can be connected, so we can't seriously quote a flat price without an analysis. After the free initial analysis, you receive a fixed-price offer with a fixed scope, no open timesheet. As a digitalization consultancy, our services may also be eligible for funding, for example through the BAFA consulting grant.
