Loading...
By EasyHours | April 5, 2025
A practical guide to the new working time registration requirements for companies
Tags: working time registration, legal requirements, SME, time tracking
On July 1, 2024, a new law came into effect requiring working time registration for all employees. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, it can seem overwhelming to suddenly have to register working hours daily. What do the new time registration requirements entail, and how do you get started?
Don't worry – in this blog post, we answer the most common questions about working time registration in clear and reassuring language without legal or technical jargon.
We cover topics such as: Who needs to register time? How should working time be registered? What about remote work? What is a self-scheduler? How should data be stored? and What systems can be used? Finally, you'll also get a tip for an easy solution that ensures your company complies with all working time regulations without hassle.
In short: All employers and employees are subject to the requirement for working time registration. Whether your company is large or small, and whether employees are full-time, part-time, in flexible jobs, or hourly paid, their working hours must be registered daily. Even an employee who only works a few hours a week must register their hours.
There are only a few possible exceptions. Top executives (e.g., a CEO who is legally not considered an "employee") may fall outside the requirement. Additionally, there is the concept of "self-managers" – employees in special positions with a high degree of autonomy. These can be exempt from registration, but it requires a specific agreement (see more about self-managers further down). For the vast majority of companies, however, this will not be relevant, so expect that all employees must register their working hours.
The new law requires you to register each employee's total working hours for each day. This means the number of hours the individual has worked on a given day. You do not need to note exactly when during the day the work was performed (start and end times are not required) – just how many hours were worked in total that day. If an employee, for example, works 7 hours at the office and later 1 hour at home in the evening, the day should be registered as 8 hours in total.
Who performs the registration, and how often? The most common practice is for the employee to register their own hours, for example, via a time registration system or a timesheet. The law does not specify how often this should occur – it can be daily, weekly, or after each completed task, depending on what makes sense for your company. The important thing is that the registrations are reliable. It is recommended to record the time continuously (preferably daily or close to it) while it is still fresh in memory to avoid errors. As an employer, it might be a good idea to create some simple internal guidelines on how and when employees should register their working hours so that everyone does it correctly and consistently.
What should be recorded as working hours? Only the actual working hours should be recorded. Breaks that are unpaid (i.e., where the employee does not receive a salary and is not available for work) should not be included. However, all working hours must be recorded – even if they are overtime without extra pay or work performed at odd hours. The nature of the salary or payment is irrelevant for the recording – the crucial factor is whether the time is spent on work.
Does the requirement also apply to remote work? Yes – remote work must be recorded on the same basis as work at the workplace. If an employee works from the home office one day or takes a couple of extra hours in the evening at home, those hours should be added to the total working hours for that day. The new law does not distinguish between where the work is performed; the important thing is that all of the day's working hours are included in the recording.
It is worth noting that the rules on rest time are somewhat flexible for occasional remote work. Normally, the 11-hour rule states that an employee must have 11 consecutive hours of rest within every 24 hours. If an employee voluntarily works a bit at home in the evening (beyond normal working hours), those hours naturally count as work, but it is not considered a violation of the rest time rules – provided it is occasional and arranged by the employee themselves. In other words, you do not need to worry about violating the rest time law if an employee occasionally chooses to work later from home. However, if remote work is a regular or significant part of the job, the usual rest time rules apply as normal. Regardless, all working hours must be recorded, whether they take place at the office, in the field, or at home.
"Self-scheduler" is a term from working time regulations that refers to certain employees in positions with a very high degree of freedom to organize their own work. An employee is considered a self-scheduler if they can either completely decide when the work is performed, or if the working hours cannot be measured or predetermined due to the nature of the job. Typically, this applies to very few individuals, such as some top executives or specialists who do not have a fixed routine or meeting time and effectively manage their own time.
For an employee to genuinely be exempt as a self-scheduler, it must be agreed upon and explicitly stated in the employment contract. If a person is classified as a self-scheduler, it means they can be exempt from the requirement of time registration (and they are usually also exempt from certain parts of the rest period rules and the 48-hour limit). Important: Self-schedulers are the exception that proves the rule. The vast majority of employees are not self-schedulers. In other words, you should only use this exception in very special cases. If you are in doubt whether a particular position can be considered self-scheduling, a specific assessment must be made – and as mentioned, it requires a written agreement. For most companies, all employees will need to register working hours normally.
How long and how should we keep the records? You must keep the documentation for registered working hours for at least 5 years. This requirement means that the daily timesheets or data in your system must be retrievable even many years later. Additionally, the employee must have access to their own registered data. Both current and former employees have the right to be informed about how much they worked during a given period, even up to five years back in time.
For practical management, this means that your time registration data must be stored securely and structured. Use a system or method where data cannot be altered secretly or lost. You should also ensure that you can provide or show an employee all their records for the past 5 years if they request it. If the system is very difficult to extract data from, it can be a problem – the employee's access to the information must be "accessible" in practice.
Also remember to treat the records confidentially, as they may contain sensitive personal information about employees' working hours and possibly absences. Please adhere to general guidelines for personal data/GDPR, for example, ensure that only relevant persons have access to the data, and delete the information when the retention period expires. But as a starting point: have a solution that automatically saves all working time records for a minimum of five years and makes it possible to retrieve them per employee as needed.
Do we need to invest in an expensive digital system? Not necessarily – the law gives you the freedom to choose a time registration system, as long as it meets the requirements of being "objective, reliable, and accessible." This means that the system must be able to measure the total daily working time accurately (objective), the data must be trustworthy (reliable), and both the employer and employee must be able to access the information (accessible).
In practice, time registration can be done in many ways. It can be very simple, for example, a piece of paper or a spreadsheet where the employee writes down their hours. It can also be an electronic time clock, a project management tool with time tracking, or a dedicated time registration app. There is no requirement for it to be digital – a physical notebook or an email with the day's hours can, in principle, suffice. But in reality, a digital solution will often be a great advantage. Digital systems can automatically ensure that data is stored securely for 5+ years, they can protect against errors and fraud (e.g., by locking previous records), and they make it easier to give employees insight into their own hours.
Whatever you choose, make sure the system fits your daily operations. If you have few employees and a simple operation, you might manage with a single schedule. If you have many employees or varying work hours, a digital time tracking system can save you a lot of time and hassle. Also consider integration with the payroll system or shift schedules if relevant – some systems can automatically record work hours based on, for example, logins or access cards, but this is not a requirement.
Tip: The most important thing is that your solution complies with legal requirements. You can read more about the advantages and disadvantages of different methods in our article on the benefits of digital time tracking. If you need help getting started, you can also follow the guide with 5 steps to implement time tracking in your company.
Implementing time tracking doesn't have to be difficult. EasyHours.com.pt is a good example of a solution that makes it easy to comply with all legal requirements. With EasyHours, employees can quickly register their work hours (also via mobile), and the system automatically ensures that all data is securely stored for 5 years. At the same time, both management and employees always have access to the necessary information. EasyHours is specifically designed to be simple, reliable, and fully compliant, so you can focus on your business instead of administration.
Would you like to try it in your company? Visit EasyHours.com.pt to learn more and start a free trial. Let EasyHours help you make time tracking easy, efficient, and compliant – so you're ahead of the new requirements without unnecessary extra work. ✅