Everhour supports project time, budgets, and billing workflows, while German working-time rules require disciplined daily records.
Enter your time in and out for each day. Overtime and gross pay are calculated automatically.
| Day | Time In | Break Start | Break End | Break | Time Out | Total |
|---|
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A German time record should show the start, end, and duration of each workday, with overtime visible for employees within the scope of the recording rule. Germany's Federal Labour Court held on September 13, 2022 that employers must introduce and use a system for recording employee working time under Section 3(2)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The record also needs enough context to support payroll, billing, and management review. A project team can track time by client, project, task, and workday, then keep German-language labels and euro-denominated outputs where local teams or clients expect them. The goal is a daily record that a manager can check without reconstructing the work from messages, calendar blocks, or invoice notes.
A useful setup separates working time from project allocation. The daily record captures start time, end time, breaks, total duration, and overtime. The project layer captures client, project, task, billable status, rate category, and notes. Keeping those layers separate prevents a common mistake: treating a client invoice line as proof that the employee's working day was recorded correctly.
German working-time rules add specific review points. Daily working time generally may not exceed eight hours, with extension to ten hours allowed only if the average remains eight hours per working day over six calendar months or 24 weeks. A manager also needs to see whether breaks meet the 30-minute threshold after more than six hours and the 45-minute threshold after more than nine hours.
Employee time data is personal data in Germany. Employers need a lawful basis under the GDPR, and Germany's Federal Data Protection Act, Section 26, covers employee data processing where necessary for hiring, carrying out, or ending the employment relationship, or satisfying employee-representation rights and obligations. Time tracking should collect the data needed for work records, payroll, billing, and planning.
A works council changes the rollout process. Where one exists, it has co-determination rights over working-time arrangements, technical monitoring devices, and health-protection arrangements. The Federal Labour Court also held that a works council cannot force an employer to introduce an electronic time-recording system when the legal duty to record already exists. The design still needs a clear policy, access rules, and review process.
A simple daily log is enough for a small one-off check when the team only needs start, end, duration, and a weekly total. Paper records may be sufficient in Germany until the legislature sets more specific electronic-recording rules, depending on the activity and company. That approach breaks down once hours feed client budgets, project margins, payroll review, or recurring billing.
Everhour Project Budgeting gives teams a managed workflow when time affects money. Projects can use hour-based or money-based budgets, recurring budget periods, threshold email alerts, budget protection, expense inclusion controls, multiple billing methods, and client-level budgets. That turns recorded work into an operational record for German projects, instead of leaving managers to compare timesheets, invoices, and budget spreadsheets by hand.
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Germany requires employers to introduce and use a working-time recording system, but electronic recording is not mandatory in every case until the legislature sets more specific rules. Paper records may be sufficient depending on the activity and company. The record still needs to capture the beginning and end of daily working time, duration, and overtime for employees within the scope of the rule.
A German setup should capture start time, end time, break time, daily duration, and overtime. Project teams should also track client, project, task, billable status, and notes when the same record supports billing or budget review. The daily working-time record and the client billing record serve different purposes, so the app should preserve both views.
German working-time rules require a pre-established rest break of at least 30 minutes when work exceeds six hours and at least 45 minutes when work exceeds nine hours. No work period may exceed six hours without a break. A clean time entry shows breaks separately, so the daily duration does not hide a missing break.
For marginally employed workers and workers in sectors named in the Act to Combat Undeclared Work, employers must record the start, end, and length of daily working time no later than the end of the seventh calendar day after the work. Those records must be kept for at least two years.
The biggest mistake is using only project totals while ignoring the daily working-time record. A client total of 38 billable hours does not show start time, end time, breaks, daily duration, or overtime. Managers need a day-by-day record first, then project and billing fields on top of it.
Everhour Project Budgeting tracks time and money budgets as people log work against projects. Teams can use recurring budget periods, threshold email alerts, budget protection, expense controls, multiple billing methods, and client-level budgets when German project hours need to feed budget review.
Everhour Reporting turns logged time, budgets, costs, and project data into customizable reports. Managers can group and filter by member, project, client, billable time, labor costs, invoice status, and budget metrics, then export reports in CSV, Excel/XLSX, or PDF for review.
Track approved project time, compare it against euro budgets, and keep client work under control. Everhour connects time entries to project budgeting so German teams can manage hours, money, and billing.
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