German working-time records need start, end, duration, and overtime detail. Everhour supports structured timesheets for payroll and billing review.
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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One click and you're timing. Start a timer, add an entry, edit the details. This is exactly how it feels in Everhour.
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A timesheet app in Germany helps you capture the working day in a form that managers, payroll, and finance can actually use. The record should show the beginning and end of daily working time, total duration, and overtime for employees within the scope of Germany's working-time recording duty.
Germany's Federal Labour Court held on September 13, 2022, that employers must introduce and use a system for recording employees' working time under Section 3(2)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The system does not have to be electronic in every case, but a digital app reduces missing entries, late corrections, and unclear approvals.
A German timesheet should separate working time from breaks, show daily totals, and identify the project, client, task, or cost center attached to the work. For billing teams, euro-denominated rates and invoice references help connect approved hours to client charges without re-keying the same data later.
German working-time rules also make break and rest context important. Employees need a pre-established rest break of at least 30 minutes after more than six hours of work and at least 45 minutes after more than nine hours, with no work period longer than six hours without a break. Daily rest is generally at least eleven uninterrupted hours.
A common mistake is treating a weekly total as enough. A weekly number may help with payroll review, but it does not show the start and end of each working day, missed breaks, or overtime patterns. Daily records give managers the detail needed to correct entries before the period closes.
Some worker categories need tighter record timing. Employers of marginally employed workers, and employers in sectors named in the Act to Combat Undeclared Work, must document each workday's start, end, and length by the end of the seventh calendar day after the work and keep the records for at least two years.
A free timesheet tool is enough when you need a small number of weekly records, a clean export, or a simple check before payroll. It also works for freelancers who bill one German client in euros and only need clear date, task, and time lines.
A managed workflow fits teams with approvals, multiple projects, client billing, or payroll handoff. Everhour Timesheets collect project hours and working hours by person, let employees submit time for review, and let managers approve, reject, partially approve, or lock submitted entries before the numbers move into billing or payroll work.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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Germany has a working-time recording obligation. The Federal Labour Court held on September 13, 2022, that employers must introduce and use a system for recording employees' working time under Section 3(2)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The CJEU also required EU member states to require objective, reliable, and accessible systems for measuring each worker's daily working time.
A German timesheet should capture the beginning and end of daily working time, total duration, and overtime for employees within the scope of the rule. Breaks, project or task labels, comments, and approval status make the record more useful for payroll, billing, and management review, especially when several teams or clients share the same reporting process.
Germany's required working-time recording system does not have to be electronic in every case until the legislature sets more specific rules. Paper records may be sufficient depending on the activity and company. Digital timesheets still give teams faster corrections, clearer approvals, easier exports, and better visibility across projects than scattered manual records.
The seven-day deadline applies to marginally employed workers and to workers in sectors covered by the Act to Combat Undeclared Work. For those records, employers need the daily start time, end time, and total length documented by the end of the seventh calendar day after the work. The retention period is at least two years.
Employee time data is personal data. Employers need a lawful basis under the GDPR, and Germany's Federal Data Protection Act Section 26 allows employee data processing where necessary for hiring, carrying out or terminating the employment contract, or satisfying employee-representation rights and obligations. Time tracking should collect work-time data needed for the employment purpose, not excessive monitoring data.
Everhour Timesheets collect weekly project hours and working hours by person, so managers can review submitted time before payroll or billing. Managers can approve, reject, partially approve, and lock time entries, which helps keep reviewed hours stable after corrections are finished.
Everhour can run as a standalone tracker or inside tools such as Asana, ClickUp, Jira, GitHub, Monday, Notion, Trello, and Basecamp. Teams can track time against tasks and projects, then use the same logged hours for reports, budgets, invoices, and payroll review.
Use Everhour Timesheets to collect weekly hours, review submissions, lock approved entries, and keep German payroll or billing work tied to approved time records.
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