German employers must record daily working time. Everhour supports structured timesheets, budgets, and billing workflows.
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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Use this page to organize a German weekly timesheet around the practical record you need: who worked, on which days, on which projects, and for how long. A good timesheet separates working time from project allocation, so payroll can review the day and finance can review the client, cost center, or billable item.
German records need more than a weekly total. The Federal Labour Court held on September 13, 2022 that employers are required under Section 3(2)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act to introduce and use a system for recording employees' working time. That makes start time, end time, duration, and overtime central fields for employees within the scope of the rule.
A German timesheet should record the beginning and end of daily working time, total duration, overtime, breaks, project or cost code, approval status, and correction notes. The Working Time Act generally limits daily working time to eight hours, with extension to ten hours only if the average remains eight hours per working day over six calendar months or 24 weeks.
Break and rest details matter because they change whether a record is complete enough for review. German working-time rules require at least 30 minutes of pre-established rest break when work exceeds six hours and at least 45 minutes when work exceeds nine hours. Employees must generally receive at least eleven uninterrupted hours of rest after the end of daily working time.
Germany uses German as its official EU language and the euro (€) as its currency, so German-language labels and euro-denominated billing or payroll outputs are the practical default. A service team billing a client in Munich, for example, should keep task entries, approval labels, and invoice-ready totals clear enough for German-speaking managers and finance reviewers.
Data handling also belongs in the design. Employee time data is personal data, so employers need a lawful basis under the GDPR and may process employee data under Germany's Federal Data Protection Act where necessary for the employment relationship or employee-representation obligations. A works council, where one exists, has co-determination rights over working-time arrangements, technical monitoring devices, and health-protection arrangements.
A one-off timesheet works for a short assignment, a contractor handoff, or a simple weekly total that needs human review. It is enough when the team only needs a clean record, not live project control. Germany does not require every working-time recording system to be electronic in all cases before more specific legislative rules arrive, so paper records may be sufficient depending on the activity and company.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when tracked time feeds budgets, project rates, approvals, client billing, and payroll review every week. Everhour Project Budgeting lets teams run hour-based or money-based budgets, recurring budget periods, email alerts, budget protection, expense inclusion controls, multiple billing methods, and client-level budgets from the same time data that supports timesheet review.
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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Yes. Germany's Federal Labour Court held on September 13, 2022 that employers are required under Section 3(2)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act to introduce and use a system for recording employees' working time. The CJEU also required EU member states to ensure objective, reliable, and accessible daily working-time measurement systems.
A German timesheet should show the start and end of daily working time, total duration, overtime, breaks, employee, date, project or cost code, and approval status. The Federal Labour Court described the required system as covering the beginning and end of daily working time, which also captures duration and overtime for employees within the scope of the rule.
No. Until Germany's legislature sets more specific rules, the required working-time recording system does not have to be electronic in every case. Paper records may be sufficient depending on the activity and company. Electronic software becomes more practical when managers need approvals, project budgets, audit history, and repeatable exports.
A weekly total without daily start and end times creates a weak record. German working-time rules focus on daily working time, breaks, overtime, and rest. For marginally employed workers and workers in sectors named in the Act to Combat Undeclared Work, employers must record start, end, and length by the seventh calendar day and keep records for at least two years.
A works council, where one exists, 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 the employer to introduce an electronic time-recording system when the legal duty to record already exists. Software setup should account for consultation and monitoring limits.
Everhour Project Budgeting connects tracked hours to hour-based or money-based budgets, recurring budget periods, threshold email alerts, and budget protection. A German team can review approved time against client, project, or retainer limits before billing or internal cost review.
Everhour Timesheets collect weekly project hours and working hours by person, then let managers approve, reject, or partially approve submitted time. Submitted and approved time is locked for regular members unless withdrawn or rejected, which protects reviewed records before payroll, billing, or reporting.
Track approved hours, budgets, and billing handoffs from one workflow. Everhour connects German timesheets to project budgets and client limits before work turns into invoice or payroll review.
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