# Time tracking: Employee time tracking > Your team clocks in, clocks out and takes breaks with one button, requests vacation and calls in sick. CIRO NOISE calculates target hours, actual hours and the time account and checks maximum hours, breaks and rest periods under the German Working Hours Act, as the duty to record working time has required since the Federal Labor Court ruling of September 13, 2022. Every change keeps its trail, and at month end you export timesheets, a payroll CSV and the audit export with every change. - Page: https://www.ciro-noise.de/funktionen/zeiterfassung - Deutsche Fassung: https://www.ciro-noise.de/funktionen/zeiterfassung.md Since the 2022 Federal Labor Court ruling, every employer in Germany has to record their employees’ working hours. With CIRO NOISE, they clock in, clock out and take breaks with one button, in the browser or on the phone, and CIRO NOISE checks breaks and maximum hours under the Working Hours Act. Up to four employees who only clock in are free. ## Time tracking that knows the Working Hours Act Your employees record their own working hours: clock in, clock out and break are three buttons in the browser, at the office, working from home or on the phone. Anyone who forgot to clock adds the entry later and gives a reason. You set weekly hours or fixed days for each person, and CIRO NOISE calculates target hours, actual hours and the time account. Overtime is paid out or taken as time off, and vacation days are prorated. Each person requests vacation, sick days or child sick days themselves. Their manager in the org chart approves, or a deputy if the manager is out. The team calendar shows who is out when, and for temps without their own account, the office keeps a timesheet. The duty to record working time has applied since the 2019 ruling of the European Court of Justice (C-55/18) and the Federal Labor Court decision of September 13, 2022 (1 ABR 22/21). The Federal Labor Court derives it from § 3 (2) no. 1 of the Occupational Safety Act (ArbSchG). In addition, § 16 (2) of the German Working Hours Act (ArbZG) requires recording time beyond eight hours. Recording has to be objective, reliable and accessible, which loose paper slips can't guarantee. CIRO NOISE checks the Working Hours Act as you go: maximum hours under § 3, breaks under § 4, rest periods under § 5, Sundays and public holidays under § 9 and night work. Every breach comes with a suggested fix. CIRO NOISE keeps the records for 24 months, and the original entry stays. Any printout of the audit export for customs and the tax office can be checked against the stored data. Each person sees all of their own hours, exports them and requests corrections. Managers see their own team, the office sees everyone, and the works council sees only figures without names. The type of illness is health data: coworkers see “out”, and only authorized people see the reason. Before every approval you see whether absences in the team overlap. CIRO NOISE records the times someone clocks and never tracks anyone’s location. If your company has a works council, it has a say under § 87 (1) no. 6 BetrVG. For the works agreement there is a transparency report built from your settings, plus templates for the data processing agreement and the technical and organizational measures. Have a lawyer review them, because they don't replace legal advice. The start page shows open approvals and the running clock, and the AI shows requests as buttons in the chat without deciding anything. Billable time on tasks and projects becomes invoice lines with an hourly rate. Absences appear in the team calendar and in the subscription feed you add to your own calendar. For payroll you export the timesheet as PDF or CSV and a payroll CSV per person and month with one click. For an audit there is the audit export, and when an employee asks for her data, you create the data access report under Art. 15 and 20 GDPR. ## Working hours recorded the way the law requires The Federal Labor Court requires recording that is objective, reliable and accessible to every person, and that is exactly how you show it to customs. - **Clock in with one button, in the browser or on the phone**: Clock in, break and clock out are three buttons. Anyone who forgets to clock adds the entry later and writes down why. - **Let CIRO NOISE check the Working Hours Act**: The Working Hours Act is checked on every entry: a warning at eight hours and the limit at ten (§ 3), a 30-minute break after six hours and 45 minutes after nine (§ 4), eleven hours of rest (§ 5), Sundays and public holidays by state (§ 9) and night work. You see a breach right away, with a suggested fix. - **Every entry stays traceable**: Every clock entry stays as it was. A correction needs a reason and leaves a trail: who changed what and when, and how it looked before and after. Wrong entries are voided instead of deleted. Any printout of the audit export for customs and the tax office can be checked against the stored data. Records are kept for 24 months, long enough for an overtime dispute two years later. - **Call in sick with one button**: One button and the sick day counts: the manager and the office are informed, the team sees “out”, and only authorized people see the reason. Vacation is approved by the manager in the org chart or a deputy, who sees before approving whether absences in the team overlap. - **Give payroll what it needs**: Export timesheets as PDF or CSV, a payroll CSV per person and month and the time account with overtime and vacation, each with one click. Temps without their own account are included. ## Three days at a small company A long Tuesday, a sick morning and month end. ### Pascal has 9:50 hours on the clock The warning appears: in ten minutes Pascal reaches the maximum working time, so he clocks out. His break was too short at 25 minutes, and the suggestion is right there: add 20 minutes, because more than nine hours of work requires a 45-minute break. Pascal adds them and gives a reason, and the original entry stays visible next to it. He also sees that his rest period runs until 5:40 am, so Wednesday starts later. - Warning at eight, limit at ten hours - Break check with suggestion - Correction with a trail - Eleven hours of rest ### Nele calls in sick from the sofa Nele presses “Sick”, and the notice counts right away. Kira and the office know without Nele having to call. The team sees only “out” in the calendar, and only Kira sees the reason. The same morning Lena's vacation request for December comes in, and before approval the view shows that Mara has the same week off. The AI shows both requests as buttons in the chat, and Kira clicks. - Sick notice effective at once - Reason visible only to authorized people - Approval from the org chart, button in the AI chat - Team overlaps visible ### Customs asks about Jonas's mini-job, Ms. Roth about the payroll list Jonas works a mini-job without his own account; the office keeps his timesheet. For the audit Kira generates the audit export for the last twelve months, with every change and its reason. Ms. Roth, the tax advisor, gets the payroll CSV with overtime and vacation per person. Pascal's billable hours from the customer board are already on the invoice to Brandt & Söhne. - Audit export for customs and the tax office - Temp without an account - Payroll CSV per person and month - Times become invoice lines ## Time tracking in detail The key time tracking features in one sentence each. - **Time clock in the browser and on the phone**: Works in the browser on a computer or phone. You add missed entries later with a reason. - **Breaks and rest periods under the ArbZG**: § 3 (warning at eight hours, limit at ten), § 4 (breaks of 30 and 45 minutes, in blocks of at least 15 minutes, after six hours at the latest), § 5 (eleven hours of rest), § 9 (Sundays and public holidays by state) and night work. Every breach comes with a suggested fix. - **Vacation requests and sick days**: Vacation, sick days, child sick days and other types are approved by the manager in the org chart or a deputy, with overlaps visible. A sick notice counts right away, and only authorized people see the reason. - **Overtime and time balance**: Weekly hours or fixed days produce target hours, actual hours, a time account and prorated vacation. Overtime is paid out or taken as time off. - **Timesheets and payroll export**: Timesheet as PDF and CSV, payroll CSV (generic, not the DATEV payroll format), audit export and data access report under Art. 15 and 20 GDPR. - **Audit export for customs and tax office**: Records are kept for 24 months, longer if you choose. Any printout of the audit export can be checked against the stored data. - **The original entry stays**: Every entry stays unchanged, and every change leaves a trail: who changed what and when, before and after. Wrong entries are voided instead of deleted. - **Permissions**: For each role you set who sees their own hours, the team, everyone or reports. The works council sees only figures without names. - **Temps and team calendar**: For staff without an account, the office keeps a timesheet. The team calendar shows absences and meetings. - **Templates and start page**: Transparency report for the works agreement, data processing agreement and technical and organizational measures, each to be reviewed by a lawyer. The start page shows open approvals and the running clock. ## Tell Claude. CIRO NOISE records it. ### Review requests > Which vacation requests are waiting for me, and is the team covered during that time? Two vacation requests are waiting for you: Deniz wants Oct 20–24 off, Mara Oct 27. Neither overlaps with other absences in the Product team, pending requests included. Lena and Can are in during Deniz's week. Should I approve both? ### Plan the holidays > Who requested vacation between Christmas and New Year, and are support and accounting covered? There are two gaps over the holidays: • On Dec 23, only Lena would be in support if you approve Mara's request for Dec 22 and 23. • On Dec 30 and 31, accounting is empty because Petra and Ömer are both approved out. You can safely approve Can's request (Dec 28–30) and Ida's (Jan 2). ### Decide > Approve Can and Ida. Please decline Mara's request with a reason: support needs Dec 23, Dec 22 would work. Can (Dec 28–30) and Ida (Jan 2) are approved. Mara's request for Dec 22 and 23 is declined with your reason: “Support needs Dec 23. Feel free to request Dec 22 on its own.” All three have received the decision. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is employee time tracking mandatory? Yes. Since the 2019 ruling of the European Court of Justice (C-55/18) and the Federal Labor Court decision of September 13, 2022 (1 ABR 22/21), every employer in Germany has to record the start, end and duration of their employees’ working hours. The court bases the obligation on Section 3 (2) No. 1 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. For mini-jobs, Section 17 of the Minimum Wage Act requires records anyway. ### Does time tracking have to be digital? The Federal Labor Court doesn’t prescribe a format, and paper is still allowed today. But records have to be objective, reliable and accessible to each person. Digital is the easiest way: breaks and rest periods are checked right away, and an audit export is ready for customs or the tax office. ### Does time tracking apply when working from home? Yes, the obligation applies wherever people work. Your employees clock in from home just like at the office and say where they work when they clock in: office, home, field or business trip. The location is something they enter; CIRO NOISE doesn’t track anyone. ### Do my employees need an app? No. Your employees clock in in the browser, on the computer or the phone, without installing anything. Anyone without their own account, such as a temp, gets a timesheet that the office keeps. ### Is time tracking GDPR-compliant? The data sits on servers in the EU and is processed under the GDPR. Each person sees their own hours in full, managers only see their team, and only authorized people see the reason for a sick day. The works council gets figures without names. ### How does my team clock in? With buttons for clock in, break and clock out, on the phone or the computer. A forgotten clock-out flags itself, and every person sees their hours and time account in full at any time. ### Does CIRO NOISE keep an eye on the Working Hours Act? Yes. CIRO NOISE checks maximum hours, breaks and rest periods under §§ 3, 4 and 5 ArbZG on every entry and shows where a rule is broken. The original entry can't be changed, and corrections sit next to it with a reason. That gives you reliable proof for any audit. ### How do vacation and absences work? As a request the manager approves with one click; if the manager is out, their deputy decides. Who covers the work is noted right on the request. For sick days, coworkers only see “out”, and only authorized people see the reason. ### What does time tracking cost for the whole team? Anyone who only clocks their hours doesn't need a full seat: every full seat comes with two free employee seats. Two full seats therefore cover four people who only clock in. The first two full seats are free as well, and each additional one is €25 a month plus VAT, cancel anytime. ### How do hours get to payroll? As an export per person and month, with overtime and vacation, as CSV or as a timesheet PDF. For a customs audit, the audit export delivers start, end and duration per day along with the trail of every change. ### How do I involve the works council? The works council gets its own reports with figures and no names, and only for groups above a minimum size. For the works agreement there is a transparency report built from your settings, plus templates for the data processing agreement and the technical and organizational measures. Have a lawyer review them before you sign. ## CIRO NOISE at a glance - CIRO NOISE is a workspace for small businesses and teams of up to about 50 people: wiki, tasks, customer requests, finance with quotes and invoices, customers (CRM), meetings, knowledge with AI, social media, password vault, and time tracking behind one login. - Price: the first 2 seats are free, with every feature. Each additional seat costs €25 per month plus VAT. No credit card to start. - Privacy: servers and AI run in EU data centers, content never trains AI models, and permissions apply per person and feature. - AI connection: Claude and other AI assistants connect through MCP, the open standard for AI tools, with exactly the permissions of the person. - Provider: CIRO GmbH, Eching, Germany. Contact: hello@ciro.gmbh, phone +49 89 24 88 31 22.