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Time tracking in Spain: what the law requires, and what you are being sold
Recording working hours has been mandatory since 2019 and plenty of companies still do not know it. Doing it digitally is not mandatory, and plenty believe it is because someone selling something told them so. Here is the difference, and what actually changes when your team works out on the road.
What has the law required since 2019?
Article 34.9 of the Workers' Statute, as worded by Royal Decree-Law 8/2019, requires every company to keep a daily record of the working day of each employee, with its start and end time. It has been in force since 12 May 2019.
There is no headcount threshold. A company of three is as bound as one of three hundred. Nor does it depend on the sector, or on whether people work in an office or move from site to site.
Records have to be kept for four years and remain available to the employees, to their legal representatives and to the Labour Inspectorate.
Is digital clocking in mandatory?
This is where care pays off, because a lot gets sold on the back of it.
The law does not require digital clocking in. It requires a record; it does not impose the means. A signed paper record that holds what the rule asks for and is kept for four years is legal today.
A regulation has indeed been drafted to require records to be digital and remotely accessible to the Inspectorate. That draft received an unfavourable opinion from the Council of State and has not been published in the official gazette.
Checked on 4 November 2026 against the consolidated text of the Workers' Statute: article 34.9 still carries its 2019 wording, word for word, and there is no article 34 bis. Until that regulation appears in the official gazette there is no commencement date for digital clocking in, whatever date you may have been shown. What binds you today is keeping the record; the medium is your choice.
How do you spot the sales argument?
If somebody tells you that "clocking in through an app is already compulsory", or that "you will be fined without a digital system", they are presenting as law something that is not.
That does not make paper a good idea. It means the reason to change is not the fine: it is that paper does not do the job you need it to do. And that is a different conversation, one where you can choose calmly instead of buying out of fear.
So how big is the fine?
The fine is real, and it is worth knowing its size, because the sales argument leans on not saying it. Article 7.5 of the Spanish infringements act lists working-time records among serious infringements, and article 40.1.b) sets three bands:
Lower band €751 to €1,500
Middle band €1,501 to €3,750
Upper band €3,751 to €7,500
What is penalised is not keeping the record, or keeping one that does not reflect the hours actually worked. There is no penalty for keeping it on paper: that is the part left out when the fine is used as a sales argument.
Why does paper break in a service company?
In an office with fixed hours, a signed sheet works reasonably well. In a maintenance, cleaning, landscaping or HVAC company in Mallorca, where people start in one place and finish in another, it breaks in several places at once.
Nobody passes through the office. If the clock is in the warehouse and the first job is half an hour away, the hour written down is not the hour that happened.
It gets filled in on Friday, from memory. And a whole week reconstructed from memory is not a daily record.
Overtime never shows up. If every sheet says 8 to 5, the excess does not appear even when it is being worked.
Nobody knows who is working right now. The office cannot tell a customer whether somebody is on the way.
And then it is added up by hand. Every month, somebody works through a stack of paper for the payroll.
The underlying problem is not legal: it is that the record is no use for anything else. It is paper kept for four years in case the Inspectorate calls, and until then it informs not one decision.
What changes when people clock in from their phone?
If clocking in lives on the phone the technician already carries, it stops being paperwork and starts answering questions the office asks every day.
- The time is the real one. Clocked at the start, on site, not from Friday's memory.
- The office sees who is on the clock. And can tell a customer somebody is on the way without calling four phones.
- Hours add themselves up. Payroll no longer means working through a stack of paper.
- And the record is kept. All four years, without a folder somebody has to guard.
Location can be recorded at the moment of clocking in if it is proportionate and clearly disclosed. What is not acceptable is tracking the person throughout the working day. The line runs exactly between a single point and a permanent trail, and it belongs in writing in the notice given to staff, not merely understood.
When does changing your time tracking pay off?
Now the part almost nobody mentions, and the one that separates clocking in from clocking in that is worth having.
If the technician clocks in on one app and then records the work done somewhere else, you have added one more chore to their day. Two apps, two moments of typing, and the second gets filled in badly because it is seven in the evening.
If clocking in and the job report are the same thing, the arithmetic reverses: the technician opens the phone once per job, and out of it come the hours, the work done, the materials and the customer's signature. One gesture instead of three, and the office learns all of it at once.
Frequently asked questions
Is time tracking mandatory in Spain?
Yes, since 12 May 2019. Article 34.9 of the Workers' Statute, as worded by Royal Decree-Law 8/2019, requires every company to record each worker's day, with its start and end time. It does not depend on company size or sector.
Does clocking in have to be digital?
No. The law requires the day to be recorded, but does not impose the means: a signed paper record is valid if it holds what the rule requires and is kept. A regulation requiring digital records accessible remotely has been drafted, but it received an unfavourable opinion from the Council of State and has not been published in the official gazette. Until it is, paper remains legal.
How long do time records have to be kept?
Four years. During that time the company has to keep them available to the workers, to their legal representatives and to the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate.
Do workers who move between sites have to clock in?
Yes. The obligation is the company's and covers the whole workforce, wherever they work. What changes in field work is not whether to record, but how: that is where clocking in from a phone solves what a terminal in the office cannot, because nobody passes through the office.
Can location be required when clocking in?
Location can be recorded at the moment of clocking in if it is proportionate to the purpose and clearly disclosed, but continuous tracking of a person through the working day is not acceptable. The difference is between a single point and a permanent trail, and it is worth stating it in the notice given to staff.
Does the time record help with overtime?
That is exactly what it was created for. The daily record is the evidence of how many hours were worked beyond the agreed day, and it is what allows them to be paid or compensated. Without a record, that discussion comes down to one side's word against the other's.
Still adding up hours from a stack of paper?
Tell us how many of you there are, how you record the working day now and what happens to those hours afterwards. We will tell you whether you need clocking in on its own or clocking in joined to the job report.
If what you already have complies and serves you, we will say so and sell you nothing.
To see what clocking in from a phone and the office rota look like, they are on the time tracking page, with the demo opening on that module.
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