Time tracking for small companies: the complete 2026 guide
A complete time tracking guide for small companies: what the law requires, how to choose a system, what it costs and how to roll it out without complicating things or overspending.
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Cover photo: the owner of a small shop or workshop checking their phone with their team behind them (landscape)
If you have a small company, time tracking is compulsory just as it is for big ones, but you have no HR department and no spare budget. This guide explains how to comply with the law simply and cheaply, step by step.
Your legal obligation, in plain terms
From the first employee, you must record their daily hours (in and out) and keep those records for 4 years. It does not matter whether you have 1 person or 25: article 34.9 of the Workers' Statute applies just the same, and failing to comply can cost from €751 to €7,500.
Two things that get overlooked in a small company and that are part of the obligation: you have to organise and document the system through a collective agreement, a company agreement or, failing that, your own decision after consulting the workers' legal representatives if there are any; and the records have to be available to the staff, to their representatives and to the Inspectorate — that is, accessible from the workplace, not on somebody's laptop.
What you really need (and what you do not)
Let us start with what you do not need: a program. The law imposes no format and the Ministry of Labour's guide accepts paper. What you buy when you pay for a tool is time and evidence, not legality. For a small company it is enough to have:
✅ The essentials for a small company
- A daily record with a start and an end; and breaks, if your collective agreement provides for them.
- It must be reliable and impossible to alter after the fact, by you or by the worker.
- Kept for 4 years and accessible from the workplace.
- Being able to show it when they ask.
- No fingerprints and no facial recognition.
- A low, predictable price, if you decide to pay for convenience.
How to choose the system
Decide the clocking-in method to suit your business (an app for the office, a key fob for the workshop, a terminal for shifts) and choose a simple tool. Compare them in the app comparison.
Note of 4 September 2026: Cairos and clocking in
As of today, 4 September 2026: when this article was written, you still could not see the team's hours in Cairos. Now you can, and it is worth spelling out exactly how, because it is not what people usually assume: Cairos does not clock anyone in. The working time record is kept by ficheo.app and Cairos reads it — read-only — to show those hours next to your invoices and split them by project. A clocking that needs correcting is corrected in ficheo, which is where the record the law requires lives. With your ficheo account connected, that module is not charged separately in Cairos.
See the plans and what they includeWhat it should cost you
Be careful with prices charged per employee per month: it is the model that rises fastest as you grow, because every hire pushes your bill up. Always compare the twelve-month cost against the headcount you expect to have, not today's, and look at whether each tool's free plan really covers your size or is just a hook. We go over the free options in free time tracking.
How to start today
Look at your collective agreement first, consult the legal representatives if there are any, choose the system, register the team and run a trial week. The complete guide is in how to roll out time tracking.
Frequently asked questions
Your hours, in the same program that invoices
Cairos does not clock anyone in: the working time record is kept by ficheo.app, and Cairos reads those hours to split them by project and keep them next to your invoices. With your ficheo account connected, the module is not charged separately.