Time recording is the legal obligation to record each worker's start and finish times every day. It has been mandatory in Spain since 2019, and non-compliance can lead to fines of up to €225,018.
Time recording (registro horario, also called registro de jornada or working time recording) is the legal obligation on every Spanish company to record, every day, the start and finish time of each worker's working day, including part-time staff, shift workers and those working overtime. The obligation was introduced by Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 of 8 March, which amended article 34 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores (the Workers' Statute, Spain's main employment law), and came into force on 12 May 2019. The rule requires companies to: guarantee a daily record of working hours for all workers, keep the records for four years, and make them available to workers, their legal representatives and the Labour Inspectorate (Inspección de Trabajo). No specific format is required: records can be kept on paper, through clock-in systems (cards, biometrics, apps) or by any other reliable means that guarantees the data cannot be altered.
In hospitality, time recording is particularly complex because of the sector's specific features: split shifts with several clock-ins and clock-outs on the same day, shifts that end in the early hours, staff who come in before service for mise en place, regular overtime at peak times and high staff turnover. The regional hospitality collective agreements may also set additional requirements. The penalties for non-compliance are significant: it is classed as a serious infringement in labour relations, with fines of between €751 and €7,500 per infringement (from the minimum to the maximum band under article 40.1.b of the LISOS, Spain's law on labour infringements and penalties). But the real risk is greater: missing or inadequate time records shift the burden of proof in overtime claims, which means that if a worker sues, it is the company that must prove the hours claimed were not worked, not the worker who must prove they were.
This has led to many judgments against restaurants for unrecorded overtime. Time records are also the documentary basis for checking compliance with rest between working days (at least 12 hours), weekly rest, working-time limits and overtime (a maximum of 80 hours a year), so incorrect records can trigger several further infringements.
Total hours = Σ (Clock-out time – Clock-in time) for each work period in the day
Calculating recorded hours is simple but needs to be precise: add up the differences between clock-out and clock-in for each period worked during the day. For a continuous working day: Hours = Clock-out – Clock-in. For a split day: Hours = (Clock-out1 – Clock-in1) + (Clock-out2 – Clock-in2).
For example, in at 10:00, out at 15:00, in at 19:00, out at 23:30: (15:00 – 10:00) + (23:30 – 19:00) = 5:00 + 4:30 = 9 hours 30 minutes. Breaks that are not worked (a meal break, for example) should not be included in the total if they are not effective working time. The applicable hospitality collective agreement may set specific rules on what counts: some agreements count changing into uniform (10–15 minutes) as working time, others don't. Recording systems must be able to reflect these particularities.
At the end of the week, total hours should be compared with contracted hours to detect excess (overtime) or shortfall (hours not worked). At the end of the month, the running total lets you check compliance with the monthly or quarterly calculation allowed by the agreement for irregular working-time arrangements.
María works as a cook on a split shift in your restaurant: she starts at 10:30 am, leaves at 3:30 pm, comes back at 7 pm and leaves at 11:30 pm. Her time record for the day must show: Clock-in 1: 10:30, Clock-out 1: 15:30, Clock-in 2: 19:00, Clock-out 2: 23:30. Total hours worked: 9.5. If her contract is for 40 hours a week and this week she builds up 45 hours, the 5 extra hours must be recorded as overtime, compensated according to the collective agreement (with a premium or time off) and counted towards the annual limit of 80 overtime hours.
Now imagine you have no time records and María, on leaving the company, claims she systematically worked 50 hours a week without being paid overtime. With no records to prove otherwise, the judge will presume her claim is true. With 2 years' service, that could be 10 overtime hours a week × 104 weeks × (say €12 an hour including the premium) = €12,480 plus interest, plus unpaid Social Security contributions, plus the fine for not keeping records. That is why you introduce a digital clock-in system: María clocks in and out on her phone with geolocation.
The system automatically records the four daily movements, calculates the hours, alerts you if she goes over her contracted hours and keeps the data for 4 years. You comply with the law, you have evidence in case of claims, and you can also analyse the real productivity of each shift.
Time recording matters in hospitality for three critical reasons. First, legal risk: hospitality is one of the sectors most often inspected by the Labour Inspectorate, and time records are one of the first documents requested. The direct fines (€751–7,500 per infringement) are just the tip of the iceberg; the real risk is workers' claims for unpaid overtime, where the absence of records shifts the burden of proof. Real judgments against restaurants for undocumented overtime exceed €20,000–30,000 including back Social Security contributions and interest.
Second, operational management: a well-implemented time recording system isn't just a legal requirement, it's a management tool. Clock-in data lets you compare hours actually worked with planned hours, detect systematic deviations (staff who always arrive late or leave late), calculate real staff costs, check compliance with legal rest periods and plan future rotas better. Restaurants that used to manage hours by eye discover invisible inefficiencies when they start measuring. Third, internal fairness: time recording protects both the company (against unfounded claims) and the worker (guaranteeing their hours are counted correctly).
A transparent system where workers can check their own records builds trust and reduces conflict. In a sector with high staff turnover like hospitality, minimising employment disputes is valuable: every dispute with a former employee consumes time, money and energy that could be invested in growing the business.
Zindra includes a digital time recording module that lets employees clock in and out from their phone or a tablet in the restaurant. The system automatically records geolocation, calculates hours worked, alerts you when working-time limits are exceeded or rest periods aren't respected, produces the reports required by the Labour Inspectorate and keeps the records for the 4 years required by law.
Tools and content to go deeper into this concept.
The staffing ratio is the relationship between the number of employees and the restaurant's customers, tables or revenue. It tells you whether you have the right team to give good service without costs running away.
The staff rota is the document that plans and assigns each restaurant employee's working hours by day and time slot, making sure service is covered and the law is complied with.
Labour cost is the percentage of turnover that goes on staff. In restaurants, a healthy benchmark ranges from 25% to 35% depending on the type of venue.
SPMH (Sales Per Man Hour, or sales per labour hour) measures how many euros of revenue each hour worked by the team generates. It is the key labour productivity indicator in restaurants.
A split shift is a working day divided into two blocks separated by a long break (typically 3–5 hours), common in hospitality to cover both lunch and dinner service.
Every hospitality term with formulas, examples and benchmarks in a handy PDF.
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