Is the start, end and length of every working day recorded?
Yes. Clock in, break start, break end and clock out are separate punches. Each day shows worked minutes, break minutes and, when the person has a work schedule, expected minutes.
Working time recording
A daily record of working time, without watching anyone
People clock in, take a break and clock out in the browser, in Slack or at a tablet by the door. Punches are never overwritten, and a correction needs a reason and a manager's decision. There is no GPS, no webcam, no screenshot and no keystroke tracking anywhere in SquadBear.
Context, not legal advice. SquadBear helps you keep the record that recent court rulings call for. Whether your setup meets the law is for you, your works council and your lawyer to decide.
Attendance · Clock
Katarzyna Lewandowska
Product Engineer · Tue 27 Jan
Working
Started at 09:00
Take a breakClock out
Scheduled today8h
Assigned work schedule
Before you roll it out
Six questions HR, the works council and your tax adviser ask
Recording working time is easy to start and hard to get trusted. These are the questions that decide whether people accept it.
Can anyone change a record after the fact?
Nobody edits a punch. A correction is a request with a reason. Once a manager approves it, new punches are added and the replaced ones stay on file, marked as superseded.
What happens when someone forgets to clock out?
The shift closes by itself after 16 hours open, or the limit you set, and lands in the review queue. The manager sets the real end there, or the person asks for a correction.
Do you track location, screens or keystrokes?
No. A punch has no location field, the web app never asks for location or the camera, and nothing records screens, keystrokes or activity. The door tablet uses its camera only to scan a QR badge.
Can employees see their own record?
Yes. My attendance shows each person their own days. Managers see the people they manage, admins see everyone, and nobody else sees the data.
How do the hours reach payroll or our tax adviser?
Through the REST API - a read-only key returns each person's shifts with start, end, worked, break and expected minutes. In the app, managers and admins export their own week or month as CSV. There is no team-wide export button and no DATEV file.
What the rulings ask for
Objective, reliable, accessible - and where SquadBear fits
The CJEU (C-55/18, CCOO v Deutsche Bank, 14 May 2019) and the German Federal Labour Court (BAG, 1 ABR 22/21, 13 September 2022) expect employers to record daily working time with an objective, reliable and accessible system. This map shows what SquadBear does for each part. It is context, not legal advice. "Built in" works without setup. "Your setup" depends on a schedule, a policy or a calendar an admin maintains.
| Requirement | In SquadBear | What you can show |
|---|---|---|
| The three criteria | ||
| C-55/18Objective - start, end and length of each dayBuilt in | Clock in, break and clock out are separate punches. Browser, Slack and assistant punches take the server's time, so a wrong phone clock cannot move them. A tablet that was offline keeps the time of the tap, within limits the server checks - outside them the punch goes to review. | Per person and day, the start, end, worked minutes and break minutes. |
| C-55/18Reliable - no quiet changesBuilt in | Punches are append-only. A correction needs a reason and a manager's decision, adds new punches and marks the replaced ones superseded. A manager who has a manager cannot approve changes to their own record. | A shift's full punch history, superseded punches included, and each review item with who decided it and when. |
| C-55/18Accessible - people see their own timeBuilt in | Each person sees their own days in My attendance. Managers see the people they manage, admins see everyone. | The employee's own view, and each person's shifts through the REST API. |
| In daily use | ||
| BreaksBreak rulesYour setup | An attendance policy sets when a break is due and how long it must be - 30 minutes after 5 hours of work unless you change it. A reminder goes out before the threshold, and a day with too little break goes to review. There is one threshold per policy and no automatic deduction, so a second step, such as more break after nine hours, is not checked. | Break minutes per day and the missed-break review items. |
| ExceptionsForgotten clock-outs, short days, long daysBuilt in | An open shift closes itself after 16 hours by default and lands in review. At clock-out, short days, days more than an hour over schedule, missed breaks, and work on leave or on a public holiday become review items. | The review queue, each item with its decision, the person who made it and the time. |
| HoursExpected hoursYour setup | Expected time is the person's work schedule minus approved leave, and zero on a public holiday. Without a schedule SquadBear does not assume an eight-hour day, and raises no short-day items. | Worked, expected and variance minutes per day. |
| HolidaysPublic holidays by countryYour setup | Prepared calendars for 27 countries hold each country's nationwide public holidays. An admin adds regional days, such as a German state's or a Swiss canton's, by hand. There is one calendar per country, so those days apply to everyone in the workspace who works in that country. | The holiday calendar, and the holiday flag on each day. |
| ExportHand-over to payroll or your tax adviserYour setup | A read-only API key returns each person's shifts, up to 92 days per call. In the app, managers and admins export their own week or month as CSV. There is no team-wide export button, no DATEV export and no payroll calculation. | Shifts per person with start, end, worked, break and expected minutes. |
| RetentionHow long records are keptYour setup | Records are kept until you set a retention period, from 12 to 600 months, counted from each day's date. A shift and its punches are always deleted together. | The retention setting. |
How it works
A record people keep because it is quick
Four buttons for the day, a tablet at the door if you want one, and a review queue that shows managers only what needs a decision.
Clock
Four buttons, one screen
Clock in, take a break, carry on, clock out. The same punch works from a laptop, from a phone's browser, from Slack with /clock, or through your AI assistant. The server sets the time, so a wrong phone clock does not rewrite the day.
Attendance · Clock
Katarzyna Lewandowska
Product Engineer · Tue 27 Jan
Working
Started at 09:00
Take a breakClock out
Scheduled today8h
Assigned work schedule
Expected hours
Hours that already know about leave and holidays
Expected time comes from the work schedule minus approved leave. A public holiday counts as zero. There is no late flag, because a schedule is a length of day, not a 9:00 start.
Attendance · Clock · Fri 24 Jul
Today’s attendance
Worked today3h 40mExcludes unpaid breaks
Breaks30mUnpaid meal
Scheduled today4hSchedule − approved leave
- Assigned work schedule
- 8h
- Approved leave
- −4h
- Scheduled today
- 4h
A public holiday is zero. No late flag.
Door tablet
A tablet at the entrance
Pair a tablet in workspace settings. People tap an NFC card or hold up the rotating code from their Clock screen. There is no list of names to pick from, no face recognition and no biometrics. Taps made offline queue with their time and upload when the network is back.
Kiosk · Building A lobby
Hold your card or badge
Tomasz Wójcik
In · 07:58Card ending · 84F2
Offline mode · Punch queued (07:58)
Clock · Show my badge
SquadBearCLOCK
WalletTomasz Wójcik
Rotates in 4:12
Corrections
Corrections with a trail
Forgot to clock out? The person asks for a correction with a reason, and the manager approves it as asked, approves it with changes, or rejects it. Nobody edits a punch - the originals stay, and the review item keeps the before and after.
Attendance · Review
Correction request · Tomasz Wójcik
Friday 23 January
Tomasz: “Forgot to clock out.”
- Before
- 09:00 – 01:00 · break 12:30 – 13:0015h 30m
- Tomasz asked
- 09:00 – 17:30 · break 12:30 – 13:008h
- After
- 09:00 – 17:45 · break 12:30 – 13:008h 15m
Julia Mazur
Approved with changes“We finished the release at 17:45.”
Presence
Who is in, not where they are
Live presence shows working, on break or not in for the people you manage. It does not guess lateness, and it knows nothing about where anyone is.
Attendance · Live presence
Who’s in
Platform · current shift projection
2 Working1 On break1 Not in
- Katarzyna LewandowskaWorking
Since 09:00
Marta ZielińskaOn breakSince 15:00
- Tomasz WójcikNot inLeave
On approved leave
- Julia MazurWorking
Since 08:30
With your AI assistant
Clear the day's exceptions in plain language
Connect SquadBear over MCP and your assistant works under your own login and role. It can list open review items, show who is working right now, clock you in or out and ask for a correction - through the same rules as the app.
Engineering Lead · ClaudeExample workflow
Prompt
Show me every attendance review item still open in Platform, oldest first, and say which ones are short days.
Sample record
list_attendance_review3 open · Tomas correction (Fri, forgot clock-out) · Camila auto-closed · Leo short day (−46m)
Inspect query parameters
{ "status": "open", "teamId": "team_platform" }Sample record
list_team_presence4 working · 1 on break · Camila not in (leave)
Inspect query parameters
{ "teamId": "team_platform", "state": "on_clock" }Three open items, oldest first: Tomas’s correction (forgot to clock out Friday - proposed 09:00–17:30), Camila’s auto-closed shift, and Leo short by 46 minutes. Only Leo is a short day. Camila is on approved leave today, so she is not on the clock. I can approve Tomas’s times if they look right - originals stay on file.
Every tool shown ships in the product
Prompts that work today
“Show me every open attendance review item in my team, oldest first.”
list_attendance_review
“Who on my team is working right now, and who is on a break?”
list_team_presence
“How many hours did I work last week, against my schedule?”
get_attendance
“Clock me out.”
punch
“I forgot to clock out on Friday. I left at 17:30 - ask for a correction.”
request_attendance_correction
“Approve Tomas's correction for Friday.”
list_attendance_review · resolve_attendance_review
Why it stays fair
- Your login, your role
- The assistant connects with your own OAuth sign-in, not a shared service account, and can do only what you could do in the app.
- Punches happen now
- The assistant can record only your own punch, at the server's time. It cannot backdate one - a past fix is a correction request a manager decides.
- Managers see their own people
- Presence and the review queue cover the people a manager manages. Admins see the whole workspace.
Data protection
Answers for your data protection review
Working time records are personal data. These are the answers a data protection officer or a works council usually asks for first.
Data region
EU or US, chosen at sign-up and fixed. Each region has its own database and file store.
What a punch stores
The type, the server time, the work date, the channel and, for tablet punches, the device. A correction adds a reason. No location, no photo, no IP address.
Who sees what
Each person sees their own record, managers the people they manage, admins everyone.
Retention
Kept until you set a retention period, from 12 to 600 months. A shift and its punches are deleted together.
Questions, answered
Does SquadBear make us compliant with the duty to record working time?
No tool can promise that. SquadBear gives you a daily record of start, end, breaks and corrections that people can see. How you introduce it, what your works agreement says and how long you keep records is for you, your works council and your lawyer. This page is context, not legal advice.
Do you check the daily maximum or the rest period?
No. SquadBear flags days that run past the person's schedule by a set margin and days with too little break, but it has no daily maximum and no rest-period check. Watch for those in the export.
Do people need an app on their phone?
No. Clock runs in the phone's browser, and it never asks for location. With Slack connected, people can also type /clock in, /clock break, /clock resume and /clock out.
Is the door tablet required?
No. Kiosk sits under Attendance and stays off until you switch it on. Laptop, phone and Slack punches work without a tablet.
Can we export the hours for payroll?
Partly. A read-only API key returns each person's shifts for up to 92 days per call, and managers and admins can export their own week or month as CSV in the app. A team-wide export button, a DATEV file and payroll calculation do not exist yet.
Which public holidays are included?
Nationwide public holidays for 27 countries, for 2026 and 2027. Days that only one region observes, such as a German state or a Swiss canton holiday, an admin adds to that country's calendar. Each person follows the calendar of the country they work in.
Is this the same as time tracking?
No. Attendance records presence - in, break, out. Time tracking records hours against projects. Each runs without the other, and clocking out never writes a time entry.
Which plan do we need?
Attendance and the door tablet work on every plan. Free covers five people.
Start a working time record your team will actually keep
Switch on Attendance, give people a work schedule and adjust the break rule. They can clock in the same day, and you can add a door tablet later.
Your agent is connectedLeave · Time · People