Working-time records in your hair salon: what the law requires and how to comply

If someone besides you works in your salon, there is one obligation worth being clear about: the working-time record. It is not new, but it still causes confusion and failing to comply can be expensive. Let us explain it without detours.

What the working-time record is

Since May 2019 (Spanish Royal Decree-Law 8/2019), every company with employees is required to keep a daily record of each employee's working day: what time they start and what time they finish. It is what is popularly known as “clocking in”. The aim is to guarantee control over the hours worked and avoid unrecognised excess hours.

Does it affect you?

It depends on whether you have employees:

• If there are people on contract at your salon, yes: you must record their working day, whatever their schedule.
• If you work as a sole trader with no employees, you are not required to record your own hours.
• As soon as you hire someone, the obligation appears for that person.

The size of the business does not matter: a hair salon with one employee has the same obligation as a chain.

What has to be done, concretely

The law asks for three basic things:

1. Record the start and end of each person's working day, every day.
2. Keep those records for four years.
3. Make them available to the workers, their representatives and the Labour Inspectorate.

There is no single mandatory format: it can be done on paper or digitally. But paper gets lost, gets filled in late and is hard to consult, so more and more businesses move to a digital system. In fact, the regulatory trend points in exactly that direction: towards digital records accessible online for the Inspectorate.

What happens if you do not keep them

Failing to comply with working-time records is considered a serious labour infringement, with financial penalties that can be substantial. On top of that, in a dispute over overtime, having no record leaves the business in a poor position. It is one of those obligations that is better resolved before anyone comes knocking.

How to comply without complications

The good news is that clocking in does not have to be a chore. Just like invoicing, it makes sense for time tracking to be part of the same system you already run your day to day with, instead of a separate sheet nobody fills in. Along those lines, ClaudIA includes a clock-in module: you can see it among ClaudIA's features for salons.

If these compliance topics interest you, our guide on Verifactu in your salon may be useful, the other big obligation worth being ready for. And for the practical day-to-day approach, we cover it in clocking in without the hassle.

In short: if you have a team, working-time records are mandatory. The simpler and more automatic you make it, the less you will have to think about it.