Do I have to clock in when working from home?
Yes, time tracking is also mandatory when working from home (Art. 34.9 ET and Law 10/2021). What your company must record remotely and how to do it right.
“Do I have to clock in when working from home?” is a question that comes up the moment a company lets part of its team work remotely. The short answer is yes: the duty to record working hours does not depend on where the work happens, so someone who works from home clocks in exactly like someone who walks into the office. Let us look at it from the perspective of whoever runs HR, with the law in hand and without turning it into a surveillance drama.
Quick answer
| Situation | Clock-in required? |
|---|---|
| Fully remote from home | Yes. Same daily record as on-site. |
| Hybrid model (office days + home days) | Yes, on both types of day. |
| Working from a coworking space or another location | Yes. Location does not exempt you from recording. |
| Split or flexible hours while remote | Yes, with breaks recorded too. |
Why remote workers clock in as well
The rule requiring working hours to be recorded is Article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores), introduced by Royal Decree-law 8/2019. It sets out daily recording of working hours for the entire workforce and does not distinguish between on-site and remote work. There is no clause saying “except remote work”, and that absence is deliberate: the obligation is universal.
This is reinforced by Law 10/2021 on remote work. Its Article 14 expressly recognises that remote workers are entitled to an adequate time record that captures the start and end of the working day. In other words, the remote work law itself takes for granted that people clock in; what it adds is that the system must be fit for doing so away from the workplace.
Recording hours is not monitoring the worker
Many companies confuse the two. Recording the hours of someone who works remotely means logging when they start, when they finish and what breaks they take, not controlling what they type, watching their screen or checking that they are still sitting in front of the computer.
Article 20 of Law 10/2021 allows the company to use monitoring measures, but with a clear limit: respect for the person’s privacy and dignity. A clock-in and clock-out record more than satisfies the legal obligation. Continuous monitoring, by contrast, tends to be struck down as disproportionate when it reaches a court.
Digital disconnection, the other side of clocking in
The same Law 10/2021 recognises the right to digital disconnection (Art. 18). It is directly tied to the record: if the working day ends at a given time and that is logged, what comes next is rest time in which no availability can be demanded. A tidy record helps uphold that right and, along the way, stops hours piling up outside the working day that nobody can later account for.
What the company has to record remotely
For a home-based or hybrid team you need to be able to prove:
- The actual start and end time of each working day.
- The breaks that interrupt it.
- Whether the day was on-site or remote.
- The daily and monthly total, to keep an eye on overruns and possible overtime.
That record must be accessible to the worker and kept on file. With the new Royal Decree on time records, still in progress and not yet published in the BOE, it will also require the record to be digital, tamper-proof and to explicitly distinguish on-site from remote.
How you clock in when there is no clock on the wall
The most repeated question is a practical one: if there is no physical terminal in the office, where does someone working from home clock in? The answer is a digital system accessible from any connected device. The person records their hours from the browser or the phone, wherever they are, and each entry is timestamped. They do not need to be at a workplace or carry any device around.
On clocking in from a phone, there is a nuance we cover in detail in whether your employer can force you to clock in on your personal phone: if a device is required, the reasonable thing is for the company to provide it or compensate its use. And if you are thinking of adding location to the clock-in, first check when geolocation-based time tracking is legal, because privacy carries more weight when working remotely.
If you want the full picture of remote and hybrid working, we go into it in the guide to time tracking for remote work.
How Cleverfy solves it
Cleverfy is time tracking and attendance software for SMEs and self-employed professionals, designed with remote and hybrid teams in mind too.
- Clock in from anywhere: browser, iOS/Android mobile app or tablet, with nothing to install.
- On-site or remote, kept separate: each working day is tagged by where the work happened, just as the new digital record will require.
- Automatic breaks and totals: clock-ins, clock-outs and breaks added up by day and by month, with no spreadsheets.
- Optional geolocation: enabled only if you need it, with the privacy settings in your hands.
- Inspection-ready: timestamped records and downloadable reports at any time.
Conclusion
Working remotely does not exempt you from clocking in. The recording duty in Article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute reaches the whole workforce, and Law 10/2021 takes it for granted for remote work, adding the right to an adequate record and to digital disconnection. The law requires you to record working hours, not to watch anyone; a digital system accessible from any device meets the rule, protects you against claims and respects the privacy of a remote team.
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Legal note: this is an informational article and does not constitute legal advice. Based on Article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) and Law 10/2021 of 9 July on remote work. The new Royal Decree on digital time records is still in progress and has not yet been published in the BOE.
Sources:
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to clock in when working from home?
Yes. Daily time tracking is mandatory for every employee regardless of where they work (Art. 34.9 of the Workers' Statute, the Estatuto de los Trabajadores). Someone who works remotely clocks in exactly like someone who goes to the office: there is no exception for remote work.
What does the remote work law say about clocking in?
Law 10/2021 on remote work recognises that remote workers are entitled to an adequate time record, which must capture the start and end of the working day (Art. 14). The same law sets out the right to digital disconnection outside recorded hours.
Can an employer monitor a remote worker's hours?
Yes, but only to record working hours and with proportionate measures that respect privacy and dignity (Art. 20 of Law 10/2021). It can log clock-in, clock-out and breaks; continuous monitoring of activity is not permitted.
How do you clock in remotely if there is no physical terminal?
With a digital system accessible from any connected device: browser, mobile app or tablet. The employee records their hours wherever they are, and each entry is timestamped, without needing to be at a workplace.
What happens if I don't record my remote team's hours?
Failing to keep records is a serious infringement, and the Labour Inspectorate can impose fines of 751 to 7,500 euros per workplace. Beyond that, without a reliable record the company is at a disadvantage if a remote worker brings a claim over hours worked.
Does a hybrid worker clock in differently on office days and home days?
The obligation is the same on both days. Ideally the system should distinguish whether the day was on-site or remote, because the new Royal Decree on digital time records, still in progress, is expected to require the record to tell the two apart.
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