It's official: Spanish Government locks digital time tracking into its 2026 normative plan

Legal note: This article is informational and does not constitute legal advice. The Royal Decree is still pending approval by the Council of Ministers and publication in the BOE (Spanish Official Gazette).

From announcement to official paper

This week the Spanish Council of Ministers approved the 2026 Annual Normative Plan — the document setting out the legislative initiatives the Government commits to pushing forward this year. And it contains two pieces of news for any company with employees on the payroll.

First: the Royal Decree tightening time tracking rules appears as a priority measure of the Ministry of Labor. Second: the reduction of the working week to 37.5 hours a week is not on the list.

A few days ago we wrote about how Yolanda Díaz set 21 June as the deadline for approval. Until then, it was still a verbal commitment from interviews. This week is different: the Spanish Government has put it down in writing, in an official document approved by the Council of Ministers.

What the 2026 Normative Plan says about time tracking

The Annual Normative Plan doesn’t legally bind the Government to approve anything, but it sets the agenda for the Executive’s legislative work throughout the year. Whether a project makes the document or doesn’t is the difference between what the Government commits to push and what it shelves.

After the parliamentary deadlock over the 37.5-hour bill last September, the Ministry of Labor has changed tack. The shorter working week is parked, and time tracking is going through the only door that doesn’t require deals in Parliament: a Royal Decree. That avoids the toll set by PP, Vox and Junts, and puts the timeline entirely in the Government’s own hands. The deadline Yolanda Díaz has set — before 21 June — remains the real horizon.

Less than seven weeks to go.

Obligations of the new digital time tracking Royal Decree

The Royal Decree heading to the Council of Ministers is, according to the minister herself, the same text that received an unfavorable opinion from the Council of State in March, with no significant changes from that version.

The obligations your company will have to meet once it’s published in the BOE have been on the table for months:

• Time tracking exclusively through digital means. Excel and paper are out.
• Entries that can’t be modified without joint authorization from employer and employee, with full traceability.
• Remote and immediate access for the Labor Inspectorate.
• Data retention for four years.
• Hour and minute for clock-ins, clock-outs, breaks, overtime and any modifications.
• Fines of up to €10,000 per affected worker.

If you want to see the details of how to comply with each point, we have a step-by-step guide to the Royal Decree and a rundown of what to demand from any software you’re considering.

The part that’s still unclear

The plan mentions the Royal Decree but doesn’t spell out the adaptation timeline. It also fails to settle the public dispute between the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Labor over the grace period for SMEs: First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo has been pushing for a one-year adaptation period against the 20 days set by the draft; Labor refuses to budge.

Until the final text is published in the BOE, the adaptation period is the unknown. The current draft talks about a short window from the date of entry into force.

Why you shouldn’t wait for the BOE to start digital time tracking

The natural temptation is to wait until the final text is published and react then. There’s a problem with that: the day it hits the BOE, thousands of companies across Spain will be doing exactly the same thing.

The Labor Inspectorate can request your time tracking history going back. If a company starts clocking in digitally only the day the decree is published, there’s nothing to show when an inspector knocks on the door. You need time to build up a real record.

Migrating under pressure also gets expensive. Time tracking providers will see a demand spike right in the middle of summer, with rushed deployments and stretched support. SMEs that move early will get an available technician and a calm migration. Those who wait will get a queue.

Then there’s the habit shift. Getting twenty or fifty people to clock in correctly every day — entry, exit, lunch break, the occasional fix — isn’t something you teach in one morning. The first few weeks are always noisy: forgotten entries, sloppy clock-ins, doubts. Better that noise happens now, not in August when an inspector is reviewing your records.

It’s also worth remembering that the Spanish Supreme Court has been throwing out paper and Excel records for some time, without waiting for this Royal Decree. The obligation to digitize time tracking already exists through case law, even before any recent regulation.

How an SME gets digital time tracking ready in one morning

Complying with digital time tracking isn’t a tech project for a normal SME. If your company is currently logging hours in an Excel sheet or on a piece of paper at the office, switching to a system that meets the draft Royal Decree fits in one morning.

Cleverfy covers every requirement in the draft and is set up in under 10 minutes. During signup an AI assistant asks just the basics — how many employees, what kind of working hours, whether there are rotating shifts, whether geolocation is needed — and leaves the account ready for the team to start clocking in the same day. No mandatory training, no hardware, no implementation project.

So you can decide without pressure, signup includes 14 days free in production. No card, no sales call, no contract. If it fits, you continue with a plan starting at €1.50 per employee per month. If it doesn’t, you haven’t signed anything.

For a ten-person company, that’s €15 a month. The minimum fine for failing to keep a working day register starts well above that figure and rises fast when several workers are affected.

Frequently asked questions

What is the 2026 Annual Normative Plan? It’s the Spanish Government’s public document, approved by the Council of Ministers on 5 May 2026, listing the 179 legislative initiatives (10 organic laws, 38 ordinary laws and 131 royal decrees) the Executive commits to pushing forward this year. Digital time tracking appears as a priority measure of the Ministry of Labor.

When does digital time tracking come into force? The exact date depends on the text published in the BOE (Spain’s Official Gazette). Yolanda Díaz has set 21 June 2026 as the deadline for approval by the Council of Ministers. After that, the adaptation period will be determined by the Royal Decree itself. The current draft mentions a short window from the date of entry into force.

How much time will SMEs have to adapt? That’s the open dispute. The Ministry of Economy is asking for a year, against the 20 days set out in the Ministry of Labor’s draft. Until the final text is published in the BOE, the final period is the main unknown.

Will digital time tracking be approved as a Royal Decree or as a law? As a Royal Decree. After the parliamentary deadlock over the 37.5-hour working week law in September 2025, the Government has opted for the regulatory route, which doesn’t require a vote in Congress. That’s the key difference that means this one will actually go through.

Which companies are required to comply? All companies with employees on a payroll, with no exception based on size. The Royal Decree applies equally to a 5-person SME and a company with hundreds of employees.

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Want to start today? Create your Cleverfy account and let the AI assistant set up your time tracking in the time it takes to drink a coffee. Try it free for 14 days →

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Sources: 2026 Annual Normative Plan (PDF — Moncloa), elDiario.es, infoLibre.

Image: Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes.