Time tracking for auto repair shops
clock in fast, whatever state your hands are in
Stained hands, gloves and zero patience at 8:00 am with three cars at the door. Paper dies in the first week and the fingerprint reader never worked with grease. The industry solution: a PIN kiosk on a tablet next to the front desk, two seconds, no biometrics.
Quick answer: a workshop has a very physical clock-in problem: stained hands, gloves, overalls and zero patience at 8:00 am with three cars waiting. That is why paper dies in the first week and the fingerprint terminal, on top of being restricted by the AEPD, never worked well with grease. The industry solution: a PIN kiosk on a tablet next to the front desk area, two seconds, barely a touch, no biometrics.
The 4 workshop challenges (and their solution)
Informal overtime, Saturdays "everyone just knows about" and small teams with no record. The Labour Inspectorate visits workshops often, and the biggest hidden liability is the one nobody wrote down.
Clocking in with dirty hands
Nobody unlocks a phone wearing nitrile gloves. A tablet kiosk with a big PIN pad next to the front desk, a knuckle tap, two seconds, next. Included in every plan, works on any tablet, even an old one.
Alternate Saturdays and the metal industry schedule
Week A with a Saturday, week B without, plus the annual hours from the collective agreement that all have to add up. Rotating shift plans with automatic annual totals, so the shop foreman's spreadsheet can rest in peace.
The 7:30 pm rush job
The overtime from the "I'll pick it up tomorrow" car has to be logged and either compensated or banked in a legal, documented hours bank, not left in the foreman's head. Automatic totals with an alert to the foreman.
Multiple sites (workshop, tyres, MOT centre)
If you run more than one location, you get reports per site and staff who rotate between them without duplicating records.
How Cleverfy works in a workshop
The hours on the repair order (what you bill) and working time (what the law requires) are two different things. Your DMS keeps handling the repair orders, Cleverfy meets Article 34.9. Mixing them into a single figure ends badly on both fronts.
Tablet kiosk
At the front desk or in the locker room, a big PIN pad designed for workshop hands. Included in every plan.
Mobile app
For anyone out on a tow truck, roadside assistance or vehicle collection, with optional location on the clock-in.
Shift plans with alternate Saturdays
Week A/B and the annual metal industry agreement total, automatic.
Overtime by the day
With alerts: today's rush, compensated this week, not claimed next year.
Official ChatGPT app
Check your working hours and clock in from the chat itself, with controlled access. No other Spanish time-tracking tool has it.
Reports per site
With a 4-year history, change traceability and setup in 10 minutes, between your coffee and the first car.
Clock-in systems for a workshop, compared
Notebook by the till
Grease, rush and "I'll write it down later": in an inspection it hurts more than it helps
Fingerprint terminal
Restricted by the AEPD (Spanish data protection agency) since 2023, and grease never let it read the fingerprint properly
Office spreadsheet
Filled in at the weekend, with no traceability: it proves nothing
The workshop management system (DMS)
Books hours to repair orders (billing), it is not a compliant record of working time
PIN kiosk + app (Cleverfy)
A knuckle tap in and out, automatic overtime, a compliant record from 1.20 €/user
What the record must contain (and what the Labour Inspectorate will look at)
The Labour Inspectorate has one cross-check almost nobody sees coming: repair orders against the working-time record. If your repair orders bill 9 hours of labour on a Saturday and your record says nobody worked that Saturday, the billing itself proves the hidden working time.
Worker identification
Mechanics, panel beaters, painters, front desk, admin
Real start and end times
The ones with overalls on, not the theoretical ones from the shift plan
Breaks
The mid-morning sandwich break: counted or not depending on the agreement, with a fixed rule
Alternate Saturdays
Week A/B identified, with its annual metal industry total reconciled
Overtime
The "rush job" counted, with the annual tally (80 h) in plain sight
Work site
Workshop, tyre branch, second location: each one kept separate
How to roll out clock-ins in a workshop in 5 steps
Place the kiosk where everyone walks past (30 minutes)
A tablet with a big PIN pad at the front desk or by the locker room: a knuckle tap in and out, two seconds, designed for greasy hands or nitrile gloves. Any tablet works, even a retired one. You link it by scanning a single-use QR code from the dashboard.
Set up the metal industry schedule (1 hour)
Shift plans with alternate Saturdays (week A/B), the annual hours from your provincial metal industry agreement and the sandwich break with its rule, uniform for everyone. The foreman's spreadsheet goes to a better place.
Add the staff (30 minutes)
From the payroll spreadsheet into the system. Mechanics, panel beaters, front desk and office, everyone, including the part-time admin, which is a part-time contract with its own mandatory daily accuracy.
A one-week trial run
The foreman reviews the clock-ins over the morning coffee (2 minutes): missed ones corrected with an audit trail. Tow truck and roadside assistance clock in from the app, with the real time saved even if there is no signal out on the road.
Monthly routine: overtime and cross-check with repair orders
The hours from "I'll definitely pick it up tomorrow" are compensated that month, paid or as time off depending on the agreement, but documented. And a consistency check: what your repair orders bill at the weekend should also exist in the record.
Auto repair shop with a tyre branch, 9 employees
The risk: a senior mechanic leaves for another workshop and claims two years of Saturdays and peak-season overtime. Their estimate (4 Saturdays/month at 5 hours plus peaks) is presumed true when there is no record to disprove it, more than 7,000 €, and the repair orders from those Saturdays, with their billed labour, confirm the workshop was open. The part-time admin, with no daily record, adds the presumption of full-time hours under Article 12.4 to the pile.
The result with Cleverfy: 10.80 €/month on the annual plan. The next peak season is run with a record in place: 62 hours of overtime in November, visible, compensated in January with documented time off, and with the system alert nobody comes near the annual limit. The repair-order versus record cross-check goes from threat to a 10-minute monthly routine. The pending claim is negotiated down: since rollout, the data works in your favour.
Frequently asked questions about time tracking in workshops
Two seconds per clock-in, zero grease on the paperwork
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