Time tracking in restaurants
In brief: Time tracking in a restaurant is not just a payroll exercise. It is a compliance requirement, a management tool, and an operational signal. This guide explains what effective time tracking looks like in a restaurant context, the legal obligations, and how Shyfter handles the specific challenges of hospitality, including split shifts, casual workers, and night hours.
Why time tracking matters in a restaurant
A restaurant schedule is a plan. Time tracking is the record of what actually happened. The two will never be identical, shifts run over, staff arrive late, casual workers fill unexpected gaps. Managing a restaurant without time tracking means managing with incomplete information.
In Belgium, time tracking also has a legal dimension. The labour inspectorate can request records of actual hours worked for all staff, including casual workers and student workers. If you cannot produce accurate time records, you face administrative penalties and potential back-pay obligations.
What must be tracked
Start and end of each shift
The minimum requirement is recording when each worker starts and finishes work. For split shifts, this means four time records per worker per day: start of lunch service, end of lunch service, start of evening service, end of evening service.
Break times
In Belgium, workers are entitled to a minimum 30-minute break after 6 consecutive hours. This break must be recorded. If a worker's records show 8 consecutive hours without any break recorded, the labour inspectorate will question whether the break was actually taken. Document breaks explicitly.
Overtime
Any hours worked above the contractual schedule must be tracked separately. Under Joint Committee 302 (Belgian hospitality collective agreement), overtime triggers specific obligations, recovery time, supplements, or both. If you do not track overtime, you cannot calculate the correct payroll.
Night hours
Hours worked between 10pm and 6am attract a night work premium under Joint Committee 302 (Belgian hospitality collective agreement). These hours must be identifiable in the time tracking records so that the premium can be calculated correctly for each worker each pay period.
Time tracking methods in hospitality
Mobile app clock-in
The most practical method for most restaurants: staff clock in and out on their personal smartphone via the Shyfter app. Each clock event is timestamped, geo-located (optional), and cannot be backdated. The manager sees the real-time status of who is on shift from any device.
Shared tablet (POS-style)
For kitchens or venues where not all staff use smartphones, a shared tablet mounted at the entrance records clock events. Staff clock in with a PIN code. A photo is taken at clock-in for identity verification and dress code compliance checks. This is the Shyfter POS method.
NFC / badge systems
Some restaurants use NFC cards or badges that tap a terminal on arrival and departure. These integrate with scheduling systems and export to payroll automatically. Shyfter supports integration with major badge systems via API.
Managing time tracking for casual workers and student workers
Casual workers and student workers require particular attention in time tracking. For student workers, in Belgium, cumulative hours across all employers count toward the annual student hour quota. Shyfter tracks hours for each student worker in your account and alerts you as they approach the threshold.
For casual workers, accurate time tracking is essential for the Dimona (Belgian employee registration system) reconciliation at the end of each pay period. The declared hours must match the actual hours worked.
Time tracking data and payroll
The value of time tracking is realised at payroll. Shyfter exports actual hours, segmented by day, by worker, by premium category (night, Sunday, public holiday), directly to your payroll provider. This eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors, and ensures the correct premiums are applied automatically.
The export also feeds into your labour cost reporting: actual cost per service, cost per cover, variance against the planned schedule.
FAQ
Do restaurants have a legal obligation to track time in Belgium?
Yes. Belgian labour law requires employers to maintain accurate records of actual hours worked for all employees. In the hospitality sector, the labour inspectorate actively checks these records during inspections. Failure to maintain accurate records is an administrative offence. Electronic time tracking systems like Shyfter provide a timestamped, unalterable audit trail that satisfies the legal requirement.
Can staff edit their own clock-in records in Shyfter?
Staff can request corrections, but managers must approve any change. The original clock event is preserved in the audit log. This ensures the integrity of the time record while allowing genuine mistakes to be corrected with a documented approval trail.
How does Shyfter handle split shift time tracking?
Shyfter records each clock event separately, start of lunch, end of lunch, start of evening, end of evening. The system automatically calculates effective working hours (the total of both blocks), the break duration (the gap between the two blocks), the total span (from first start to last end), and any applicable premiums. If the span exceeds 14 hours or the break is outside the permitted range, the system flags it for manager review.
