Is your time tracking actually digital, or just digitized?

A spreadsheet filled in by hand every evening, a WhatsApp group where employees type when they clock in and out, a clock-in app nobody ever configured to keep a history: all three are, technically, “digital.” None of them satisfies Royal Decree-Law 8/2019, the law that has required every company operating in Spain to keep a reliable, verifiable time record since 2019. At Evicron, an AI and custom software studio based in Barcelona, we review SME time-tracking setups every week, and the same mistake keeps coming up: confusing “it lives on a computer” with “it’s compliant.”

What the law actually means by “digital”

Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 doesn’t mandate a specific tool, but it does require every record to meet four conditions at once. Miss one, and the record won’t hold up under inspection:

• Accuracy. The logged time has to match the real clock-in and clock-out, not an estimate filled in later.
• Traceability. If someone edits an entry, the system has to show who changed it, when and why. A spreadsheet with no version history fails this even if the final number happens to be right.
• Instant access. The employee, their legal representatives and the Labor Inspectorate need to be able to check the history directly, not wait on someone in HR to dig it up.
• 4-year retention. The record has to stay available for that full period — not just “as long as it’s useful” or until someone deletes it to free up space.

A new decree that would tighten these requirements further — digital-only clock-ins with real-time access for inspectors — is still working its way through government after a critical opinion from the Council of State, with September as the current target. We cover the full story, sources included, in our piece on what Spain’s time-tracking law requires now versus what’s delayed. Whenever that decree lands, the four conditions above are already enforceable today.

Five signs your “digital” time tracking doesn’t comply

1. Entries can be edited with no trace

If anyone with file access can change last week’s clock-in and the document doesn’t record who touched it, you don’t have traceability. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Excel, Google Sheets or a PDF regenerated each week — if the previous version disappears when someone corrects it, it isn’t a verifiable record.

2. The record lives in a messaging app

A WhatsApp thread where staff type “in” and “out,” or a daily email to HR, isn’t a record-keeping system — it’s a conversation. There’s no structure, no clean export, and above all no way to prove nothing is missing from the one day an inspector cares about.

3. Nobody can check it without asking

If an employee has to message HR to find out how many hours they logged last week, the system fails the instant-access requirement. The law doesn’t just require the data to exist — it requires it to be available, without delay, to whoever has the right to see it.

4. It gets wiped or lost every few months

Plenty of companies only keep the current month’s log; last quarter’s file gets overwritten, lost in a laptop swap, or nobody remembers where it went. Four years of retention isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the legal minimum.

5. It doesn’t break down split shifts or overtime

A record that only logs “8 hours worked” with no clock-in, break and clock-out detail won’t survive a real inspection, especially in businesses with split shifts or frequent overtime — that’s exactly the level of detail inspectors check on site.

A ten-minute self-check

1. Pull up the log from three months ago. If it’s hard to find or gone, retention is the problem.
2. Edit a test entry and see what gets recorded. If it doesn’t show who changed it or when, traceability is the problem.
3. Ask an employee to check their own history without HR’s help. If they can’t, access is the problem.
4. Check whether the system separates split shifts and overtime, not just a daily total.

If your company fails two or more of these, what you have today wouldn’t hold up under inspection — no matter what you call it.

If the check-up doesn’t go well

At Evicron we build and maintain QWorker, our own time-tracking software, built specifically to cover all four conditions without friction: weekly digital sign-off on every entry, a tamper-evident history that logs any change, direct access for employees and inspectors, and automatic 4-year retention. It starts at €2.50/employee/month, with no lock-in and a free trial requiring no card; if you want to compare features before deciding, we also have a full guide to choosing time-tracking software.

If your setup doesn’t fit a standard tool — multiple sites, unusual shift patterns, or integration with an existing ERP — our AI and software consulting starts by working out what actually fits your operation before recommending anything.

Bottom line

“Digital” doesn’t mean what most SMEs assume: the law requires accuracy, traceability, instant access and 4-year retention, and a spreadsheet or a WhatsApp group won’t satisfy any of the four on their own. Checking takes ten minutes; not checking gets expensive the day an inspector shows up.

Want us to check whether your time tracking would hold up under inspection today? Get in touch: the first consultation is free and we reply within 24 hours.