Time tracking for a 50-person company: what to require

With 50 people, the question is no longer whether the company needs to track time. Since 2019, recording clock-in and clock-out has been mandatory for establishments with more than 20 workers (art. 74, § 2, of the CLT). The question becomes which system to use and what to require from it.

Manual, mechanical or electronic

The law accepts all three. Paper timesheets and punch clocks are still valid, but with 50 people they turn into rework: someone has to type in the entries, add up the hours and check the hours bank at the end of the month.

Electronic time tracking follows the Ministry of Labor's rules (Ordinance MTP No. 671/2021), which provides for three kinds of system:

Type	What it is	When it makes sense
REP-C	Certified physical time clock	A single-site operation, with equipment at the entrance
REP-A	Alternative system	When a collective agreement authorizes it
REP-P	Software (app or web)	Teams in more than one location, field or hybrid

What to require before hiring

• A receipt for the person at each punch, which they can check later.
• Tax files the inspectors may request, generated by the system itself.
• Hours bank with a visible deadline, hour by hour, not just the total balance.
• Adjustments with a justification and a trail: who changed it, when and why.
• Integration with payroll, so overtime and absences aren't typed in again.

A quick test

Ask for a demo and ask three questions: how the person sees their own balance, how HR fixes a forgotten punch and how the hours reach payroll. If any answer involves a spreadsheet, the problem has just moved somewhere else.

Read also: Hours bank: the agreement and the deadlines and how Vela RH's time tracking works.