Do trust-based working hours die with the duty to track time?

No. Trust-based working hours and statutory time tracking do not rule each other out, they complement each other. You can still organise your working hours and your place of work flexibly – the core of the model is untouched. The only change is that these self-managed hours now have to be documented reliably.

What do trust-based working hours actually mean?

In this working time model the focus is on the work result rather than on mere attendance. Employees decide for themselves when their working hours start and end, which is why there are usually no core working hours or attendance requirements.

What exactly changes as a result of the new rulings (EuGH/BAG)?

Until now, under the German Working Hours Act, trust-based working hours mainly required overtime as well as Sunday and public holiday work to be documented. Current case law widens this obligation: employers must now ensure that all normal working hours are recorded systematically.

What legal limits apply despite maximum flexibility?

Even if you organise your working hours freely, the law protects you against excessive workload. Time tracking makes sure that break times (for example 30 minutes from 6 hours of work) and the statutory rest period of 11 hours between two periods of work are observed. The daily maximum working time of normally 8 hours also continues to apply.

What is the best way to record hours under trust-based working hours?

Timesheets or manual Excel lists barely meet the legal requirements for objectivity and reliability any more. Digital time tracking via app, tablet or browser is the best fit. With software such as clockin, hours can be documented from anywhere and without fuss, so you are on the safe side legally and keep the overview.

Trust-Based Working Hours vs Time Tracking: 2026 Status

What are trust-based working hours? A quick overview

Trust-based working hours are a working model whose key feature is flexibility: employees organise their working hours themselves.

Focus on results: What matters is that the intended tasks get done – when work starts and ends is left to the employees.
No attendance requirement: Organising work independently runs through the whole working day, often including a free choice of where to work (home office, remote work).
No classic overtime pay-out: Extra hours are usually not paid out, but are meant to be balanced out independently through shorter working days on other days.

The condition for this model always has been and still is a high level of trust between employer and employees as well as clear targets.

The legal position: why working time tracking is changing

Until now, the German Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, ArbZG) mainly required overtime as well as Sunday and public holiday work to be documented. Following the rulings of the European Court of Justice and the Federal Labour Court, the position today is: employers are obliged to record their employees' working hours systematically.

EuGH ruling (2019): The European Court of Justice decided that member states have to introduce systematic working time tracking in order to protect employees' health (compliance with maximum working hours and rest periods).
BAG ruling (2022): The Federal Labour Court followed suit and confirmed the duty to record working time in Germany as well.
Draft bill (2023): The Federal Ministry of Labour presented a first draft on “electronic time tracking”.
Current developments (April 2025): The coalition negotiations between the SPD and the Union have concluded that trust-based working hours are to be dealt with separately in the law. Exactly what these exemptions will look like in detail has not yet been finally settled, but one thing is clear: the legislator wants to preserve the model.

This is what changes: Whereas in the past often only overtime was recorded under trust-based working hours, in future employers will also have to document normal working hours.

Are trust-based working hours still allowed?

Yes. Trust-based working hours are still allowed. Companies do, however, have to introduce a system for recording working time as well. Employees can continue to organise their working hours flexibly. Those hours simply have to be documented.

The core of trust-based working hours – deciding freely when to work – is untouched by the documentation. Instead, recording hours brings clear benefits with it:

Transparency & fairness: Employers and employees have an overview of the hours worked at any time. Overtime becomes visible, which prevents extreme workloads and creates fairness within the team.
Better processes & accuracy: In flexible models in particular, (project) time tracking helps to make realistic estimates of effort and to bill customers to the minute.
Health protection: Positive hours and negative hours even out as a rule. That prevents a constant overrun of working hours, which under classic trust-based working hours often went unnoticed.
Strengthening trust instead of surveillance: Communicated properly, time tracking simply lays out objective facts. It does not monitor people, it protects employees' rights.

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The perfect solution for maximum freedom: time tracking with clockin

Anyone offering trust-based working hours needs a time tracking system that is just as flexible as the working model itself. That is exactly where clockin comes in: with the digital time clock you digitalize your working time tracking in no time – GDPR-compliant and 100% Made in Germany.

Whether your team works from home, out in the field or in the office, the software fits seamlessly into the working day:

Available everywhere: Time tracking works via the smartphone app (even fully offline), on a fixed tablet terminal or simply through the web browser on a PC
Child's play to use: With 1-click time tracking, employees clock in and out without any technical knowledge – breaks can also be documented exactly at the push of a button.
Automated processes: Paper timesheets are a thing of the past. clockin automatically creates clean hours reports in real time. Via integrations (for example to DATEV or Lexware Office) these can be passed straight on to payroll accounting or invoicing.
More than just time tracking: From €3.59 a month the system offers smart extras such as online absence management (for vacation and sickness), a simple digital employee file and a personal employee self-service area for maximum transparency.

The best part: You can try the clockin digital time clock free for 14 days with no obligation – without giving any payment details. In just 3 steps your business is ready to go and you leave the paperwork behind for good.

Try clockin free for 14 days

Legal limits: what has to be checked despite the trust

Even with the most flexible trust-based working hours there are employment law limits, and compliance with them now has to be guaranteed seamlessly through time tracking:

Break times: From 6 hours of work a 30-minute break is required by law, from 9 hours it is 45 minutes.
Rest periods: Between two periods of work there must be 11 hours of uninterrupted rest.
Maximum working time: In principle a limit of 8 hours a day applies, which may only be extended to 10 hours where it is balanced out.
Sunday work and public holiday rest: Work on these days – apart from industry-specific exceptions – strictly prohibited.

Which time tracking systems suit trust-based working hours?

The EuGH ruling requires time tracking to be objective, reliable and accessible. Paper timesheets or manual Excel spreadsheets barely meet these requirements any more.

For companies with trust-based working hours, digital time tracking via app, tablet or browser is the way to go. Since employees in the trust-based model often work from home or remotely, cloud software (such as clockin) offers the flexibility needed to document hours from anywhere and without fuss.

Conclusion: acting early pays off

So is working time tracking the end of trust-based working hours? Clearly: no. Employees on trust-based working hours value the freedom and independence – and that stays. The only change is that these self-managed working hours will in future have to be recorded objectively. The coming law does not create entirely new duties, it extends existing record-keeping obligations.

Since politics is still shaping the topic (see the 2025 coalition decisions), it is worth employers looking early for a suitable digital system, to avoid waiting times in the rush on software providers. It is best to involve your team while you are still trialling a time tracking software, take away their fear of surveillance and highlight the benefit of transparency.