Hybrid working has become the default arrangement for a large share of Belgian SMEs. Two days at home, three at the office, or some other mix that shifts week to week. The flexibility is valuable, but it creates a genuine operational question: how do you track working time in a way that is fair, transparent and legally defensible for every employee, regardless of where they happen to be sitting?
Belgian labour law does not distinguish between the office and the kitchen table. The 38-hour week, daily and weekly overtime ceilings, and annual recovery rules apply just as firmly to home-working days. With Belgium's mandatory working-time registration deadline approaching in 2027, now is the right moment to get your systems in shape rather than scrambling later.
Why remote work makes registration harder
On-site, time registration has natural anchors: a badge reader, a QR code on the wall, a kiosk by the entrance. At home, those anchors disappear. Employees start their day already working, without any formal clock-in moment. Breaks blur into the workday. Start and end times become approximate.
In practice this leads to two recurring problems:
- Under-reporting: hours worked are not logged, making overtime invisible and leaving employees without the legal protection they are entitled to.
- Inaccuracy: times are reconstructed after the fact rather than captured in the moment, which creates vulnerability during a social inspection.
Spreadsheets make both problems worse. They offer no reliable timestamp, no audit trail and no automatic check against legal thresholds. Why Belgian SMEs are moving away from spreadsheets explores this in more detail.
Setting clear ground rules for the whole team
Technology is only part of the answer. The foundation is a written policy on remote working and time registration that applies equally to everyone, regardless of location. At minimum, that policy should specify:
- When the working day is considered to start and end, including on home-working days.
- How breaks are recorded.
- Who is responsible for correcting a missed clock-in or clock-out, and within what timeframe.
- How managers can view time data without crossing into micromanagement.
Clarity here prevents friction later. Employees who understand that registration serves their own interests, as evidence of hours worked and protection in any dispute, tend to engage with it much more willingly.
One system for every location
The biggest technical risk with hybrid teams is a split setup: a physical clock-in device at the office and a spreadsheet for home days. This fragmentation creates gaps and inconsistencies that are difficult to reconcile and that undermine the overall audit trail.
A better approach is a single platform that covers both situations. Employees clock in via a mobile app or a browser, from wherever they are working. Timestamps are generated server-side, meaning they cannot be adjusted retrospectively without leaving a visible correction history. That is exactly what sets server-stamped times apart from manual entry.
Tikkit is built around this principle. Employees at the office can clock in via QR code or kiosk, while those working from home use the app or the web portal. All registrations flow into the same system, giving managers and HR a single coherent picture of the team's working hours.
Keeping an eye on overtime and wellbeing
One underappreciated benefit of accurate time registration in a hybrid context is the visibility it gives you over structural overwork. Remote employees are particularly exposed to boundary creep: the evening email, the quick call just before dinner, the workday that quietly runs over. Without registration, this stays invisible to the employer, but the liability does not disappear along with it.
A system that automatically totals daily and weekly hours and flags when employees approach legal limits lets managers intervene proactively. That protects the employee's wellbeing and shields the employer during a social inspection.
Hybrid working and fair time registration are not in conflict. With clear agreements and a system that treats every work location consistently, you build a registration practice that holds up under scrutiny, and one that will be ready well before the 2027 deadline arrives.