Digital staff scheduling for restaurants and hotels: time records, rest periods, shift swaps
Rotas in Excel or on the noticeboard, shift swaps over WhatsApp, timesheets at month-end: in restaurants and hotels staff planning takes a lot of time and is error-prone. At the same time, stricter recording duties apply in Germany than in many other industries. A digital system plans, records and hands over to payroll without anyone retyping paper.
Which duties apply
A rota must follow these rules, and actual hours must be recorded:
- Restaurants and accommodation are among the industries listed in Section 2a of the German Undeclared Work Act. Start, end and duration of daily working time must therefore be recorded under Section 17 of the Minimum Wage Act by the seventh day after and kept for at least two years.
- Breaks under the Working Hours Act: at least 30 minutes for more than six hours, 45 minutes for more than nine.
- An 11-hour rest period between shifts; in hospitality it may be one hour shorter if offset within a month or four weeks by a rest period of at least 12 hours.
- No more than ten hours a day, eight on average.
What a digital system does
Good systems warn during planning when rest periods or maximum hours would be breached. Staff see their rota in an app, enter availability and swap shifts with manager approval. Time recording runs via app or terminal, deviations from the plan show up immediately, and at month-end hours and supplements go to payroll, for example as a DATEV export.
Data protection and works councils
Record only the data needed for planning and payroll; location tracking is usually unnecessary for time recording. If there's a works council, it has a co-determination right for technical systems that can monitor behaviour or performance. Involve it early.
Cost and rollout
Scheduling apps usually charge per employee per month. Plan a test month alongside the old rota and train shift leads first. We help you choose and connect the system to POS and payroll; integration starts at €600.
Frequently asked questions
- Is an Excel rota enough?
- For planning, yes. But actual working hours must also be recorded, and Excel doesn't warn about rest-period breaches.
- Does the recording duty apply to mini-jobbers?
- Yes. It applies to marginal employees in all industries, and in hospitality to all employees up to certain salary thresholds anyway.
- May staff record their own hours?
- Yes, but the employer remains responsible for correct records.
Sources
Tell us your team size, locations and POS. We suggest a scheduling system and connect it to your payroll.
Digitise the rota