Technician time tracking: from the day in the app to the payroll export

Why technicians’ hours are hard to record

A technician’s hours are harder to record than an office employee’s, because their day is made up of pieces: travel, interventions at different customers, internal work in the warehouse, breaks. Some hours you invoice to a customer, others not. And whatever goes beyond the work schedule is, according to the rules that apply to your company, paid out as overtime or taken as compensatory rest.

Anyone who reconstructs all that afterwards, from memory or from a scrap of paper, loses hours on the invoicing side and makes mistakes on the payroll side.

What should technician time tracking record?

• The start and end of the day.
• Travel, separate from the work on site.
• The time per intervention, so that the billable hours are ready.
• Internal work: warehouse, training, van maintenance.
• Breaks.
• Absences: leave, sickness, public holidays.
• What goes beyond the work schedule, and what happens to it: paid out or taken as compensatory rest.
• Every correction, with who made it and why.

From recording to payroll export in five steps

1. The technician records during the day, not afterwards. Each change of activity is one tap on a button.
2. They submit their week, and ask for a correction if something is wrong, instead of tinkering with old hours themselves.
3. The office checks the discrepancies: a day without an end, a day that is too long, hours beyond the schedule.
4. The office decides on the hours beyond the schedule and approves the days.
5. The period is closed and the export goes to the social secretariat (payroll provider). Whatever is closed no longer changes without a reason.

How it works in Digitalnatie Service Suite

If your organisation uses time tracking, the technician has two screens in their app: one for their day and one for their hours.

• Their day: they start their day, choose their activity each time (travel, intervention, internal work, break) and close their day. The buttons of an intervention (departure, arrival, start, end) update their day automatically.
• Their hours: they see their week, request a correction with the reason, and submit their week.

At the office, the staff and hours screen shows, for each technician, the hours worked, the billable hours and the travel hours, the hours beyond the schedule, the absences and what still needs checking.

• Approving: line by line or by selection. A blocking discrepancy stops that day from being approved.
• Hours beyond the schedule: paid out as overtime, granted as compensatory rest, or not granted.
• Correcting: the original record is kept and stays visible; the correction goes into the history, with the name of the person who made it and the reason.
• Closing a period: the hours of the period are locked; reopening it requires a reason.
• The payroll export: an Excel file for your social secretariat. There is no direct link: you send the file on yourself. The calculation rules (breaks, travel, hours beyond the schedule, rounding) are standard rules that your organisation confirms.

If your organisation does not use time tracking, the hours are recorded automatically when an intervention is fully completed. The billable hours of an intervention go on the invoice: see from work order to invoice.

Frequently asked questions

How does a technician record their hours?

In their app, during the day: they start their day, choose their activity (travel, intervention, internal work, break) and close their day. At the end of the week, they submit their week.

Can the office correct hours?

Yes, with a reason. The original record is kept, and the correction appears in the history with the name of the person who made it. The technician can request a correction themselves, which the office accepts or rejects.

How does overtime get to payroll?

When approving, the office decides whether the hours beyond the schedule are paid out as overtime or granted as compensatory rest. After the period is closed, the payroll export creates an Excel file for your social secretariat.

Is there a link with my social secretariat?

No, there is no direct link. The payroll export creates an Excel file that you send on yourself. Kilometres and the distinction between driver and passenger are not in it.

Does the app track my technicians by GPS?

No. At each step button, the app records a single position, if the technician allows it. There is no continuous tracking and no live map.