I use WorkingHours for time tracking in the context of German working time regulations. For proper documentation towards employers and authorities, it would be very helpful if each individual break, including its start time and duration, could be included in the export.
Background: According to § 4 of the German Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, ArbZG), if an employee works more than six and up to nine hours per day, they must take rest breaks totaling at least 30 minutes, which may be split into intervals of at least 15 minutes each. Furthermore, employees may not work more than six consecutive hours without a rest break.
To be able to prove compliance with these rules, it is not sufficient to record only the total break time per day. It must be clear when the first (and any subsequent) break started and how long each break lasted, for example to demonstrate that the first break was actually taken within the first six hours of work.
My suggestion:
- Extend the internal data model (if not already present) to include explicit break events (break start, break end).
- Extend all export formats (especially Excel/CSV, and ideally also PDF) with a detailed list of breaks per work entry.
This would make WorkingHours an even better solution for legally compliant time documentation in the German market, especially for employees who need to prove their working hours in line with the ArbZG.
Thank you very much for considering this suggestion!
Suggested export structure
You can optionally add these examples to your request.
- Separate rows per break (CSV/Excel)
Each work entry (work unit) is repeated per break, with extra columns for break details:
| Date | WorkStart | WorkEnd | BreakIndex | BreakStart | BreakEnd | BreakDurationMinutes | TotalWorkDurationMinutes | Notes |
|-----------|-----------|---------|------------|------------|----------|----------------------|--------------------------|------------|
| 2026-03-05 | 08:00 | 16:30 | 1 | 12:00 | 12:30 | 30 | 480 | Project X |
| 2026-03-05 | 08:00 | 16:30 | 2 | 15:00 | 15:15 | 15 | 480 | Project X |
- Compact breaks column per work entry
If separate rows are not desired, breaks can be encoded as a list in one column:
| Date | WorkStart | WorkEnd | Breaks | TotalBreakMinutes |
|-----------|-----------|---------|------------------------------------------|-------------------|
| 2026-03-05 | 08:00 | 16:30 | 12:00–12:30 (30); 15:00–15:15 (15) | 45 |
- PDF export
In the PDF export, each work entry could have a dedicated “Breaks” section, for example:
- Break 1: 12:00–12:30 (30 min)
- Break 2: 15:00–15:15 (15 min)
This makes it easy to verify and demonstrate that breaks were taken in compliance with the legal requirements.
WorkingHours version: 2.16.1
OS + version: Any
Device model: Any
