Time tracking with Excel is common practice in many companies. It allows working hours, absences, breaks, and overtime to be recorded in flexibly customizable tables.
Excel is easy to use, available free of charge, and versatile. Thanks to integrated formulas, numerous calculations can be automated, which makes it easier to manage employees and projects.
Despite these advantages, Excel has its limitations. So should companies continue to rely on Excel or switch to specialized tools? Lucca supports you in finding the right solution for your needs.
Swiss labour law: What applies to time tracking?
In Switzerland, employers are legally obliged to record their employees' working hours. According to the Labour Act (EmpA), companies must:
document the daily working hours per employee;
clearly indicate working hours, breaks, and overtime;
comply with the maximum working hours prescribed by law (usually 45 or 50 hours per week, depending on the industry and function).
Article 46 EmpA requires companies to introduce a clear system for recording working hours in order to ensure transparent tracking of hours worked.
Whether using an Excel spreadsheet, app, or specialized software, the goal remains to comply with labor law and ensure reliable documentation of working hours for all projects.
What are the advantages of recording working hours with Excel?
Excel is particularly suitable for small businesses or teams with few employees who are looking for a simple and cost-effective solution.
The most important advantages:
Excel is already available in companies that work with Microsoft 365. This is ideal for daily or weekly recording.
Tables can be flexibly customized, for example, to calculate working hours, overtime, or wages.
There are hardly any costs associated with using it, and templates can be created or downloaded online for free.
Employees quickly learn to record their hours in Excel and use formulas for automated calculation.
Excel makes it easier to manage multiple projects and helps track the time spent per task or customer.
Good to know: Templates for time tracking are available online free of charge and make recording and evaluation easier.
What are the disadvantages of time tracking with Excel?
Despite all its advantages, time tracking with Excel has significant limitations, especially for companies that are growing or subject to strict legal requirements.
The main disadvantages:
Tables, formulas, and schedules must be maintained manually. This takes time and ties up resources.
Manual entries increase the risk of errors, for example when calculating overtime.
With more employees, projects, or customers, Excel quickly becomes confusing and tracking becomes more difficult.
Excel files cannot be managed centrally, which makes it difficult to maintain an overview.
Spreadsheets are susceptible to data loss or security issues.
When multiple people work on the same file, version conflicts and incorrect data can quickly arise.
Good to know: Manually maintained Excel spreadsheets for time tracking increase the risk of calculation errors, which can affect payroll data and lead to legal disputes.
Wouldn't specialized time tracking software be more useful?
Although Excel can be used to track working hours in Switzerland for small teams without any problems, it is only suitable for larger companies to a limited extent, mainly due to the lack of central data access. All employees have to record their working hours individually, which slows down processing and makes efficient working time management difficult on a larger scale.
For this reason, using software for working time management is often the better choice. These tools are designed to simplify recording and offer advanced features that meet the needs of companies of all sizes.
Among other things, they enable:
the automation of recording working hours, breaks, and absences;
the centralization of all data, securely stored on a single platform;
ensuring compliance with Swiss labour law requirements.
The use of specialized time tracking software reduces manual entries and minimizes the risk of human error. Thanks to simpler and more reliable processes, HR teams can avoid repetitive tasks and focus on activities with higher added value.
Although recording working hours with Excel remains a simple and cost-effective solution for small businesses, specialized software is the most reliable option for recording working hours correctly, centrally, and in compliance with the law.
Would you like to further develop the organization of working hours together with your employees? Our memo shows what is important in practice.
