Updated 2026-10-03 · 2 min read
This article is about Spanish employment law and does not apply outside Spain: if your clinic is in the United Kingdom, the United States or Portugal, your own country's rules apply. At many clinics in Spain the working-hours record is a sheet at reception that someone fills in at the end of the month from memory. That's exactly what the rule wants to avoid, and the first thing a labour inspection looks at.
The obligation has existed in Spain since 2019 and covers every business with at least one employee: employed physiotherapists, reception or cleaning staff. The self-employed owner isn't required to record their own working hours, but must record their team's.
What has to be recorded
Each person's start and finish time, every day, kept for four years and available to the team, their representatives and the Spanish Labour Inspectorate.
The new Royal Decree, still going through the approval process at the time of this article, points to the how: an exclusively digital record that can't be changed without leaving a trace, with breaks and overtime, and that the Inspectorate can consult remotely. It's worth getting there with a system that already complies.
Why the notebook no longer works
A notebook or a spreadsheet can be filled in after the fact and corrected without a trace. Faced with an inspection, that proves nothing, and penalties are set per affected person, not per clinic.
At a clinic, what's more, hours change: morning and afternoon shifts, sessions that run over, one physiotherapist covering for another. A record made at the moment is the only one that reflects that without arguments.
How clocking in works with ClaudIA
With ClaudIA's clocking-in feature, at clinics in Spain, each member of the team marks their start and finish from the system or by writing «entro» and «salgo» (in and out) to the clinic's WhatsApp from their verified number. Those messages don't get mixed up with patient conversations.
Each mark is stored with its real time; a correction records who made it and why, and the reports for the period are downloaded whenever the accountant or the Inspectorate asks for them.
Questions clinics ask
Does a clinic in Spain with just one employed physiotherapist have to record working hours? Yes. The obligation starts with the first employee, whether physiotherapist, reception or cleaning. The self-employed owner doesn't have to record their own working hours.
Is a sheet signed every day enough? Today it's weak evidence before an inspection, because it can be filled in afterwards. The new decree, still being processed, points to requiring a digital, unalterable record.
Can staff clock in by WhatsApp? With ClaudIA, yes: each member of the team writes «entro» or «salgo» to the clinic's WhatsApp from their verified number, and it's recorded with its time. Available at clinics in Spain.