The short answer
Clock-in software for Spanish SMEs records each person’s daily start and end times (art. 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute) via web, app or WhatsApp Business. The entry must live in a system you can look up and export: a WhatsApp chat, on its own, is not a legal record.
This article is a commercial guide to channels and use. The legal status (what is law today and what is not) is in the 2026 digital working-time article; the royal-decree delay is not retold here.
It is for the SME that mixes office, field and remote work, and for the payroll firm that does not want a different spreadsheet per client.
What is clock-in software for SMEs, and what is it for?
It is the front door of the daily record: the person marks start, breaks and end, and the company stores that entry with a trail. It is not a theoretical timetable, a rota, or a group where people type “I’ve arrived”.
- It meets the duty to note start and end each day (art. 34.9 ET, RDL 8/2019) if the record is daily, identifiable and retrievable.
- It stops you rebuilding the month on Friday from memory, a photo of a sheet, or a chat thread.
- It lets you export the month for Labour Inspection, employee representatives if any, or the payroll firm.
- It fits with leave, shifts and, when hours have to reach the payslip, the Laboral module. It does not generate payroll on its own.
- It is not a biometric terminal or a “certified clock-in” badge. That official list does not exist.
Web, app or WhatsApp: which channel fits your team?
Three channels, one record. Pick the one the team will actually use; you can combine them. What is not used every day is not a record, it is an intention. The friction-free rollout guide is in the digital clock-in for SMEs article; here the decision is the channel.
Web
Office, counter or workshop with a browser to hand. Nothing to install on that machine. Fits when the day starts and ends in front of a screen.
Mobile app
On the road, on site, in a shop or at home. The phone is already in the pocket. Covers start, breaks and end without a company computer.
WhatsApp Business
When you do not want another app. Almost everyone already has it open. WhatsApp is the interface; the entry (person, time and, if set, the site) lives in the system.
Can people clock in via WhatsApp and still have a valid record?
Yes, if WhatsApp Business is only the door and the entry lands in a backend that identifies the person, stores start and end, and can be exported. No, if the “record” is a group, a status or a message to the supervisor.
- A chat can be deleted, de-facto edited (delete and resend) and is not kept in order for four years. To Inspection it is not a system: it is a conversation.
- Article 34.9 does not name WhatsApp. It names a daily, reliable, accessible record. The medium is secondary; reliability is not.
- Do not present the thread as evidence. Present the system export.
- If some people clock in via web or app and others via WhatsApp, it must be the same record, not two truths.
Do you need a geofence for the clock-in to be valid?
No. Article 34.9 does not require a geofence. It is a reliability measure when people clock in away from a single office, not a condition for the record to “be legal”.
- It is set per site: you can require it at a warehouse or shop and leave it off for remote work.
- It supports the claim that the clock-in happened near the site. It does not track the person all day.
- Do not sell it to the works council or the client as “the law requires it”.
- If it adds nothing (one office, everyone at the same browser), do not turn it on as decoration.
What must be settled on day one?
Software does not clock in by itself. Before you invite the team, lock these rules. How to tell the team, without making it sound only like surveillance, is in the digital clock-in for SMEs guide.
- Who must clock in: every employee, including part-time, seasonal and remote staff.
- What is marked: start, breaks and end. A Friday weekly total is not a daily record.
- What happens on a miss: who corrects it, by when, and with what trail. A month with zero incidents is often a month that was tidied up.
- One channel (or a mix) and the others close. Paper plus Excel plus chat leaves blank days.
- Try exporting the month as if Inspection called tomorrow. If it does not come out, the system is not ready.
FAQ
What clock-in software fits an SME?
The one the team uses every day and that leaves an exportable entry. Web, app or WhatsApp Business all work if the record is the same. A chat or a spreadsheet with no trail does not.
Does WhatsApp clock-in meet article 34.9?
It does if WhatsApp is the channel and the entry lives in the system. An “I’ve arrived” group does not: it can be deleted and is not kept for four years.
Is a geofence mandatory?
No. Article 34.9 does not require it. Use it if it adds reliability (several sites, field teams).
Is there Inspection-certified clock-in software?
No. There is no official ITSS or AEAT list. Anyone selling “homologated” software is using a word that does not map to a public register today.
Can I combine web, app and WhatsApp?
Yes. One record, three doors. What you cannot do is keep an Excel for the office and a group for the shop.
What does it cost and how do we try it?
Vacly Time starts at €8.89 per employee per month, VAT included. The trial is 15 days, no card required.
How Vacly clock-in handles this
[Vacly Time clock-in](/producto/tiempo/fichaje) puts web, app and WhatsApp Business in one record. WhatsApp is the channel; the entry lives in the system, with an exportable trail. Optional geofence per site. Missed clock-ins and breaks go through approval, not a parallel thread. From €8.89 per employee per month, VAT included. It is not “certified”: that badge does not exist. It is the front door of the Time module, for SMEs and payroll firms that do not want a chat as the archive.