You know the drill: at the end of the week you ask your team how many hours everyone worked. Someone estimates, someone forgets an extra Saturday, and you try to reconstruct it from the diary. That may have worked in the past, but today it is no longer enough.
Since 2024, both Belgium and the Netherlands require employers to record working hours objectively. Not as an administrative luxury, but as a legal basis to prove you respect labour rules. For hair salons, beauty salons and nail studios with staff, that means: stop estimating, and start recording.
In this article you will read what the legislation in both countries actually requires, what you need to track in practice as a salon owner, which mistakes occur most often, and how to integrate time tracking into your daily workflow without extra hassle.
Why time tracking became mandatory
The debate about hours worked is not new. Employees want certainty about their pay and rest periods. Employers want to know who was present and when. And inspection services want to verify that rules are followed, without relying on verbal agreements or a worn timesheet in the till.
In the salon world, that can feel distant. Your team is small, everyone knows each other, and trust seems enough. But during an inspection, a dispute about overtime or a workplace incident, only what you can prove objectively counts. "I thought she worked until 6 pm" is not evidence.
That is why Belgium and the Netherlands chose to anchor time tracking in law. The goal is the same in both countries: transparency, protection of employees and a level playing field for employers who apply the rules correctly.
Legislation in Belgium
In Belgium, the obligation to register working time was introduced as part of labour market reforms. Employers must record the working time of their employees objectively, reliably and accessibly. That applies to all sectors, including hair salons, beauty salons, barbershops and nail studios with employees on payroll.
The obligation was introduced in phases. Employers with twenty or more employees had to start earlier, but the duty now applies to every employer, including salons with a small team or a few part-timers.
What does the government expect in practice?
Your records must include at least:
- Start and end time of each working day or session
- Breaks that count as rest time
- Overtime and irregular hours, where applicable
- An overview you can present on request during an inspection
Records must be objective. That means: not only what someone writes down afterwards, but a system with reliable timestamps. Think clocking in and out via software, a digital time tracking system or another method that cannot easily be manipulated afterwards.
During an inspection by the social inspection services or as part of RSZ investigations, you may be asked to submit your records. Incomplete or unreliable data can lead to sanctions, alongside any other findings about working time or pay.
What about self-employed workers or interns?
The obligation targets employees on payroll. Self-employed workers in a secondary occupation fall under different rules. Interns and trainees who actually perform working hours must be included in your records. In practice, it is wise to check with your social secretariat which statuses in your salon fall under the registration duty.
Legislation in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the basis was laid with the Transparent and Predictable Employment Conditions Act (WTTA). That law strengthened employees' right to insight into their employment conditions and working hours. Since 1 January 2024, employers must also have a system to record hours worked.
The Netherlands Labour Authority can check whether you have that system and whether it is used in practice. It is not a symbolic arrangement on paper, but demonstrable registration per employee.
What must you record?
As in Belgium, it is about more than just "present or not". You must be able to show:
- How many hours someone worked
- When someone started and stopped
- How breaks were scheduled or taken
- How overtime is recorded, if it occurs
Employees must be able to view their own recorded hours. That is an important difference from informal salons where hours are only known to the owner. Transparency is not optional here, it is part of the law.
Does this apply to small salons too?
Yes. A hair salon with two part-time employees also falls under the registration duty. The size of your business makes no difference. What counts is whether there is an employment contract and performances you must be able to account for.
What exactly do you need to record?
Regardless of national differences, there are elements that recur in every salon with staff.
1. Start and end time per working day
Per employee and per day: when the shift started, when it ended. Not only the planned rota, but what was actually worked. An employee who stays longer for a last client must reflect that in the records.
2. Breaks
Breaks count towards compliance. Someone who does not register a break but still takes one creates a gap between paid hours and hours worked. In busy salons that happens faster than you think: eating between two clients, a short smoke break, someone who returns ten minutes early from lunch.
3. Overtime and irregular hours
Salons have peaks: Saturday, before holidays, during events or bridal shows. People often work longer than contractually agreed. Without records you cannot pay, compensate or prove those hours in a dispute.
4. Retention and accessibility
You must keep data and make it available for inspection and your own administration. Digital systems have an advantage here: you can filter by period, export and archive without folders full of paper.
What does that look like in a salon?
In practice, three scenarios occur most often.
Scenario 1: the trust model. Employees report at the end of the week how much they worked. The salon owner fills in an Excel file. Fast, familiar, but not objective and not compliant with current legislation.
Scenario 2: the diary as proxy. You look at booked appointments and estimate hours worked from the diary. Useful for planning, but not time tracking. An empty diary does not mean nobody worked. Cleaning, stock, training and admin also count.
Scenario 3: digital clock in and out. Employees clock in at the start of their shift and out at the end. Breaks are recorded separately or processed automatically according to your rules. The salon owner has a live overview and can report per week or month. That is the model that best fits current legislation.
Many salons are still between scenario 1 and 2. The step to scenario 3 does not have to be complicated, especially if you already use salon software for diary and administration.
Common mistakes
These are the mistakes we see most often in practice when salons start with time tracking.
- Only keeping the rota. Planned hours are not proof of hours worked.
- Filling in afterwards. Entering the whole week on Friday is not reliable and stands out during inspections.
- Only recording full-timers. Part-timers, weekend staff and interns also fall under the duty.
- Not noting breaks. That creates differences with payroll processing.
- No export or backup. Data that only lives on one phone is not solid administration.
- Not communicating agreements. Employees must know how and when to clock in, otherwise everyone forgets on busy days.
A short team meeting about the new way of working prevents a lot of frustration. Explain why you record hours, not as distrust, but as protection for everyone.
Digital recording or on paper?
Paper timesheets are not forbidden by law, but in a salon environment they quickly become impractical. Paper gets lost, becomes unreadable from product stains and is hard to search when your payroll provider needs period data.
Digital time tracking has clear advantages:
- Objective timestamps per session
- Live overview of who is working
- Filtering per employee and period
- Export to PDF for your bookkeeper or payroll partner
- Less discussion afterwards about "what time was it again?"
It does not have to be a separate system disconnected from your salon software. Prefer to integrate time tracking into the platform you already use for diary, planning and administration. Then you do not ask employees to work in yet another tool.
Time tracking in Salontailor
Salontailor offers built-in time tracking for salons that want to record hours worked without disrupting their existing workflow. The feature connects to your employees in the portal and to your broader administration and planning.
This is how it works in practice:
- Clock in and out per employee. From the portal you clock employees in and out. You see live who is working and since when.
- Objective timestamps. Each session is stored with a reliable start and end time. Forgot to clock in? You can still register a start time on the same day.
- Overview per period. Choose a date range and view all sessions per employee with total duration.
- PDF export. Export a report for your bookkeeper, social secretariat or own archive.
- Automatic email reports. Set up a weekly or monthly report so you always have hours worked clearly at hand.
That makes Salontailor suitable for salons that still work with estimates or separate Excel files, and want a more reliable system without buying a second tool.
Is this suitable for small teams?
Absolutely. The smaller your team, the faster informal arrangements get out of hand. With two or three employees it is still manageable, until a busy month, illness or a dispute about overtime comes along. A simple clock in/out system that is already in your salon software costs little daily effort and delivers a lot of certainty.
Conclusion: recording is not bureaucracy, it is basic administration
Time tracking feels like extra work to many salon owners. In reality it is the basis for paying correctly, avoiding disputes and meeting your legal obligations. Belgium and the Netherlands are on the same track: record objectively, keep records transparently, and be able to show them when asked.
Whether you run a hair salon with weekend staff or a beauty salon with a fixed team: if you still rely on memory and estimates, you take a risk. If you record digitally in the system you already use, you turn an obligation into a routine that takes a few seconds per day.