When time tracking isn’t accurate, the company ends up paying for hidden breaks

Hidden breaks – how accurate time tracking saves thousands of euros

Time tracking is the backbone of every company’s operations. When it’s inaccurate, small errors start to pile up – and in the end, the company ends up paying for employees’ “hidden breaks.” This is the story of a manufacturing company where time was logged with modern facial recognition terminals – but the system was still easy to exploit.

When technology doesn’t guarantee fairness

Employees had to clock in and out through a terminal that identified them by face. Sounds efficient, right? In reality, a few unexpected problems emerged:

• Up to 200 people per shift – long queues formed at the terminals every morning and at shift changes.
• Some workers took advantage of the system – they clocked in and went for a smoke or coffee instead.
• Work time started running even though the actual work hadn’t yet begun.

The result was inaccurate time tracking that took managers and HR hours to fix. Even worse – each month, the company paid for dozens of hours that were never actually worked.

Turning point: switching to Hours SmartTrack

The company decided to try a new approach – the Hours SmartTrack system, which registers working time automatically and based on location. Employees no longer needed to do anything manually – the system handled it in the background.

The results were immediate:

✅ No queues or delays – logins happen automatically within the workspace.
✅ Time tracking became honest and accurate – the system shows when a person is truly working.
✅ “Extra breaks” became visible – smoke and coffee breaks that were previously hidden inside working hours are now transparent.
✅ Managers saved hundreds of hours each year – no more manual corrections or disputes over hours.

The real impact: 3-month comparison

📊 Before (facial recognition terminal): 5–7 % of working time was logged incorrectly, costing the company around €12 000 per quarter.
📈 After (with Hours SmartTrack): the error rate dropped below 0.5 %, saving more than €10 000 in the same period.

These results prove that even the most advanced terminal can’t guarantee fairness if the system can be “bent” by human behavior. SmartTrack removes that risk – time is logged where the work actually happens.

The takeaway

Time tracking isn’t just about reporting. It’s the foundation of trust, efficiency, and fairness in an organization. Automated tracking reduces conflicts and increases transparency – everyone knows the data is accurate and equal for all.

Hours SmartTrack makes time tracking fair, precise, and automatic – exactly the way it should be.