Who is in consultation today, who is on reception?
MetronHR plans the practice day in activities rather than shifts: consultation, home visit, blood draw, lab, reception. In a 30-minute grid, with each person's hours on the same sheet.
- A day plan in a 30-minute grid instead of Excel
- The rule "doctors require an assistant" checks the staffing along
- Time tracking and absences in the same system
In short
Consultation, house call, blood sampling and reception share the same team. The daily plan shows who is on which task right now.
Legal position
What sits above time tracking in a doctor's practice
Alongside the Working Time Act, which applies to every business, three things come into play in a practice: the on-call service of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, delegation to medical assistants, and the tighter framework for trainees under 18.
- Typical size
- 8 to 15 employees
- Price for 12 people
- 60 euros on Team, 120 euros on Professional
- Matching template
- Duty roster for the month, free of charge
- Break from 6 hours
- 30 minutes, from 9 hours 45 minutes
On-call duty under section 75 (1b) SGB V
On-call duty outside consultation hours is part of the mandate of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, and physicians in private practice are in principle obliged to take part.
How the duty is actually rostered is governed by each association's on-call regulations, and those differ by federal state. For planning inside the business what matters most is what comes afterwards: the eleven-hour rest period under section 5 ArbZG applies after the duty, and it regularly clashes with the next morning's consultation hours.
Delegation needs a qualification, not just a free person
Medical services may be delegated to medical assistants as long as they do not require the physician to act in person and the person is qualified for the task.
For planning that means an activity is not staffed with just anyone, but with someone who is allowed to take it on. A plan that only counts how many people are present misses exactly that. MetronHR therefore ties activities to qualifications, including several at once.
Trainees under 18 fall under the Youth Employment Protection Act
Tighter limits apply to minors than under the Working Time Act: a maximum of eight hours a day and 40 a week, plus longer breaks and a night rest.
In a practice training medical assistants this regularly affects one or two people in the team. Software that only checks against the Working Time Act will not report a breach of the Youth Employment Protection Act. MetronHR checks against both when planning and when recording.
Breaks and limits, depending on the person
| Applies to | Maximum working time per day | Break | Rest period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adults, sections 3 and 4 ArbZG | 8 hours, extendable to 10 | 30 minutes from more than 6 hours, 45 from more than 9 | 11 hours |
| Trainees under 18, JArbSchG | 8 hours, 40 per week | 30 minutes from more than 4.5 hours, 60 from more than 6 | 12 hours |
| Pregnant and nursing employees, MuSchG | no additional work beyond 8.5 hours | as for adults, plus nursing breaks | 11 hours, no night work from 8 pm |
Adults, sections 3 and 4 ArbZG
- Maximum working time per day
- 8 hours, extendable to 10
- Break
- 30 minutes from more than 6 hours, 45 from more than 9
- Rest period
- 11 hours
Trainees under 18, JArbSchG
- Maximum working time per day
- 8 hours, 40 per week
- Break
- 30 minutes from more than 4.5 hours, 60 from more than 6
- Rest period
- 12 hours
Pregnant and nursing employees, MuSchG
- Maximum working time per day
- no additional work beyond 8.5 hours
- Break
- as for adults, plus nursing breaks
- Rest period
- 11 hours, no night work from 8 pm
Extending to ten hours under section 3 ArbZG requires compensation within six calendar months or 24 weeks. As at 4 September 2026.
Further reading:Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Working Time Act · Section 75 (1b) SGB V (mandate to secure care, on-call duty) · Sections 8, 11 and 13 of the Youth Employment Protection Act
As at:September 2026. This is not legal advice; for a specific case in your business it is better to ask someone with a licence to practise.
The practice day is planned, but written down nowhere
Consultation, home visits, vaccination appointments and reception share the same team. Who has which job when is usually known by one person, and she is in the treatment room.
Reception is left unstaffed in between
During the blood-draw hour nobody is at the desk. It shows when three patients come in at once and the phone rings.
Cover gets improvised
If an assistant drops out, the day is rebuilt in somebody's head. What that means for the weekly hours nobody sees.
Home visits fall out of the arithmetic
The time spent away from the practice is on a slip of paper in the car and reaches the hours overview at the month end, if at all.
A day plan that maps the practice
MetronHR ships a template for doctors' practices: the groups doctors, assistants, apprentices, reception and lab, fourteen activities from consultation to sterilisation, the 30-minute grid and two staffing rules. From then on you plan the day rather than explain it.
No consultation block without an assistant
The staffing rules check the whole day, not just the headcount in the morning.
This is how you plan the practice day
Take the template, drag the day out, publish.
Step1
Take the practice template
Doctors, assistants, apprentices, reception and lab as qualification groups, plus consultation, home visit, treatment, blood draw, lab, diagnostics, vaccination clinic, reception, telephone, billing, documentation, sterilisation, team meeting and internal training as activities.
Step2
Drag the day out in blocks
In the person's column you drag out the period and pick the activity. A day pattern carries recurring days over, so the Tuesday layout does not come about anew every week.
Step3
Pin it up and take it along
The published plan goes to the noticeboard as a PDF and to the team's app at the same time. The evening before, MetronHR reminds them about the next day.
What doctors' practices get out of it
Planning, hours and absences mesh instead of standing side by side.
On-call duty as a type of its own
On-call duty and consultation are not the same thing in the plan.
Standby duty and on-call duty are separate configurations, and assigning or withdrawing them sends a notification. If somebody is called out from standby, the call-out is an event of its own.
A day plan in a 30-minute grid
The plan follows the consultation rhythm.
You set the day window and the grid interval yourself.
Staffing rules for doctor and assistant
Doctors require an assistant; reception at least one person during opening hours.
Gaps are marked before the plan is published.
Target and planned per person
The hours balance sits on the same sheet as the planning.
Credits from holiday and public holidays count automatically.
Record home visits on the phone
Time away from the practice does not get lost.
A timer and later entry in the app for iOS and Android.
Training certificates in the personnel file
The certificates sit where the contract sits.
With a reminder about expiring deadlines.
An export for payroll
Hours as a number rather than a typed-up printout.
Excel and CSV, plus a block export per activity.
The ArbZG checked while you plan
Rest periods and maximum working time are checked as you assign.
Including when a long day unexpectedly gets longer.
Ready without a consulting appointment
The practice sets up its activities, groups and rules itself.
No setup project, no activation fee.
For the whole practice team
One person plans, everyone has to read it.
The day is planned before it starts
The routine sits in the practice manager's head and fails when she is away.
A day pattern and a template make the routine visible and transferable.
See the gaps while they can still be closed
Understaffing at reception only shows in the waiting room.
Staffing rules mark the windows where somebody is missing.
Your own day in the app
The plan hangs in the practice and cannot be looked up in the evening.
Your own blocks with the activity and the time, and a reminder the evening before.
Clean hours without follow-up questions
Handwritten timesheets have to be reworked.
An Excel export with hours as numbers, usable straight away.
A patient practice means sensitive personnel data
Access to plans, hours and reasons for absence is governed by role.
- German server locations, processed in line with the GDPR
- Reasons for an absence visible only to those authorised
- Without the right, the server does not hand out other people's hours
- Every change to the plan is documented and can be read back
How the day plan works in detail
Activities, staffing rules, the hours arithmetic, printing and export are explained on the duty planning feature page.
Frequent questions from doctors' practices
What should be settled before you start.
No. The template for doctors' practices comes with fourteen activities, from consultation through blood draw and diagnostics to sterilisation and team meetings, each with a colour and a short code. You can change, add to and delete them yourself at any time.
Through a staffing rule. The template contains "doctors require an assistant (1)" and "reception at least 1 during opening hours". MetronHR checks both across the day and marks the windows where the staffing does not add up.
The template starts at 30 minutes. You can set 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 60 minutes, plus the day window, by default 08:00 to 19:30.
Yes. Approved absences colour the person's column for the whole day and count as a credit in the hours arithmetic. Training away from the practice is an absence; an internal team meeting is an activity in the plan.
Yes, as a real PDF, either a day sheet or a compact weekly sheet. For the practices we spoke to, that was a condition for adopting it.
No. Pick the template, invite the team, plan. The practice sets up everything else itself. There is no activation fee and no minimum term beyond the month.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
Plan the practice day rather than explain it
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Related
Where to go from here, and what waits for you there.
How to plan practice duty
The guide in five steps, from the activities to the rest period after on-call duty.
ViewTime tracking for a practice with 12 people
What that costs a month, with the providers' list prices beside it.
ViewDuty planning software
Consultation, lab and reception in a time grid, with qualifications per activity.
View