Time tracking in a club: who has to record and who does not

Four groups, different rules

In a club, people work side by side on very different bases: the employee in the office, the groundskeeper in a mini-job, the coach with the trainer allowance and the helpers at the club party. What matters is not the label but whether someone is an employee. The Working Hours Act, the minimum wage and the records depend on that.

Volunteering or employment

The Working Hours Act applies to employees (section 2(2) ArbZG). Anyone volunteering is not one, and the minimum wage expressly does not govern the pay of volunteers (section 22(3) MiLoG). An expense allowance does not yet turn volunteering into employment.

The line shifts as soon as someone receives instructions on time, place and content, is scheduled into fixed routines and is paid well beyond their expenses. The yardstick is section 7(1) SGB IV. What this means for allowances and charitable status is on the industry page for clubs.

Coaches in a mini-job: allowance and earnings limit

Income as a coach for a charitable club is tax-free up to 3,300 euros a year (section 3 no. 26 EStG), other part-time activities up to 960 euros (section 3 no. 26a EStG). This tax-free income does not count as pay for social insurance purposes (section 1(1) sentence 1 no. 16 SvEV).

A common combination follows from this. If the club spreads the coach allowance evenly over twelve months, that is 275 euros a month that do not count towards the 603 euro mini-job limit. A coach in a mini-job can thus receive up to 878 euros a month. He or she remains an employee: the 13.90 euro minimum wage applies to every hour, and the hours belong in the record under section 17 MiLoG. The allowance applies per person and year, not per club.

Tournament Sunday and club party

Clubs have exceptions of their own for Sunday. Employees may work on Sundays and public holidays at non-commercial events and activities of clubs and in sport, where the work cannot be done on working days (section 10(1) nos. 6 and 7 ArbZG). In return, 15 Sundays a year stay free, and every Sunday worked brings a replacement rest day within two weeks (section 11 ArbZG).

Anyone volunteering behind the bar at the club party does not fall under this. The groundskeeper in a mini-job who sets up on tournament Sunday does: his or her hours count for the rest period, the daily limit and the records, and the tournament weekend can push them over the mini-job limit.

Records for mini-jobbers and employees

For mini-jobbers, section 17 MiLoG applies in full: the start, end and duration of every working day by the end of the seventh calendar day, kept for two years. Under section 1(2) MiLoDokV, an exemption applies to spouses, registered partners, children and parents working in the business. If the club is a legal person, such as a registered association, this means the relatives of the board members who represent the club.

For employees there is no exemption for small or charitable employers. Working time beyond eight hours per working day is recorded under section 16(2) ArbZG, and since the Federal Labour Court's order of 13 September 2022 employers have to record working time in principle, without a prescribed form.

Recording hours where the club is the employer

In MetronHR employees, mini-jobbers and employed coaches clock in via the app, in the browser or at the terminal with an NFC card, for example in the clubhouse, without a private phone. The time is in the system to the minute on the same day, without rounding. Mini-jobs can be kept without target hours, and the clocked hours still show per day, as section 17 MiLoG requires.

In the roster of the Professional plan, MetronHR reports before publication when the configured rest period, the daily or weekly limit or the maximum number of consecutive working days is exceeded. At the end of the month, hours per person are in the monthly Excel overview and in the payroll file for DATEV, for the tax adviser who runs the club's payroll.