Running a language school in Spain means juggling education, administration, and legal obligations. One of the trickiest requirements in recent years has been working time registration. Since 2019, Spanish law has required all employers to keep a daily record of start and finish times for every employee — administrators, teachers, both full and part-timers.
Until now, many schools have managed with a patchwork of solutions: paid time-tracking apps for office staff, and signed Excel sheets or PDFs for teachers.
But that approach won’t be enough for long. From 2026, records must be fully digital, tamper-proof, and securely stored for 4 years. For many schools, that means new software costs — often €4 to €6 per employee per month — at a time when budgets are already tight.
That’s why we’re excited to introduce a solution: a brand-new integrated time tracking feature in SchoolMate, designed specifically for language schools. And the best part? It’s completely free for all SchoolMate users.
Why this matters
Legal peace of mind
Our time tracking system records start and end times, plus breaks and other absences in compliance with Spanish labour law. Records are stored securely for 4 years, ready for inspection.
Designed for schools
Administrators can clock in and out for their fixed schedules.
Teachers hours are pulled directly from their teaching calendars, even those with irregular timetables.
Rest days and non-scheduled days can be added and clearly marked to avoid confusion in inspections.
Location tracking without complexity
Teaching locations are drawn automatically from the teacher’s schedule and record where each class took place — whether at the school, at a client company, or online. This makes compliance easy without wasting teacher time.
Absences made simple
Absences can be added and distinguished easily between justified absences (sick leave, appointments) and non-scheduled days. That means no more guessing if a blank day is missing data — everything is clear at a glance.
No extra cost
Unlike many compliance tools, we’ve added this as a standard feature for all schools using our system. Because we believe staying legal should not be a paid add-on.
How it works.
At the end of each month, generating time-tracking reports takes just a few clicks. School administrators and teachers log in to their SchoolMate account to view and download their personal timesheet for the month.
Each employee can approve or reject their timesheet:
If approved, the record is locked and stored.
If rejected, the timesheet can be updated and resent for approval.
Every action — approval, rejection, or change — triggers an automatic email notification and creates a permanent, non-deletable record for full transparency.
All timesheets remain securely stored and accessible, giving schools a complete archive of records for as many years as needed — always inspection-ready.