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Case study · HR & time tracking · Hungary

A custom time tracking system

How we replaced attendance sheets in Excel, leave requests by email and project hours in a separate tool with a single, custom-built HR system, built exclusively for our partner's internal use.

Client
Confidential partner
Use
Internal use only
What we built
A custom time tracking and leave management system
Service
Custom software development · Payroll integration

The challenge

Time tracking is one of those areas nobody wants to spend much time on, yet it lands on the desks of HR and accounting at the end of every month.

At our partner, attendance lived in Excel, leave requests arrived by email and project hours sat in a third tool, so every month-end close started with detective work. They tried several off-the-shelf solutions, but always hit the same wall: either their approval process didn't fit, project-based time logging was missing, or the export didn't come in a format their accountant could import.

The solution: a custom, in-house HR system

Instead of bending their processes to fit a template, our partner decided to have their own system built. We developed it exclusively for internal use, tailored to how they actually work, from clocking in all the way to the payroll export.

01

One-click clock-in and clock-out

Clocking in, starting a break, switching projects and clocking out are a single click each, so daily admin shrinks to a few seconds.

02

Time logging by project

Every time entry belongs to a project or cost centre, which shows the real cost of client projects and how much time goes into internal work.

03

Time corrections with an audit trail

Employees can correct their own entries, but each change becomes a justified change request for their direct manager, and closed weeks are locked.

04

Leave with an approval chain

Leave, sick leave and home office requests go straight to the direct manager, and approved days are deducted from the annual allowance automatically.

05

Roles and permissions

Four base roles (employee, team lead, HR, admin) with fine-grained permissions, plus a direct manager for every user that defines the approval chain.

06

Public holidays and payroll export

Hungarian public holidays and rescheduled working days are built in, and the monthly export arrives in exactly the format the accounting software expects.

The system up close

The screenshots below show the system's interface with sample data.

01

Overview

Employees start their day here: clock in with one click, see today's entries, this week's hours against the target and their remaining leave. The weekly target adjusts to public holidays automatically.

Overview page with clock-in and clock-out, today's entries, weekly hours and remaining leave
02

Weekly timesheet by project

Hours per project and per day in one table, with a national holiday marked automatically. Corrections show up as change requests until the manager approves them.

Weekly timesheet broken down by project, with a national holiday and change requests
03

Approvals and team calendar

Managers approve or reject their direct reports' requests with one click, and the team calendar shows at a glance if too many people want the same week off.

Pending leave and home office requests, with the team calendar below
04

Roles and permissions

A permission matrix per role, and the list of users with their direct managers. If someone changes teams, their approval chain changes with a single edit.

Role and permission matrix, next to the list of users and their direct managers
05

Holidays and payroll export

The holiday calendar feeds working time targets, leave and reports. The monthly export comes as XLSX, CSV or XML, with a pre-close checklist for unclosed weeks and pending requests.

Public holiday list and monthly payroll export settings, with a pre-close checklist

Why custom development?

There is no shortage of time tracking software, and an off-the-shelf solution works perfectly for many companies. Custom development pays off when the approval process doesn't fit the templates, project-based time logging is business-critical, the export has to match an existing payroll system, or the data has to stay in-house.

All four applied to our partner, so a system built around their processes was the better long-term choice than adapting their processes to a generic tool.

Result

Employees use the system with a few clicks a day, management gets a real picture of where the team's time goes, and for HR, month-end close is no longer days of back-and-forth but a single export.

Is your time tracking scattered across tools?

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