Sector · Cleaning and facility services
Cleaning company staff tracking: every client site separate, one timesheet
A cleaning company’s staff work in an office tower, a school, a hospital corridor; most are part-time and some go to two sites a day. And the work usually runs as subcontracting: under Turkish law your client shares responsibility with you for those workers’ rights. If records are not kept on site, by site, you cannot answer either side.
Why is tracking a separate job in a cleaning company?
Tracking is a separate job because you are the employer but the workplace is your client’s. The team leader takes the roll on site in the morning and reports hours to head office at month end; head office uses those hours for both the staff’s pay and the client’s invoice. One wrong line produces two arguments: one with the worker, one with the client.
Many of the staff work part-time. Someone who works four hours in an office in the morning and three in a shop in the afternoon splits the day between two sites and two clients. On a hand-kept sheet one of those two parts easily disappears, or is written down as one long day together with the travel in between.
At contract renewal, clients increasingly ask for records: how many people were on site on which day, who was late, who covered for the person on leave. Those questions need answering from the record itself, not by leafing through a logbook at month end.
Who is responsible for what in subcontracting?
In short: under Turkish law the principal employer is jointly responsible with the subcontractor for obligations towards the subcontractor’s workers relating to that workplace (Labour Law art. 2). The duty to keep records lies with the subcontractor that employs the workers.
| Topic | Source | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Joint responsibility | Labour Law No. 4857 art. 2 | The principal employer is jointly responsible with the subcontractor for obligations under the Law, the employment contract and the collective agreement relating to that workplace |
| Checking that wages are paid | Labour Law art. 36 | The principal employer checks whether the subcontractor’s workers have been paid, on the worker’s application or monthly of its own motion |
| Annual leave records | Labour Law art. 56 | The subcontractor gives the principal employer a copy of its leave register; the principal employer checks that leave is used |
| Leave entitlement when the subcontractor changes | Labour Law art. 56 | A worker who keeps working at the same workplace after the subcontractor changes has leave calculated on the time worked at that workplace |
| Recording working time | Working Time Regulation art. 9 | The employer records working time by suitable means |
The table summarises the statutory text; sham subcontracting, the content of service contracts and rules specific to public tenders are outside the scope of this page.
How the system is set up for a cleaning company
Every client site is a work area
The location and radius of the tower, school or shop are defined. Staff arriving on site clock in by phone with location or with the QR code on site.
Site = department
Each client becomes a branch in the department tree; the team leader, as department head, sees only that site’s staff.
Two sites in a day
With the company setting on, staff clock out at the first site and in at the second; each record keeps its own location and the time in between is not counted as work.
Part-timers’ contracted hours
Weekly contracted hours are entered on the staff record. Hours above the contract and up to 45 are separated at a 25% uplift, hours above 45 at 50% (Labour Law art. 41).
Timesheet by site
The monthly timesheet filters by department and exports to PDF, CSV and Excel. An approved month is locked and does not change silently afterwards.
Staff without phones
Staff who do not use a phone pick their name on the shared tablet on site and clock in with a personal PIN; the company may also ask for a photo.
Leave and balances
Annual leave is calculated by seniority; request and approval, half-day leave, balances and the team leave calendar share one record. The monthly timesheet shows leave days by type.
Late and absent
Staff expected today who have not clocked in show on the live board; repeated lateness alerts the manager and the employee too.
A week for a part-timer working two sites
Example: someone with a 30-hour weekly contract works 4 hours at an office every weekday morning and 2 hours at a shop in the afternoon, and worked an extra 5 hours on Saturday.
| Item | Hours | How it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Office site (5 days × 4 hours) | 20 hours | Booked to the office department |
| Shop site (5 days × 2 hours) | 10 hours | Booked to the shop department |
| Extra Saturday work | 5 hours | Above the contracted 30 and up to 45: work beyond contractual hours, 25% uplift |
| Travel between sites | — | Falls between clock-out and the next clock-in; not on the working record |
If the worker wishes, each hour beyond contractual hours may be taken as 1 hour 15 minutes of time off instead of the uplift (Labour Law art. 41). Cases where travel counts as working time are listed in art. 66 (e.g. being sent by the employer to work somewhere other than the workplace); check with your adviser whether your arrangement falls within it.
What the system does NOT do for cleaning work
We say this as plainly in the sales conversation.
- It does not calculate invoices. The system does not work out the service fee for the client; it gives hours and days by site, and you prepare the invoice.
- It does not run official payroll. Payroll is prepared in your accountant’s software; the system produces a payroll input package (CSV and PDF, versioned) from the approved timesheet.
- No task lists or quality inspection. A checklist of which floor was cleaned when is not part of this system; it records the time the person was on site.
- We do not promise your client a separate panel. Leave records for the principal employer and the site timesheet are shared as exported files.
- It does not assess sham subcontracting. Whether the subcontracting relationship is lawfully set up is a legal assessment; a records system cannot measure it.
What to watch with part-time work
Part-time work is common in cleaning; Turkish law forbids treating these workers differently from full-timers.
- Definition — under art. 6 of the Working Time Regulation, work of up to two thirds of comparable full-time work at the workplace is part-time work.
- Equal treatment — under Labour Law art. 13 a part-timer may not be treated differently merely because the contract is part-time, unless there is a justified reason; divisible pay benefits are paid in proportion to time worked.
- Requests to go full-time — the employer takes into account requests to move from part-time to full-time when a suitable vacancy exists, and announces vacancies in time (art. 13).
- Rest breaks — 15 minutes for work of 4 hours or less, 30 minutes for 4 to 7.5 hours (art. 68). Even a four-hour morning block gets a defined break.
What do records do for you at contract renewal?
At renewal, records become the basis of the negotiation. When the client says “the site was short-staffed most days”, the monthly timesheet shows how many people clocked in on that site each day, who was on leave and who was late. The discussion runs on the record rather than on memory; if the record shows a shortfall on your side, you see it early and fix it.
The second benefit is internal. The roll calls and corrections the team leader makes on site are kept with who and when; staff see their own clock-ins and remaining leave on their phones. A month-end “I worked that day but it isn’t recorded” objection closes in minutes by looking at the record. Because the approved month is locked, the figure sent to the client and to accounting stays the same.
When a new client site is won, setup is a few steps: add the site to the department tree, define its location and radius, print its QR code, assign staff. No device installation, cabling or card issuing; and when a site is lost, there is no hardware left to remove.
Sources
The article references in this guide are based on these official texts (in Turkish). Legislation can change; check the current text before acting.
When cleaning companies ask
Our client wants to know at month end who worked how many hours on their site; how do we provide it?
Each client site is defined separately in the department tree, and the monthly timesheet filters by department. You export that site’s timesheet as PDF, CSV or Excel and share it. Because the approved month is locked, the figure you give the client does not change silently later.
Can we get the leave records we owe the principal employer from the system?
Labour Law No. 4857 art. 56 requires the subcontractor to give the principal employer a copy of its leave register. The system holds annual leave entitlement, balances and carried-over leave; the monthly timesheet shows leave days by type and can be filtered to that site and exported as PDF, CSV or Excel. The form of the register and its delivery to the principal employer remain your obligation.
Our staff work in two buildings a day; does the travel count as working time?
The system keeps the two sites as two separate records and does not count the time in between as work. Cases where travel counts as working time are listed in Labour Law No. 4857 art. 66; if the employer sends staff to work somewhere else, travel time may count. If you have such an arrangement, decide with your adviser how to treat it on the timesheet.
Does a worker’s leave entitlement reset when the subcontractor changes?
No. Under Labour Law No. 4857 art. 56, a worker who keeps working at the same workplace after the subcontractor changes has annual leave calculated on the time worked at that workplace. When you add these workers to the system under a new contract, you need to enter that time correctly as the seniority start.
How do we show the client that we sent someone else to cover a worker on leave?
The absent worker’s leave is recorded as approved and appears on the timesheet with its leave type. The person you send clocks in on that site with their own phone or the site’s QR code or tablet, and the record is booked to that site’s department. In the site-filtered monthly timesheet both appear in the same table, each with their own days.
If the site bans phones, how do staff clock in?
A location-bound QR code can be posted in the site’s staff room, or a shared tablet placed there; on the tablet staff pick their name and clock in with a personal PIN. The tablet needs a connection on that site. Staff do not have to carry a phone during the shift.
Next
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Part-time work under Turkish Labour Law art. 13: the comparable worker, pro-rata pay, equal treatment, the part-time timesheet and the overtime ban.
ExploreClock-in system
Clock-in by GPS, QR and a shared tablet
ExploreAnnual leave calculation
Annual leave calculation under Turkish Labour Law art. 53: 14, 20 and 26 days, the age rule, the first year, rest days not counted, splitting and leave pay.
ExploreTell us about your sites and teams
How many client sites, how many part-time and full-time staff? We define the sites and contracted hours with you during onboarding, free of charge.