What the monthly timesheet is, how it differs from daily time tracking, the mandatory fields it must contain and a practical template for filling it in correctly.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
Many companies confuse “time tracking” (pontajul) with “the monthly timesheet” (foaia de pontaj lunar) — although they are in fact two different things. The first is the daily record of hours worked; the second is the aggregated monthly document used for payroll and for inspections. This guide explains the difference, what fields a complete monthly timesheet must contain and how to fill it in without errors.
Daily time tracking is the real-time recording of attendance: time in, time out, and possibly breaks. It is done at a station, by card, QR code, app or, in the classic version, through a paper register.
The monthly timesheet is the document that aggregates all those daily records for a full calendar month, for each employee: total hours worked, overtime, absences by type, public holidays worked. It is the document that actually feeds the payroll calculation and that is normally shown during an ITM (labour inspectorate) inspection as evidence of the record required by law.
In practice, daily time tracking is the raw material; the monthly timesheet is the processed result, ready to be used in the payroll register.
The duty to keep a record of the hours worked by each employee follows from the Labour Code (Codul Muncii, art. 119): the employer must record daily the start time and the end time of the schedule, and the record must be made available to labour inspectors during an inspection. The law does not impose a particular format — it may be a register, a table or software — but it does require the record to exist, to be real and to be capable of being reconstructed month by month, not only day by day.
The absence of a proper record, or a timesheet with contradictory data, is exactly what an inspector checks during an inspection and exactly what is missing in an employment dispute when an employee challenges the hours paid.
The monthly timesheet is completed for all employees, whatever the type of employment relationship:
A monthly timesheet that is complete and usable for payroll should contain at least:
These categories must be shown separately, not buried in the total of “hours worked”, because each has a different compensation regime (minimum premium, recovery through time off, weekly caps). A timesheet that mixes normal hours with overtime in a single figure does not allow the legal cap to be checked properly and frequently leads to payroll errors.
If the company practises telework, days worked from home should be marked distinctly (even if the hours are paid identically), for transparency and for any contractual clauses relating to telework. Likewise, business travel days must be shown separately, since they may affect the daily allowance (diurna) and other related entitlements. It is also useful to mark, on the monthly sheet or in an associated report, the days eligible for meal vouchers, since these are as a rule granted only for days actually worked, not for absences.
A minimum structure, in table form, looks like this:
| Day | Hours worked | Overtime | Type of absence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | - | - | - |
| 2 | 8 | 2 | - | extended shift |
| 3 | - | - | CO | - |
| … | ||||
| Month total | XX h | X h | X days CO / X days CM | - |
At the end of the month, the totals on this sheet feed directly into the payroll calculation: overtime enters the premium formula, CO/CM days are reported as the law requires, and days worked on public holidays enter the compensation calculation.
The number of working days in a month varies from year to year, depending on how public holidays and weekends fall. Do not complete the timesheet on the basis of a “standard” template taken from a previous year — always check the official working days calendar for the current year and month before aggregating the totals, otherwise you risk differences in the total of normal hours and, by extension, in payroll.
Filling in the monthly timesheet by hand is exactly where most errors appear — a forgotten day, a wrong absence code, an unrecorded overtime hour. Workly removes that step: clocking in is done through a Kiosk with a rotating QR code and NFC card, and the system aggregates automatically, month by month, the hours worked, overtime, absences by type and public holidays — with no manual filling in and no risk of an incomplete sheet during an inspection.
The resulting totals are exported directly in SAGA format, without re-keying data, and the accountant uses them as the basis for Declaration 112 (Declarația 112). And the personal data in the time-tracking record is encrypted, with automatic purging when the retention period expires, in line with GDPR.
For the exact calculation of hours worked beyond schedule in a month, you can also use the 2026 overtime calculator.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not tax or legal advice. Always check the official working days calendar for the current year and the rules in force (the Labour Code, ITM) or consult a specialist before taking decisions.
Night work guide: the 22:00–06:00 window, the 3-hour test, the choice between a schedule shortened by one hour and the 25% premium, medical examinations and protected categories.
Shift planning guide: the 12-hour daily rest and the 48-hour weekly one, night shifts, uneven schedules, the 4-month reference period and the rules on communicating the roster.
Overtime calculation step by step: the hourly rate, the minimum 75% premium, compensation with time off within 90 days, combining with the night premium and public holidays.
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