Two client requests became a product.

The need: time tracking that really fits

It started with two clients and the same wish: a social care organisation and a trade business wanted to track working hours digitally. Neither was happy with the solutions on the market:

• Hosting: most providers host in the US. Storage in Germany was often only available at extra cost.
• Missing features: everyday requirements were not covered, for example KO days in social care.
• Small teams, big gaps: what works in a corporation does not automatically fit a business with a handful of employees.

From client project to product

The plan was an individual business app, built exactly for these requirements. As with every app, we started with an MVP, a small usable demo. Both clients could try early on how the time tracking felt in their daily work.

It soon became clear that the two businesses’ requirements overlapped strongly. And many other small and mid-sized companies have exactly the same problems. So the client project turned into Zeitblick, time tracking for SMEs, developed by a young team at scale.

What Zeitblick can do today

• Time tracking on every device: via app or browser, at a terminal with an RFID chip or terminal-only with a PIN, no chip needed.
• Absences with approval: workflows for every kind of absence, from holidays to training or KO days.
• Shift planning: weekly and monthly views, early and late shifts, matched against colleagues’ holidays and absences.
• Overtime and projects: weekly hours, overtime and time on projects at a glance.

Decision support instead of gut feeling

In small teams every absence is felt. That is why the approver sees, before approving, who else in the team is available in the requested period.

An example: three people work in a team, and two already have approved holidays for the same week. When the third person requests leave, it is immediately clear that nobody would be left. The decision rests on a clear basis, not on memory.

Compliant and hosted only in Germany

Zeitblick meets the requirements of GDPR, GoBD and the German Working Hours Act. Hosting is exclusively in Germany. We do not offer hosting abroad at all, not even as an option. For our clients this means no debates about data transfers to third countries and no surcharge for a German location.

Why not just use a big provider?

You might think the big providers have solved every problem long ago. A look at their communities tells a different story: many small details of everyday use are still open. Our clients knew exactly these problems from their own experience.

In Zeitblick we solved them. Because the product is new, we stay flexible: we implement new requirements when they are relevant and make sense for our clients as a whole.

What this means for your business app

Zeitblick shows how we approach business apps: we start with your specific need, build an MVP to try out and develop it into a solution that holds up in daily work. Whether it becomes an internal app for your team or a product of its own is up to you. More on our business apps page.