Floowa is now live: our own software for time tracking and HR management. Not a client project we hand over and let go of, but a product we develop, operate and keep improving ourselves – from Thannhausen, right in the heart of Bavaria.
This is a long post on purpose. If you only want to know whether Floowa fits your business, you'll find the answer further down under "Who Floowa is for". If you want to know why Floowa exists and how it was built, start at the top.
The starting point: time tracking is mandatory – yet often still a piece of paper
On 13 September 2022, Germany's Federal Labour Court ruled (1 ABR 22/21) that employers are obliged to systematically record their employees' working hours. The ruling builds on the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the 2019 "time clock" judgment of the European Court of Justice. The obligation applies regardless of company size. A reform of the German Working Hours Act that will regulate electronic recording in detail is in preparation.
Yet in many small and mid-sized businesses, reality still looks like this: paper timesheets typed up at the end of the month, a spreadsheet only one person truly understands, leave requests via WhatsApp, and HR documents spread across a filing cabinet, a network drive and an inbox. It works – until it doesn't.
Why we built our own product
Time tracking and digital HR management have been among our core topics for years. We have built time tracking and HR solutions for clients, automated billing and replaced spreadsheet processes. Along the way we kept seeing the same pattern:
The big systems on the market are good – but often built for a different customer. They target companies with their own HR department, are extensive accordingly, and cost so much per head that a small business sticks with paper. At the other end there are simple clock-in apps that store start and end times but neither check break rules nor cover leave, documents or payroll preparation.
Floowa is built for the gap in between: businesses that want – and need – to record time properly, but have neither an HR department nor the appetite for a three-month rollout project.
There was a second reason, too: we wanted to show that our way of working holds up not only in client projects but also in a product of our own that runs every day, needs maintenance and grows with its users.
What Floowa does
Floowa is modular – you book what you need and add more later.
Time tracking that keeps an eye on the law
Working hours can be recorded live via the time clock, after the fact by the employee, or by a manager – for example for staff who don't have or need their own login. Every entry is then checked automatically for breaks, maximum daily hours, rest periods, Sunday work and youth employment protection – under German, Austrian or Swiss law.
Add to that a complete audit log (every correction is recorded with time, person and reason), a reminder the next morning when a working day is missing, a check of the seven-day deadline for mini-jobs under the Minimum Wage Act, self-service Excel export of their own hours for every employee, and automatic deletion after the retention period you define (at least two years).
Floowa supports you in meeting your legal obligations, but it does not replace legal advice.
Clocking in via app and terminal – even offline
The smartphone app lets staff clock in and out on the go, see their week and edit their own entries. It works offline: entries made without reception are stored and sent automatically as soon as the connection is back.
Terminal mode turns an ordinary tablet into a time clock at the entrance. Staff clock in with an NFC tag or key fob, a printed QR badge, or their personnel number and PIN. The terminal shows a confirmation with first name and time, ignores accidental double scans and keeps working offline. Setup takes one QR scan.
Absences, records, documents and payslips
Leave, sickness and training are requested, reviewed and approved in a clear workflow, visible in a team calendar. Every employee, department or the whole company gets its state – including Austria and all Swiss cantons – so target hours, leave days and calendars always use the right public holidays, kept up to date three years ahead. Absences can also be subscribed to as a calendar feed in Outlook or Google.
Employee master data, HR documents and payslips live in one place. Particularly sensitive details such as tax ID, IBAN and payslips are additionally stored encrypted.
Qualifications, inventory, shift planning and payroll preparation
- Qualifications: certificates and training records with reminders before they expire.
- Inventory: company property such as laptops, keys or tools, assigned to employees.
- Shift planning: weekly plans with templates, checked against working time law before publishing, with an optional works council approval step.
- Payroll preparation: month-end closing including German tax-free supplements (§ 3b EStG) and a DATEV export for the tax accountant. Floowa is not a payroll system – it prepares the data cleanly for one.
Interfaces
A documented REST API, signed webhooks and payroll export connect Floowa to payroll, ERP or automation tools such as n8n and Zapier.
Privacy with a home advantage
Floowa is built on a "privacy first" principle: processing in the EU, additional encryption of sensitive data, strict tenant isolation enforced centrally in the system, mandatory two-factor authentication for password accounts (authenticator app or email code) or sign-in with Google, no trackers or advertising cookies, a data processing agreement you conclude in two clicks inside Floowa, and data access requests at the push of a button.
Five languages – and a little bit of Bavaria
Every person chooses their own language, and notifications and emails arrive in that language too. And because Floowa is made in Bavaria, the default variant greets you with a "Servus" and a light Bavarian touch – subtle, no kitsch. Prefer plain German or English? Just switch.
Pricing
Billing is per active employee per month, whether or not the person has their own login.
| Plan | Includes | Price (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Employee records, time tracking, absences, documents | €3.90 per employee/month |
| Pro | Everything in Core plus qualifications, inventory, advanced reports, payslips, shift planning | €6.90 per employee/month |
Optional add-ons: payroll preparation for €1.50 and – with Core – shift planning for €1.00, each per employee per month. The monthly minimum is €19. Pay annually and you pay for only 10 of 12 months. Payment by SEPA direct debit; Floowa is for businesses and self-employed customers only.
Trying it is free: one month, up to ten employees, no credit card. After the trial nothing is charged automatically – without a plan, everything stays readable and editing resumes once you book one. You can cancel monthly and export your data at any time. Current prices are always on www.floowa.de.
How Floowa was built
Every module went through a definition phase before the first line of code: a technical definition (data model, flows, permissions, interfaces) and a user guide. Only then was it built – and both documents are kept up to date with every change.
Floowa was built with AI support – otherwise the scope would not have been feasible for a very small team in this time. The division of labour is clear: AI handles routine work such as boilerplate code, tests and documentation; architecture, security and domain decisions stay with us, and every change is reviewed manually before going live, in addition to automated tests, static analysis and consistent code standards. Floowa runs on current Laravel and PHP – the same stack we use for client projects – and we monitor operations, backups and an additional off-site backup copy ourselves.
Who Floowa is for – and who it isn't
Floowa is a good fit if you are a small or mid-sized business that wants to solve working time recording properly; if your people work in workshops, on building sites, in warehouses, in care or in retail rather than at desks; if you want to digitise leave, records and documents at the same time; if you have sites across several German states or the DACH region; and if privacy matters to you.
Floowa is probably not the right choice if you need a complete payroll system or a large corporate HR suite with recruiting and performance management. And if you are somewhere in between or have special requirements: that's exactly what we are here for.
One more thing: Vio Aura
Floowa isn't our only product. With Vio Aura we have also released an Android app: a discreet period tracker with no ads, no cloud and no account. The app simply has no permission to connect to the internet, so health data technically cannot leave the device. A very different product for a very different audience – with the same attitude: privacy you can verify.
You'll find both on our new products page.
Let's get started
Try Floowa at www.floowa.de – one month free, up to ten employees, no credit card. Questions, a demo, or wondering whether Floowa connects to your existing systems? Get in touch. We answer personally – from Bavaria.
