You agreed to eight hours a day, but last Tuesday you stayed until 9pm to finish a report, and on Thursday you ate lunch at your desk while answering calls. By the end of the month, nobody remembers the exact numbers, and payroll can only pay what it can see. Learning How to Keep Track of Working Hours is how you protect your overtime pay, your leave balances, and your position if a dispute ever comes up.
Most employers in the UAE run some kind of attendance system, from biometric scanners to HR software. That system protects the company. Your own record protects you. It does not need to be fancy: a notebook, a phone note, or a simple spreadsheet is enough, as long as it is consistent and kept somewhere you control.
Quick Answer
Record these six things every workday: the date, your start time, your finish time, your breaks, any overtime hours, and a short note about anything unusual (a shift change, a rest-day worked, a public holiday). Log entries the same day, not at month-end. Keep your records for at least 12 months, backed up somewhere outside your work devices. Cross-check them against your payslip every month, and raise gaps with HR in writing while memories are fresh.
How to Keep Track of Working Hours: What to Record
A useful log answers one question: exactly when did I work, and when did I rest? If your record covers the items below, it can support an overtime claim, a leave dispute, or a gratuity calculation years later. The underlying rules on normal hours, breaks, and overtime limits are covered in our guide to working hours rules, which is worth reading alongside this one.
| Field | What to write | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Date and day | e.g. Tuesday 12 May 2026 | Identifies rest days, public holidays, and Ramadan periods |
| Start time | When you actually began work, not when you arrived | Sets the baseline for the 8-hour day |
| Finish time | When you actually stopped work | Reveals overtime the roster may miss |
| Breaks | Total break time, e.g. 1 hour | Breaks are not working time; logging them keeps your count honest |
| Overtime hours | Hours beyond normal, with the reason | The basis for your 25% or 50% overtime pay |
| Notes | Shift changes, leave, sick days, instructions from a manager | Explains anomalies before they become arguments |
One field people forget is the note. “Manager asked me to stay until 10pm for the client delivery” written on the day is worth more than a perfect spreadsheet with no context. It turns raw hours into a story payroll and, if needed, the authorities can follow.
Four Simple Methods That Actually Work
1. A paper notebook
The oldest method still works. One line per day: date, start, finish, breaks, overtime. Keep the notebook at home, not in your desk drawer, and never hand the only copy to anyone. Paper is hard to argue with and impossible to remotely wipe.
2. A spreadsheet
A basic sheet with one row per day and columns for start, finish, breaks, overtime, and notes takes five minutes to set up and makes monthly totals automatic. Add a simple formula for overtime hours (finish minus start minus breaks minus 8). Keep the file in your personal cloud storage, not your work account.
3. A phone note or time-tracking app
A dated note in your phone, jotted down as you leave the office, is the easiest habit to keep. There are free time-tracking apps that add start/stop buttons and GPS timestamps, which can be useful, but a plain note with honest times is perfectly fine. Screenshot anything relevant, like a manager’s message asking you to work late, and save it with the day’s entry.
4. Your employer’s system, plus your own copy
If your company uses biometric attendance or HR software, that is a good primary source, but it is not the whole story. Biometric systems record presence, not necessarily work: they miss the hour you worked from home after dinner and the lunch you skipped. Treat the employer’s system as one source and your own log as the other. When the two agree, you have an airtight record. When they differ, you have a question worth asking.
Whatever method you choose, the rule is the same: log the same day. Reconstructed memories are vague memories. A two-minute entry at the end of each shift beats a heroic hour of recall at month-end.
Tracking Overtime and Night Hours Specifically
Normal hours are easy; the money is in the extras. Overtime pay in the UAE runs at 25% above your basic hourly wage for daytime hours and 50% for hours between 10pm and 4am, so your log should flag exactly when the extra hours happened. A simple approach is to mark overtime entries with the time band, for example “19:00–21:00 (day rate)” or “22:30–00:30 (night rate)”.
Also record the instruction, not just the hours. Overtime means work your employer asked for, so note who asked and how: “Rashid asked in the team meeting” or “email from Sara at 17:40”. If you want to understand what qualifies as overtime in the first place, read what counts as working time before you start logging.
Finally, cross-check your overtime log against your payslip every single month. Overtime should appear as its own line or be clearly folded into your wage. If a month’s extra hours are missing, raise it in writing immediately; old underpayments are much harder to fix than fresh ones. Your payslip and salary transfer records should tell the same story, which is why it helps to keep proof of your salary payments alongside your hour log.
Keeping Track When You Work Remotely or Flexibly
Remote and flexible workers need tracking the most, because nobody sees them at a desk. If your contract or remote-work arrangement specifies working hours, log against those hours exactly as an office worker would. If your hours are flexible, log actual start and finish times so the pattern is visible.
Save the digital traces too: login and logout timestamps, sent-email times, and task-completion records in your company’s tools. These corroborate your log without extra effort. Remote work has its own set of rules around hours and availability, covered in our Dubai remote work rules guide.
How Long to Keep Your Records
Keep daily records for at least 12 months after the month they belong to. That covers a full cycle of payslips, leave years, and Ramadan periods. If any dispute, complaint, or claim is open, keep everything related until it is fully resolved, however long that takes.
Practical tips: back up digital logs somewhere your employer cannot access, such as a personal email or cloud folder. For paper logs, photograph each completed page monthly. Never keep your only copy on a work laptop or work phone; if you leave the job suddenly, you may lose access before you can copy anything.
If Your Records and Your Employer’s Records Differ
Differences happen. A biometric scanner misses a day, a manager forgets to approve overtime, a roster changes without notice. Handle it in this order:
- Compare calmly. Line up your log against the company’s record and identify the exact days that differ.
- Raise it in writing. Email HR or payroll with the specific dates, your recorded times, and any supporting evidence such as messages or screenshots. Written requests create a paper trail; verbal ones evaporate.
- Escalate if ignored. If the company will not correct clear errors, you can approach the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE), which handles private-sector labour matters. Bring your contract, your log, payslips, and your written exchange with HR.
Your contract is the reference point for all of this: it defines your normal hours, your basic wage, and your rest days. If you have never actually read those clauses, our guide to UAE employment contract types explains where to find them and what they mean.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do I really need my own log if my employer tracks attendance?
Yes. Employer systems record presence, not always work, and they can miss remote hours, skipped breaks, and unapproved-but-real overtime. Your own log is independent evidence that you control. When both records agree, disputes rarely start; when they disagree, yours is your voice in the conversation.
Does my commute count as working time?
Generally no. Commute time is not working time under UAE law, except for certain job categories defined in the regulations. Do not log it as hours worked; it weakens the credibility of the rest of your log.
Should I track hours differently during Ramadan?
Yes, because the baseline changes. Normal hours drop by two per day during Ramadan, so overtime starts earlier than usual. Mark Ramadan days clearly in your log so the reduced threshold is obvious when you review the month.
Is a phone note good enough as proof?
It is evidence, and dated, consistent notes carry real weight, especially when backed by messages, emails, or system timestamps from the same days. The stronger the corroboration, the stronger the proof. A note alone is better than nothing; a note plus a manager’s message asking you to stay late is hard to dismiss.
How do I track split shifts or flexible hours?
Log each block separately with its own start and finish, for example “09:00–13:00, 17:00–21:00”, and total them for the day. For flexible schedules, the daily total is what matters most: anything beyond your contractual normal hours is overtime, regardless of when in the day it happened.
My salary certificate shows a different basic wage than my contract. Which do I use?
Raise the discrepancy with HR first, because your basic wage drives overtime, gratuity, and other calculations. Meanwhile, keep copies of both documents. Our UAE salary certificate guide explains what each field on the certificate means and what to check.
The Bottom Line
How to Keep Track of Working Hours comes down to one habit: write down your real start, finish, breaks, and overtime every day, somewhere your employer cannot touch. It costs two minutes a day and it is the difference between being paid correctly and hoping you were. Cross-check against your payslip monthly, keep a year of records, and confirm the legal baselines on the UAE government’s official working hours page or in the full text of the Labour Law on the MoHRE website.
Last Updated: 8 October 2026
About the author: Zaviyar Sultan is a UAE-focused writer at Paxi, covering driving, visas, banking, insurance and everyday UAE life. His guides are researched from official UAE government and regulator sources and updated regularly.
Paxi is an independent informational website, not affiliated with the UAE government or any agency mentioned; content is general information only, not legal, immigration or financial advice; verify critical details with official sources before acting.