Skip to main content

Working time and target hours

The GAV requires detailed time recording and sets reference values for weekly working time, maximum working time and breaks. codeto report maps these requirements through target hours and automatic rule checks.

What the GAV requires

RequirementValueArticle
Normal weekly working time40 hoursArt. 20
Statutory maximum working time50 hours per weekArt. 20
Gross annual working time 20262088 hoursArt. 20.1, Annex 5c
Lunch break60 minutes, by mutual agreement from 30 minutes for a maximum of 9 hoursArt. 28

The gross annual working time is recalculated every year. Annex 5c of the GAV is authoritative.

Configuring target hours

Target hours are the basis for balances, week closure and all deviation checks. They come from the employee contract:

EnvironmentWhere the target hours come from
Enterprisewith the contract details through the interface, see Employee Ingest API
SaaScurrently maintained manually by codeto; user management will take over this task

For part-time work the GAV limits are reduced proportionally, see Overtime, excess time and vorholzeit.

Do not confuse with the standard working hours

The standard working hours have nothing to do with the target hours and no relation to the GAV. They are the time blocks proposed when a new report is created, typically 07:00–09:00, 09:30–12:00 and 13:00–16:30, eight hours in total.

They can be stored per branch office. Employees with differing hours can define their own, which then take precedence. Without their own setting, the branch office values apply. See Standard working hours.

Annual working time

codeto report calculates with daily and weekly target times, not with an annual figure. The gross annual working time results from the sum of the target hours across the calendar year. For it to be correct, the public holidays must be recorded in full.

Automatic rule checks

codeto report checks reports against the stored rules. Violations are shown collected at week closure. Which checks exist, when they only warn and when they prevent a closure is described under Rule checks.

These checks have a direct GAV reference:

CheckGAV reference
Maximum working time per weekArt. 20
Minimum breaksEmployment Act, not Art. 28
Target hour deviationArt. 20.6

Evidence for the audit body

In a payroll audit the working time has to be traceable. There are two ways to achieve this.

Employee extract

The employee extract as a PDF shows actual, target and difference hours per period and is generated on demand, see Employee extract.

When creating it you choose the scope: All hours or Approved hours only. Approved hours are suitable as evidence for the audit body because they have passed through the approval process in full.

PDF per week

An archive PDF can be generated per week. It contains the hours, additions and circulation log of the week.

How the PDFs reach you depends on the environment:

EnvironmentRoute
EnterpriseFully automated through an interface into a connected system. This is the standard case.
SaaSOn request from codeto, see support@codeto.ch.
Self-service download from September 2026

We are working on a function that lets you download the PDFs for individual employees and weeks directly in the application. It arrives in September 2026.

codeto report does not keep a continuous archive across all employees and weeks itself.