Belgian cleaning companies deal with two time registration pressures simultaneously: CIAO (Check-In and Out at Work) has been mandatory for the sector since 2025, and the NSSO treats cleaning as one of its highest-priority audit sectors for undeclared or misclassified work. With crews spread across dozens of client buildings, often working before 07:00 or after 20:00, and a workforce that is predominantly part-time and variable, the practical challenges are significant. Here is how cleaning companies handle them with Suivo’s Check-in and Out at Work solution.
CIAO in the cleaning sector: what is required since 2025
Check-In and Out at Work (CIAO) is the extension of CIAW that requires both arrival and departure to be registered. For the cleaning sector under PC 121, CIAO became mandatory in 2025 for cleaning contracts with a value of €30,000 or more.
This means:
- Every cleaning worker starting a shift on a covered site must register their arrival.
- Every cleaning worker ending a shift must register their departure.
- The registration must be electronic – paper signing is not compliant.
- The client (the building owner or facilities manager) is considered the “works authority” and shares responsibility for ensuring the obligation is met on their premises.
The €30,000 threshold applies to the annual contract value, not to individual cleaning sessions. A monthly cleaning contract worth €2,500/month (€30,000/year) crosses the threshold and is covered.
Why fixed terminals do not work in cleaning
Construction sites use a single entrance with a fixed terminal (werfpaal). Cleaning work has a completely different geography: the same crew may clean three office buildings, two supermarkets, and a school in a single day, each at a different address, each for a different client.
Installing a fixed CIAO terminal at every client location is impractical and often impossible (the cleaning company does not own the premises). The solution used by Belgian cleaning companies is a mobile registration system:
- Cleaners carry a smartphone or scan a QR code / NFC tag installed at each cleaning location.
- The tag encodes the location identifier; the cleaner’s clock-in is tied to that address.
- Arrival and departure are logged automatically when the cleaner enters and exits the geofenced zone around each building.
This approach meets CIAO requirements, requires no fixed installation at the client’s premises, and scales as the cleaning company takes on new contracts.
The part-time problem: NSSO’s main focus in cleaning
The cleaning sector employs one of the highest proportions of part-time workers in Belgium. Many cleaning workers have variable part-time schedules that change week to week. This creates exactly the conditions the NSSO targets:
- Variable schedules not posted 5 working days in advance.
- No time records to prove a worker did not work more hours than declared.
- Discrepancies between Dimona declarations and actual hours on site.
NSSO inspectors in the cleaning sector look specifically for the pattern of a worker declared as part-time (say, 20 hours/week) but present at client sites for 35 or 40 hours/week. Without an electronic time record, the employer cannot disprove a requalification-as-full-time assessment.
A digital system that records every arrival and departure, and cross-references it against the declared schedule, makes the employer’s case automatically.
Early morning and late evening shifts
Cleaning typically happens when buildings are empty: before 07:00 in office buildings, after 20:00 in schools and public facilities, at weekends in retail. There is no supervisor present at most of these locations at those hours. A crew leader may manage 10 to 15 locations and cannot verify each one personally.
Digital time registration solves this by making the worker’s phone (or the NFC tag at the entrance) the verification mechanism. The crew leader sees a live dashboard of which cleaners have started at which locations. If a cleaner does not clock in within 15 minutes of their scheduled start, the crew leader receives an alert.
This is the right combination of compliance and operational control: the crew leader does not need to be physically present to know the work is happening.
Subcontractors in cleaning: chain liability applies
Large cleaning contracts are often handled through a chain of contractors and subcontractors. Under Belgian chain liability rules, the main contractor can be held responsible for the social security compliance of their subcontractors – including time registration and Dimona obligations.
A cleaning company that subcontracts part of a large contract must ensure its subcontractors’ workers are also correctly registered. If a SIOD/TSW inspection finds unregistered subcontractor workers on a covered site, the main cleaning contractor faces the same potential fine as if the workers were their own.
The practical solution is to include subcontractors in the same CIAO registration system used for own staff, using the mobile app. Access credentials are set up for the subcontractor’s team; their registrations appear in the same dashboard as the main contractor’s workers.
What a compliant cleaning sector time registration setup looks like
For a Belgian cleaning company with 80 workers across 40 client buildings:
- Each client location is registered in the platform as a named site with a geofence.
- NFC tags are installed at each location’s entrance (a small sticker, no power needed).
- Cleaners tap their personal NFC badge when they arrive and when they leave.
- The platform logs arrival and departure with a timestamp and location.
- The crew leader’s dashboard shows real-time status of all 40 locations.
- HR exports the week’s records – hours per worker, per location – for payroll processing via SD Worx or Acerta.
- CIAO declarations are filed automatically for all covered contracts above €30,000.
Suivo’s Check-in and Out at Work solution and time tracking solution support this exact configuration.
Ready to make CIAO compliance easy?
Suivo helps Belgian cleaning companies register working time across multiple client buildings, meet CIAO obligations, and keep records audit-ready for NSSO and SIOD inspections. View Suivo products or see pricing.
