The forfait-jours (fixed annual days arrangement) has a reputation for being simple: "we no longer count the hours". In real life, it is more like: "we no longer count the hours… so we must be beyond reproach on monitoring, workload and the consistency of the system". And since no company is a monolith, it is very common to have two regimes coexisting:
employees on forfait-jours (managed in days/half-days),
employees on an hourly regime (35h, sometimes 39h depending on conditions and agreements), managed in hours of attendance.
This article explains how to frame the topic, avoid confusion (no, these are not timesheets), and how we have implemented it at Auguria with an Odoo 18 module.
1) Forfait-jours: principle, conditions and employer liability
The annual day package makes it possible to count working time in days worked, not in hours. It is not "total freedom", it is a framework aimed at employees with real autonomy in organizing their schedule.
What to remember
A forfait-jours is not put in place "by simple decision". It requires a collective framework (industry/company) and individual formalization.
The company must be able to demonstrate that it monitors the arrangement and protects health: reasonable workload, rest, regular discussions, right to disconnect.
In plain terms: you can stop counting hours, but you cannot stop managing.
2) Hourly regime: 35h… and sometimes 39h (depending on conditions)
Alongside the forfait-jours, the hourly regime works in hours. The company then tracks hours of attendance (check-in / check-out), with HR control logic and, depending on agreements, premium/compensation rules.
Crucial point: attendance ≠ timesheet
Here we are talking about hours of attendance (HR logic, badge scans, compliance), not timesheets (project/activity logic, invoicing, operational tracking).
Attendance: "I arrived at 8:42 am, left at 5:55 pm."
Timesheet: "I spent 2h on file A, 3h on project B."
The classic mistake is mixing the two. The consequence? Approximate data and disastrous adoption.
3) One company can have two regimes: it is normal, but you need a clear boundary
In practice, it is common:
forfait-jours for autonomous roles with high variability,
hourly regime for more operational roles, or those governed by collective schedules.
What matters is the ability to manage both in a single information system without confusion:
days/half-days for the forfait-jours,
hours of attendance for the hourly regime.
4) The often-forgotten point: salary conditions imposed by certain collective agreements
You asked for this explicitly, and it is a major topic: depending on the collective agreement, the forfait-jours may be conditional not only on autonomy and classification, but also on a minimum pay level (or a threshold calculated from the agreement's pay grid).
Why do these conditions exist?
Because the forfait-jours can generate:
a potentially wider range of working hours,
increased responsibility,
and difficulty in finely "measuring" workload in hours.
Industry agreements therefore sometimes set a common-sense rule:
"Forfait-jours, yes… but for autonomous profiles paid at a consistent level."
Operational consequence (very concrete)
A company that sets up (or maintains) a forfait-jours must be able to answer two questions:
Is the position really eligible? (autonomy, organization of time, nature of the assignment)
Are the collective agreement conditions met? (classification, coefficient/position, and sometimes a salary threshold)
And since the grids change, good practice is to carry out a periodic review (often annual).
5) The compass: what you must be able to prove and manage
Without going into a law course, a solid forfait-jours rests on simple but regular elements:
5.1 Tracking days worked
A clear count:
day / half-day,
leave and absences,
annual total.
5.2 Manager validation
A periodic validation (often monthly) is an excellent "little ritual":
it avoids late corrections,
it makes oversight tangible,
it makes it possible to detect a workload drift.
5.3 The annual review and workload monitoring
You must be able to discuss:
workload,
work organization,
work/life balance,
and, depending on the case, consistency of pay with the constraints.
5.4 The right to disconnect
It is not only a document: it is a practice. The system must help structure the framework (communication, rules, awareness), but it is managerial habits that make the difference.
6) Odoo 18: managing attendance for two regimes, without confusion
In Odoo 18, you can manage the hourly regime through Attendances (check-in/check-out times). For the forfait-jours, however, tracking by the hour makes no sense: you need logic in days.
The subject is therefore not "one screen for everyone", but a coherent system:
Attendance in hours for employees on the hourly regime,
Attendance in days (without times) for employees on forfait-jours.
7) What we bring at Auguria: our Odoo 18 "Forfait-jours & Attendance" module
We developed a custom module for Odoo 18 to address a very common case: a company with two regimes that must coexist in the same database.
7.1 Forfait-jours side: attendance by day, with no check-in/check-out time
In our module, an employee on forfait-jours:
declares attendance by day (or half-day morning/afternoon),
without entering a start time or an end time.
This is deliberate: we respect the forfait-jours logic. We track the number of days, not the range of hours.
Result:
simple, understandable and robust tracking,
usable data for HR and managers,
traceability that does not turn the forfait-jours into "disguised time clock".
7.2 Hourly regime side (35h / 39h depending on conditions): hours of attendance
For employees on the hourly regime, we stay within the logic of:
check-in / check-out,
total hours of attendance,
anomaly checks (omissions, gaps, regular drifts),
exports useful for HR and payroll.
7.3 The main benefit: two logics, one information system, zero mixing
Our module makes it possible to:
not "force" a forfait-jours employee to check in like an hourly one,
not "dilute" hours control in an overly declarative logic,
keep clear rules and credible data.
8) Odoo 19: we have not yet scoped the topic
Important: our module is currently on Odoo 18. We have not yet addressed (or validated) porting or adapting it to Odoo 19.
When we do, the method will be deliberately pragmatic:
analyze useful HR changes (attendance, absences, controls),
test compatibility and migrations,
define a clear roadmap (standard first, custom later if necessary).
Conclusion
The forfait-jours and the hourly regime can coexist perfectly in the same company… provided you follow a simple rule: do not confuse the units and the obligations.
Forfait-jours: managed in days / half-days, with clear tracking and vigilance on workload.
Hourly regime: managed in hours of attendance, with suitable HR control (35h/39h depending on conditions).
At Auguria, our Odoo 18 "Forfait-jours & Attendance" module was designed precisely to make this coexistence simple, understandable and usable, without turning HR into a convoluted mess.