Tracking your student or flexi-job hours in Belgium in 2026: Student@work, a spreadsheet or an app?
In short
For your 650 student hours in Belgium, the official counter is Student@work (NSSO): it has the final say, but it starts from the hours your employers plan in the Dimona, corrected later, not from what you do day by day. For a flexi-job, the official counter is mycareer.be. A spreadsheet or an app such as Trakko is for logging your real hours with all your employers and seeing the ceilings coming, as long as you regularly check it against the official counter.
| Criterion | Student@work | Spreadsheet | Temp agency app | Trakko |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Official (NSSO) | Your own file | The agency’s tool | Free app, not official |
| Final say in a dispute | Yes | No | No | No |
| Hours counted | Declared by your employers (planned, then corrected) | The ones you type in | Assignments through that agency | The ones you work (timer or entry) |
| All your employers | Yes, for declared student contracts | If you forget none | No | Yes, if you add each job |
| Net pay and your region’s limits | No: it shows your hours balance | If you write the formulas | Depends on the agency | Yes, as an estimate |
| Warning before a ceiling | You check your balance yourself | No notification | Depends on the agency | Yes, at 80, 95 and 100% |
Student@work: the official counter, which has the final say
Student@work is a service of the NSSO (ONSS/RSZ): the Student at work app and the My Student at work online service show your remaining hours out of the year’s 650 and produce the certificate you give an employer. That balance comes from your employers’ declarations: as soon as you sign a contract, the hours planned in the Dimona are deducted, then corrected if the employer updates the Dimona, or later from their quarterly declaration. An employer is not required to correct straight away, so your balance can differ from what you really worked, in either direction.
For a flexi-job, the official counter is mycareer.be (Sigedis): it shows whether you are eligible, the amounts already received and the ceiling on tax-exempt pay. mycareer.be also gives access to your student hours counter, with the detail of hours worked and reserved.
A spreadsheet: flexible, but it all rests on you
A spreadsheet gives you full control, but every hour has to be typed in by hand and every rule written by you: the rounding (each employer rounds the total it declares up to the full hour), the 2.71% contribution and then ordinary contributions beyond 650 hours, your region’s child benefit hour limits. And if a formula goes wrong, nothing tells you. Rounding example: 4.5 hours on each of the 13 Saturdays of a quarter make 58.5 hours worked, but 59 hours declared.
A temp agency’s app: only its own assignments
A temp agency’s portal or app follows the assignments made through that agency. With your written consent, the agency can check your Student@work balance, but your jobs with other employers do not show up in its tool. What else it calculates depends on each agency.
Trakko: what the app adds, and its limits
- The hours you actually work: a timer during the shift, or an entry afterwards. A shift that is only planned does not count until it has taken place. When you stop the timer, what your shift earned shows up in big numbers.
- All your employers in the same counter, with the same rounding as their declarations: up to the full hour, per employer and per quarter.
- An estimate of your net pay for your status (student, flexi-job, hospitality extra, Article 17, regular contract), including the work bonus beyond 650 hours, with the overtime you set for each job (threshold per day and per week, rate).
- The ceilings that apply to you: the 650 hours, the flexi-job, child benefit in your region, tax (staying a dependant) and health insurance.
- Depending on your situation, other gauges and limits: the 50 days as a hospitality extra, Article 17 hours (190 hours for a student), the 20 hours a week of a non-EU student with “limited” access to the labour market, light work at 15, and a pensioner’s earnings limits.
- A warning at 80%, 95% and 100% of each ceiling, with the date you will reach it at your pace.
- Free, no ads and no subscription.
Trakko is not an official source: its figures are estimates, and in a dispute Student@work (or mycareer.be for a flexi-job) has the final say. Trakko is not connected to Student@work: you copy your official balance into it, typed or read from a screenshot, and the app shows the gap with the hours you worked (reserved but not worked, or worked but not yet declared), with a ready-made message to ask your employer for a correction.
Related questions
Which app can I use to track student job hours in Belgium?
For your 650 hours, the official counter is Student@work (NSSO), and it has the final say. To log the hours you actually work with all your employers and estimate your net pay, a spreadsheet or a free app such as Trakko (no ads) will do, as long as you check them against Student@work.
Student@work or an app: which counter should I believe?
Student@work, for your 650 hours. If its balance does not match the hours you logged, find the employer concerned in the detailed view of My Student at work (reserved hours not yet worked, or hours not yet declared) and ask them to correct their Dimona.
How do I keep a record of my hours for my employer?
Note every shift on the day (date, start, end, break) and keep your contract and payslips. In Trakko you can export a timesheet as a PDF and send your employer a link to confirm your hours: a dated record, not an official document.
Does Trakko read my Student@work account?
No. Trakko has no access to your Student@work account: you copy your balance yourself, typed or read from a screenshot, and the app compares it with the hours you worked.
What about a flexi-job?
The official counter is mycareer.be, which shows the flexi amounts already received and the ceiling on tax-exempt pay. Trakko also follows that ceiling from your hours and rate; you can adjust it by copying in the amount from mycareer.be.
Official sources
- Student@work (NSSO): online service and app
- Student@work (NSSO): hours package and impact
- NSSO, instructions for employers: Dimona for students (in French)
- mycareer.be (Sigedis): flexi-jobs and student jobs
Trakko is not an official source: this guide sums up the rules as published by the authorities on the date shown. For an answer you can rely on, check Student@work, mycareer.be or the body quoted.