Which parts of WBSO records can you automate?
The tedious, error-prone parts: remembering what you did, and recording it neatly per day and per project. That's exactly where things go wrong in practice, because people fill in hours weeks later.
| Part | Automated? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Capturing what happened | Yes | Commits, file changes, calendar, AI sessions |
| Suggested hours per day | Yes | As a suggestion, based on what was captured |
| Logging by an AI agent | Yes | Through MCP, as an entry that still needs approval |
| Deciding whether work is R&D | No | Depends on the technical work and the R&D declaration |
| Confirming hours | No | Someone who knows the work confirms the hours |
| Putting together project records | Partly | Evidence exists; choosing and bundling stays manual |
| Year-end realisation report | No | You file with RVO, using totals from your records |
What stays human work?
Deciding whether something is R&D. A tool sees that a developer spent four hours in a repository, but not whether that was research into a new algorithm or routine maintenance. That call belongs with someone who knows the project and the R&D declaration.
You also confirm the hours themselves. Captured activity says something about what happened, not always about how long someone actually worked on R&D. RVO asks for no hours on sick or leave days and records updated at least every 10 working days; that stays your responsibility, even when the suggestions come automatically.
Automation makes keeping records easier, not less necessary. You have to be able to explain what's in your hour records.
How do you set up WBSO hours in Half5?
Half5 has no separate WBSO module. The setup below uses regular building blocks: an activity, projects and reports.
- Create an activity ‘WBSO’ (or ‘R&D’) and set it to ‘Non-billable’. Its own hourly rate is optional; Half5's own in-app tip suggests activities for specific rates, for example for WBSO or non-billable hours.
- Add your own company as a customer and create one project per R&D project under it, named as in your R&D declaration.
- Install the desktop app and choose the repositories and folders of your R&D work as git folders and folders. Commits, file changes and AI sessions from Claude Code, Codex and Cursor appear on your Timeline.
- Log R&D work from the Suggestions on the Timeline against the R&D project with activity ‘WBSO’, with a short description.
- Optionally connect your AI coding agent to Half5 through MCP and let it log work with
log_work, using activity ‘WBSO’ and the right project. - Switch on ‘Approve hours before invoicing’ if you want a second person to review the hours.
- Every two weeks, view the report per employee or per project, filtered on the ‘WBSO’ activity, and compare it with the absence report.
- After each quarter and at year end, export to CSV or Excel for your records and the realisation report.
Who sees the automatically captured evidence?
Only the employee. Half5's Timeline is end-to-end encrypted and not shared with the organisation; Half5 can't read it either. A manager only sees the hours an employee deliberately logs.
That also means the Timeline isn't project records for RVO. If you want commits, pull requests or summaries of AI sessions as evidence, you add them to your project file yourself, for example from git or GitHub. Why that separation exists is in Privacy and AI context.
How does an AI agent log WBSO hours?
An AI coding agent such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can log work itself through Half5's MCP server with log_work. At the end of a session you ask, for example: ‘log this on the Search algorithm project, activity WBSO’. If the agent doesn't know the duration, Half5 asks how long you worked on it, with a proposed duration for you to confirm.
That entry stays ‘Not approved yet’ and you can edit or delete it. Half5 tells agents not to send file paths or code; the description is one line an outsider could read. More in Logging hours with AI and Automatic time tracking.
How Half5 does it
Half5 captures what happened (Timeline), turns it into Suggestions, lets AI agents log work through MCP and gives you reports per activity, project and employee that you export to CSV, Excel or PDF. The setup above uses those regular parts.
Half5 has no WBSO or R&D export today, no RVO form and no check for R&D hours on leave days. It doesn't judge whether work is R&D either. The export is a regular hours export with, among others, date, employee, project, activity, hours and description.
Frequently asked questions
Does RVO accept automatically tracked hours?
RVO doesn't prescribe how you capture hours, only what has to be in them: per day, per project and per employee, updated at least every 10 working days. How the hours were produced matters less than whether they're right and match your project records.
Can Half5 decide which work is R&D?
No. Half5 captures what happened and makes suggestions, but you choose whether work goes on the ‘WBSO’ activity.
Can my employer see my Timeline?
No. The Timeline is end-to-end encrypted and not shared with your organisation. Your employer only sees the hours you log yourself.
Does Half5 have a WBSO export for RVO?
Not today. You filter the report on the ‘WBSO’ activity and export to CSV or Excel. You use those numbers for your records and the realisation report.
Can an AI agent log my WBSO hours without review?
An agent can log work, but the entry stays ‘Not approved yet’. You or an approver still review it, and you can edit or delete it.
Sources
- RVO, Keeping your R&D records (Dutch) · checked on
- RVO, Reporting realisation (Dutch) · checked on
