Getting Started
Thank you for choosing to explore ZEP!
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the best way to get started and familiarize yourself with ZEP.
In ZEP, users can take on one of the following roles:
Administrator (e.g., management, executives)
Controller (e.g., administration)
User with additional permissions (can be granted extended access rights)
User (employee)
Depending on the assigned role, the ZEP interface will vary in scope and available functions. Each user only sees the sections that are relevant to them or for which they have been granted access.
Getting started for Administrators
As an administrator, you hold the highest level of access in ZEP. You can see everything and manage all system settings.
The configurations you define in ZEP lay the foundation for smooth operation and effective collaboration among your team members.
In the following steps, we’ll guide you through the initial setup and key actions to get started with ZEP. Since this is only an overview of the first steps, we strongly recommend familiarizing yourself with the other available menu items and configuration options as well.
The order of steps listed below is merely a suggestion for how to proceed. What matters most is that, in the end, all employees, projects, and customers are properly assigned and your preferred settings are in place.
Settings "Administration"
Under this menu item, you can configure the fundamental settings for ZEP. Depending on which modules you are using, more or fewer tiles will be displayed here.
We recommend going through each available menu item and entering the appropriate settings and information.
Below, you’ll find a brief overview of the individual sections and the most important menu items for getting started.
If you need more detailed information about any specific area, you can find it in the corresponding guides within the Help Center.
My Company
General:
In this section, you can configure visual parameters such as your company logo and the ZEP color scheme. You can also manage system-wide settings like the ZEP language, SSL connection, and whether usernames and passwords can be saved in the browser across users. Additionally, you can define basic settings for reports and data exports.
Email:
ZEP allows you to send automated emails. Here, you can configure the mail server settings as well as how emails are displayed and formatted.
Company data & Bank details:
In this section, you can enter your company information and all bank accounts relevant for ZEP. These bank details are used for generating PDF and electronic invoices. They are also referenced by the letterhead placeholder variables.
Letter Paper
ZEP allows you to upload your own company letter paper, which is then used for various reports, quotes, and invoices. Here, you can not only upload your letter paper files but also access templates and guidelines for creating them.
Login:
In this area, you can manage login options for ZEP — for example, if you wish to enable OAuth authentication or restrict access to specific IP address
Password:
Define and manage ZEP’s password requirements.
Projects
Settings:
Here you can configure various options, such as which information is displayed for projects and tasks, who is allowed to create projects, how reports are presented, and how project-related emails are displayed.
Activities:
Create and manage activities for processes and projects.
Project and Task Status:
Projects and the tasks within them can be assigned different statuses. In this section, you can define and manage those statuses accordingly.
Customers:
Settings:
Configure settings for customer sorting, customer number ranges, and default values for creating new customers.
You can also specify here which users are allowed to create customers.
Employees:
Settings:
You can also define default settings for regular working hours, vacation entitlements, and assigned break regulations for new employees. These settings are automatically applied when new employees are created in the system.
Project Times & Receipts
Settings:
Through the work break regulation settings, you can define minimum rest periods, maximum working hours, automatic break deductions, and the calculation method for missing breaks.
By default, the automatic break deduction is disabled. If you wish to use it, you must explicitly activate it.
You can also define the following parameters here:
Minimum Break: Specifies how long a break must be taken after a certain amount of working time.
Fixed Break: Useful, for example, if you have mandatory store closing times. During the defined break period, no time entries can be recorded — not even by administrators.
Core Working Hours: An informational field that indicates the period during which employees are expected to record their working hours.
For a break regulation to take effect, it must be assigned to employees.
If time entries already exist within the validity period of a new break regulation, the existing regulation must be copied and recreated with a new validity period.
Retroactive changes or assignments of break regulations are not possible.
You can create multiple break regulations, which is useful when different groups of employees require different rules.
Overtime & absences
This tile is displayed when you are using the Absences & Overtime module.
For more detailed information, please refer to our Help Center collection for the Absences & Overtime add-on module.
Settings:
In this section, you can configure all fundamental parameters related to overtime, vacation, and absences.
Among other things, you can define when your fiscal year ends and whether the vacation year is identical to the fiscal year or varies per employee — the latter is especially relevant if your company is based in Austria.
You can also control whether absences can be recorded retroactively, who receives absence requests, and whether there are overtime hours compensated contractually
Additionally, you can specify whether and when vacation entitlements from previous years (remaining vacation) expire.
Reasons for Absence:
Here, you can define the reasons for absences that employees can either record themselves or request approval for (depending on your configuration).
Besides vacation, these may include reasons such as illness, vocational school, compensatory time off, or remote work (home office).
Each absence reason is assigned to a category, and you can generate reports in ZEP based on these categories.
Holidays:
In this section, you can create and manage public holiday calendars and define pay premiums for work performed on those holidays.
You can create as many calendars as needed — this is particularly useful if your workforce is distributed across different regions or federal states with varying public holidays. You can also define exceptions for individual employees.
Please note that holiday calendars must be assigned to employees under Employees > [Employee Name] > Regular Working Hours in order to take effect.
System:
Tasks:
In this section, you can define automations for ZEP.
These include features such as email notifications on various topics, automatically carrying forward public holidays into subsequent years, notifications about expiring employment periods, and the transfer of data through available integrations such as HubSpot or Personio.
If your employees record their working hours using the time clock feature, we recommend setting up the task "Automatically log out all employees" or " Automatically log out all employees after a defined duration".
These automations ensure that if an employee forgets to clock out, their attendance is automatically ended — either at a specified time or after a defined period of attendance.
This helps prevent unintended attendance entries that extend past midnight.
Depending on the modules you are using, more or fewer task options will be available in this section.
Creating Customers & Assigning Projects
In ZEP, you can record your customers along with their addresses, contact persons, and other relevant information, and then assign them to individual projects.
Customer Management and Customer Creation
Under Customers, you can access the customer management section. This provides an overview of all customers, allows you to select an existing customer for editing, and create new customers.
Click the + Create New Customer button to open the customer creation window.
A pop-up will appear where you can enter the required information mentioned above.
Please ensure that you assign a unique customer number within your company and enter the correct customer name.
Creating Projects for a Customer
After creating a customer, you will automatically be redirected to that customer’s overview page.
Under General > Projects, you’ll find an overview of the customer’s existing projects (if any) and have the option to create new ones.
Click the + Create New Project button to open a pop-up window where you can enter the project details. Once saved, you will automatically be redirected to the detail page of the newly created project.
Be sure to assign a unique and meaningful short name for the project that makes it easy to identify.
Creating Projects & Tasks
In order for employees to record time in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional, you must first create projects and assign employees to these projects as project members.
You can access the Project Management section via Projects.
Creating a New Project:
Click the + Create New Project button in the Project Management area. You will then be taken to the settings page for the new project.
Start by defining the basic project information.
Creating Tasks:
After creating a project, a new project overview window will open.
In ZEP, working hours and receipts are recorded against tasks. Therefore, within each project, you should define the tasks (e.g., project phases) that make up the project. You can create these under General > Tasks.
A pop-up window will appear where you can enter all necessary task details. Please make sure to save your entries after completing them.
If no tasks are created, the project cannot be selected for time tracking.
You also have the option to copy tasks from other projects.
Assigning Employees:
For an employee to record working hours on a project, they must be assigned to that project via General > Project Members or Employees > Assignments > Projects.
From the project page, you can assign one or more employees to the project — optionally with a defined time period for their assignment.
You also have the option to copy employee assignments from another project.
Creating & Editing Employees
Under Employees, you can view all employees that have already been created in ZEP. When logging into ZEP for the first time, you are signed in as an administrator.
Creating an Employee:
As a first step, you can add additional employees to ZEP: Click + New Employee to create a new employee profile.
Please fill in all fields marked with an * and take note of the following information regarding your employee’s login credentials:
Username
This is the name the user will use to log in to ZEP. It must be unique within your organization.
You may use a short version of the employee’s name, but note that the username appears in certain reports — therefore, nicknames are not recommended for use as usernames.
Password
You can either send your employee an email with a link prompting them to set their own password, or you can define a password manually during this step.
If you choose the first option, you must provide the employee’s email address.
Enter the employee’s first and last name. After logging in, the initials of these names will appear in the gray circle at the top right of the ZEP interface, making it easy to identify the logged-in user.
The full name will also appear in reports and evaluations.Select the employee’s permission level and assign a default price group.
The data will only be saved in ZEP once you click Save.
After saving, you will automatically be redirected to the detail page of the newly created employee.
All additional information in the tabs “Settings”, “Overtime & Holidays”, “Contact data”, and “Bank details” is optional.
In the employee’s record under General, you can also edit the employment periods and regular working hours:
Employment Periods:
Here you define the time period during which the employee is employed at your company — or, more specifically, the period during which they should have access to ZEP.
Vacation Entitlement:
If you start using ZEP partway through the year, enter two employment periods:
ZEP start date until December 31 of the current year, with the remaining vacation days for that calendar year
from January 1 of the following year onward, with the contractually agreed annual vacation entitlement
Regular Working hours:
Specify on which days the employee is expected to work and how many hours per day or month they are required to perform.
Assign the appropriate public holiday calendar and, if applicable, a break regulation.
If you have activated the automatic monthly overtime adjustment, you can also define how many overtime hours (in hours or as a percentage) should be automatically deducted by ZEP. (Available only when using the Absences & Overtime module.)
The break regulations and public holiday calendars are created in the main menu under Administration.
You can also enable or disable the automatic overtime adjustment there.
First steps for employees
To log in to ZEP via your browser, you will need the link to your company’s ZEP instance. You will receive this link either by email or directly from your employer.
By following the link, you’ll be directed to the login page, where you can sign in using your username and password.
Depending on the modules your employer has subscribed to and your assigned permissions, you may see more or fewer menu items within ZEP.
Project Times:
In this section, you record the time you have worked on projects as well as any business trips you have taken. You can switch between the following views: Work Week, Week, Day, Agenda, and Form.
In every view except the Form view, you will find a “Record Project Time” button at the top right, which allows you to enter your working hours. In the Form view, you can enter your time details directly in the input fields at the top of the page.
In general, you will need to specify the date, start and end time, the project you worked on, the corresponding task and activity.
You can also specify a work location and add a comment if needed.
Recording Business Trips:
To record a business trip, select the activity “re (travel)” or click on the “travel” text above the activity selection list.
This will expand the input form to include additional fields for entering all relevant travel information.
For the correct calculation of per diem allowances (VMA), you must always specify the appropriate work location when recording time spent on-site — for example, “- primary workplace -”.
Receipts:
In this section, you can record receipts such as taxi fares, train tickets, and hotel invoices along with all relevant details, and assign them to a specific project.
Optionally, you can attach the original receipt as a scanned image to the entry. Please check with your employer to confirm which types of receipts you are required to record.
For more information on how to record receipts, please refer to our YouTube video tutorial.
Absences & Events:
In this section, you can view your calendar. Depending on your access permissions, you may also be able to display the calendars of your colleagues.
You’ll also find an overview of your annual vacation and the status of requested absences (such as vacation requests), provided your employer has activated the corresponding module.
From here, you can also record and request vacations or other absences.
For detailed instructions on how to do this, please refer to our YouTube video tutorial.
Reports:
In this section, you’ll find all reports related to your own data and — depending on your assigned permissions — to higher-level categories such as projects and customers.
You can generate detailed overviews of your project times, absence summaries, and payment documentation.
Additionally, you’ll find time reports here, which are particularly useful for submission to clients.
Dashboard:
The dashboard provides you with a quick overview of your project hours, overtime, and annual vacation. Depending on the modules your employer has subscribed to and your assigned permissions, you may also see additional tiles — for example, for tickets, quotes, or absence requests.
The dashboard is designed to give a high-level summary. For more detailed information, please navigate to the Reportssection or use the shortcut links located in the top-right corner of certain tiles.