With the free option "Freelance Employees," you simplify the billing process for your external employees.

You activate this option under Administration > Employees > Settings > "Activate Freelance Employees & Credits"

Quickly and easily check the invoices you receive from your external employees: compare them with the employee's expense report generated by ZEP. Or even simpler: create Credits to the employee and thereby entirely avoid the invoice verification process.

You can store internal hourly and daily rates for external or freelance employees, project-specifically if necessary. ZEP generates the expense report for each employee for their hours worked. The expense report can simultaneously function as a Credit: transfer the determined amount, thereby completely dispensing with the tedious checking of the invoice submitted by the external employee.

Scope of Application:

Combinable with the product lines:

The module offers the following features:

Internal daily rates, also project-specific possible.

With the Export for Accounting module:

Others:

If you use the Freelance Employees module, you can make the following settings in ZEP under Administration > Travel > Expense Report & Credit:

If you use the Locations & Departments module, you can also set Own Number Range per top department. The corresponding settings are then made under Department > Data.

Credits per Project = Yes:

You can create a separate Credit for your freelance employees for each project.

Please note, if you have activated this setting:

Compile your Credits individually and at the touch of a button from pre-defined Text Modules.

Under Administration > Employees, there is the menu item Text Modules. Here you can store predefined texts for the Credits.

Click on + New Text Module, enter a name for the Text Module in the dialog window, and select the corresponding language. Enter the desired text in the Content field. You can also embed certain placeholders here; these placeholders will then be replaced by the respective values in the corresponding text.

If you now want to insert such a Text Module into a Credit, click Insert Placeholder/Text Module under Upper Text or Lower Text and select the desired texts.

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You can specify an employee's employment type when creating a new employee (Employees + new employee or Employees > [Employee Name] > General > Data) in the Settings tab.

Employees who are permanently employed receive an Expense Report if receipts were paid privately and travel costs (subsistence costs, mileage allowance) were incurred, where applicable.

Freelance Employees receive an Expense Report including their internal wages (corresponding to the information under Internal Billing Rates), privately paid receipts, and travel costs (subsistence costs, mileage allowance) incurred, where applicable. In this employee's menu, the menu item "Internal Hourly Rates" changes to "Internal Billing Rates" (here you can choose between an hourly rate and a daily rate). Enter a VAT ID for the freelance employee, if applicable. Specify whether the freelance employee may view their own Expense Report under Reports.

Freelance Employees with Credit receive a Credit with their internal wages (corresponding to the information under Internal Billing Rates, privately paid receipts, and travel costs (subsistence costs, mileage allowance) incurred, where applicable). In this employee's menu, the menu item "Internal Hourly Rates" changes to "Internal Billing Rates" (here you can choose between an hourly rate and a daily rate), and there is the new menu item Credit Settings.

Enter a VAT No. for the freelance employee, if applicable. This VAT No. is offered as a placeholder in the Upper and Lower Text of the Credit (as well as in the Text Modules for Credits) and can also be output in the Credit.

Specify whether the freelance employee may view their own Credit under Reports.

Specify the VAT that should be shown on the Credit for this employee and a currency. Optionally, you can choose whether Receipts should be reimbursed with the recorded Input VAT. If the setting is deactivated, a Credit only contains one VAT rate, which is applied to the sum of all net amounts. If this setting is activated, the tax rates specified for the Receipts are used in the Credit.

Specify an address for the Credit.

You can define an Upper and Lower Text for the Credit. You can insert placeholders and Text Modules (to be defined under Administration > Employees > Text Modules), if applicable.

Apply this tax rate to receipts, as they are in the accounting of the freelance employee

This means: Receipts recorded by this employee with the private payment method belong to their own accounting and are taxed with their tax rate when a Credit is issued, not with the tax rate recorded on the receipt.

Not checked means: the recorded receipt tax is passed through in the Credit, exactly as in the Expense Report of a permanent employee.

In that case, the VAT from Employees > Credit Settings is only applied to wages, subsistence costs, and mileage allowance.

If you have activated this checkbox and also use the Export for Accounting module, then you must enter an expense account for receipts and the associated posting key (BU-Schlüssel) for these receipts (which belong to the freelance employee's accounting).

Employees > [Employee Name] > General > Internal Billing Rates

Here you specify the internal billing rates of the freelance employee (with or without a Credit).

In the employee's projects, you can also enter a (deviating) project-specific internal hourly rate or daily rate. This project-specific internal hourly rate or daily rate is then used for all the above-mentioned reports.

If the internal billing rates change, click + Create new internal billing rate and specify which amount should apply from which date.

The currency of the internal billing rate is specified under Credit Settings.

For a Freelance Employee with Credit, you create a Credit instead of an "Expense Report":

In the menu Travel & Costs > Credits of a selected employee, you get an overview of their Credits. The Credit corresponds to the (travel) Expense Report for permanent employees and additionally contains the internal wages (services) for the selected period.

You can select the currency in which the Credit should be displayed (the currency specified under Credit Settings is preset). Furthermore, the following settings can be selected:

Optional, you can specify the following

The report can be exported as a pdf, odt, doc, or docx file. Receipt files uploaded to ZEP can be output as a Receipt Files PDF.

Credits:

If Credits already created within the chosen period exist, they are listed in the table:

Periods without Credits:

Periods in which amounts are pending for a Credit but no Credit has been created yet are listed in detail.

Header

In the overview, the total amount (to be reimbursed) is displayed both gross and net. If applicable, advance payments already made for the set period (entries in the payment documentation) are additionally listed, along with the corresponding new amount to be paid out.
You can "Create a Credit" and you can generate an "Advance Payment" in the amount of the balance to be reimbursed. An advance payment is a payout for a Credit that has not yet been created.

Services Table:

Each time booking is displayed with the date, project, number of hours, remark, and the amount (number of hours x internal hourly rate or the corresponding daily rate).

Subsistence Costs Table:

For each day worked outside the standard place of work, subsistence costs are calculated dependent on the location and the time of absence.

This is only displayed if the Administrator has specified the appropriate country setting for Calculation Procedure under the menu item Administration > Subsistence Costs > Settings.

If Yes is specified in the settings for Project column in the subsistence costs table of the expense report, the project to which the subsistence costs were incurred is displayed.

In the German calculation procedure for subsistence costs, the statutory flat rates for breakfast or lunch/dinner are deducted if meals are specified (see Reports > My Reports > Project Time Table). The percentage deduction refers to the flat rate for 24 hours, even if the employee was absent for less time. If the deduction for meals is higher than the flat rate to be paid out for the subsistence costs, this amount is shown but only deducted up to the amount of the incurred subsistence flat rate. (The employee receives €0 reimbursement for that day in this case).

In the Austrian calculation procedure, the calculation of the daily allowance is the same, except for locations with the regulation according to the collective agreement, where the deduction for meals refers to the "aliquot daily allowance," meaning the proportion of the daily allowance calculated based on the time of absence.

Receipts Table:

All receipts recorded by the employee are listed. The amounts to be reimbursed to the employee due to privately paid invoices are calculated. If invoices were paid with the company credit card and contained a private portion, these receipts are also listed, and the amounts are deducted. The sum of the receipts per VAT rate is listed individually if Reimburse receipts with recorded Input VAT is activated under Employees > Credit Settings.

Mileage Allowance:

For trips with the employee's own private vehicle, a (reimbursement) amount is calculated: A mileage allowance is reimbursed per kilometer driven. All trips with a company vehicle are also listed, naturally without mileage allowance reimbursement.

If the display of warnings is activated, you can click on the warning to switch to the employee's Project Times and correct incorrect entries.

The master data for travel expense reporting (flat rates for various locations, vehicles, etc.) can be maintained by an Administrator under Administration > Travel.

Reports > Employees > Credits

Here you receive an overview of the Credits for your Freelance Employees with Credit for the set period. You can select the currency in which the Credits should be displayed.

If Credits already created within the chosen period exist, they are listed in the "Credits" table:

Periods without Credits:
This table lists the periods without created Credits if the checkbox Compressed display on one row per employee is activated.

Path: Reports > Employees > Credits

Compressed display on one row per employee:
If this checkbox is activated, you receive the Credits for the selected period in tabular form. Per row, the internal wages, the tax-free and taxable subsistence costs both before and after meal deduction are listed per employee. The total kilometers driven, the kilometers driven in a private vehicle, and the tax-free or taxable reimbursement amount are listed, as well as the receipts ("Total Receipts" are all receipts the employee has recorded, "Receipt Reimbursement" is the amount to be reimbursed to the employee due to private advance payment). Finally, advance payments already made and amounts not yet paid out are listed.

If Credits not yet created exist in the set period, these will be displayed in a separate table.

If the checkbox is not activated, the periods without Credits are listed in detail; you can additionally select the following settings:

Optional, you can specify the following:

The report can be exported as a pdf, odt, doc, or docx file. Receipt files uploaded to ZEP can be output as a Receipt Files PDF.

Credits Table:
All created Credits within the report period are displayed.

Then, the Credits not yet created are listed for each selected employee.

Header:

The total amount to be reimbursed is displayed both gross and net. The specified period is a link to the employee's Credits, where the "Credit can be created."

Subsistence Costs Table:

For each day worked outside the standard place of work, subsistence costs are calculated dependent on the location and the time of absence.

This is only displayed if the Administrator has specified the appropriate country setting for Calculation Procedure under the menu item Administration > Subsistence Costs > Settings.

If Yes is specified in the settings for Project column in the subsistence costs table of the Expense Report, the project to which the subsistence costs were incurred is displayed.

In the German calculation procedure for subsistence costs, the statutory flat rates for breakfast or lunch/dinner are deducted if meals are specified (see Project Time Table).

In the Austrian calculation procedure, the calculation of the daily allowance is the same, except for locations with the regulation according to the collective agreement, where the deduction for meals refers to the "aliquot daily allowance," meaning the proportion of the daily allowance calculated based on the time of absence.

Receipts Table:

All receipts recorded by the employee are listed. The amounts to be reimbursed to the employee due to privately paid invoices are calculated. If invoices were paid with the company credit card and contained a private portion, these receipts are also listed, and the amounts are deducted. The sum of the receipts per VAT rate is listed individually if Reimburse receipts with recorded Input VAT is activated under Employees > Credit Settings.

Mileage Allowance:

For trips with the employee's own private vehicle, a (reimbursement) amount is calculated: A mileage allowance is reimbursed per kilometer driven. All trips with a company vehicle are also listed, naturally without mileage allowance reimbursement.

The master data for travel expense reporting (flat rates for various locations, vehicles, etc.) can be maintained by an Administrator under Administration > Travel.