Overview
In general, we recommend following the sequence provided in the steps below when first setting up ZEP Clock, as otherwise additional effort may be required—for example, if employees have already booked times before these settings were configured.
Additionally, you will find explanations in many places within ZEP Clock under the question mark icon.
Step 1: Completing the Master Data
Path: Administration
Here you create the data related to your company. Which break regulations apply to you? Which public holidays? What are the reasons for which an employee can be absent?
Break Regulation
Path: Administration > Working hours > Work Break Regulation
Break regulations cannot be applied retroactively to periods in the past that have already been booked; therefore, they should be configured before the first time clock entry. A break regulation must be actively assigned to employees; however, you can assign different break regulations to different employees. To do this, create multiple break regulations and assign them accordingly.
Create Break Regulation
You can edit the "Standard" break regulation already pre-configured by ZEP Clock according to your wishes. If you would like to store multiple break regulations, create new ones as follows:
Click on "+ Create new break regulation" and assign a unique name.
Scroll down to the newly created break regulation and click "+ Create for new validity period" to specify the date from which the break regulation should apply. This cannot be done retroactively.
A pop-up window will appear. Here you can configure all desired settings.
If you have licensed the module Overtime, Absences & Vacation, you will get an additional setting option here:
"Exceeded maximum working hours and non-compliant minimum breaks are deducted from the overtime account."
If you create a minimum break and want it to be automatically deducted from the employees' hourly account, check this box.
Optional: Minimum Break
Here you specify from what work duration in hours a break of what length becomes due.
If an employee falls short of the minimum break, ZEP will deduct as much time (if the box "Exceeded maximum working hours and non-compliant minimum breaks are deducted from the overtime account" is checked) until the specified minimum break is reached. You can set as many minimum breaks as you like:
Go to "+ Create new minimum break"
Enter the work duration from which a break is required.
Example:
An employee works longer than 6 hours (From = 6:01 h) up to 9 hours (To = 9:00 h) and is required to take a 30-minute break (0:30 h).
Optional: create a new Fixed pause
For a fixed break, you enter specific times (e.g., 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM).
During this time, NO time tracking is possible! In our opinion, a fixed break is only advisable if, for example, you have store closing times during lunch when work cannot be performed.
Optional: create new core working hours
Here you specify a time period during which your employees should record their times.
Compliance with core working hours is not enforced by the system; it simply displays a blue exclamation mark if times were not recorded during core working hours on a day with regular working hours.
With the Overtime, Absences & Vacation module, you will find an additional column "Insufficient core working hours" in the "Month End" report.
Creating holidays
Path: Administration > others > holidays (without module overtime & absences)
Path: Administration > Overtime & absences (with module overtime & absences)
The holiday calendar "Standard" has already been pre-configured by ZEP Clock. Please note the description within ZEP Clock. To create a new holiday calendar:
Click on "+ Create new holiday calendar" and enter a unique name and, if necessary, a description.
If you want to create calendars for Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, go to "Calculate holidays for [Name] for [current year]" and select accordingly.
If you want to create additional holidays or holidays for other countries/regions, go to "+ Enter new holiday for [Name]". Here you can set the date, designation, and weightings. Surcharges are taken into account by the system if you have the Overtime, Absences & Vacation module.
Under "Holiday Exceptions," you can also create exceptions for individual employees. Holiday calendars and exceptions must be assigned to the employees.
Create Absence Reasons
(with Overtime & Absences module)
Path: Administration > Overtime & Absences > Absence Reasons
You can create various absence reasons that your employees can book. Several categories have already been created for this purpose: annual leave, paid & unpaid absences, flextime, and absence documentation. It is important that you are always in the correct category when creating new absence reasons, otherwise the calculations in ZEP Clock will not function correctly.
Create Special Times
(with Overtime & Absences module)
Path: Administration > Overtime & Absences > Special Times
Here you can define times for which your employees receive a surcharge.
If you want to create a special time for 10 PM to 6 AM the next morning, create two entries: from 22:00 to 24:00 and from 0:00 to 6:00.
Step 2: Configuring Settings
Everything you configure here is generally applicable to ZEP Clock and (newly) created employees. However, you can set exceptions for each individual employee.
Working Time
Path: Administration > Working Times > Settings
Here you configure, among other things, whether/to what extent employees can book their times retroactively or in advance, whether remarks must be made when recording times, and which time is pre-filled for break recording. Optionally, you can choose here whether times should be recorded with activities.
If you have activated the setting Record activities in ZEP Clock, Activities will be displayed as an additional menu item.
Attendance
Path: Administration > ZEP Clock > Settings
Here you configure what employees are allowed to see and do regarding attendance. If you select "Yes" for Deactivate manual time recording, employees can exclusively clock in/out via the web interface and can no longer manually record or edit their times.
Employees
Path: Administration > Employees > Settings
Here you define the default settings for new employees. Every employee created after these settings are made will have these settings stored as their default. Adjustments can still be made at any time for individual employees (under: Employee > [Employee Name]).
Overtime & Absences
(with the Overtime & Absences module)
Path: Administration > Overtime & Absences > Settings
General settings regarding overtime, absences, and vacation are made here. Please note that navigation within the pop-up window is done via tabs.
If you have created special times under Administration > Overtime & Absences > Special Times, you can also specify here whether time surcharges for public holidays and special times should be credited to the overtime account.
Departments
This module is used for the hierarchical subdivision of your company or for managing branches and locations. Here, you can define superior and subordinate departments, branches, and locations and assign employees to them.
Cross-departmental settings are made here:
Path: Administration > Departments > Settings
Department-specific settings are made here:
Path: Departments > [Department Name] > General
In the data section, you can define superior departments, designate department heads, assign employees to the department, and lock them for hour recording. Department heads act like administrators within their assigned departments and can perform any action a normal administrator can in ZEP Clock.
Overtime & Absences (with the Overtime & Absences module)
Path: Departments > [Department Name] > Settings
Here you can specify to whom requests for approval of absences should be sent. The default setting is to send them to administrators, department heads, and department heads of superior departments, but you can also define specific recipients.
Recording Activities in ZEP Clock
If you have activated the option Record activities in ZEP Clock under Administration > Working times > Settings, your employees can specify which activity they are performing when recording their working time.
Path: Administration > working hours & receipts > activities
Activities are labels for various workflows and can be useful for later evaluations.
Do not define too many different activities, as this can confuse the user. It is not practical to distinguish between activities that will never need to be analyzed separately in an evaluation. An activity labeled "Miscellaneous" is better than a long list of activities that are rarely relevant on their own.
You can store activities in multiple languages.
Input is made in the "Designation" field. Click on German/English/French/Spanish and enter the short-form designation. The designation will be displayed in the language selection according to the language setting of the respective employee.
Checkbox: Is not relevant to working time, e.g., On-call duty
You can assign this property to any activity (except travel activity). For this activity, this means:
It is not relevant to working time, i.e., it is not included in the calculation of overtime (Overtime & Absences module).
It may overlap with one other activity.
For the purpose of break regulations, it is considered a break.
It does not generate any additional meal allowance (VMA) (when using the Travel Expenses module).
Once you have assigned these properties to an activity and recorded working hours for it, you cannot undo these properties. You must first delete the recorded times.
Step 3: Employees
Every employee you create in ZEP Clock receives a type of "file." There, you can view and change data, generate evaluations, and, as an administrator, retroactively enter working hours and absences. The following sections cover the important steps, but it is best to get an overview of everything. Under Evaluations > Employees, you will find evaluations for all employees in an overview.
Create Employee
Path: Employees
To create a new employee, go to "+ New Employee." Please note that navigation within the pop-up window is done via tabs:
General:
Fill in at least all fields marked with an asterisk. If you do not wish to or cannot enter an email address for an employee, please check the box "Enter password" and assign a password.
You can also set the ZEP Clock language for your employee here, should they require a different language than the one you previously configured.
If you have the Departments module, you can assign the employee to the corresponding department here.
Determine which rights the employee has in ZEP Clock. For detailed explanations of the rights, please click the question mark icon in ZEP Clock.
Settings:
Here you determine how your employee should record times. If the employee should be able to clock in and out via the web interface, please check the box "Start/End attendance in the web interface."
When you click "Save," the employee's file opens immediately. You can make further settings here.
Create Employment Period
Path: Employees > [Employee Name] > General > Employment Periods
Every newly created employee is assigned the employment period data you configured under Administration > Employees > Settings. To make changes, click the edit icon to the left of the existing entry. If your employee has already recorded times, you must create a new employment period ("+ Create new employment period").
Create Regular Working Hours
Path: Employees > [Employee Name] > General > Regular Working Hours
Every newly created employee is assigned the regular working hours data you configured under Administration > Employees > Settings. To make changes, click the edit icon to the left of the existing entry. This is also where you assign the holiday calendar and the break regulation.
Balance Overtime and Vacation
Path: Employees > [Employee Name] > Overtime & Absences > Balance Overtime, Vacation
Here you can record when overtime or vacation days are credited or balanced.
Example:
Your employee receives a one-time bonus of 5 additional vacation days on top of their contractual 30 vacation days. These should not be factored into ZEP Clock every year, but rather treated as a one-time addition. In this case, you enter them under "credited vacation days." Or, if you pay out vacation days or overtime to your employees, you record this under "balanced vacation days" or "balanced overtime."
This is also the place where you enter the overtime and remaining vacation days that your employee still has when you start using ZEP Clock for the first time. Example: Your employee has 5 hours of overtime and 20 vacation days. You enter the overtime in "credited overtime" and the difference between the remaining vacation days and the contractual vacation days in "balanced vacation days."
Step 4: Tasks
Path: Administration > System > Tasks
To make working with ZEP Clock easier, you can assign various tasks to the system, which it will then execute automatically according to your settings. We recommend, at the very least, the automatic logout of all employees. Whether you choose "by duration" or work with specific times is up to you.
Why this task is recommended: If an employee forgets to clock out in the evening and comes back to the office the next morning to clock in, the system records a "clock-out" event instead of a clock-in. If this goes unnoticed, your entire evaluation will be distorted, and an administrator will have to adjust the clockings manually. This task helps you avoid these sources of error.