Settings
Notification upon Percentage Achievement of Planned Hours
Specify here globally the percentage of planned hours at which an email should be generated to the Project Manager(s) with budget responsibility. You can optionally set whether only billably booked hours are considered.
No Email: No email will be sent.
Send Email at: You can enter up to three percentage values here (if only one value is entered, only one email is sent). As soon as a time entry exceeds one of these thresholds, the Project Manager(s) will receive an email notification from ZEP that the actual hours for the corresponding project or task (if you have stored planned figures for tasks) have exceeded the specified value. Of course, only if an email address is specified for the employee in Employee Administration. If there should be no Project Manager with budget responsibility, this email will be sent to the Department Manager (with the Departments module) or to the Administrator.
You can override these values project-specifically for any project under Data & Plan: in these projects, the project-specifically entered values will apply. Depending on the setting, all hours or only billably booked hours are considered. A prerequisite for a warning is the specification of planned hours for the project or the task.
If no Project Manager with budget responsibility and an email address can be determined, all Project Managers without budget responsibility are informed. If there are no Project Managers, all Department Managers of the project's department are informed if applicable; if they also cannot be determined (or if the Departments module is not licensed), all Administrators are informed. With every time booking, ZEP checks whether a percentage of the planned hours has been reached at the task level or project level, meaning up to two emails can be sent for each entered percentage value:
1) An email regarding the booked task or one of its superior tasks (depending on the level at which you entered the planned figures).
2) An email regarding the project.
Display in the I-Point of the task list during time recording
Display planned and actual hours in the I-Point of the task list during time recording If you activate this option, the task I-Point during time recording is supplemented with the planned figures stored in the project or the tasks.
The table of tasks displayed on the help page is expanded to include the following columns:
Plan: the "Planned Hours" specified for the task
Actual: all hours booked to this task so far
Plan-Actual: difference between these two figures
Actual (billable): the billable hours booked to this task so far
Plan-Actual (billable): difference between these two figures
Display actual hours in the I-Point of the task list during time recording
If you activate this option, the task I-Point during time recording is supplemented with the actual hours recorded for the project or the tasks.
The table of tasks displayed on the help page is expanded to include the following columns:
Actual: all hours booked to this task so far
Only display bookable tasks in the I-Point of the task list during time recording
If you activate this option, the employees will no longer see all tasks of the project in the task I-Point, but only the tasks that have a bookable status and whose duration lies within the recording period.
Only display own tasks in the I-Point of the task list during time recording
If you activate this option, the employees will no longer see all tasks of the project in the task I-Point, but only the tasks to which they are assigned as employees.
Remarks of the tasks visible in the I-Point of the task list during time recording Under Administration > Project > Settings, you set whether the remarks of the tasks should be displayed in the task I-Point during project time recording.
Every employee has an I-Point next to the list of tasks during project time recording. When they call up this I-Point, they see a list of the tasks of the configured project.
If this list should also contain the remarks of all tasks, activate the setting Remarks of the tasks visible.
Display task employees including email in the I-Point of the task list during time recording
If you activate this option, all task employees and their email addresses stored in ZEP are displayed in the task I-Point.
Display remark of the selected project in the I-Point of the project list during time recording.
Here you set whether the remark of the selected project should be displayed in the project I-Point during project time recording.
Display billing type of the selected project in the I-Point of the project list during time recording.
Here you set whether the billing type of the selected project should be displayed in the project I-Point during project time recording.
Display all project employees of the selected project including email in the I-Point of the project list during time recording
If you activate this option, all project employees with their function in the project (Project Manager) and their email addresses stored in ZEP are displayed in the project I-Point.
User with Additional Rights/Controller may create projects: If you activate this checkbox, employees with the role "User with Additional Rights" or "Controller" can create new projects (otherwise, only the Administrator is allowed to do this). Such an employee has the Projects menu item.
Internal projects are fundamentally non-billable
Projects without customer assignment are Internal Projects:
Since you cannot bill internal projects to a customer, it makes sense to only book non-billable time to these projects. It is therefore recommended to switch on the setting Internal projects are fundamentally non-billable.
When the setting Internal projects are fundamentally non-billable is switched on (yes):
If you create new internal projects, the default setting for Billability is set to non-billable, not changeable by employee. You can no longer change this project setting.
The Project Revenue and Project Time Verification reports are not offered for internal projects, as they are based on billable times, which usually do not exist in internal projects with this setting.
If an internal project should still contain billable times (e.g., because a customer was previously assigned), you will see this in the Project Time Report, as well as in the Project Status Plan, Project Status Time, Project Status Margin reports, and in the Overall Status reports. If necessary, you must rebook the relevant times to non-billable in the Project Time Report.
A change to the setting Internal projects are fundamentally non-billable does not automatically affect already existing projects. Even if you subsequently change a customer project into an internal project, billably booked times do not automatically become non-billable times. If necessary, you must rebook the relevant times in the Project Time Report.
Display Names
Display name for projects in table columns of reports
Set the designation with which projects should be displayed in table columns of reports:
Short form
Designation
Short form (Designation)
External display name for projects and tasks
Set globally the form in which projects should be displayed in external reports:
Short form
Designation
Short form (Designation)
External display name for tasks
Set globally the form in which tasks should be displayed in external reports:
Short form
Designation
Short form (Designation)
Further Settings
'with signature block in the print version' pre-fill in Project Time Verification:
Set whether the Project Time Verification report should have the default setting with signature block in the print version.
Display Project Category in Project Tables
Set whether the respective assigned project category should be displayed in the project tables.
Keywords
If you specify here "Project Manager may add keywords (Yes)," the Project Managers can also create their own keywords within a project and assign them to the project.
You can classify and search for your projects using Keywords.
You can enter new Keywords under Administration > Projects > Keywords.
Link "Send email to project employees" sends email in project language In a project, in the Project Employees menu item, you can send an email to all project employees via the link Send email to project employees.
With the Yes setting, the email is sent in the project's language (set in the project under Format > Billing Settings).
With the No setting, the email is sent in the ZEP language (set globally under Administration > My Company > General).
Link "Send email to project employees" sends email via "Undisclosed Recipients" (recipients hidden in BCC)
In a project, in the Project Employees menu item, you can send an email to all project employees via the link Send email to project employees.
With the Yes setting, the sender's email address is listed in the To field, and all other recipients are listed in the BCC field.
With the No setting, all recipients of the email are listed in the To field.
All project employees may see the "Project Plan" menu item If you set Yes here, you can additionally specify:
Display Planned Hours
Display Planned Amounts
Display Actual Hours
If you set this, all employees in ZEP have the Projects tab, but only the respectively assigned projects are displayed, and only the Project Plan is displayed in the selected project.
Use Project Number Number Range
Project No. Prefix
The entered text appears as the prefix in the project number. The following placeholders can be used:
%YYYY% - Year of the current date
%YY% - The last two year digits of the current date
%MM% - Month of the current date
%DD% - Day of the current date
Project No. Length
This is the length of the number that is inserted between the prefix and suffix. The number is filled with leading zeros, if necessary.
Project No. Suffix
The entered text appears as the suffix in the customer number. The following placeholders can be used:
%YYYY% - Year of the current date
%YY% - The last two year digits of the current date
%MM% - Month of the current date
%DD% - Day of the current date
Activities
Activities are designations for different work processes, independent of the project. An Activity is specified for every project time recording. These activities can be billed differently. Special hourly rates per Activity can be specified in the Price Lists (available from ZEP Compact with the Prices & Receipts module).
The distinction of Activities in project time recording is useful for later reports.
Do not define too many different Activities, as this confuses the user. It is not sensible to distinguish Activities that never need to be considered separately in a report. Better than a long list of Activities that would rarely be relevant individually is an Activity called Miscellaneous (Sonstiges).
You can store Activities in multiple languages. The entry is made in the Designation field: Click on German/English/French/Spanish, enter the designation for the short form. Depending on the language set for the employee or the project, the designation will be displayed in the language selection.
Checkboxes
is not relevant to working time, e.g., on-call duty
You can assign this property to any Activity (except travel activity), meaning that for this Activity:
It is not relevant to working time, i.e., it is not included in the overtime calculation. (Absences & Overtime module)
It causes no internal costs.
It is allowed to overlap with one other Activity.
It counts as a break according to the break regulation.
It does not generate subsistence costs, not even for project billing!
It can be billed to the customer, i.e., it can be booked as "billable" or "non-billable." It is billed even if it overlaps with another time. If it is booked as "billable" with a duration of "0," it is listed in the Project Revenue or Invoice Attachment.
Once you have applied these properties to an Activity and recorded project times for it, you cannot reverse these properties. You must first delete the recorded times.
non-billable project times are also visible on Project Time Verification, Project Revenue, and Invoice Attachment, e.g., Goodwill
If an Activity marked this way is booked as non-billable to a project, the time is still listed in the Project Time Verification and is reported in the Project Revenue and on the Invoice Attachment with the price 0.00.
Properties:
Can be booked as billable and non-billable.
Appears on the Project Time Verification, Project Revenue, and the Invoice Attachment, even if it was booked as non-billable.
A billably booked Goodwill Activity can be assigned a special hourly rate.
You can select this option for any Activity and also combine it with other options (travel activity, "on-call duty").
Activities marked as Goodwill are only used to determine the daily rate share in Daily Rate Projects if they have been booked as billable.
If they are booked as non-billable, a daily rate share is also calculated from these non-billablebooked times, which is listed in the Project Time Verification and reported in the Project Revenue and Invoice Attachment with the price 0.00.
Travel Activity
available from ZEP Compact Travel Expense Report.
A further special case is the Travel Activity (usually "re"). Among other things, it defines the start and end of business trips. In conjunction with the work location, ZEP automatically calculates the subsistence costs for the Travel Expense Report (unless you have switched off this function in the settings under the point "Calculation procedure for subsistence costs" by entering "no calculation").
Using Change Travel Activity, you set which of your activities should be the Travel Activity. With the checkbox may overlap with other activities, is not relevant to working time, you can specify whether travel time counts as working time for you or not.
For a Travel Activity with these properties, the following applies:
It is not relevant to working time, i.e., it is not included in the overtime calculation - Absences & Overtime module.
It causes no internal costs.
It is allowed to overlap with one other activity.
It counts as a break according to the break regulation.
It generates subsistence costs.
It can be billed to the customer, i.e., it can be booked as billable or non-billable. It is billed even if it overlaps with another time.
Once you have applied these properties to a Travel Activity and recorded project times for it, you cannot reverse these properties. You must first delete the recorded times.
Activities and Tasks
For the assignment of working hours, there is also the structuring of projects into Tasks. The following notes may be helpful in deciding between an Activity and a Task.
A work process is an Activity if some of the following points apply:
The process is very general and not tied to a specific project or project type.
A later report would be interesting that tells you how much time was booked for this work process across all projects, for example, because:
You pay the employee a special hourly rate for it.
You receive a special hourly rate from the client for it.
The time is not paid for by the client (e.g., travel time, overhead).
This Activity is relevant in the vast majority of projects.
After this Activity was included in the ZEP database for a while, employees booked time to it frequently and correctly. (Acceptance)
A Task, on the other hand:
Is rather special, tied to a specific project or project type.
Is a project phase or a manageable work package of the project.
Enables a detailed effort estimation (planned times, planned costs).
Project Status
To define a new status, enter a short form and a designation.
You can store the Project Status in multiple languages. The entry is made in the Designation field: Click on German/English/French/Spanish, enter the designation for the short form. Depending on the language set for the employee or the project, the designation will be displayed in the language selection.
You can select a color for each status; this will be displayed in the project table.
Status Order
You can move a status up or down with the arrow symbols. The sorting determines the sequence in which the statuses are displayed in the selection lists. A newly created status is always appended to the end of the list. You can move it to the correct position with the corresponding arrow symbol.
A newly created or copied project is always placed in the first status in the list.
Bookability
Specify whether this status is bookable. Only projects assigned to a bookable status appear in the selection lists during project time and receipt recording. If a status is bookable, it is displayed in bold in the table.
Filter
The Project Status can be filtered in the project reports and project planning.
Task Status
To define a new status, enter a short form and a designation.
You can store a Task Status in multiple languages. You can select a color for each status; this will be displayed in the task table.
Status Order
Order and moving function analogously to the Project Status via the arrow symbols.
Bookability
The bookability of a task is analogous to the description you can find for bookability in the Project Status.
Mail Templates
ZEP offers you the possibility to send emails at various points. For these emails, there are standardized texts included in the emails. Here you can customize the standardized text for the project mail templates To all project employees or To a single project employee. Additionally, you can optionally add files (max 5 x 20MB / max. 50MB total).
You have the option to send specific information regarding the project and employee through general Placeholders.
Please note: the placeholder Actual Hours (%ISTSTUNDEN%) always delivers only the current billably booked actual hours of the project.
You can send all Mail Templates as a test email (Preview) to your own email address. Click on German/English/Frenchin the column Test Send (to own email address), and you will receive the email in the corresponding language sent to your address.
Categories
Here you define Categories to which you can assign your Projects, respectively. This categorization serves as a search and selection criterion.
You can store Categories in multiple languages.
Keywords
The input of Keywords can help you when using the search function to find and call up Projects faster, for example.
Additional attributes
You can define Additional Attributes for customers, projects, tasks, and employees. An Additional Attribute is a field that is then present for every customer/project/employee and can be maintained via the frontend.
The following information must be provided when creating an Additional Attribute:
Name - This is the technical name of the attribute under which it can then also be read or set in the SOAP interface.
Designation - Multi-language designation that is displayed in the user interface.
Remark - An (internal) remark, e.g., to describe the attribute.
Type - The data type of the attribute. Options are: Text, Yes/No, Number, Decimal Number, Percentage, Date, URL, E-mail, Selection List, Employee Selection.
Details on the data types:
Selection List: Here you can specify one or more options that can then be provided as a single or multiple selection.
Employee Selection: An existing employee can be selected and assigned via this.
Additional Attributes are displayed on the Data page of the respective object and can be entered in the edit mode.
Currently, Additional Attributes can be used as follows:
In the administration views via configurable columns.
As a placeholder on invoices - The value can be inserted via the popup.
Via document variable in the Letterhead. An Additional Attribute is available as a document variable under its name.
Via SOAP in the <attribute> area.