This article builds on the First steps for employees - ZEP Clock article. The fundamentals of daily ZEP Clock usage described there are not repeated here.
This article focuses on system setup, basic configuration, and the most important administrative tasks for administrators and users with additional permissions.
Note: In ZEP Clock, administrators have access to the Administration menu item. Depending on the booked modules, department managers can also take on individual administrative tasks for their assigned departments.
Note: During the trial phase, email dispatch is initially deactivated and must be activated by ZEP. Until then, ZEP does not send any automatic system emails (for example access data, password resets, absence request notifications). For details, see Account – Administration.
Defining Basic Settings Before First Use
Before your team starts working with ZEP Clock, you as an administrator deliberately configure the central basic settings under Administration. The most important areas at a glance:
My Company — default language, password policies, and optionally Single Sign-On for login.
Employees — default values for new employees such as regular working hours, vacation entitlement, and work break regulations.
Working Hours — central recording rules: how far back and ahead entries are permitted, whether notes are required, whether manual entry is allowed at all, and whether entries can be made on public holidays or days without target working hours.
Overtime & Absences (with the Absences & Overtime module) — introduction date, absence reasons, public holiday calendars, and surcharges via Special Times. From the introduction month, employees record their times in full.
System — device management for multi-user apps and terminals, and tasks to automate recurring checks.
Note: The work break regulation is particularly important. You define one or more rules with minimum rest period, maximum working hours, automatic break deduction, and minimum breaks, and then assign them to individual employees.
Tip: If you want to clock in against activities, enable them under Working Hours and then create them in the Activities settings area. More on this in the article My Company – Administration.
Creating Employees
You create new employees in the Employees menu item: first you enter the general master data and assign the appropriate user permissions.
Note: To grant an employee access, send the password reset link by e-mail. Without a business e-mail address, set an initial password via Enter Password and share it together with the username. More on this in the article Creating, editing and deleting employees.
After creating the employee, review the partly pre-filled settings in their profile:
Employment period — start, optional end, and the corresponding vacation entitlement. For a mid-year start with a non-rounded entitlement, it is best to work with two employment periods.
Regular working hours — the working time model with target hours and working days, plus the assignment of work break regulation and public holiday calendar.
Overtime & vacation balance — enter carried-over vacation days and overtime and offset them in future.
Data migration during onboarding: ZEP migrates existing data from a previous system as part of onboarding — in ZEP Clock typically employees, working times, and absences. You can additionally import the recorded working times yourself via Excel (see Personal reports). For the remaining migration, contact ZEP support at [email protected].
Defining Time Entry Methods for Your Company
Decide early how working hours are recorded in your company. ZEP Clock offers the following options:
recording in the browser via the clock-in icon at the top right,
the Working Hours menu item, provided manual time entry is not disabled,
the ZEP Clock App with a single-user mode for personal use and a multi-user mode for shared use,
the ZEP browser extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge,
as hardware the ZEP Terminal and partner terminals (Datafox and EasySecure).
For the rollout, the key factor is not the range of technical options but a clear decision: which employee groups record in the browser, which use mobile, and where do terminal solutions make sense?
Tip: You can find detailed information in the article Project times and working times.
Knowing the Key Administrative Workflows for Day-to-Day Use
For administrators and, when the Locations & Departments module is in use, also for department managers, it is important to know where corrections and additions are made day to day.
Under Employees > select the employee > Administration, you record, change, and correct the working hours and calendar entries of other employees. In the internal note you document the reason for the change. This note is visible to the employee in their working hours history. This gives users with additional permissions a dedicated place for daily administrative tasks, for example to add a forgotten clock-in.
Using Automations Effectively
Under Administration > System > Tasks, you automate recurring tasks. Particularly helpful from the start are:
the reminder for missing time entries,
the reminder to clock in,
the automatic logout at a fixed time or after a certain attendance duration,
notifications about employment periods, absence requests, shortfalls in target hours, or the monthly lock.
This stabilizes day-to-day operations early and helps prevent incorrect bookings.
