The basic settings for the Locations & Departments module are found under Administration > Departments > Settings. Here you define global defaults that control visibility behavior, default filters, and the permissions of department leaders in ZEP.

When enabled, the visibility of department leaders is restricted to their own area. Specifically, when creating a project from a template, only projects from their own department are available – projects from other departments are not displayed. When disabled, department leaders can access projects and structures across all departments.

This setting is recommended for organizations where department leaders should remain clearly focused on their own unit and should not have insight into other departments.

The following two settings control which department is pre-selected in reports and lists when first opened. They define the default perspective from which users view department-related data.

When enabled, filtering by a department automatically includes all subordinate departments. The "incl. sub-departments" option is then set by default in reports and lists, without users having to activate it manually. Recommended for deep department hierarchies where reports for a parent department should regularly cover the entire sub-hierarchy.

This setting also affects automated invoicing: when generating automated invoices, sub-departments of the selected department are included accordingly.

When enabled, the „- Any -“ option is pre-selected by default in department filters. Users see the company-wide overview without any input. When disabled, the filter starts with no pre-selection – users must actively select a department or "All".

These settings control which actions department leaders may perform independently. By default, most permissions are enabled; only the right to change internal hourly rates is disabled in the default configuration.

Allows department leaders to create new employees directly for their department, without requiring administrator involvement. Useful for decentrally organized companies where department leaders manage their own teams. Enabled by default.

Allows department leaders to create new customers in ZEP. When disabled, customers can only be created by administrators and users with the appropriate additional permissions. Enabled by default.

Allows department leaders to create new projects for their department. When disabled, project creation is reserved for administrators and – if separately configured – users with additional permissions. Enabled by default.

Allows department leaders to edit project-specific internal billing rates – including for employees from other departments who book time to projects in their department. This permission applies to both project assignments and operation assignments. This setting is disabled by default, as changing internal hourly rates is typically an administrator task.