Invoices are created by Administrators and Controllers (with the Locations & Departments module also by department managers) from released invoice items – either in the menu of a project under Project > [Project Name] > Billing > Invoice Items or in the customer menu.
Create Invoice
Select the desired released invoice items and click Invoice. A two-page popup window will open.
Via Invoice individually, you invoice several selected invoice items each in its own invoice. Instead of a single invoice number, you enter a Start-Inv-No from which ZEP numbers the invoices consecutively.
Page 1 – Invoice Data
Title: "Invoice" by default. If the total amount is negative, "Credit note" is suggested automatically. For cancelled invoices, "Cancellation invoice".
Invoice number: Pre-filled according to the settings under Administration > Billing > Settings. Use Next available invoice no. to restore the default pre-fill.
Invoice date: Pre-filled according to the "Intelligently pre-fill invoice date" setting, can be adjusted.
Invoice recipient: Select a contact of the customer or "---" if no recipient should appear.
Invoice address: Pre-filled according to the project settings. Can be adjusted by selecting a different customer address or editing directly.
Discount period in days: Pre-filled from the customer data, can be overridden.
Payment term in days: Pre-filled from the customer data, can be overridden.
VAT: Pre-filled from the customer data, can be freely adjusted for this invoice.
Invoice Items order: Items can be arranged in the desired order via drag and drop.
If you select a contact person under "Invoice recipient", their name is inserted on a new line after the customer name in the invoice address. Changing the invoice address affects only this one invoice, not the customer or project as a whole.
Page 2 – Additional Fields and Format
Additional fields: Content texts of the customer additional fields as well as the upper and lower invoice text can be adjusted here.
File format: Select the invoice format for this invoice.
Letter Paper: Pre-filled with the letter paper of the department of the project of the first invoice item. For pdf, odt and doc letter paper, you can switch to the letter paper of another department here.
Click Complete to create the invoice. You will be redirected directly to the detail page of the newly created invoice.
Send Invoice
Invoices can be sent directly from the invoice detail page by email. Prerequisites:
The ZEP mail client must be set up under Administration > My Company > Email.
The customer’s invoice address must contain an email address.
The invoice document is added to the invoice as an email attachment. Optional settings when sending:
Request read receipt: The recipient receives the email with a request for a read receipt.
Merge PDF attachments: Multiple PDF attachments can be merged into a single PDF.
Add project documents: Documents from the project folder can be attached directly when sending.
Note: ZEP displays for each invoice when it was last sent by email to the customer.
Resend Invoice
When resending an invoice, you can optionally specify whether the invoice file should be marked as a "copy".
Note: Marking as a copy is only possible for invoices in PDF format.
Incoming Payments
Incoming Payments is only available if the option "Manage incoming payments in ZEP" is enabled in the basic settings. You can find it under Invoice > Incoming Payments.
Record each incoming payment with date, amount and an optional note. The first incoming payment is pre-filled with the invoice amount (gross). For partial payments, the second entry is automatically pre-filled with the remaining amount.
Example: An invoice for €100 was paid with a discount: €97 payment + €3 reduction. By recording both entries, no open items are shown for this invoice anymore.
If you have changed the pre-filled amount, use the "Balance" link to reset it to the open amount. The table heading continuously shows the invoice amount still open. The "Open Items" report gives you an overview of all open amounts.
Cancel Invoice
Under Invoice > Actions > Cancel Invoice, Administrators and Controllers can cancel an invoice (with module Locations & Departments also department managers). Such an invoice cancellation reverses an invoice that has already been issued. When cancelling, the following applies:
The included invoice items are reset to the "released" status.
Credit note items are created in the amount of the invoice total.
The invoice number is retained and cannot be reassigned.
The cancelled invoice remains saved in ZEP with all invoice items in the "cancelled" status.
Example: An effort invoice with three items is cancelled. After cancellation, you remove the release of the affected invoice item, correct the entry, release the item again, and invoice all items including the credit note item again.
Correct Invoice
Under Invoice > Actions > Correct, Administrators, Controllers and (with module Locations & Departments) department managers can modify an invoice that has already been issued. In such an invoice correction, the invoice number and invoice date remain unchanged. A correction is also possible if incoming payments have already been documented.
The correction process:
Click Start correction – the invoice changes to the "In Correction" status.
Edit invoice texts, address and VAT via Edit.
Adjust invoice items: add existing items, create new ones, copy, remove or delete.
For effort items: set the invoice item to "planned" to remove the period lock.
Complete the correction via Complete correction.
Note: The "In Correction" status can persist for an extended period – you do not have to complete the correction immediately.
The previous invoice document is kept in the system as an old version. This lets you trace at any time when and how the invoice was changed.
Use Change on an individual invoice position to update its invoice text and planned amount. This action only affects that position. To change the invoice texts, address, or VAT of the entire invoice instead, select Correct to start an invoice correction. Afterwards, use Change data to update the details.
Delete Invoice
Under Invoice > Actions > Delete, Administrators and Controllers can delete an invoice (with module Locations & Departments also department managers) as long as no incoming payments have been documented.
When deleting, the following applies:
The invoice and the invoice document are deleted.
The invoice number is released again. If it was the last number in the system, ZEP will suggest it again for the next billing.
Warning: Note down the deleted invoice number so you can reuse it for a new invoice. Deletion is not possible if incoming payments are documented, if the invoice has already been exported to accounting as immutable (Accounting Export module), or if follow-up invoices reference it (for example, credit notes for canceled invoices or partial payment and final invoices. These must be deleted in reverse order).
Documents for the Invoice
Under Invoice > Documents, you can upload any documents (e.g. time records) to an invoice. When sending the invoice, these documents can be attached as attachments.
Invoice overview and bulk operations
Under Billing > Invoices, administrators and controllers see all invoices across ZEP, and in the project and customer menu the respective invoices. Via the gear icon, you define under Configure table columns separately for the display and the export which columns appear in which order. With the export icon, you output the table as Excel or CSV.
If you select several invoices, the following bulk operations are available under Actions:
Send invoices as email
Record payment for open amount
Create ZIP archive (invoice files)
Hovering over the selection shows the sum of the selected invoices and the overall total – helpful for reconciling a collective transfer. For PDF invoices, the following are additionally available:
Create ZIP archive: one PDF document with invoice file and receipt files PDF per invoice
the same variant for email delivery
Create PDF document for printout, to print several invoices together
Click the invoice no. in the table to open the invoice detail page. There, under Invoice file, you will find a download link that lets you download and view the invoice.
The "Currency" filter restricts the invoice list to invoices in a specific currency. The "Convert all amounts into [base currency]" checkbox additionally converts the amounts into your base currency, using the exchange rate of the respective invoice date.