The Travel Expense Management module covers the entire business travel process in ZEP – from recording travel times and meals through to approving the expense report and handing it over to accounting. Daily allowances, mileage, and meal deductions are calculated automatically based on the stored rates.
Product line availability
Note: Travel Expense Management is available in ZEP Clock, ZEP Compact, and ZEP Professional.
In ZEP Clock and ZEP Compact, it is added as an optional module via the ZEP Self-Service Tool under Administration > Account. In ZEP Professional, it is included automatically.
In ZEP Clock, a simplified variant is available – with predefined rates and without project- or customer-specific travel settings.
Permissions
Tasks in travel expense management are divided by role:
Employees: Capture their own trips along with the related receipts and submit the expense report.
Supervisors (assigned supervisors; with the Locations & Departments module also Department managers of the responsible department): Check the trips of their employees and mark them as checked.
Administrators and Controllers: Run the central travel expense accounting, manage flat rates, reimbursement rules, and all master data of the module.
Additional menu items
The module makes the following additional menu items and tabs available in ZEP:
Project times
Travel times are recorded in the main menu Project times – as a regular project time entry with an activity configured as a travel activity. Once ZEP recognizes the activity as a trip, the travel fields travel direction, start location, destination location, kilometers, and passengers appear.
In the same area, employees also record their meals per travel day (breakfast, lunch, dinner). The meal entries control the daily allowance deductions and are available directly in the daily view of time recording.
Receipts
Via the main menu item Receipts, employees record their travel receipts (overnight stays, tickets, hospitality). When recording, they assign the receipt to a trip — when the expense report is created, the assigned receipts appear automatically.
Note: The main menu item Receipts itself is added by the Revenue and Costs module — but the travel expense recording runs through exactly this area.
Employees > Travel and Costs
In an employee's detail page, the navigation group Travel and Costs appears for administrators, controllers, and department managers. The following tabs are added by the travel expense module:
Travel – overview of all trips of the person
Cost accounting or credit notes for freelancers – the consolidated report
Disbursement documentation – documentation of reimbursements already paid out
With a daily allowance procedure active, Meals and Meal history additionally appear – allowing meals recorded per travel day and their chronological overview to be inspected.
Note: The tabs Receipt overview and Rate overview also visible in this group are contributed by the Revenue and Costs module – not by Travel Expense Management.
Project > Billing settings > Travel settings
In project settings, the entry Travel settings appears under the Billing settings group. There you configure project-specific mileage, arrival allowances, and – where it differs from the standard – the treatment of daily allowances.
Note: Project-specific travel settings are only available in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional.
Customer > Billing settings > Travel settings
Analogous to projects, the entry Travel settings appears under the Billing settings group in the customer. There you specify customer-wide defaults, e.g., whether arrival allowances are settled per day or per trip.
Note: Customer-specific travel settings are only available in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional.
Administration > Travel
Under Administration > Travel, a new administration tile appears with the following sub-items:
Daily allowances – calculation procedure, overnight recognition, proportional distribution
Cost accounting – output format of the expense report, level of detail in reports
Vehicles – vehicle lists with mileage and passenger rates
Locations – location lists with country-specific flat rates
Administration > Export for Accounting
Under Administration > Export for Accounting > Approved expense reports, you hand over approved and released expense reports to accounting. The handover is only available in ZEP Professional in combination with the Export for Accounting module. In ZEP Compact, the expense report is downloaded as a PDF or submitted via email and entered into accounting manually — including DATEV-compatible formatting and cost center assignment.
Distinction from other modules
Note: Travel Expense Management interacts with several other ZEP modules: With the Revenue and Costs module, you record travel-related receipts via the receipt inbox. With the Invoicing module, travel expenses can be passed through to customer invoices or billed with a markup. Via the Accounting Export module (ZEP Professional), reviewed expense reports are transferred to DATEV, Lexware, or a generic format. With the Document Management module, receipt photos and travel documents are stored in a tamper-proof way.