Under Administration > Travel, you find the central master settings for travel expense management — divided into Daily allowances (calculation logic), Cost accounting (output format and level of detail), and the master data Vehicles and Locations.
Daily allowances
Here you configure how ZEP calculates the daily allowance rates. The settings apply company-wide for all employees.
Calculation method
The calculation method determines which method is used to calculate the daily allowance — according to German or Austrian tax rules, calendar-day or 24-hour rule, or without an automatic daily allowance. The choice controls which additional fields become visible in the form.
Time-limit check for tax-free reimbursement
When the German procedure is active, two time-limit options can be enabled: the three-month rule for prolonged work at the same project or at the same customer. When the limit is exceeded, ZEP automatically switches to taxable reimbursement.
Detect overnight stay
When this option is active, ZEP detects an overnight stay based on the travel duration spanning evening and morning. Three detail values control the detection:
Minimum – hours that must lie between the end of one trip and the start of the next
Evening start – from when ZEP considers an overnight stay possible
Morning end – until when overnight detection applies
Proportional distribution of the daily allowance
When an employee has booked time on multiple projects on the same day, this setting controls how the calculated daily allowance is distributed across the projects:
Proportional across all projects – the daily allowance is distributed equally across all booked projects of the day
Only for the same customer – proportional distribution applies only when all booked projects belong to the same customer
Treat booking as break – determines whether the daily-allowance calculation treats booking gaps as actual breaks (affects the hour calculation for the daily allowance)
Show all start/destination locations
Controls whether all start and destination locations from the location lists are selectable in the trip recording forms or only a reduced list of typical locations. For very large location lists, the reduced list improves clarity.
Location display in reports
Specifies how locations are displayed in the expense report, project time record, and project sales volume — either as a short form with a legend at the end of the report, or directly as the full label.
Cost accounting
Here you configure the output format of the printed expense report that employees receive for approval and payment.
Level of detail per report table
For the three report tables Daily allowances, Mileage, and Receipts, you control which reference levels appear in the columns:
Show project – the table is grouped by project (available for all three areas)
Show project and operation – additionally grouped by operation within the project (only for mileage and receipts)
File format
The approved expense report is output in one of the supported formats — PDF is suitable for archiving and handover to accounting, HTML for quick display in the browser.
Approved expense report in landscape format
With the checkbox Approved expense report in landscape format, the PDF output is switched to landscape orientation. Recommended for detailed trips with many receipts and columns that become too narrow in portrait format.