Under Administration > Offers > Settings, you configure the Proposals module company-wide. The settings affect all newly created offers — individual values such as format, letter paper, or texts can be overridden per offer.

The Offer validity defines how long a new offer is valid. Starting from the creation date, ZEP calculates the default for the Valid until field in every new offer. You can adjust the date there if needed.

You can choose 4, 6, or 8 weeks or 3 or 6 months, each also extended to the following end of the week or month (suffix Weekend or Month end). The default is 3 Months - Month end. Tip: choose a rather short period. This increases the pressure for a timely response and prevents prices from circulating in unbinding form for long periods.

In the Number range section, you define how offer numbers are issued automatically. The format consists of a prefix, a consecutive counter, and an optional suffix. The following placeholders are available within the format:

Example: AN-%YYYY%- + 4-digit counter produces numbers like AN-2026-0001.

In the Length field, you define how many digits the sequential counter has between prefix and suffix. Shorter numbers are padded on the left with leading zeros. By default, the prefix %KNR%- is preset, so that the customer number precedes the sequential number.

Offer number with version number: Activate this option if you want to create multiple versions of an offer and include the version in the offer number (e.g., AN-2026-0001V2). Without this option, the offer keeps its existing number in a new version as well.

When enabled, the initials of the employee who created the offer are printed directly after the offer date — for example, 27/05/2026 / MM. This way, the recipient immediately knows whom to contact for questions, without having to search the contact line.

Useful if several people create offers for the same customer or if internal authorship should remain traceable. The initials come from the employee profile.

Here you set the default file format for the final offer file — typically PDF or PDF/A (long-term archive-capable). You also configure the preview format shown in the browser when creating a draft (without PDF/A, since the preview need not be archive-capable).

PDF/A is suitable if you want to archive offers for the long term. For pure sales offers without retention requirements, the standard PDF is sufficient.

Who can see all offers, create or delete offers, and maintain offer templates is controlled by the Offer Data, Create Offers, Delete Offers, and Offer Templates rows in the Offers area of Roles & Permissions. In the settings, you also define the following permissions.

With the Ticket System module, you can additionally set here whether ticket processors may also see the related offers — for example, to answer customer questions directly without involving the sales department.

By default, only administrators may maintain keywords in the master data catalog. With this option, employees may spontaneously add new keywords while creating or editing an offer, which are then automatically added to the catalog. Useful when keyword maintenance should happen in a decentralized way.

For effort and fixed price items, quantities can be recorded in either hours or days. When transferring an offer into a project, ZEP automatically converts the planned days into planned hours using this factor. The default value is 8 (1 day = 8 hours). Enter a different value if your target working time differs (e.g., 7.5-hour days).

The factor applies company-wide. With strongly different working-time models, it is recommended to record expenditure items directly in hours to avoid rounding differences.

Activate Offers must be checked once finished to enforce a four-eyes principle in the offer workflow. The status Done then cannot lead directly to sending. The offer first moves to status In review and must be set to Checked by an authorized person before the document can be created and sent.

Which roles may trigger the transition In review → Checked is defined in the workflow permissions (see article Master Data – Proposals).

Activate Send order confirmation after commissioning (optional) if an order confirmation should be sent after receiving the order from the customer. The status Commissioned can then be supplemented by the transition Confirmed, which triggers an order-confirmation email. The corresponding mail template is stored in the master data.

In the Offers sent via email section, you configure the sender that appears when sending an offer by email. This setting applies only to offer emails. For other ZEP system emails (reminders, notifications), the central sender address under Administration > My Company > Email applies. Four fields are available:

With the Proposals module active, the scheduler offers the task Reminder to follow up on the offer. You find the task management under Administration > System > Tasks. Activate the task and set the timing relative to the validity date — for example, "7 days before expiry" or "3 days after expiry". ZEP then automatically sends an email reminder to follow up to the offer's processor. If no processor is set or the processor is not authorized for the current status, the responsible person receives it.