Employee management is the foundation for all further functions in ZEP. This article covers how to create employees, edit their data, send them a login link or reset their password, end their employment period, and pseudonymize or delete their record when needed.
Which fields are available on the employee in detail depends on your product line and the modules you have booked. A complete field reference with all availability notes is in the article Employee Data.
Note: Employee management is included by default in ZEP Clock, ZEP Compact, and ZEP Professional. You access it via the main menu Employees. The list shows all employees who are currently employed by default.
Permissions for employee management
Who is allowed to create, edit, or remove employees in ZEP follows from their role, that is, their user rights. Rights management is done via the Authorizations field on the employee. This overview summarizes which role can perform which action. The full role reference with all permissions is in the article Employee data.
Action | Who is allowed |
Create employees | Administrators company-wide. Department managers for their own departments (with the Locations and Departments module). |
Edit master data | Administrators company-wide. Department managers for their own departments. Employees cannot edit their own master data — changes to their own record are made via the responsible administration or department manager. |
Change role | Administrators. Department managers within their own department, but cannot demote administrators. |
Change username afterwards | Administrators only. |
Deactivate employees (end of employment) | Administrators. Department managers for their own departments. |
Pseudonymize employees | Administrators only. |
Delete employees | Administrators only. A person cannot delete themselves. |
Creating employees
Employees are created directly from the employee list. Administrators and Department Managers (for their own department) are authorized to do so.
How to create a new employee:
Open Employees in the main menu.
Click New Employee.
Fill in the required fields in the dialog: First name, Surname, Username, and Department. In ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional the Standard price group is additionally required.
Choose a role from the dropdown. When in doubt, User is the safest default.
Optional: salutation, language, e-mail, abbreviation, and personnel number.
Confirm with Save.
The username may be up to 32 characters long and must not contain spaces or special characters such as & % $ # @ ? = ; < > or quotation marks. It must be unique across the entire system. After saving, the username is locked. A later change is only possible via the special workflow Edit username (see the section Editing employees).
Note: A small Edit icon appears next to the username field in the employee data for administrators. Clicking it opens the Edit username dialog. Once the new username is confirmed, ZEP automatically updates all dependent records.
After saving, ZEP forwards to the detail page of the newly created employee.
Assigning access data: When creating an employee for the first time, you decide how access data reaches the employee. Two options are available:
Send by e-mail (default): The employee receives a welcome e-mail with a setup link valid for 24 hours. They set the initial password themselves. No administrator knows it. Prerequisite: the e-mail address in the Contact tab is filled in.
Set password manually: You specify an initial password that you communicate to the employee personally. They are prompted to change it on first login. Useful when no business e-mail address is available or login happens via a terminal.
Editing employees
Master data can be updated at any time. Administrators and Department Managers (for employees of their own department) are authorized. Employees themselves have no write access to their record. Corrections to their own profile are reported to the administration or their department manager.
How to edit an employee:
Open Employees in the main menu.
Click the name of the employee in the list. The detail page opens with the General tab as the starting view.
Change the desired fields in the tabs General, Settings, Contact details, or Bank account.
Save your changes with Save.
Which fields you maintain in detail, from salutation and language to bank account, is fully described in Employee Data. The article also documents all availability notes per product line and module.
Changing the username after creation: The username is read-only after creation because it serves as a technical identifier in time entries, reports, and interfaces. Administrators can still change it. To do so, open the detail page of the employee. A small Edit icon appears next to the username field for administrators. Clicking it opens the Edit username dialog. Once the new username is confirmed, ZEP updates all dependent records.
Resetting the password and sending a login link
You can send an already created employee a login link or reset their password at any time. In ZEP both run through the same function. Who initiates the change determines the route. The three sections below describe it for administrators and department managers, for employees in their own profile, and for a forgotten password. Sending a login link is also how you invite a new employee to ZEP.
Note: During the trial phase, email dispatch is initially deactivated and must be activated by ZEP. Until then, ZEP does not send any automatic system emails (for example access data, password resets, absence request notifications). For details, see Account – Administration.
Note: With central login via LDAP or single sign-on, ZEP does not manage passwords itself. The links Reset password and Change Password are then not shown.
For administrators and department managers
Open the employee under Employees and click Reset password in the footer of the Data view. The dialog offers two ways:
Send a link to change the password via email (default): The employee receives a login link by email and uses it to set their own password. The link is valid for 24 hours and is regenerated with every send. This is also how you give an already created employee access afterwards.
Enter password: You set a new password directly and pass it on in person. At the next login the employee is prompted to change it.
Sending the email requires a stored email address. If none is set, only Enter password is available. This function is available to administrators and to the department managers of the respective employee.
In your own profile
You can change your own password at any time. Open Profile and click Change Password in the footer of the General view. To confirm, enter your current password and then set a new one.
Via the login page
If you have forgotten your password, use Forgot your password on the login page. Enter your username or email address and you will receive a link by email to set a new password. For security reasons the link is valid for 24 hours.
Deactivating employees
When employees leave the company, end their employment period. This keeps past time entries and reports unchanged while the person no longer appears in the standard employee list after the end date.
Note: If bookings (project times, receipts) or absences (for example approved future leave) fall after the leaving date, the employment period cannot be shortened. Remove these future entries first or choose a leaving date after the last entry. Deleting the employee is not necessary for this.
How to end an employment period:
Open the detail page of the employee via Employees.
Switch to the tab Employment Periods.
Fill in the field to with the last working day in the current entry.
Save your changes.
After the end date, the employee is no longer considered currently employed. The employee list hides them by default. With the filter Employment period in the list configuration, you can still display former employees, for example for historical reporting.
Note: What happens to the license when the employment period ends depends on the product line. In ZEP Clock the license is automatically no longer billed once the person is no longer employed. In ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional the license slot becomes free and can be used by a new employee — the booked license count does not change automatically. You reduce it yourself via ZEP's self-service tool for license and contract management.
Pseudonymizing employees
Pseudonymization replaces personal data with generic values without destroying the accounting history. It applies when former employees invoke their right to be forgotten under GDPR Article 17 while the auditability of past data must be preserved.
Note: Pseudonymization is purely a data protection measure and has no effect on the license. Whether an employee occupies a license seat depends solely on the employment period. A former employee whose employment has ended does not occupy a license seat, regardless of whether the record is subsequently pseudonymized or retained.
How to pseudonymize an employee:
First end the employment period (see the previous section).
Open the detail page and choose Actions > Pseudonymize.
In the dialog, decide per data category between deleting and pseudonymizing: absences and calendars, assignments (Department Manager, project manager, key account manager), and change history.
Confirm with Execute.
First name, surname, and username are always replaced by generic values, for example Vorname001, Nachname001, and user001. ZEP automatically picks the next free number. All other personal data is deleted: e-mail address, postal address, phone numbers, bank details, date of birth, personnel number, and profile picture. The password is regenerated, so a login with the previous credentials is no longer possible.
Project times, receipts, and other time entries remain under the new pseudonymized name so that reports and evaluations of the past stay consistent. Administrators and department managers can perform this action for employees of their own department.
Warning: Pseudonymization is not reversible. Before executing, make sure all required reports have been exported.
Deleting employees
Deleting removes an employee completely from ZEP, including all dependent data. This action is only meaningful for test accounts or accidental creations. For all other cases, pseudonymization is the correct choice because it preserves history. Deleting is not required to avoid license costs. It is sufficient to end the employment period, as described in the section Deactivating employees.
Warning: You can only delete an employee if there are no project times, receipts, tickets in which this employee is entered as an employee or editor (only with the Tickets, Tasks & To-dos module) and absences (only with the Overtime, Absences & Vacation module).
How to delete an employee:
Open the detail page and choose Actions > Delete employee.
ZEP automatically checks whether open project assignments, active time entries, or other dependent data exist.
If the checks succeed, confirm with Execute.
When deleting, ZEP removes all dependent records automatically: project and task assignments, employment periods, internal hourly rates, monthly employee data, overtime and vacation accounts. Administrators and department managers can perform this action for employees of their own department. You cannot delete yourself.