In the employee dialog, you maintain all master data of the employee, from username and role to language and bank account. This article walks you through all six areas and explains per field where the value subsequently takes effect in ZEP.

You open employee data via Employees in the main menu and a click on the respective employee. The complete lifecycle from creating to deleting is described in Creating, editing and deleting employees.

Under General, you store the central master data. These fields appear in the employee list, in reports, in receipts, and in interface exports. They are the employee's business card across the entire ZEP universe.

The profile picture appears in the employee list as an avatar, in the detail view, and in report overviews. ZEP automatically scales to 120 × 120 pixels on upload. Accepted formats are PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, and BMP.

The username is the unique login identifier and a required field. It appears in every time entry, every audit log entry, every export, and in API interfaces. Up to 32 characters from letters, digits, hyphen, underscore, and dot are allowed. Umlauts, special characters, and spaces are not allowed.

Recommended notations in ZEP:

Keep the convention consistent across the company so that reports and exports remain readable.

After saving, the field is read-only because the username is referenced as a technical identifier in all dependent records.

The personnel number is the official identifier of the employee in ZEP. It appears in the employee list, in reports, in receipts, and in accounting exports and serves the internal assignment across all modules. ZEP warns on save if the number is already assigned; uniqueness is required.

Additionally, interfaces use the personnel number as a matching criterion during sync. DATEV reads it as personnel number in the payroll export; Personio and HR WORKS match employees by it. Via the setting Form creditor number from personnel number in administration, the personnel number can additionally serve as the creditor number; otherwise the creditor number is captured separately.

The abbreviation, typically initials or a two- to four-character shortcut, is shown in the employee list, in task management, and in dense report tables as a space-saving short reference. Optional, but recommended for longer employee names.

First name (maximum 32 characters) and Surname (maximum 64 characters) are required. Salutation (Mr., Mrs., Diverse, Company) is used in formal e-mails, in letters from the letter paper module, and in the automatic mail when sending access data. Title (Dr., Prof.) additionally appears on documents.

The date of birth is optional and not shown in the regular employee list. It is read by the Birthdays dashboard widget. When the widget is active, you see upcoming birthdays in the team there, which is useful for small gestures without a separate HR tool.

The language determines this employee's ZEP interface, the date format, and the language of automatic mails. ZEP supports the following languages:

Additional languages may be available depending on the contract variant. If no language is set, the company-wide default language applies.

The department controls two central mechanisms: first the visibility, because Department Managers only see their own department, and second the assignment in cost-center reports. When the department changes, the assignment takes effect immediately, the old assignment is overwritten.

The role controls which data the employee sees and which actions they can perform. Six roles are available, from Administrator (full access) to User (self-administration). A detailed description with permissions per role is available in the article Creating, editing and deleting employees in the Employee roles section.

The default price group takes effect when the employee books time on a project that does not specify its own price group. This allows mapping different rates, for example junior, senior, or freelancer rates. The project can override this default with its own price group.

Categories are an additional grouping dimension alongside the department. Typical examples are Development, Sales, Support, or functional tags like Working student or Senior. Multi-select possible, up to five categories per employee. The available categories are maintained in administration; they are used in report filters without having to change the department structure.

Free text for internal notes that do not fit into any other field, for example hints about availability, special arrangements, or onboarding status. The note is not displayed in reports.

Every person in ZEP has a role. It decides which data the employee sees, which functions they may use and whether they can edit their own or other entries. The role is assigned when creating the employee and can be changed later in the General tab of the employee data. ZEP distinguishes between standard roles, which are selected directly in the Rights field, and additional authorisations, which are granted via other data relationships.

The following five standard roles are available in ZEP. The order reflects the rights hierarchy from high (full access) to low (self-administration):

When assigning roles the following applies: a person cannot remove a role from themselves that would lock them out. The role Project controller is only available in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional, not in ZEP Clock. Which role is selectable in your system is shown directly in the Rights field of the employee data.

The base role for employees who maintain their own data in ZEP. A person with this role records and corrects their project times, attendance entries and receipts within the permitted entry period, sees reports on the data they have entered themselves and maintains their own profile. Other employees' data and cross-project reports are not accessible.

Builds on User and adds project- and customer-related views for team members with co-responsibility. In addition to the User rights:

Extends User with additional authorizations with a cross-project view for people in steering functions, without releasing employee data. In addition:

Extends Project controller with the read-only view on employees and customers. In addition:

Full access to all functions and data. In addition to all underlying roles, a person with this role manages the base data (master data, licenses, configuration), corrects recorded times and receipts of all employees, uses central entry and controls project planning as well as Employee Management, Customer Management and project administration in full depth.

Beyond the standard role, ZEP knows further authorisations that are not set in the Rights field but via the respective data relationship — for example the assignment to a department, a customer or a project. In addition to their standard role, a person may hold one or more of these additional authorisations.

Department Managers are designated as the head of the respective department in the administration. They manage the employees of their department — master data, employment periods, roles (except administrator) and reports — and approve absences and trips.

Key account manager are stored on the individual customer data set. They see all data and reports of their customers, appear in account views and can be used as a filter in reports.

Project managers with budget responsibility are stored on the individual project under the project members with the corresponding function. They control project planning, budget and billing of the project, see and release the team's project times, are responsible for offer and invoice releases and see the internal costs of their project.

Which rights the project lead receives in detail also depends on the person's standard role:

Project managers without budget responsibility are stored on the individual project under the project members with the corresponding function. They lead the team professionally, see and release project times, but have no access to budget, internal costs or offer and invoice releases — these are handled by the project management with budget responsibility.

The standard role applies here too:

Under Settings, you store the employment type, the time-tracking behavior, and the links to external systems. The visibility of many fields depends on the chosen employment type, the product line, or the booked modules.

The Employment field appears when the option Enable freelancers and credit notes is set under Administration > Employee settings. Three options are available. Permanently employed is the default case without additional fields. Freelancer additionally shows a VAT ID field. Freelancer with credit note further activates the Credit note settings area for automatic credit-note creation.

This setting decides whether the employee can see their own cost statement or credit note in self-service, for example to check current hours and billed amounts. Active by default, can be deactivated per employee.

Optional accounting identifier when the personnel number should not double as the creditor number. Used in the DATEV export and exports to other accounting systems. Whether the field is shown depends on the setting Derive creditor number from personnel number in the administration.

Here you control whether the employee clocks attendance times and whether these are considered in reports. Additionally, a PIN code can be stored when the employee uses a confirmation PIN during web clock-in. Sensible at shared clock-in terminals as an additional identity check.

With this setting, you force the employee to record times exclusively via the ZEP Clock app; manual web entries are then locked. Three values are available: global setting, Yes (manual entry disabled), No (manual entry allowed). Useful in field service where manual corrections should be avoided.

Per employee, you activate ZEP Clock app usage for clocking and decide whether the location is transmitted with every clock-in. The location is stored for compliance and proof purposes, for example for field-service employees. Both settings have three values: global setting, Yes, No.

Chip management is done centrally in administration under System > RFID. In the employee record, the assigned chip is only displayed and can be removed; the assignment itself does not take place here.

Meal allowances activate the reimbursement of additional costs during business trips. If the travel expense module is configured for Austrian calculation logic, you additionally choose between the calendar-day rule (flat rate per calendar day) and the 24-hour rule (calculation based on actual travel duration). Which variant is fiscally suitable is best clarified with your tax advisor.

A detailed description of the calculation methods and the configuration in the administration can be found in the article Employee settings – Travel Expense Management.

For every active payroll or HR interface, an additional ID field appears on the employee. The ID is required for synchronization and assigns the ZEP employee to the corresponding record in the third-party system. Without it, the employee is skipped during sync.

The release date marks the cutoff date up to which the employee has released their times and receipts. After this date, supervisors can review and take over the data — a typical workflow for the month-end closing.

Employees enter the release date themselves in the project time entry form. In the calendar-week row above the day columns, the most recent "Released until" date is displayed and updated with a click. Once entered, project times, receipts, and absences up to and including the release date are locked for the employee — and the date cannot be reverted by the employee. Only administrators (and, with the Locations and Departments module, department managers for the employees in their department) can subsequently change the release date or reset it to "no entry."

The released date is visible in several places:

Backward recording allows the employee to enter project times or receipts retrospectively, even if the global entry lock already applies. Per data type (project time, receipts), you specify a number of days; typical values are 7, 14, or 30 days depending on industry and internal workflow.

Optionally, you set a valid-until date. After this date, backward recording is locked again; sensible as a time-limited special right, for example during a catch-up run for the month-end closing.

Cost center and cost unit are used in accounting and billing exports; centrally, the DATEV export reads both values. The cost center is selected from master data, the cost unit is entered as free text or as a number, depending on your DATEV configuration.

With this import right active, the employee may import their own times via Excel file, in addition to manual entry. Practical when times are first recorded in other tools and then bulk-transferred to ZEP.

In ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional, the field is called Project time import: project time bookings with project, activity, date, duration and comment are imported. In ZEP Clock, the field is called Working time import: plain working time bookings with date, start and end time are imported. The underlying Excel import function is identical — the columns of the template depend on the product line.

Appears only when an alternative login method (SSO, OAuth) is configured in administration. With the switch active, the employee signs in exclusively via the alternative method; the classic ZEP login with username and password is locked. Recommended for centrally managed identities to keep the authentication policy consistent.

This setting controls whether the employee sees their overtime balance and optionally the time surcharges in their reports. When deactivated, balances are hidden for the employee but remain visible to administrators. Sensible if balances should be discussed in employee meetings.

In the Contact area, you capture private and business reachability. All fields are optional by default. One exception: if the option Send access data by e-mail is selected during creation, the e-mail address is required so the employee receives the setup link.

Street (maximum 64 characters), Postal code (maximum 10), City (maximum 64), and Country (maximum 64) form the postal address. It is used internally, in letters from the letter paper module, in credit notes for freelancers, and in DATEV payroll as the employee's address.

The e-mail address is required when sending access data and should be unique per employee company-wide. Duplicate e-mail addresses lead to synchronization issues with Personio and other interfaces because these systems often match employees by e-mail address.

With active SSO login (e.g. Microsoft Entra ID or Google Workspace), you additionally capture the OAuth ID, typically the e-mail address from the identity provider. This way, the ZEP account is assigned to the identity provider account on SSO login.

Four fields are available: Phone Business, Phone Private, Mobile, and Fax, all with up to 32 characters. Used internally only, for example for internal directories or emergency contact channels.

The bank account is read by several modules: the travel expense module for reimbursement of travel costs, the DATEV export for payroll transfer, and the credit-note module for freelancer payouts. With active reimbursement or credit-note workflows, the bank account is therefore required; without these functions, the area remains purely optional.

The following fields are available: Bank name (maximum 64 characters), Account number (maximum 32), Sort code (maximum 32), IBAN with format check, and BIC (maximum 11). IBAN and BIC are the preferred fields for SEPA payments; account number and sort code remain for older bank integrations.

This area appears only when, under Settings, the Employment is set to Freelancer with credit note. To choose this employment type at all, the option Enable freelancers and credit notes must be set in administration under Employee settings.

You select the currency from the currencies available in ZEP; suggested is the department currency or the base currency. The tax rate from master data is applied to credit-note items, typically 19 % for German freelancers or 0 % for small-business regulation. Via the option Bill receipts with tax rate, you decide whether out-of-pocket receipts are also included in the credit note.

Independent address for the credit note in case it differs from the employee contact, for example when the freelancer bills via a limited company or sole proprietorship. Available are company name, three address lines, postal code, city, and country.

Two WYSIWYG editors allow individual header and footer texts on the credit note. Above typically recipient salutation or service reference, below payment notes or legal mandatory information such as small-business clauses. Placeholders from the letter paper variables can be used.