Credit notes is the personal view of external employees with the employment type „Freelancer with credit note" on their own settlements. The report combines per period the billing-relevant components: services from recorded project times, subsistence costs from trips, mileage allowance and receipt reimbursements. From this area credit notes can be downloaded as PDF or other document formats.
Note: Available in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional for employees with the employment type Freelancer with credit note. The freelancer functionality is not available in ZEP Clock. Which components of the credit note are visible depends on the booked content modules: subsistence costs and mileage allowance appear with the Travel expense accounting module, receipt reimbursements with the Receipts module. The admin-side workflow including activation and creation of external employees is described in the article External employees and credit notes.
Open the area
The personal credit-notes report is located under Reports > My Reports > Time & Costs > Credit notes. On opening a period is preselected; the period can then be freely adjusted and the content reloads.
Use case: An external consultant wants to check her credit note for the previous month at the start of the new month. She opens the area, sees the preselected previous-month period, reviews services, subsistence costs and mileage allowance and exports the finished credit note as PDF for her records.
Note: The preselected period depends on the day in the month. Before the 15th of a month the month before last appears; from the 15th onwards the previous month. This way recorded bookings are complete at the time of billing.
Filters and options
The filter section at the top of the report controls period, currency and several display options. The only mandatory field is the period; all other filters are optional and visible depending on license and configuration.
Filters at a glance
The only mandatory field is the period; all other filters are optional and visible depending on license and configuration. The most relevant filters:
Period (mandatory): from- and to-date for the report. Default depends on the day in the month, can then be adjusted freely.
Project: limit the report to a specific project — useful for freelancers booking on several projects simultaneously.
Department: limit to a specific department, relevant when the employee is assigned to several departments.
Currency: display the report in a specific currency, different from the standard currency of the employee.
Compressed view: reduces the display to one row per day or project — useful for quick overview and more compact printouts.
Subsistence costs deadline check: warns when more than two days per week were regularly booked to the same location or project for more than three months — an indicator that the tax-free deadline for subsistence costs may have been exceeded.
Suppress remarks: hides remarks in the subsistence costs table — more compact display for printing.
Warning on incomplete recording: ZEP highlights days within the period for which no bookings have been recorded.
Show unchecked receipts: also shows receipts not yet administratively checked — useful for comparison with own records.
Show receipts without reimbursement: additionally shows receipts marked as non-reimbursable, for example privately paid receipts without pass-on.
Via the buttons at the end of the filter section PDF, ODT, DOC, DOCX and a combined PDF with all receipt attachments can be generated.
Components of the credit note
A credit note combines up to five components. Each component only appears when bookings exist in the period and the respective module is active.
Use case: An external developer recorded 80 hours of project work, three travel days with subsistence costs and one receipt for train tickets in the previous month. His credit note shows three blocks: services with the project hours, subsistence costs for the three travel days and receipts with the train reimbursement. Mileage allowance does not appear, since no private trips were recorded.
Services
In the Services block all recorded project times of the period appear as credit-note basis. Per entry the following is shown:
Date, project, task and activity of the booking.
Hours of the entry and the stored hourly or daily rate.
Remark from the original project time entry.
Calculated amount from hours multiplied by hourly rate, or as daily flat rate.
Subsistence costs
In the Subsistence costs block all travel days of the period appear with the respective flat rates. Per entry the following is shown:
Day and location as well as the absence time of the day.
Tax-free and taxable rates, each before and after deduction of included meals from receipts.
Optionally the project, depending on the tenant's recording configuration.
The calculation follows the German or Austrian tax regulations. Under the German procedure, statutory meal deductions for breakfast as well as lunch/dinner are subtracted from the 24-hour flat rate when meals are recognised from receipts — even when the absence was shorter. If the deduction exceeds the calculated flat rate, the reimbursement for that day is zero. Under the Austrian procedure with collective-agreement locations, the meal deduction refers to the proportional daily rate, that is, the share of the daily rate based on the absence time.
Mileage allowance
In the Mileage allowance block all travel bookings appear in which a private vehicle was used and kilometers recorded. Per entry the following is shown:
Day and route (start location to destination).
Driven kilometers and flat rate per kilometer.
Calculated reimbursement amount, split into tax-free and taxable share.
Receipt reimbursements
In the Receipts block all recorded receipts marked for reimbursement appear. Per entry the following is shown:
Date and type of receipt.
Amount (including VAT, net) and value-added tax rate.
Private share, if specified during entry.
Remark from the original receipt entry.
Note: Receipts without reimbursement claim (e.g. privately paid travel receipts without onward billing) do not appear automatically. With the corresponding license this area can also be shown via the filter option. A detailed description of receipt entry is available in the article Receipts.
Advance payments
The Advance payments block shows already paid-out amounts that are offset against the credit note. Per entry, payment date, purpose and amount are displayed. The total credit-note amount is reduced by the sum of advance payments.
List of already created credit notes
Once credit notes have been created for a period, they appear as separate rows at the top of the report. Per credit note the sums per component and the send date are shown. Periods with billable bookings but no credit note created yet are additionally listed in detail — so it is immediately clear what is still open.
Use case: The accounting team has already created a credit note for the previous month and sent it by e-mail. The external employee sees the row with the send date and total amount, downloads the PDF and files it with her records.
Note: Credit notes are created by the company — typically once per billing period by the administration or controlling. As an external employee you can view your credit notes, download them as PDF or send them by e-mail; creating new credit notes is not possible.
Displayed information per credit note
Credit note number: unique consecutive number, assigned during creation by the administration.
Date: issue date of the credit note.
Settlement period: from- and to-date of the contained bookings.
Send date: point in time when the credit note was exported or sent by e-mail. As long as it is empty, the credit note has not yet been forwarded.
Total amount: including VAT, in the credit-note currency.
PDF download and e-mail dispatch: icons at the end of the row open the PDF download or e-mail dispatch of the credit note to a stored address.
Download and export
The report can be exported in several document formats and is thus available for accounting records or the personal tax file.
Available formats
The report is available in several document formats — each with different suitability for personal filing, for handover to external accountants or for the digital tax file. The additional formats for receipts only appear when receipts with file attachments have been recorded.
Format | Available with | Use |
Standard format | Printable version for filing | |
ODT, DOC, DOCX | Standard format | Editable office formats |
Receipt files PDF | When receipts with file attachments were recorded | Combined PDF with all attached receipt originals |
Tip: Anyone working with external accountants typically exports the PDF including the receipt-files attachment. This way credit note and receipts are in one document.