The Administration area in ZEP bundles all system-wide configuration and master-data tools in a single set of boxes. Administrators control which modules are active, how the central master data is structured, and which default rules govern day-to-day operation. Which boxes are visible depends on the licensed product line and the activated add-on modules.

The administration is organised into thematic boxes. Each box bundles the configuration of a clearly defined area and is documented either directly in this collection or in the respective module collection. The following overview describes the functional purpose per box, names the visibility per product line, and links to the matching detail articles.

The Account box bundles the self-service management of your ZEP contract. Here, administrators review the current subscription, see the list of previous invoices, and maintain the billing data for future invoicing. Use case: licence adjustments and commercial control of the running contract.

The My Company box bundles the central master data of your company: general settings, mail configuration, company data, bank accounts, letterhead templates, login and password policies. Use case: one-time initial setup of the instance and occasional adjustments for company changes.

The Projects box configures project-related work: project workflow, activities, project and process statuses, mail templates, additional attributes. Use case: consistent project execution with defined status transitions and mail communication.

The Customers box manages the customer master data: defaults, industries, categories, contact-person categories, additional attributes. Use case: structured customer management with consistent company-wide classifications.

The Suppliers box manages the supplier master data: settings, industries, categories, additional attributes. Use case: continuous management of receipt sources from an accounting and receipt-capture perspective.

The Employees box defines the system-wide employee defaults: general settings, attendance options, internal and external display name, employment-end notifications, mail templates, categories, and additional attributes. Use case: central pre-fill of values when creating a new employee and maintenance of company-wide classifications.

The Prices and Receipts box bundles base price tables, price groups, daily-rate shares, payment methods, tax rates, exchange rates, receipt types, and mail templates for receipts. Use case: prerequisite for invoicing, travel expenses, and the commercial reporting.

The Project Times and Receipts box bundles the rules around time recording, break regulations, activity lists, mail templates, and receipt mailboxes. In ZEP Clock, the box appears under the title Working times. Use case: system-wide rules for the daily time and receipt capture.

The Work Items box manages the work item management with kanban board, statuses, and priorities. Here, administrators define the company-wide status columns of the kanban board and the available priority levels. Use case: consistent work item handling across all teams.

The Travel box bundles the configuration around travel expenses: subsistence allowances, cost settings, vehicles, and locations. Use case: compliant travel expense management with consistent company-wide rates.

The Departments box (part of the Locations & Departments area) bundles the department management and the associated permissions for department managers. Use case: decentralised organisations with autonomous locations and department hierarchies.

The Resource Planning box configures the planning workflows, approval rules, and mail templates for the resource planning. Use case: structured capacity planning with a defined approval path across several projects.

The Overtime and Absences box bundles the configuration of absence and overtime management: settings, absence reasons, holidays, mail templates, internal times. Use case: continuous absence management with compliant holiday rules.

The Ticket System box bundles settings, notifications, mail templates, mailboxes, categories, and tags. Here, you also configure the automatic conversion of incoming emails into tickets. Use case: continuous support workflow from the customer enquiry to the resolved ticket.

The Quotes box configures the quote management: settings, text modules, mail templates, permissions, categories, tags. Use case: standardised quote creation with consistent texts and a defined approval process.

The Invoicing box configures the invoice management: settings, articles, additional fields, dunning levels, text modules, mail templates, revenue accounts. Use case: continuous invoicing from the project time to the invoice.

The Export for Accounting box configures the DATEV and accounting export: settings, cost centres, invoice export, cost export, debtor and creditor exports. Use case: monthly handover of ZEP data to the external accounting.

The Documents box bundles the configuration of the document management: settings for tag maintenance and document visibility as well as the master data for document statuses, categories, and tags. Use case: structured filing and findability of all project- and customer-related documents.

The ZEP AI Features box bundles the settings for the AI features of ZEP. Under the AI Assistant entry you define whether the assistant is available in your company and whether it may access absences. Receipt Analysis is a separate entry with its own switch and controls whether ZEP reads uploaded receipts automatically. Use case: you want to switch the AI features on or off company-wide, or limit their access to sensitive areas.

The Interfaces box activates the central technical integrations: SOAP interface, REST interface, Interface Marketplace, and DATEV. Use case: integration of third-party systems such as payroll, CRM, or ticket tools.

The System box bundles central administrator tools: month-end closing, device management, RFID chips, Urls, and the overview of scheduled background tasks of the instance. Use case: monthly mandatory steps and oversight of system operation.

The Other box bundles reusable cross-cutting settings that are not directly tied to a functional module: text modules for emails, change history, scheduler recipients, and appointment mail templates. Use case: consistent mail communication and compliance logging.

Areas you do not use can be switched off individually in the administration. The tile stays visible, the area itself disappears from the main menu, from the tabs of the master data, from the reports, and from the settings. For everyone else ZEP behaves as if the area were not included.

Every switchable tile carries a toggle in its top right corner. Switching an area off asks for confirmation and states that the data is retained and available again once the area is reactivated. Switching it back on happens without a prompt.

An area switched off through the toggle shows the line Deactivated on … by … on its tile, so it stays traceable who shut it down and when. Areas that already arrived deactivated through the migration do not carry this line. Every change is also written to the audit log.

Ten areas can be switched individually. Only what your product line actually includes carries a switch — in ZEP Track that is two areas, in ZEP Business all ten. All other administration tiles are always present.

All other areas are a fixed part of ZEP and have no switch. These include project time recording, customer and employee management, the reports, the approval workflows, the mobile apps, the payroll export, the ticketing system and all interfaces. The AI features have their own switches, described in the AI Features section above.

If someone is looking for a feature in vain, the order described in Product lines at a glance helps: first the product line, then the area, then the permissions.

Billing, Offers, and Export for Accounting build on Prices & Receipts and Travel. Two rules follow from this:

A deactivated area stops working, but it deletes nothing. Recorded times, receipts, invoices, and master data are retained in full and reappear unchanged once the area is switched back on. Values that originate from the area also stay on their records and are not overwritten on save.

Administrators may switch areas, as may roles that have Edit or Full access set on the Administration area entry. Read access to the administration is not enough. Anyone who may only read it does not see a deactivated tile at all and notices the retired area only because the corresponding menu entries are missing.

The check applies not only in the interface but to the switching operation itself. In practice this means: leave the switching to the same people who own the other basic settings. An area switched off by accident otherwise only comes to light when employees start missing a function.

For the initial configuration of a ZEP instance, a thematic order is recommended — from the basic master data to the dependent workflows: