In Administration under Customers, you maintain the system-wide defaults for your customer master data: sorting and display rules, permissions, billing defaults as well as the master lists for industries, categories, contact person categories and additional attributes.

You reach the area via Administration > Customers. The prerequisite is the Administrator role.

In the sub-menu Settings, sorting rules for customer lists, permission options, billing defaults for new customers and the format of the customer number are bundled.

The radio box Sort customers in selection lists by: controls the sorting of the customer list in all selection fields (for example in project planning, project-status reports or when creating new projects). Two options are available:

The radio box Customer sorting in customer management and reports by: controls the default sorting in the customer-management table as well as in all reports listing customers (project hour report, project sales volume, travel-cost report). The two options are identical to the selection-list sorting:

Users can still change the sorting in the management table individually by clicking on a column; the default applies on first opening and after a column-view reset.

Activate the checkbox Use customer number range when ZEP should generate new customer numbers automatically following a defined format. Without activation, users assign customer numbers manually when creating a customer. Automatic assignment prevents duplicates and inconsistencies.

With an active number range, you define the format from prefix, a sequential counter and a suffix. You can combine fixed characters with the following placeholders.

Static start of every customer number. You combine fixed characters with the following placeholders:

Number of digits of the sequential counter between prefix and suffix. The number is padded with leading zeros if needed (a length of 5 leads to numbers such as 00001, 00002 and so on).

Static end of every customer number. The same placeholders as in the prefix can be used (%YYYY%, %YY%, %MM%, %DD%).

By default, only the administrator may create customers. Via the checkbox Users with additional authorizations/controller may create customers, you allow employees with the role User with additional authorizations or Controller to create new customers themselves. Such employees are automatically entered as Key account manager at the newly created customer and may change its customer data. If you remove that role, they lose the editing permission for this customer.

In the lower block of the settings page, you store billing and travel defaults that ZEP pre-fills when creating each new customer. Per customer, these values can later be overridden individually. Which fields are visible depends on the active add-on modules.

When creating a new customer, the tax rate stored here is automatically applied as default. The selection is filled from the tax rates maintained in the administration under Taxes. Use case: a uniform tax rate for the majority of your customers; special cases are overridden per customer.

Defines the default discount period (in days) for newly created customers — that is, the period within which an agreed cash discount applies upon payment. At the individual customer, the value can be overridden; at the individual invoice it can be adjusted ad hoc.

Defines the default payment term (in days) for newly created customers — that is, the period until the invoice becomes due. Common defaults are 14 or 30 days, depending on the industry. At the individual customer, the value is overridable.

In the block Default travel-flat-rate setting for a continuous travel with several projects, you store separately for new customers how day-based and trip-based allowances are distributed across multiple involved projects. Two radio boxes control the behavior:

For travel allowance per day — distribution of day-based allowances:

For travel allowance per trip — distribution of trip-based allowances:

Per customer, the default can later be overridden under Customers > Billing settings > Travel settings.

In the sub-menu Industries, you maintain the list of industries to which you assign your customers in the customer management. The industry serves as a filter and sorting criterion in reports and selection lists.

Each industry has an Abbreviation as a technical key and a Description as a speaking plain text. The description can be maintained in multiple languages — users and reports see the value in their configured language. Use case: in internationally working teams, the industry appears in DE, EN, FR or ES depending on the user language.

You open the description in edit mode and click on the respective language flag to maintain the translation per language. ZEP supports seven languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Polish, Slovak and Turkish. Depending on the configured language of the user or project, ZEP automatically picks the matching translation.

In the sub-menu Categories, you define categories to which you assign your customers in the customer management. Typical examples: Prospect, Sales partner, Cooperation partner, Existing customer. The categorization serves as a search and selection criterion in reports.

Per category, you maintain an Abbreviation as a technical key and a Description as a speaking plain text. The description is maintained in multiple languages — depending on the language of the user or project, ZEP picks the matching translation. This way categories can be used consistently across internationally working teams, without each user having to know their own translations.

A category can only be deleted when no customer is currently assigned to it. For assigned customers, first reassign them to a different category or remove the assignment in the customer management. This keeps the data consistency of reports intact and prevents stale references.

In the sub-menu Contact person categories, you define categories to which you can assign your contact persons. Typical examples: Christmas card, Info distribution, Main contact. In the contact-person edit dialog, you can subsequently assign one or more categories.

Per category, you maintain Abbreviation and Description. The description can be maintained in multiple languages. The categorization serves as a search and selection criterion in the contact-person report under Reports > Customers. There you filter by category and create, for example, a Christmas-greeting distribution list in a few clicks.

A contact-person category can only be deleted when no contact person is currently assigned to it. For assigned contact persons, first reassign them to a different category or remove the assignment in the contact-person edit dialog. This keeps the data consistency of reports intact and prevents stale references.

In the sub-menu Additional attributes, you define individual fields for customers. A customer additional attribute is an extra input field that appears on the data page of every customer and can be maintained through the entry mask — suitable for classifications ZEP does not provide by default (industry specifics, internal markers, certification numbers).

When creating a customer additional attribute, you maintain the following fields in the given order:

Under Type you choose from the following data types:

Depending on the chosen type, additional fields appear:

Customer additional attributes are displayed on the data page of the customer and can be edited in edit mode. They are also available in the following places:

The defaults from the customer administration take effect in many other areas: