The Times and receipts area in the administration bundles the global settings for time and receipt recording as well as reusable content: recording rules, work break regulations, mail templates for time-related events, and (with active add-on module Travel Expense Management) mailboxes for incoming receipts.
Note: The area is available in all three product lines. The label differs by product line and by booked add-on module:
ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional — the area is called Project times and receipts
ZEP Clock without the active add-on module Travel Expense Management — the area is called only Working times; with the active add-on module Travel Expense Management it is called Working times and receipts
Which settings are visible depends on the product line and booked add-on modules; availability notes appear directly next to the affected setting.
Settings
In the submenu item Settings you configure all global rules around the recording of times and receipts: backward and forward recording, remark text behaviour, display of gaps, preloading of meals and breaks, minutes grid, formatting of reports, and the project release of times.
Backward recording
The option Backward recording defines how far into the past employees may retroactively record times and receipts. The following options are available:
today and further days back combined with a days value; default value can be set freely
the current week and further days back combined with a days value; looser variant for weekly recording
Additionally, the checkbox Allow bookings for the previous week on Mondays lets employees still catch up on entries for the past week on Mondays, independently of the above days value.
Allow further days backward recording for receipts
In the field allow further days backward recording for receipts you set a separate days value for the backward recording of receipts that goes beyond the general time-recording limit. Practical when receipts are often submitted late but times should be recorded promptly.
Note: Appears only in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional once receipt recording is active via the add-on modules Travel Expense Management or Cost Accounting. Not available in ZEP Clock.
Allow project time recording in advance
Via the option Allow project time recording in advance you decide whether and how far employees may book into the future. In ZEP Compact with the active add-on module Travel Expense Management and in ZEP Professional the label reads Permit forwarded project time and receipt recording and the setting affects times and receipts jointly. The following options are available:
not allowed bookings into the future are blocked
… Days recording may take place up to N days into the future; numeric input
… Minutes recording may take place up to N minutes into the future; useful for running point-in-time bookings
Record activities in ZEP Clock
The checkbox Record activities in ZEP Clock activates the recording of activities in addition to plain working time. This way, working hours can be split across different activities, which forms the basis for activity-based reports.
Note: Appears only in ZEP Clock as long as the add-on module Travel Expense Management is not active. In ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional activities are always recordable due to the product line.
Allow double bookings
The checkbox Allow double bookings permits the same time period to be recorded multiple times — for example when employees work on two parallel tasks simultaneously. By default, ZEP blocks double bookings to avoid reporting errors.
Practical example: A consultant travels by train to customer A and simultaneously works on a task for customer B during the journey. Both hours should be billable: the travel time on project A and the task time additionally on project B. With active double booking, both entries can be recorded at the same time.
With the main checkbox active, the sub-checkbox Double recording: warning and options Double recording or Overwrite additionally appears, which displays a pop-up with decision options as soon as an overlap is detected.
Note: Visible in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional. In ZEP Clock double bookings are not provided due to the product line.
Remark text behaviour
Three checkboxes control the behaviour of the remark text during time recording. Practical in organisations where remarks are mandatory or recurring notes should be automatically taken over:
Multiline remarks for project time recording converts the remark field from a single-line input to a multi-line textarea
Force remark makes the remark field a mandatory input; without an entry the time cannot be saved
Initialize remark with the latest booked project time / receipt entry automatically takes over the text of the previous entry; in ZEP Clock the option is called Initialize remark with the latest booked working time entry
Recording on non-working days and weekends
Two checkboxes control the visibility and bookability of days that are not part of the regular working week:
Allow time recording on holidays and days that are not working days (generally weekends) enables the bookability of these days; without the checkbox they are blocked
Show days that are not working days (including weekends) displays these days in the recording view; without the checkbox they are hidden
Working times are durations, without from/to-times
The checkbox Project times are durations, without from/to-times switches time recording to pure duration recording (e.g. 4 hours instead of 08:00–12:00). Practical in organisations where concrete times of day play no role. In ZEP Clock the checkbox is called Working times are durations, without from/to-times.
Note: Available in ZEP Compact with the license variants Basis-Light or Costs-Light, and in ZEP Clock without the active add-on module Travel Expense Management. Not available in ZEP Professional, in ZEP Compact with the travel-expense add-on module, or in ZEP Clock with the travel-expense add-on module. With active attendance tracking in the Employees area, the checkbox remains visible but cannot be changed, as duration recording is not compatible with attendance tracking.
Emphasize gaps when recording project time
The checkbox Emphasize gaps when recording project time visually highlights missing booking intervals (e.g. 11:00–12:30 not covered) by a larger spacing in the table of time entries. Employees can immediately recognise and close gaps. Practical: when clicking on a gap, ZEP takes over the end time of the previous entry as the from-time and the start time of the next entry as the to-time in the recording field, so the gap can be filled in a few clicks. In ZEP Clock the option is called Emphasize gaps when recording working time.
Initialization of from-Time for a new day
The option Initialization of from-Time for a new day determines with which time ZEP pre-fills the from-field on the first booking of a day:
current time ZEP takes the time at the moment of clicking
specified time combined with a fixed configured time (e.g. 08:00) as default
Minutes grid
The option Minutes grid sets the minimum interval at which times are recorded and shown in reports. Available grids are 1, 3, 5, 6, 15, 30, or 60 minutes. We recommend the grids 3, 6, 15, or 30 minutes, because they divide 60 minutes without rounding.
Practical recommendation per product line:
ZEP Clock with check-in/check-out at the terminal or in the app: finer grids such as 1 or 3 minutes, so that the exact stamp time is not artificially rounded
ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional with manual project-time recording: 15 or 30 minutes, because project times are typically booked in quarter-hours and invoicing remains clean
After changing the minutes grid you should check existing bookings, as ZEP converts the display and individual entries can show visible rounding differences.
Warning: After changing the minutes grid, editing times that were already recorded with a different grid is only possible with restrictions.
Preloaded meals
The option Preloaded meals controls how ZEP pre-fills the meal allowance during travel-expense recording. The following options are available:
No preloading meals are entered manually for each trip
Set preloading combined with three checkboxes for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, which are set organisation-wide as default
Note: Appears only with the active add-on module Travel Expense Management.
Default from-time / to-time for recording work breaks
In the block Default from-time / to-time for recording work breaks you store the default break time (e.g. 12:00–12:30), which is pre-filled on each new break recording. Employees can override the value individually; the default merely saves time during daily recording.
Time format display in reports
Two checkboxes control whether ZEP displays time values as a decimal number (e.g. 1.5 h) or in hours:minutes format (e.g. 1:30):
Working hours, target hours, and planned hours, overtime, and hours of absence in hours:minutes format affects internal reports around the regular working time
Display project time report and project sales volume in (hours:minutes) format affects project-time reports and revenue reports; with active invoicing the label is extended by and invoice attachment
Receipt files PDF with receipt data
The option Receipt files PDF with receipt data determines whether ZEP should append additional receipt data (date, amount, employee) to the PDF file of a stored receipt. Practical for archiving in accounting, so that the PDF remains comprehensible even without access to ZEP.
Note: Appears only when receipt recording is active in ZEP. In ZEP Professional receipt recording is always included due to the product line and cannot be deactivated. In ZEP Compact and ZEP Clock it is bound to the add-on module Travel Expense Management, which is bookable in both lines.
Rounding to 5 cents for CHF amounts
The checkbox Amounts of money in the currency of CHF or converted into this, will be always rounded to 5 Rappen activates the Swiss rounding rule for all CHF amounts. Practical in organisations with Swiss customers or employees in Switzerland.
Note: Appears in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional. Not available in ZEP Clock.
Always show receipt icon in project time recording
The checkbox Always show receipt icon in project time recording always shows the receipt icon in the form view of time recording, even when no receipt is currently uploaded. Practical as a visual reminder that receipts can be added.
Show ticket subject in Project Times Report
The checkbox Show ticket subject in Project Times Report adds an additional column with the subject of the linked ticket to the project-time report. This way, bookings can be classified by content without switching to the ticketing system.
Note: Visible with active add-on module Ticketing System.
Multi-select filters in the project-time report
Two checkboxes extend the filter logic of the project-time report:
show department filter as multiple selection allows multiple departments to be filtered at the same time; useful for reports across department clusters
Project Times Report: show task filter as multiple selection analogously for the task filter; useful for reports across multiple similar tasks
Note: The department filter appears only with the active add-on module Locations & Departments.
Display of activities and receipt types in reports
The option Cost Accounting, Time Report, Project Sales Volume: activities and types of receipt with short form and legend or designation determines whether the short form with legend or the full designation is shown in the listed reports. With active invoicing the label is extended by and invoice attachment.
The following options are available:
Short form and legend — the report shows only the short form of each activity or receipt type (e.g. PT) and lists the full designation in a legend below. Saves space, but is harder to read without the legend
Designation — the report directly shows the full designation of each activity and receipt type. More readable, but takes up more space
Price-factor question for surcharge-bearing time
The checkbox If recording a billable time that falls within a period that is subject to surcharge according to the price list, raise a question displays a confirmation pop-up when recording a period with surcharge (e.g. night surcharge), so employees consciously decide on the surcharge. This avoids reporting errors through unintended surcharges.
Note: Appears in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional once prices are maintained in the master data and surcharge-bearing time periods can arise. Not available in ZEP Clock.
Show tasks hierarchically in project time recording
The checkbox Project time recording: show tasks including superordinate tasks shows parent tasks in the task selection so that the project plan hierarchy is visible. Practical in projects with a multi-level task structure.
Note: Visible in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional. In ZEP Clock there is no task hierarchy in the recording.
Project release of times
The checkbox Project release of times activates an additional release stage for recorded times. As long as the setting is active, the regular Account status of a time becomes the Project release: A time is considered released only after a project lead has explicitly set the status to Released.
How project leads set the release in the application:
Open the project-time report and run it for the desired period, so the relevant times appear in the table
Select one or more times via the checkboxes at the start of each row
Below the table an additional section with an action selection appears. Select the desired bulk action — one of them is Project release
In the extended section the field Project release now appears with the options To check or Released; choose Released and save
ZEP sets the release status for all selected times at once and automatically records the user and the timestamp of the status change
Implications of a granted project release:
Lock for employees: As soon as a time has the status Released, the employee can no longer change it themselves. Administrators and department managers can still edit it if necessary
Prerequisite for invoicing: With the active add-on module Invoicing only released times enter the invoicing run — times without release are ignored during invoice creation
Prerequisite for project closure and customer-released reports: Project closure and reports with customer release likewise only access released times
The employee release of times (Employees area) remains independent and can be used in parallel or not at all.
Note: Visible in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional. In ZEP Clock the project release of times is not part of the product line.
Work break regulation
The submenu item Work break regulation manages the organisation-wide break rules according to which ZEP automatically deducts breaks from the time balance. A break rule can be assigned per employee (see the default in the General tab of the Employee settings).
Structure of a break regulation
A break regulation consists of several components that together determine how ZEP calculates missing or too short breaks for a working-time booking and deducts them from the time balance:
Label descriptive name of the break regulation (e.g. Office day 8 hours, Shift work, Standard statutory); shown for selection in the employee master-data dialog
Definition with valid-from date the concrete rule parameters from a given date — a definition is not overwritten retrospectively; instead a new definition takes effect from the next start date, so historic bookings continue to be calculated according to the old rule
Minimum breaks one or more thresholds defining how many minutes of break are mandatory from which working time (e.g. from 6 hours: 30 minutes)
Fixed break a constant break value per day, independent of working duration
Core working time a time window in which the automatic break applies; outside the window no automatic deduction occurs
Create or change a break regulation
Via the button New break regulation a dialog opens in which you store the following fields. For existing regulations you open the same dialog via Change break regulation and update the values from a new start date:
Valid from start date from which the definition takes effect (earliest on the following day, because existing bookings up to today have already been calculated according to the old rule)
Minimum rest time selection no minimum rest time or minimum rest time with hours value (default 11 hours); defines the statutory rest time between two working days
Day maximum (under the break regulation) the maximum daily working time in hours up to which the break-rule logic applies; higher values are reported separately
Maximum Plus only visible with the active add-on module Travel Expense Management; caps the maximum credited travel-time bonus per day
Force compliance checkbox; if set, ZEP blocks saving times that violate the break rule
Deduct exceeded maximum working time and non-observed minimum breaks checkbox; only visible with the active Absences and Overtime add-on module. If set, ZEP automatically deducts exceeded maximum working time and non-observed minimum breaks from the overtime account. Non-observed rest times are not deducted
Warn on non-observed breaks checkbox; shows the employee a warning during recording if the booking does not match the break rule
Calculation method for missing breaks selection between multiple methods for how ZEP distributes and deducts missing minimum breaks across the working day
Minimum length of a break under the break regulation minute value from which a recorded break counts for the break regulation (e.g. at least 15 minutes, so that a 5-minute break is not counted)
Remark free text for documentation, e.g. for the collective-agreement basis or exceptions
Minimum-break thresholds
Under Minimum breaks you store an hours-break combination per threshold. With multiple thresholds the highest reached value applies. Typical configuration per the German Working Hours Act:
from 6 hours of working time: 30 minutes break
from 9 hours of working time: 45 minutes break
Via the button New threshold you add further steps if your organisation follows stricter or additional rules.
Fixed break
Under Fixed break you store a break value that is deducted independently of the working duration. Even on short days (e.g. 4 hours) ZEP deducts this value from the time balance. Useful in shift models with fixed break culture or in industries with statutorily prescribed minimum breaks regardless of presence.
Core working time
Under Core working time you define a from-to window in which the automatic break applies. Only working times within this window trigger the break deduction; times outside (e.g. early morning or evening work) are exempt. Practical in organisations with flextime models where not every shift requires a break deduction.
Travel times as active or passive time
With the active add-on module Travel Expense Management additional fields appear per break rule to handle travel times:
Travel times as active time travel times count fully as working time and are added to the regular working time in the break calculation
Travel times as passive time travel times count reduced or not at all towards working time; the break deduction is calculated only on the basis of active working time
Maximum Plus caps the maximum credited travel time per day, so long journeys are not counted in full as working time
Calculation methods and practical examples
Three typical practical examples illustrating the methods:
Classic office with an 8-hour day — minimum breaks 30 minutes from 6 hours, 45 minutes from 9 hours. Employees who work 8 hours and do not record an own break receive a 30-minute deduction
Shift work with fixed break culture — fixed break of 30 minutes per workday, independent of shift length. Simplifies break handling in production and logistics
Hybrid office with core time — core working time 10:00 to 15:00 with break deduction within this window. Employees starting before 10:00 or working only after 15:00 are exempt from the automatic break deduction
Mail templates
In the submenu item Mail templates you maintain the email templates ZEP sends automatically around time and receipt recording. Per event an individual template with subject and content can be maintained. Available in ZEP Compact and ZEP Professional; not available in ZEP Clock.
Use and multilingual nature of templates
Each mail template is bound to an internal ZEP event around project-time recording: As soon as the event occurs, ZEP sends the matching template automatically to the recipients defined for the event. Which templates are available depends on your configuration and the activated add-on modules — typical templates concern planned-hours thresholds, time details, splits, and similar events from everyday project-time work. You can see the list of concretely available templates in your ZEP under Administration > Times and receipts > Mail templates.
You can edit existing templates and replace them with your own texts; the system templates can neither be deleted nor deactivated, so that the sending workflow is preserved.
Placeholders in templates
In every template you can use placeholders that ZEP replaces with concrete data at runtime. Typical placeholders are the employee name, the date of the event, or the company. In the edit dialog you find a list of the placeholders available per template.
Multilingual maintenance
Per template you store Subject and Content in the supported languages. ZEP sends the template automatically in the language of the recipient; if no translation is stored, the organisation's default language is used. ZEP supports seven languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Polish, Slovak, and Turkish.
Test send before going live
Before activating a template you can trigger a test send to your own email address to check the layout and placeholder resolution. This way, errors in the template surface before they reach the real recipients — important for cyclic reminder emails sent to multiple employees at the same time.
Mailboxes for receipts
The submenu item Mailboxes sets up central email inboxes to which supplier and customer invoices as well as receipts can be sent. ZEP fetches incoming messages at regular intervals and creates a receipt draft in the receipt recording. You then assign each receipt draft to an employee, customer, supplier, or project and can process it further from the receipt recording (invoicing, travel-expense accounting, accounting export).
The setup of a mailbox, the connection and authorisation logic, the assignment of incoming emails to employees, and the workflow from receipt draft to acceptance or rejection are described in detail in the article Belegpostfach.
Note: The submenu item appears in ZEP Compact with the active add-on module Travel Expense Management as well as in ZEP Professional. Not available in ZEP Clock.