The multi-stage release workflow takes project times and receipts through a configurable review path. Employees submit their entries, designated approvers review them level by level, and only after a full release are the times and receipts billable. Every step is logged.

The two modes are mutually exclusive and apply to the entire account.

You set the mode under Administration > Project times and receipts > Settings, described in the article Times and receipts – Administration. The prerequisite is the activated option Project release of times. Only then does the field Release Mode appear with the two options.

Switching to the workflow mode does three things:

You manage workflows account-wide under Administration > Release workflows. In addition there are separate tabs on the project and on the task, so you can store deviating paths directly there.

ZEP resolves the responsible workflow in a fixed order: first the task, then the project, then the account. For each of these three scopes you choose one of three options:

Every configuration has a Valid from date, so you can prepare a changeover. Using the copy function you take an existing path as the starting point for another scope.

A path consists of any number of levels, which you name and sort freely. Use Add release level to extend it. For each level, the field Approval by defines the responsible role:

Independently of the role, you also name individual approvers per level. Number of releases controls how many consents a level requires. The value 0 means that all responsible people have to consent.

If a level has nobody assigned for a specific entry, ZEP skips it on submission. If no level is staffed, the process goes to the administrators.

For the Task manager role to take effect, assign the responsible people on the task. This is maintained directly on the task, so the project management can take care of it without administrator rights. Without a task manager, the level is unstaffed for the entries of this task and is skipped. If no further level is staffed after that, the entry goes to the administrators instead of being left waiting.

When saving, ZEP distinguishes whether a change affects the running processes. If you add another approver, for example, everything continues. If the change touches the structure, running processes are reset and have to be submitted again. In that case ZEP requires a remark and shows in advance how many processes are affected.

Employees submit their entries themselves, in the views described in the article Project times and working times. On the project times page and in the calendar there is the action Submit for release with a counter showing the entries that can be submitted.

In the submission window you narrow the selection by date, project, task and activity, and select times and receipts individually via checkboxes. With Only entries up to and including you can additionally limit the selection to a cut-off date.

After submission, ZEP shows the Release Status in the project times list, in the editing forms, in the calendar and in the receipt list:

Submitted entries are locked until the decision. Administrators can still edit them.

Every change to the content resets a running submission, and the entry has to be submitted again. This applies to all the ways entries can be changed, so also to moving them in the calendar, to bulk reassignment and to changes via the interface.

Approvers work in the report Release of times and receipts under Reports > My Reports. It shows the submitted project times and receipts.

You filter by status, project and employee. The status offers Waiting for me, All open and Released. The list can be grouped by block or by single entry, also grouped by day or employee with subtotals. The columns are configurable, and the list can be exported as CSV.

Per entry or block these actions are available:

Administrators and department heads have three further actions: Wave through (Admin), optionally with Release directly to the final level, Return for correction and Reset release for entries that were already released.

If a block was submitted together, it is also decided together. A detail window shows the level overview, the name of the person currently responsible, and the full history of the entry.

For approvers, the dashboard offers a widget for open releases, in the Team and organization group. It shows one row per employee with the number and total hours of the submitted project times, the number and amount of the receipts, and the oldest submission date. The name leads into the report, prefiltered to that employee.

The workflow takes effect in several places in ZEP.

Project times and receipts are only billable once they have been fully released. Invoicing checks this and does not let entries without a release into the billing. This lock only takes effect in workflow mode. How invoice items are created from them is described in the article Planning and Releasing Invoice Items.

ZEP informs you through the bell inside the application, not by email. Notifications are sent for new entries for an approver, for a rejection including the comment, for a resubmission, for an administrator intervention and when a process is completed. Bulk processes are summarized per employee.

In workflow mode, the project time report, described in the article Project reports, carries an additional column with the release status. It appears only in the CSV and Excel export, the billing-relevant layouts remain unchanged. The release status of a booking can be retrieved through the ZEP interface. Write access from outside to the status is blocked by ZEP in workflow mode.

The ZEP Assistant can also submit bookings for release if you ask it to. The process is the same as submitting in the interface.

Every action is recorded with the person and a timestamp, including waving through, resetting a release and every kind of reset through editing, bulk reassignment or a configuration change. The log is only appended to and never overwritten.