Examiners and consultants traveling
They are constantly on the move, from Flensburg to Constance: The experts from the audit office for the chambers of industry and commerce in Bielefeld audit the annual financial statements of 78 IHKs in Germany. The 30 employees are also involved in consulting assignments and special audits. Time recording is important in order to get an overview of all projects and to be able to transparently bill for consulting services.
Unify data
Before 2007, employee hours were recorded in Excel spreadsheets. There was a form in which they entered food receipts, car mileage and train tickets and assigned them to the projects — an unnecessary effort. The data should be standardized and its collection professionalized. The solution: ZEP, the time recording and project management software from provantis. “ZEP is tailored precisely to our requirements, as it is web-based and all employees can access the system while on the move. In addition, ZEP was supported by its ease of use — and the reasonable price.”, says Michael Schimke, auditor of RPS.
ZEP Compact
Bielefeld residents use ZEP Compact, a solution for expense recording and project-oriented order processing, including time sheets. In addition, Bielefeld uses modules for travel expense accounting as well as overtime, vacation and absenteeism management. The “Document Generator” module extends export options to include the export of PDF, DOC (Word) or ODT (OpenOffice) files.
Smooth ZEP implementation
The transition to ZEP was easy: no special requirements were required to use the software. The introduction of the new system went smoothly: An employee had initially dealt with the program as an internal expert. During an internal training session lasting around two hours, he then introduced ZEP to the entire team. Users quickly got used to the software. The practical benefits were convincing: uniform and simple time and project recording as well as the rapid recording of documents. ZEP is rented by the auditing office, which gives employees access to the software at any time via the Internet. In addition to time recording, they most often use cost accounting and month end and document evaluation.
Hassle-free changeover
ZEP easily supports changing processes in the company in the background. For example, in 2009, when the accounting method for auditing was switched from daily to hourly rates. While the length of a normal working day used to last between eight and 12 hours without distinction, the difference in time spent has now been recorded. “Another special feature: ZEP distinguishes between pure working time and travel time. We do not charge clients for the latter”, says Mr. Schimke. Internally, travel time is taken into account separately, and travel hours are divided into “ineligible travel time” and “eligible travel time.” Two hours of travel time per day, a maximum of four hours per week, are borne by the employee himself and are not remunerated. The eligible travel times are kept in a separate overtime account and can be reconciled as time off if there is a specific lack of reason.
ZEP is taking part in changes
According to the works agreement, the auditing office must first compensate for the “productive” overtime and then the “compensatory travel time.” The issue of overtime is also important because the work of annual auditors has seasonal priorities: In the first half of the year, a lot of overtime is usually required, and these hours are reduced in the second half of the year. Reliable time recording is essential in this context.
The necessary individual adjustments were made by ZEP at the beginning of March, and the various hourly quotas were converted retroactively to the beginning of February without any problems: The employees were briefed on the new travel time recording — that was enough. “The changes in ZEP were made in the background; the necessary adjustments by the programmers were not noticeable to the users — very pleasant”, says Mr. Schimke.
