clockodo vs ZEP

clockodo

Browser, desktop and smartphone apps plus a shared time-tracking terminal are all named, and the mobile app is documented as running in the background and syncing automatically once a connection returns, which covers my office, workshop and field crews. Corrections are a workflow rather than an admin chore: retroactive entries, a split function for missed breaks, a change annotation on edited entries, and timesheets with editing locks and digital signature release. We found no public information on GPS or geofenced check-in for field staff, and none on bulk correction across a whole team.

ZEP

This is what I run an operation on, and the capture breadth holds up: browser, a mobile app for iOS and Android with offline storage that syncs when the connection returns, a tablet multi-user mode that simulates a terminal, and a separate hardware terminal, with GPS documented per stamp event and the vendor stating plainly that this does not restrict stamping to a fixed radius. What decides the deduction is corrections: the help pages show an administrator mode where times are edited, and I found no public information on a correction workflow with approval or on an audit trail of who changed a stamped time.

clockodo

The vendor cites the EuGH 2019 and BAG 2022 rulings, records start, duration and end, and models breaks properly with configurable rules, full or sliding deduction with a cutoff date, and a setting that enforces pauses, plus a warning to employee and employer when working times are not kept. The vendor's own help states that the automatic break deduction books no break period, so when an employee actually took their break would not be visible in an inspection unless they record it themselves. We found no public information on daily maximum or eleven-hour rest-period checks, or on a stated retention period for the working-time record itself.

ZEP

Individual working-time models and break rules per employee are documented, with an automatic overtime account, capping and per-employee settings, and the vendor markets 'Gesetzeskonforme Einstellungen' and minute-precise, legally compliant tracking. For a record I may have to hand to an inspector, I found no public information on warnings for the eight or ten-hour daily maximum, the eleven-hour rest period, a stated retention period, tamper-evident change history, or an export built for an inspection.

clockodo

Absence is genuinely handled: ten absence types from vacation to child sickness, automatic vacation accounts with carry-over and country-specific public holidays, approval configurable per absence type, and a shared team calendar with Outlook and Google sync. For the roster side we found no public information on shift planning, shift templates, availability, substitution or swap workflows, or coverage warnings before publication — which is exactly the half I need for field crews.

ZEP

Absence is genuinely deep: approval by department managers and deputies with status workflow and email notification, sick leave with certificates, entitlement calculated and prorated automatically (their own worked example, 30 ÷ 12 × 5 = 12.5 days), month/week/day calendar views, and scheduling that shows overload warnings and cleans up planned entries on absence days in one go. But the planning evidence is project resource scheduling in hours, percentages and time slots rather than a duty roster; I found no public information on shift templates, swap or substitution workflows, qualification checks, or coverage warnings before a plan is published.

clockodo

Entries carry client, project, subproject, service, employee, description and hourly rate right at capture, with budgets in hours and money, warnings before a project runs into loss, and lump sums such as travel costs. Billing is a real handoff: the invoice builder filters by project, applies stored rates, lets you pick text building blocks, and transmits to Lexware Office, sevdesk or easybill where the draft is created. We found no public information on rate cards by role, a billable flag, or cost centres as a separate dimension.

ZEP

Recorded time carries a billable flag, notes and favourites, hourly and daily rates with price groups per project and employee, cost centres drawn from project or employee master data, and flows on to invoices: released items from multiple projects billed in a single automated run, XRechnung and ZUGFeRD 2.1 output, and a DATEV or Lexware export. I found no public information on budget-tracking warnings or how rates are handled when they change mid-project, so I stop short of the top.

clockodo

There is a documented DATEV Lohn & Gehalt connection with client and consultant numbers, employee-number type and wage-type mapping, and approved absences are stated to be ready for payroll preparation. But the vendor's own help states this export is available exclusively for hourly wage earners and excludes surcharges and any employees who have entered them — with night, Sunday and holiday supplements, that is precisely the gap I would face for shift staff. We found no public information on time-account export, mid-month changes, or a lock step before transmission.

ZEP

A named payroll path exists in headline form — synchronisation of 'Lohn & Gehalt' and LODAS with DATEV, and transfer of ZEP time bookings to Personio — which is more than a generic CSV claim. But the documented export formats I can actually read are about travel expense reports going to accounting, write-protected after export and feeding DATEV finalisation, and I found no public information on how hours, overtime, or night, Sunday and holiday surcharges reach payroll in a defined wage-type format.

clockodo

The contracting entity is Clockodo GmbH in Unna with a German register number and VAT ID, the system is stated to store data on German servers, and the privacy policy names its subprocessors with addresses: Mittwald in Espelkamp for hosting, HubSpot Germany in Berlin, PayPal in Luxembourg and Stripe in the USA. The US processing is named with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses as its legal basis, and a trust centre publishes the processing agreement, TOMs, security standards and data-centre information. We found no public information on an on-premises or private-cloud option for buyers who need one.

ZEP

Hosting and development in Germany, daily backups in several German data centres, and ISO 27001 certification covering ZEP and its cloud hosting partners are all stated plainly — that is the baseline I want for my workforce data. The chain is what is missing: the data-centre provider is not named, I found no published subprocessor list, and the contracting entity appears only as ZEP GmbH in a copyright line.

clockodo

Per-user prices are public for every tier — Basic at 4 € per user per month, Pro at 10 € with 8 € for the first twelve months, Pro Plus at 12 € with 10 € for the first twelve months, and a plus package at +2 € per user per month — with billing period, monthly cancellation, no base or setup fee and net prices plus VAT all stated. What I cannot compute for two hundred people: the pricing page invites buyers with at least 20 users to request an individual offer, and the time-tracking terminal named in the features pages carries no public price. We found no public information on terminal hardware or setup costs.

ZEP

Per-user headline prices are public and monthly billing is stated — ZEP Clock 'Ab 2€ pro User', ZEP Compact 'Ab 7€ pro User', ZEP Professional 'Ab 18€ pro User' — alongside a free 14-day trial, no onboarding costs and monthly contract adjustments. But I found no public pricing for the add-on modules or terminals, including the absence module my roster depends on, and for teams above twenty-five or fifty users the pages move to an individual offer, so I cannot compute the annual invoice for 200 people from public pages alone.