One credit note a month instead of ten – plus 70+ more updates

October in ZEIT.IO: suppliers can get just one credit note per project and month, motor vehicle experts invoice CombiPlus damage cases, and articles, API keys and supplier contracts have gained a lot.

In October we closed 73 tickets. Suppliers can now receive just one credit note a month, the CombiSystems integration for motor vehicle expert offices is ready, and articles, API keys and supplier contracts have gained a lot. Two changes affect existing workflows – that is why they come first.

Please note

• API keys are shown only once: ZEIT.IO no longer stores your organisation's API keys in plain text. A new key is shown exactly once, right after you create it – copy it then. The overview only shows the last four characters. Your existing integrations keep running unchanged, and you don't have to replace any key. Read the blog post: One key. Visible once.
• Only admins can change approved incoming invoices: The "Settings" tab of an incoming invoice now also lets you correct the net, tax and gross amounts. Once the invoice is approved, however, only admins of the organisation can do that – with a warning and a confirmation before saving. Everyone else sees the values read-only. Read the blog post: Correcting amounts in incoming invoices

One credit note a month instead of ten

If many freelancers work for you, the credit memo process quickly produces a pile of documents: one credit note per timesheet and per expense report. With five freelancers submitting every week, that easily adds up to 30 credit notes a month – for a single project.

From now on you can decide per supplier contract that the contractor receives just one credit note per project and month, covering all time and expenses together. The month closes on a closing day you choose. Before that, ZEIT.IO reminds your freelancers of open entries by email, and anything not submitted by then is submitted for approval automatically. Once all documents of the month are approved, the credit note is created on its own.

For your accounts team that means one document and one payment per supplier, project and month. And early in the following month you know for certain what the month cost. You find the option on the new "Credit memo process" tab of every supplier contract; in the contract template under Settings → Contracts you make it the default for all new contracts.

Read the blog post: One credit note a month instead of ten

New: integration with CombiSystems

For motor vehicle expert offices, ZEIT.IO now connects your organisation with the CombiSystems backend. This lets you invoice damage cases from CombiPlus directly in ZEIT.IO: the expert fee is calculated from a fee table that you set per customer, and the claim number appears on the invoice automatically. When you activate the integration, ZEIT.IO also creates matching default articles and a default fee table.

The integration is already in production but is currently enabled for selected customers only. It will become available to everyone in December. Would you like to join earlier? Write to us at support@zeit.io.

Supplier contracts and Orga-to-Orga

• Binding contracts with a PDF for both sides: When a supplier accepts a contract, ZEIT.IO now creates a contract PDF with all terms and the time and person of acceptance. The supplier receives it by email, and it is available for download on the contract page at any time. We have generated the PDF retroactively for contracts accepted in the last 12 months. Read the blog post: Binding supplier contracts without paper
• Extend project and contracts in one step: When you extend a project, you can extend its supplier contracts along with it. The project page warns you when a contract ends before the project, and hours that could not be transferred to a mirrored project are flagged instead of lost. If a contract ends early, the project memberships are adjusted automatically.
• Budget control across company boundaries: A mirrored project can only take on as many hours as are actually still available in the parent project – even when several suppliers share one budget. Read the blog post: Budget control across company boundaries
• Import and export suppliers via CSV: The supplier list now has a CSV export and import, just like the customer list. The supplier number can also be changed after creation.

Invoices and articles

• Article catalogue via CSV and REST API: Create recurring items such as flat fees, licences or hosting once as an article and add them to an invoice with one click or automatically. You can now import your catalogue from a CSV file, the article list shows and filters the assigned customers, and the REST API lets you manage the whole catalogue. In the invoice you find articles and customers with an autocomplete search instead of scrolling through long lists. Read the blog post: Everything else now comes from your catalogue Read the blog post: Your article catalogue in minutes
• Copy customers: A group with five subsidiaries? "Copy customer" opens the form for the new customer already filled in with the data and settings of the original. You only change what is different. Read the blog post: One customer, five companies
• Copy an invoice without project and items: A new copy option takes over customer and settings but leaves out project and line items – handy when the old invoice only serves as a template.
• More figures in the invoice export and in reminders: The CSV export of outgoing invoices now contains the paid and the outstanding amount. The email templates for invoices and payment reminders support the new variables %{invoice_net_amount}, %{invoice_gross_amount} and %{invoice_vat_amount}.
• Change the language, the items follow: If you switch an invoice, for example one created by Auto-Invoice, from German to English, its line items are now regenerated in the new language as well.
• Large invoices to DATEV: Invoices with large attachments are now sent to DATEV in the background and no longer fail with a timeout.

Credit notes and incoming invoices

• Paid with Skonto? One click: Credit notes can now be marked as paid either with the full amount or with the Skonto (early payment discount) amount. ZEIT.IO records the matching payment. Read the blog post: Paid with Skonto?
• Cancellation invoices from suppliers: An incoming invoice can be marked as a cancellation and linked to the invoice it cancels. Both are flagged in the list, and cancelled invoices are skipped in the SEPA payment export. If a supplier with their own ZEIT.IO organisation cancels an invoice or credit note, the original is now marked as cancelled on your side too. Read the blog post: Clearly linked, never paid twice
• Incoming credit notes: Credit notes you receive are now assigned to a customer and appear on that customer's detail page. They also have their own "Settings" tab for number, dates, due date, supplier and labels.

Time tracking and projects

• Filter timesheets: The time records of a timesheet can be filtered directly by employee, project, activity, billability and description – the sum of hours follows the filter. Read the blog post: Find the hours you need
• Large CSV exports in the background: Exporting a whole year of time records? Large exports now run in the background, and ZEIT.IO emails you a download link – instead of an error page. Read the blog post: Export a whole year
• Working time record as PDF: The new "Full PDF Export" in the monthly view of time records shows, for one employee, every day with start, end, breaks and working time, plus all individual entries.
• Add all employees to a project in one click: For internal projects, trainings or audits, add all active employees in one step, with shared settings for budget, period and roles. Read the blog post: Add all employees in one click
• Auto-Copy with options: When a project is copied automatically, you can now also take over its Auto-Invoice settings and add all employees of the organisation to the new project.
• Matching projects when submitting: When creating a timesheet, only projects with open time records in the selected period are offered.

API and bank integration

• Multiple API keys with their own permissions: Create a separate API key for every integration – with exactly the permissions it needs, an optional expiry date and an overview of when the key was last used. Read the blog post: Multiple API keys
• Renew your bank connection in time: Your bank's consent for fetching account transactions expires after a few months. ZEIT.IO now notifies the admins of your organisation and lets them renew the connection directly, so no transactions go missing.

Security

Uploaded PDFs are now sanitised before they are stored, and embedded code is removed. We check permissions even more strictly, before a record is loaded at all. And regarding the critical PHP and Node.js vulnerabilities that made the news in October: ZEIT.IO uses neither on its servers and is not affected.

Read the blog post: PHP and Node.js vulnerabilities

Bug fixes

• In some organisations, copying a project failed.
• The CC recipients of an Auto-Invoice were not taken over into the generated invoice.
• After changing the customer of an invoice, the tax category was not updated, and a changed free-text invoice address of the customer was not picked up.
• With a separate delivery address, the invoice PDF showed the city of the billing address instead of the delivery city.
• New invoices were created with intro texts in the wrong language.
• Logos in WebP format did not show up on invoices and offers.
• Special mathematical characters in invoices caused errors in the e-invoice validation.
• The payment term in offers was wrong.
• Invoices for fixed price packages did not pick up the project's customer, and fixed price projects without packages did not deduct their invoices from the budget.
• For expenses outside the membership period, the error message now shows the allowed date range.
• The reminder for due incoming invoices now explicitly says "incoming invoice".