Whenever you make a travel booking, Perk can automatically create a single travel expense or a trip expense, allowing employees to include other expenses such as receipts, mileage claims, and per diems. Any changes made to travel bookings are reflected in the travel booking expense.
For travel bookings paid immediately by card (private, corporate, or lodge card), each booking is represented by a single expense. For periodic billing invoices, each invoice line in the invoice is represented as a separate expense in Perk. For example, a traveler books a trip from Singapore to Barcelona, which includes two flights (with a transfer in Zurich) and a hotel booking. This may be represented in the invoice as four line items: three line items related to the two flights and the hotel, and a fourth line item for booking fees. Each line item is created as a separate expense in Perk.
The travel expense is automatically categorized and matched with the corresponding card transaction, if paid for with a card. If the travel booking contains VAT information, the corresponding travel expense includes the tax percentage and amount applied if a corresponding tax rate can be found in Perk for the company.
Travel expenses can be created in either draft or travel draft statuses and can be assigned to the booker, employee, or travel spend processor.
If the travel booking was subject to approval, the corresponding travel expense is displayed with the In review status. Financial reviewers can then export these expenses to the finance system.
Travel expense statuses
Travel expenses from Perk trips can be created with one of two statuses:
- Draft: Travel expenses are imported into Perk so that employees can manage them either as part of a trip or as single expenses.
- Travel draft: Travel expenses are only visible to travel spend processors (Finance > Expense import). Only travel spend processors can manage these expenses.
Depending on your company’s requirements, you can choose whether you want employees to manage travel expenses or assign a travel spend processor to process these expenses:
Manage travel expenses as an employee
If you choose to allow employees to manage these expenses, they are responsible for checking that all data is correct and submitting them for approval.
For example, employees can perform these tasks:
- See travel expenses
- Edit travel expense data
- Submit travel expenses
If you use a standard approval flow (line manager approval or cost object approval), travel expenses follow the standard flow for approving expenses.
Caution: To allow employees to manage travel expenses, the travel expenses must be imported with draft status, not as a travel draft.
Manage travel expenses as a travel spend processor
If you choose to assign travel expenses to the travel spend processor role, the travel spend processor is responsible for checking all expenses and submitting them to finance. This allows you to set up a specific approval flow to allow these expenses to be handled separately.
They can access all travel expenses in Finance > Expense import. You can choose to either import travel expenses with either draft or travel draft statuses:
| Draft | Travel draft |
|---|---|
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Assigning travel expenses to employees
Depending on the travel booking settings for the company, Perk assigns travel expenses to either the booker first or the traveler. However, if Perk is unable to find the person mentioned in the booking (either the booker or the traveler), it assigns the travel expense to the travel spend processor for the company as a fallback solution.
Note: Changes in assignment strategy affect new bookings only. If you change the strategy after having booked trips in Perk, the travel spend processor may need to reassign those bookings to the correct person in Finance > Expense import.
Assign to the booker first, then the traveler
By default, travel expenses are assigned to the booker in Perk. If the booker is not found in Perk, the travel expense is assigned to the traveler. In most cases, both the booker and the traveler are the same person.
In other words, the priority for the assignment is the booker, then the traveler. For example, if a trip is booked by a booker, then the travel expense is assigned to the booker in Perk. If Perk cannot find the booker (or they are associated with another company), Perk assigns the travel expense to the traveler. If the traveler is not part of the company, Perk assigns the travel expense to the travel spend processor.
Where there are multiple travelers listed on the invoice, Perk assigns the travel expense to the first traveler found (where it is unable to assign it to the booker).
Assign to the traveler first, then the booker
Alternatively, if the travel expenses have been paid by the travel provider or paid for with a lodge card, you can set an alternative assignment strategy. In this case, the travel expense is assigned to the traveler first. As a fallback solution, if the traveler is not part of the company, then the travel expense is assigned to the booker. If neither the booker nor the traveler is part of the company, the invoice is assigned to the travel spend processor.
Note: The alternative assignment strategy does not apply to group bookings. These bookings are automatically assigned to the booker even if they were paid for by lodge card or by travel provider.
Payment methods for travel bookings
Perk invoices are paid by company card, such as a Perk Card, or another payment method, such as direct debit. Payment methods are set up in the payment profile.
Depending on the payment type, the billing cycle in the payment profiles needs to be adjusted correctly. In TravelPerk, the billing cycle can be instant or flexible. Depending on how you plan to manage the travel expense in Perk, the configuration in Perk needs to be set accordingly.
Paid by company card with card transaction data in Perk
Travel expenses paid by company card are bookings that are paid instantly with a Perk Card (or another card integrated with Perk). In this case, you need to configure the billing cycle to be immediate. This ensures that the booking invoice and the card transaction in Perk can have the same amount and can be matched automatically. However, it may happen that one transaction results in multiple invoices. In this case, the travel spend processor should handle matching manually by matching multiple expenses to a single card transaction.
If there is a full or partial refund for a trip, such as a hotel booking being canceled, a credit note expense is created with a negative amount. The same amount is credited to the Perk card or the card that was used for payment, and can be matched accordingly.
If you use FlexiTravel for modifications in booking, see Handle FlexiTravel credit in Perk.
Paid by another payment method, such as periodic billing or card not integrated with Perk
Travel expenses with travel provider paid payment method are bookings paid for with a card that is not integrated with Perk (in other words, no transaction data is available in Perk) or covered with periodic billing. In other words, either bank transfer or direct debit is used as a payment method. The billing cycle can be set to weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. These invoices contain multiple line items that are created as separate travel expenses.
Travel expenses that have been paid by card in TravelPerk don’t have to be matched with a card transaction in Perk. Each expense is automatically categorized according to the category mapping configuration.
Caution: Flexible invoicing, which allows any Perk user to select another company to invoice or a payment profile from another company during checkout, is not supported.
Tax in travel expenses
Perk can include tax information supplied in the invoice. Tax information is displayed in the expense according to these criteria:
- If the Enable tax is active for the company, then tax is displayed in the expense. If this feature is not enabled in either the company or the account, then the expense is created without VAT.
- If a matching tax rate has been set up for the company and applies to the country where the expense took place, then VAT information is displayed in the expense.
- If a matching tax rate has been set up for the company and doesn’t apply to the country where the expense took place, then the expense is created without VAT.
- If there is no matching tax rate set up in the company, then the travel expense is created without VAT.
Travel booking invoices as attachments
If the travel booking is paid via card and you have set up instant invoicing in the payment profile, Perk attaches the invoice PDF to the expense as a supporting document.
In other cases, if instant invoicing is not configured depending on the billing cycle period, the invoice may be in draft and not yet issued. In that case, it is not attached to the travel expense.