When going on a business trip, typically multiple different expenses occur. You can combine all these expenses in a single trip expense for easier processing. A trip in Perk is a collection of various types of expenses that occurred on a business trip over a period of time.

When employees create a trip expense in Perk, per diems and mileage allowances can be automatically generated from the departure and arrival locations, if set up. They can then manually add other expenses with or without receipts. Alternatively, they can create mileage and per diem allowances separately and then add them to a trip.

Approvers see all expenses grouped together by date and can choose to approve the entire trip with all expenses or can approve each expense separately.

Financial reviewers can filter expenses by trips in the review page to view an overview of expenses included as part of the trip, as well as additional information about the trip (including any custom fields) in trip information. They can review the entire trip or review individual expenses before sending them for export.

With trip expenses, you can:

• Group related expenses
• Get a consolidated itinerary view
• View additional trip information
• Separate pre- and post-trip expenses
• Download PDF of the trip and attachments
• Delete and review multiple expenses simultaneously
• Export trips as a single concept, rather than individual expenses

Trip expenses are enabled and configured at a company-level. Depending on the role, trip expenses are accessed as follows:

• Employees: Spend > Expenses > Trip expenses
• Approvers: Spend > Approvals > Approvals list, Trip expenses tab
• Financial reviewers: Finance > Review > Expenses and invoices, Trips dropdown selector

Tip: Learn how to create a trip expense report.

Trip expense overview

The trip overview has a calendar view that shows expenses in chronological order. The trip overview contains several action buttons: Download PDF Download attachments View itinerary Delete trip Add expense
In the web app, these action buttons are located above the calendar view and in mobile, in the actions menu (three dots icon) in the top right corner.  Depending on the role (employee, approver or financial reviewer), the key action button varies: submit, approve, or review.

Overview sorting

You can change how expenses are displayed using the Group by sort option. By default, expenses are grouped by date. However, you can choose to display expenses by:

• Expense type (mileage, per diems, no receipt expenses, etc.)
• Category (lunch, dinner, accommodation, etc.)
• Expense status (Draft, Ready, In approval, etc.)
• Matching status

This makes it easier for you to swiftly identify the total amount spent on specific expense categories, resulting in a more efficient review process. For example, a reviewer can now easily find out the total amount spent on lunch on a given trip by grouping expenses by the Lunch category and instantly view the consolidated amount.

Pre-trip and post-trip expenses

The overview also indicates expenses incurred before or after a trip. This associates expenses such as flight bookings made before the trip date, and parking charges made after the trip dates with a trip, allowing you to easily differentiate between different stages of the journey.

Trip itinerary

You can view the entire itinerary for a trip. Where your company has set up border crossings, the times between border crossings are indicated in the itinerary. In the web app, you click the View itinerary button. The mobile app has a dedicated tab Itinerary.

Download PDF and attachments

You can download a PDF document with detailed trip information such as the legal entity details, employee details, trip name, trip ID, itinerary, and the costs of each day and total. You can download all attachments of your expenses (e.g. your uploaded receipts) at once.

Delete multiple expenses or a trip

You can select multiple expenses and delete them all at once. This streamlines the deletion process and saves time for users managing a large number of expenses.

Employees can delete an entire trip as appropriate by selecting Delete when in the trip view in the web app or swiping left on a trip in the Trips tab in the mobile app. 

To delete multiple expenses in bulk, employees can select the checkbox beside the expense in the Trip overview.

Approve, review or send back multiple expenses

Approvers and financial reviewers can now select multiple expenses and choose to approve, review or send them back simultaneously. When reviewing or approving, you can add an optional comment that is applied to all the expenses being reviewed. 

When sending back expenses, you can attach a comment to each individual expense. This feature is particularly useful when additional information or corrections are required for certain expenses. The comment ensures clear communication between approvers and submitters, reducing delays in the approval process.

Trip information

The trip information tab contains additional information about the trip, such as the trip ID, employee details, cost objects for the trip, and any custom fields your company may have set up to track crucial trip-related details.