Set up trip expenses in Perk

Only account admins can perform this task.

To set up trip expenses in Perk, you need to enable the feature in Settings > Account > Companies settings.

Once you have enabled the feature, you need to determine how expenses (i. e. mileage, per diems) are processed as part of a trip.

Enable trips

To enable people to combine multiple expenses in a single trip:

Go to Settings > Account > Companies.
Select a company and click View spend settings.
Scroll down to the Enable trips section.
Turn the Enable trips toggle option.

General settings

When you enable the trips function, you can determine specific behavior on how people create trips, such as whether they must include at least one receipt or no receipt expense (apart from mileage or per diems). You can also determine the status of any automatically generated expenses such as mileage or per diems. You can change the usage of cost objects in trips.

Option	Description	Location with spend settings
Only allow expenses (receipt and no-receipt) to be submitted as part of a trip	People can only submit receipt and no receipt expenses as part of a trip. Otherwise, these expenses are rejected.	Enable trips
Set status of automatically generated expenses to draft	If enabled, any auto-generated expenses (i.e. mileage & per diems) in a trip are set to Draft status and must be confirmed by the person before being sent for approval.	Enable trips
Enable trip copying	Allows submitters to copy a trip to use it as a template.	Enable trips
Disable trip name auto-population	By default, the trip name is generated using the start and end locations. You can choose to disable this auto-population, so that people must always enter a new name for the trip.	Enable trips
Disable cost object selection (Trips) and ignore cost objects (Expenses)	Don’t allow people to assign expenses/trips to cost objects themselves, but cost objects are still mandatory. If enabled, expenses are assigned to the cost object that submitters are assigned to in the HR / User management tab.	Expense report definition
Disable cost objects (Trips)	If this option is enabled, submitters do not have to select a cost object in trips.	Expense report definition

Export trips

Financial reviewers can export expenses globally by trip. Once a trip is reviewed, expenses within the trip are available as:

single expenses in Expenses
grouped expenses in Trips

By exporting expenses by trip, all expenses included as part of the trip are combined in a single export job.

Trips are displayed for export if at least one expense is Ready for Export and all other expenses are either Ready for Export or Exported. Any rejected expenses are ignored. The trip inherits the lowest state in the workflow for all expenses within a trip.

For example, if a trip contains five expenses, four of which are Ready to export and one is In review, then the overall trip status will be shown as In review. This also means that Finance people cannot export the entire trip. Only the individual expenses can be exported via the Expenses tab.

Note: Although all expenses within a trip are included within the same export job, the data export itself is at expense level. Therefore, any export logic determined for expenses applies such as split per diem allowances for export to a payroll system.

You can choose to create a PDF report of all trips exported and determine the folder name.

Option	Description	Location
Enable trip reports	If selected, Finance people can download a report of all expenses within a trip after export. The file is displayed in the Finance > Export log tab, in the Generated files column. Click the download icon and select the trip report ZIP folder.	Enable trips
ZIP folder name for exporting trip expenses	If Enable trip reports is selected, set a standard file name for the trip report folder. Otherwise, it is automatically named as `perTripExpensesSummary`. You can use placeholders.	Enable trips

Folder name placeholders

You can use these placeholders to include specific data in the name of the trip report folder:

Placeholder	Meaning
`##{{legalEntityName}}`	Folder name contains name of legal entity
`##{{exportId}}`	Folder name contains export ID
`##{{YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS}}`	Folder name contains date in this format
`##{{date}}`	Folder name contains date in format YYYY-MM-DD
`##{{timestamp}}`	Folder name contains timestamp
free text	Folder name is named with the text “free text” (no special characters)

Trip-specific notifications

In Compliance, you can set up specific notifications for trips that prevent people from submitting a trip that doesn’t comply with the company’s policy.

Option	Description	Location
Don’t allow trips with overlapping dates	Checking this option prevents people from creating trips where either the start or end date coincides with a previously created trip.	Compliance

Border crossings

When you enable border crossings, the trip interface requires the person to input the time of border crossing. In certain countries, such as Austria, this information is crucial for calculating the accurate per diems payment for each day of the trip. This is because the payment amount depends on the number of hours spent by the employee in each country, making this information relevant and necessary.

Option	Description	Location
Enable border crossings	Check this option to enable detailed itinerary trips.	Enable trips
Border crossing type	Choose default settings or detailed itinerary.	Enable trips

Per diem settings

If you want to include per diem as part of a trip, you need to enable them so that they appear as part of a trip. Per diems need to be enabled in the Expense report definition. Otherwise, these settings are ignored.

Go to Settings > Account > Companies.
Select a company and click View spend settings.
Scroll down to Expense report definition.
Select the Trip checkboxes under Enable per diems.

Mileage settings (location)

If you want to include mileage expenses as part of a trip, you need to enable them so that they appear as part of a trip.

Mileage expenses need to be enabled in Expense report definition. In addition, you need to determine the starting location for trips.

Option	Description	Location
Place search type	Specify what type of data is required to indicate the starting location and destination of a business trip expense report. You can choose between: addresses (e. g. Förrlibuckstrasse 181, 8005 Zürich) establishment (e.g. Zürich Airport (ZRH)) regions (e. g. Westminster, London) cities (e. g. Zürich, Amsterdam, etc.) geocode (e. g. latitude and longitude coordinates) all (e. g. all of the search types) Note: Google lets people submit a point of interest (i.e. a named pin on a specific location in Google Maps. Points of interest are not considered valid addresses and hence are not supported by Perk.	Enable trips > Location settings
Saved addresses for trips and mileage	Determines the default departure and arrival addresses proposed when submitter creates a trip. Office address (default): takes the address set in Company settings. Home address (from profile): takes the address entered in the person’s profile. Home address (read only): takes the person’s home address, but doesn’t allow them to change the start address	Enable trips > Location settings
Enforce precise address	If enabled, people must enter a full address when creating a trip.	Enable trips > Location settings
Minimum traveled distance to apply mileage rates	Enter the minimum traveled distance required to qualify for mileage expenses.	Enable trips > Location settings
Notify if Google Maps distance threshold exceeded	If calculating mileage expenses automatically in trips, Perk sends a notification when a person exceeds a pre-set distance limit.	Compliance
Google Maps distance threshold	If you enable the Google distance threshold for mileage expenses, you have the option to establish a specific distance limit.	Compliance