Travel Allowance

Pay staff, such as technicians, a rate per kilometre on approved travel. Set the rate, enrol who is paid, record their km, approve, and payroll adds a Travel Allowance line.

Travel Allowance pays enrolled staff a rate for every approved kilometre they travel for work. It is built for staff who drive between sites, such as technicians.

Nothing is paid until two things are true: a rate is set, and the person is enrolled. Everyone else in the group is unaffected.

How it works at a glance

Step	Who	Where
1. Set the rate per km	HR admin	Travel Allowance > Settings
2. Enrol the staff who are paid	HR admin	Travel Allowance > Staff
3. Record the km	HR admin (later: automatic)	Travel Allowance > Logs
4. Approve the km	HR admin	Travel Allowance > Logs
5. Payslip updates by itself	Payroll	Travel Allowance line on the payslip

Open it from the sidebar: Payroll > Travel Allowance. You need the Manage meal allowance access permission, which also covers travel allowance. Group admins have it.

Step 1: Set the rate

Go to the Settings tab.

Travel Allowance Settings tab showing the group rate of 12.00 per km, taxable and counting for Social Security, and each company using the group rate

Group rate: click Set rate and enter the amount per km (for example 12). It applies to every company in the group.
Company rate (optional): click Set company rate next to a company to give it a different rate. Click Use group rate to go back.

Each rate has two switches:

Switch	Meaning
Taxable income	The travel amount counts toward income for withholding tax (PND1).
Counts for Social Security	The travel amount counts toward the SSO wage.

Both are on by default, which matches the Transportation pay item in EzyHR. Changing a rate updates open draft payslips automatically.

Step 2: Enrol staff

Go to the Staff tab, search for the person and switch on Enrolled.

Staff tab with Enrolled only switched on: one employee on their own rate of 15.00 per km, one on the company or group rate

Leave Rate per km empty to use the company or group rate.
Enter an amount to give that one person their own rate.
Enrolment belongs to one employee record. If someone transfers to another company, enrol them again at the new company.
Staff who have left stay listed as Not active, so you can still unenrol them.

Step 3: Record the km

Go to the Logs tab and choose the company and payroll period (for example 21 Oct to 20 Nov). The page shows Approved in this payroll period, which matches what the payslip pays.

Logs tab for one company and payroll period: approved and pending trips with date, employee, distance, status and note, plus Approve pending, Import and Add travel

Travel can only be added for enrolled staff. Add it in either of two ways:

One trip at a time. Click Add travel, choose the employee, the date, the distance in km and an optional note.

Add travel panel with Employee, Date, Distance (km) and Note fields

Many trips from a file. Click Import and upload an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file with these columns:

Employee ID	Date	Km	Note
SCC0200	05/11/2026	42.5	Site visit, Tonson
SCC0200	06/11/2026	18

Choose the company the Employee IDs belong to.
Dates can be DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD.
Km must be above 0 and up to 1000.
If any row has a problem, nothing is imported and the page lists each row number to fix.

Import travel panel asking for the company and an Excel or CSV file

Several trips on the same day are fine; each is its own log and the payslip pays their total.

Step 4: Approve

New and imported travel starts as Pending and is not paid until approved.

Click Approve on a row, or Approve pending to approve every pending row shown for the chosen company and period.
Click Reject to refuse a trip (you can add a reason). Rejected travel is not paid.
Pending travel can be edited or deleted. Approved travel cannot be deleted; reject it instead, and the payslip is recalculated.

Step 5: The payslip

After approval, Hopshift recalculates the person's draft payslip by itself. The payslip gets a Travel Allowance line:

approved km in the payroll period × rate per km

For example, 120 approved km at 12 per km pays 1,440.00. The line is included in gross pay and, depending on the switches in Step 1, in taxable income and the SSO wage. It appears on the payslip PDF, the payroll screens and the payroll export.

A Travel Allowance line is calculated by the system. It is separate from any fixed Transportation pay item, and both are paid if a person has both.

Rules that protect payroll

Situation	What happens
Date is in a payroll period that is already published	Refused. Add the missing km in the current open period, with a note.
Same employee, date and km already logged	Refused in an import. When adding one trip, you are asked Add anyway?
Someone is unenrolled after their travel was added	Their travel is not paid while they are unenrolled. The page warns you when you approve it.
Two payroll runs cover the same date	The km are paid once, by the run created first.
No rate set	Nothing is paid.

Where the km come from

Source	Status
Entered or imported by HR on the Logs tab	Available now
Mileage provider (automatic daily import)	Planned. Imported km will arrive as Pending for approval.
Phone location tracking in the employee app	Not available

Hopshift does not track anyone's location for travel allowance. Clock-in and clock-out locations are not used to work out kilometres.

Travel Allowance

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