According to the U.S. Department of Labor's website, “Time spent traveling during normal work hours is considered compensable work time.”
This means you must pay your mobile employees for drive time between jobs.
Our Travel Manager feature helps comply with government regulations and skip the legal and financial hassles.
Video on How to Set Up Travel Manager
How to Set Up and Use the Travel Manager (Written Instructions)
The Travel Manager is an essential tool for tracking and managing travel time for employees moving between job sites. This guide will walk you through the setup process and key features to ensure smooth operations and accurate reporting.
Why Use the Travel Manager?
If you have off-site employees, the U.S. Department of Labor considers travel time during normal work hours as compensable work time. The Travel Manager ensures you accurately capture and compensate this time while simplifying the process for both employees and administrators.
Step 1: Setting Up Activity Codes
Activity codes help categorize work tasks at job sites. For Travel Manager, create a Travel activity code.
Navigate to List Maintenance > Activity Codes.
Add a new activity code:
Code: Travel
Description: Travel
Check the Admin Use Only box to prevent employees from manually clocking into travel.
Save your changes.
Step 2: Mapping Job Sites
The Travel Manager integrates with Google Maps to calculate travel time and mileage between job sites. Here's how to add and map a new job site:
Go to the Location Tab under the job setup screen.
Enter the job name and address.
Select the correct address from Google’s suggestions.
Confirm the location on the map and save the job.
Step 3: Configuring Travel Settings
To enable travel tracking, configure the Travel Settings in the My Account menu.
Navigate to Travel Settings.
Enable travel for Mileage and Time Tracking.
Adjust the Window Time setting:
This defines the cutoff time for travel records at the end of the day.
Set it to 300 minutes for standard operations.
Step 4: Choosing Mileage and Time Tracking Methods
You can select between Actual and Mapped Estimated options for travel time and mileage:
Actual Miles/Time: Based on GPS clock-in/out data.
Mapped Estimated Miles/Time: Uses Google Maps’ calculated distances and durations. This helps to avoid overpaying for non-work-related delays, like lunch breaks.
Note: In some states, like California, you may need to capture actual time. If so, you can set a maximum threshold, like 30 minutes, to avoid overpaying for travel records that exceed a reasonable travel duration.
Step 5: Allocating Travel Time in Job Cost Reporting
You can assign travel time to specific jobs for accurate cost tracking:
Destination Job (Recommended): This allocates both travel time and work time to the client’s job. For example, if it takes 10 minutes to drive to Target and 30 minutes to work there, reporting will show 10 minutes of travel and 30 minutes of work, helping you calculate the true cost of doing business with that client.
Travel Job: Lumps all travel time into a single, separate Travel job.
To configure:
Choose the Activity for Travel (e.g., Travel).
Select the allocation method: Destination Job or Travel Job.
Step 6: Assigning Travel Pay to Employees
In the Employee Settings section, move eligible employees to the Travel Time Enabled list.
For new hires, remember to enable travel pay. If you forget to enable travel pay for a new hire, you can do it retroactively, and the system will calculate travel records accordingly.
Always click Save after making changes in the settings screen.
Next Steps
In the next session, you’ll learn how to:
Approve travel under Payroll Functions > Travel Manager.
Generate travel-related reports for insights into travel and work time.
For further assistance, contact our support team.
When you are ready to learn how to review and approve travel trips and see the reporting, go to Part 2.
For help on other topics, check out our Help Center. Be sure to bookmark it!
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