Transportation and fuel expenses occur on a daily basis in the operations of a business. Mileage is the distance traveled for different activities, like deliveries, procurement, client meetings, pick-ups, and drop-offs, etc. The drivers of the organization’s vehicles maintain a mileage log that records and tracks various transportation distances. One of the main reasons why this log is maintained is reimbursement.
The drivers fill out the mileage claim forms, using the information recorded in the mileage log, and request the organization to reimburse the traveling costs to them.
There are many benefits of mileage maintenance and the mileage claim forms, such as:
- The mileage claim form allows the drivers to state all the transportation activities separately and request for the reimbursement properly.
- The organization will gain the idea of its transportation expenses and then strategize accordingly.
- Recording and tracking the mileage, followed by the claim of reimbursement by the drivers, enables the organization to indicate the cost as an expense in its financial statements, helping the organization to gain tax deductions.
- The system of mileage maintenance is important for HMRC compliance.
- The mileage claims can be kept in the records for any future reference.
For the harmonization and synchronization of the processes, organizations provide a template of the mileage claim forms to the drivers, which they can fill in for any reimbursement request. This template can be developed by the organization itself from the scratch or it can use an already-developed template by the experts, that may be taken from the online sources or the programs, such as Microsoft Excel.
These professional templates are easy to customize as per the requirements of the organization. The required information or the details in a mileage claim may vary from organization to organization. However, generally, the following information needs to be filled in:
- Date of the claim and date of the acceptance of the reimbursement request.
- Details of the employee, including name, ID, address, account details, etc.
- Total mileage.
- Rate per mile.
- Total reimbursement.
- Details of different transportation activities, including their dates, starting locations, destinations, odometer readings (starting and ending), distance/mileage traveled, cost of traveling.
- Signature of the employee and the employer.
When the driver is filling in the mileage claim form, he needs to ensure a few points, for instance:
- The provided information should be correct and should not be misleading. The calculations should be rechecked at least twice.
- The separation of the recording and tracking of the business mileage and personal mileage should be properly done.
- The rate per mile used should be the one provided by the IRS and the modifications should be made, as required from time to time, with any change in the IRS’s rate per mile.
- The HMRC rates for different engine types and sizes of the vehicles should be appropriately applied.
The driver submits the claim form, which is then reviewed by the management, and if accepted, the reimbursement is made.
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Format: MS Excel (.xlsx) | Size: 89 KB