Convert a Trip to an Expense

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Overview

Logging a trip records the drive. Converting it creates the actual mileage expense you can put on an expense report. Until a trip is converted it costs nothing and claims nothing. A trip’s status tells you where it is:

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Convert a single trip

From the trip list, open the row menu and choose the convert action. From the trip detail page, use the same action in the header. Smartbills creates a mileage expense using the trip’s distance, unit, and the rate that applies to it, then takes you to the new expense.

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Convert several trips at once

Select trips in the list using the checkboxes, then choose Add to report from the bulk actions bar to convert the selection together. Bulk conversion reports partial success rather than failing as a whole. You will see up to three results:

• Converted, for trips that produced a new expense
• Skipped, for trips that were already converted and needed no action
• Failed, for trips that could not be converted

Because skipped and failed are counted separately, a bulk run over a mixed selection is safe. Already-converted trips are left alone rather than duplicated.

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What the expense looks like

The resulting expense is titled from the route, for example “Trip from Montreal to Quebec City”. It carries the trip’s distance, the applicable rate, and the calculated reimbursement. Opening it shows a breakdown that walks through year-to-date distance, the tier applied, and the resulting amount. The expense links back to the trip, and the trip links forward to the expense, so you can move between them from either side.

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Deleting a converted trip

Deleting a trip also removes its expense, so Smartbills blocks the delete once the expense is committed to a report. The same protection applies to bulk delete. Reported trips in your selection are skipped and counted, rather than silently removed.

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What’s next