A Mileage Expense is a specific expense type in Zoho Expense used to claim reimbursement for business travel in a personal vehicle. Instead of submitting a receipt, the employee records the distance travelled (in kilometres or miles) and the system calculates the reimbursable amount by multiplying the distance by the configured mileage rate. This handles the common scenario where employees use their own car for customer visits, site inspections, or inter-office travel.
Zoho Expense’s mobile app can track mileage automatically using the device’s GPS, recording the route driven and the total distance without requiring the employee to remember and manually enter the kilometres. The tracked route is stored with the mileage expense, providing evidence of the journey for audit purposes. Employees can also enter mileage manually if they prefer or if GPS tracking was not active during the trip.
Mileage expenses are often closely scrutinised in audits because they are self-reported distances without traditional receipts. The GPS route tracking feature in Zoho Expense addresses this scrutiny by providing route evidence comparable to a receipt. Companies can also configure maximum daily mileage limits to flag implausibly high distance claims automatically, which is one of the most common forms of expense fraud.
Yes. Mileage rates in Zoho Expense can be configured in either kilometres or miles, matching the convention used in the company’s operating country. Indian businesses typically use kilometres; UK and US businesses use miles. The unit is set at the mileage rate configuration level and applies consistently to all mileage expenses created under that policy, ensuring calculations use the correct unit throughout.
Yes. Zoho Expense can be configured with multiple mileage rates for different vehicle types or engine sizes. For example, a higher rate might apply to motorbikes than to small cars, or different rates might apply to electric versus petrol vehicles. The employee selects the applicable vehicle type when creating the mileage expense, and the correct rate is applied automatically.
Aaxonix is a certified Zoho implementation partner based in Pune. Architecture-first, no surprises.