You can calculate mileage automatically for eligible schedules in the Schedule Review Module, in either the Finalize tab (preferred) or Actual Hours tab. Mileage is calculated only for schedules in which the caregiver is travelling from one client to another and does not get calculated for a caregiver's first visit of the day. (A schedule is considered the first visit if the time between it and the previous schedule for the same caregiver exceeds the setting in "Minutes after last visit to qualify as first visit" field in the Agency Office Module, Required tab, Schedule Settings tool.)
Calculating and generating Mileage charges for selected schedules is based on the distance between schedules. For Mileage to automatically calculate, Clients and Caregivers must be configured to bill or pay Mileage, and have Mileage rates specified in their Billing or Payroll Options.
The system calculates the mileage from one address to another based on the Distance and Travel information populated in a schedule for an identical "from address/to address" scenario as the one on the current schedule for which you are calculating mileage. To edit the stored number of miles between two addresses, use the Distance and Travel tool in the Setup a Schedule screen.
NOTE: When you select Calculate Mileage, the system will attempt to automatically update the Distance and Travel information using HomeTrak's Trips directions service before it creates an expense item for Mileage in the schedule, if this information has not already been validated.
What Schedules are eligible for Mileage?
To calculate mileage on a schedule:
- The schedule must not be the caregiver's first schedule of the day
- The schedule must have actual hours entered
- The length of time between the end time of the first schedule and start time of the second schedule must be less than the setting for "Max minutes between visits to pay travel time" in the Agency Office Module, Schedule Settings tool.
- Either the caregiver or payer (or both) must have the Pay/Bill Mileage option checked on their Payroll or Billing options.
- Schedules with an "Unavailable" Call Type/Service will not receive mileage or factor in to mileage calculations.
To Calculate Mileage:
- Open the Schedule Review Module and select the Actual Hours or Finalize tab.
- The Start and End Dates must reflect the correct date range for the schedules for which you wish to view/calculate mileage.
- Verify that any filtering options that are applied are appropriate. (To view all schedules for the specified date range, do not apply any filters.)
- Click the View Data tool in the grid toolbar to load the grid for the specified criteria.
- Ensure that all of the schedules for which you want to Calculate Mileage have a checkmark in the checkbox column.
- Click on the Calculate Mileage tool under the Expenses drop down menu on the ribbon.
THEN. . .
Confirm that you want to calculate mileage on the selected schedules. A message will popup when complete. To view the calculated mileage in the Mileage column in the Main Display grid, you may need to click the View Data button in the toolbar to refresh the information in the grid.
Note that when the system automatically calculates mileage, it will not add mileage records to schedules that may already have mileage, nor will it update or replace the existing records. If mileage is calculated multiple times for the same schedule(s), duplicate charges are not added.