Under the FLSA, caregivers who travel to more than one client during the workday must be paid for travel time between clients. If the travel is not direct because the caregiver is relieved from duty long enough to engage in purely personal pursuits, only the time necessary to make the trip must be paid.
Compensation for the mileage of an employee’s car is not required by law, but the provider can provide compensation at its discretion.
In RSAkit, you can apply both types of payment: payroll for travel time and/or compensation for mileage.
RSAkit automatically calculates estimated distance and travel time based on the geographical routing between the clients’ addresses.
In future versions, it will be possible to correct the RSAkit estimations based on the employee’s data and the agency’s data.
To use the estimated mileage and travel time, you must enter the addresses of the clients between whom caregivers travel. To do this, go to the Clients tab in the main menu, then enter the addresses (1) in the client cards.
After entering the addresses, go to the Services by Employee tab (2) of the main menu. Select weeks (3) from the calendar. Now you can generate reports (4) and payroll (5).
The “Mileage & Travel Time” report XLS file includes the details of each trip for each employee in the selected weeks:
| Column name | Value |
| First Name | Employee’s first name |
| Last Name | Employee’s last name |
| Date | Date of the trip |
| Client from | A client from whom the employee traveled |
| Clock out | The time at which the employee clocked out at the previous client |
| Client to | A client to whom the employee traveled |
| Clock in | The time at which the employee clocked in at the next client |
| Time between shifts | The actual time between the employee registering the clock-out at the previous client and registering the clock-in at the next client |
| Estimated travel time, h | The estimated travel time between clients as calculated by RSAkit based on client addresses |
| Estimated mileage | The estimated travel mileage between clients as calculated by RSAkit based on client addresses |
The “Mileage Summary” report XLS file includes the sum of the mileage per employee in the selected weeks:
| Column name | Value |
| First Name | Employee’s first name |
| Last Name | Employee’s last name |
| Estimated mileage | A summary of the employee’s mileage for the selected period, calculated by RSAkit based on client addresses |
The “Travel TimeSummary” report XLS file includes the sum of the travel time per employee in the selected weeks:
| Column name | Value |
| First Name | Employee’s first name |
| Last Name | Employee’s last name |
| Estimated travel time, h | A summary of the employee’s travel time for the selected period, calculated by RSAkit based on client addresses. |
Unlike general payroll, this report includes the travel time for employees who worked for two or more clients on the same day.
When RSAkit prepares this report, it uses a weighted average to compute the employee’s regular rate. In this case, the employee rate (entered on the employee’s page) is used for worked time registered by ISAS and approved, as explained here. For travel between clients, the travel time rate is applied. You can change the travel time rate in the final payroll.
After the regular rate is computed, RSAkit uses it to calculate the wage under 40 hours of working time per week. For overtime hours, RSAkit multiplies the regular rate by a factor of 1.5. The total hours worked include travel hours.
You get the report as an XLS file with formulas, so you can correct it according to your goals.
The payroll file includes the following:
| Column name | Format | Value |
| Co Code | value | Company ADP code |
| Batch ID | value | Explanation code for a payroll program |
| File # | value | Employee’s ADP number |
| Name | value | Employee’s Last Name, Name |
| Care time | value | Time approved in RSAkit for the caregiver services |
| Travel time | value | Time used by the caregiver to travel between clients |
| Reg Hours | value | Total care and travel time, not exceeding 40 hours per week |
| O/T Hours | value | Full care and travel time above 40 hours per week |
| Care Rate | value | Pay rate entered on the employee’s page (it used in General payroll as a regular pay rate) |
| Travel time Rate | value | Pay rate for the travel time |
| Reg Rate | formula | Weighted average rate for travel and services time |
| O/T Rate | formula | Rate for overtime as 1.5 times the regular rate |
| Regular Earnings | formula | Total earnings for regular hours |
| O/T Earnings | formula | Total earnings for overtime hours |
| Gross pay | formula | Total employee earnings |