Create a custom scheme

A scheme is a set of rules for how claims are priced. Every company has a Default scheme that uses the official jurisdiction rates, which you cannot edit. If your company pays its own mileage rates, you can create a custom scheme and assign people to it.

Before you begin

You hold the Administrator role.
You know your rates. A custom mileage scheme is a list of bands for each vehicle kind, so have the distance limits and the rate for each ready.

Create the scheme

Open Schemes under Configuration and choose New.
Enter a Name and choose Save.

The message “Custom scheme created. Subsistence still uses the jurisdiction rate.” appears. The new scheme page opens, and the list now shows it as Custom.

Set it up

On the scheme page you can:

Turn a claim family on or off under Included claims: Mileage, Subsistence, Expenses.
Set the Distance adjustment warning: tick Adjustment warning and set the Threshold (a distance). Changing it saves a new scheme version.
Set Expense soft limits for Public transport, Parking and tolls and Other. A blank limit means none. Zero is a real limit of zero. Going over a limit raises a warning. It does not refuse the expense.
Enter Custom mileage bands.

Custom mileage bands

Under Custom mileage bands there is one block for each vehicle kind: Car or van, Motorcycle and Bicycle. In each block:

Choose Add a band for … and fill in Up to (a distance) and the rate for that band. Add as many bands as you need. Choose Remove to take one away.
Fill in Everything above the limits, the rate for all the distance beyond your last limit.

The distance counts what the person has claimed so far this company year. With a band of up to 100 km at 0.45 and everything above at 0.25, a person’s first 100 km in the year are paid at 0.45 and the rest at 0.25. You can type the bands in any order. They are sorted by distance when you save.

Leave a block empty if the scheme should not pay mileage for that kind of vehicle. Someone with that kind of vehicle then cannot be priced.

If something is wrong, nothing is saved. The page says what to fix and keeps what you typed:

a rate or distance that is not a number above zero;
two bands that end at the same distance;
bands with limits but no rate for everything above them.

Under each block, As applied lists the bands in words as you type, for example “0 to 100 km: €0.45 per km” and “Above 100 km: €0.25 per km”. Check it before you save. The table at the top of the page lists the bands as they are saved.

Under When this applies, choose the month a change Starts in. Draft sheets from that month onward are repriced. Earlier months, and any sheet already submitted, approved, processed or expired, keep the version they were priced with. The list starts after the latest sheet on this scheme that can no longer change.

Choose Save. Subsistence always stays on the jurisdiction catalogue.

Assign people to it

A scheme does nothing until someone uses it. On a person’s Schemes tab, choose the scheme and the month it Starts in under Change scheme, and Save. You can use the same form to move a person back to the Default scheme or on to another custom scheme. See Record a vehicle, workplace and scheme. You can also choose a scheme when you add a person.

What happens next

Journeys on Draft sheets from the month you chose use the custom bands. Earlier months, and any sheet that is already submitted, approved, processed or expired, keep the scheme version they used.
Each change you save creates a new version of the scheme, starting in the month you chose, so earlier months stay priced as they were. A sheet for a month uses the latest version that starts on or before it.

Common issues

“A Default Scheme catalogue rate cannot be edited.”

The Default scheme’s rates come from the official rates and are read-only. Create a custom scheme instead.

“This scheme has no mileage rate for this vehicle kind.”

The person has a vehicle of a kind (car or van, motorcycle, bicycle) that has no band in your list. Fill in a band, or Everything above the limits, for that kind.

“This scheme has no mileage rate for the rest of this distance.”

The person’s running total passed the end of your last band, and no band covers what is left. Fill in Everything above the limits for that kind.

The scheme page says “No mileage bands are stored on this version.”

You have not entered custom bands yet. Until you do, journeys under this scheme cannot be priced.