Set up automatic business and private journey classification

Track My Ride can automatically flag journeys as Business or Private from a driver's roster, a vehicle's reservation or a map zone. Set the account default first, add the source that reflects how your business operates, then check known journeys before using the Tax Logbook report.

By default, Journeys default to is Private. A common setup is to keep that default and configure Business rosters or reservations for the organisation's work hours. A journey is then automatically Business only when it matches the configured work period; unmatched journeys remain Private.

You can use the inverse setup when it better reflects the organisation's vehicle policy: set Journeys default to to Business, then configure Private rosters or reservations for likely non-work periods, such as evenings, late nights or weekends. Unmatched journeys remain Business, so use this approach only when Business is the appropriate baseline and test it carefully.

Choose the source based on what determines the working period:

Use: Roster
When it fits: A person's work hours determine whether travel is business use.
What must match: The person on the roster must be the driver assigned to the journey.

Use: Reservation
When it fits: A vehicle's booked use determines whether travel is business use.
What must match: The reservation and journey must use the same vehicle. A person is optional.

Use: Zone
When it fits: Starting or finishing at a particular place determines the result.
What must match: The journey must match the zone boundary and the zone must have a Business or Private Logbook value.

You can use more than one source. Journey Settings control which source wins when they overlap.

Before you start

Journey Settings are available to the top-level account on plans that include journey reporting. Before changing them:

1. Confirm the account timezone under Settings > Application Settings.
2. Open Reports > Journeys for a recent known day and check where journeys begin and end.
3. If you plan to use rosters, allocate each person as the driver of the vehicle they use and confirm each journey shows that person. A roster cannot match a person who is not allocated as the vehicle's driver for the journey.
4. Decide what an unmatched journey should be. Private is the product default and the usual starting point when only travel during known work hours should become Business. Use a Business baseline with matching Private non-work periods only when that reflects the organisation's approved policy.

Each roster or reservation has its own Classification. Choose Business, Private, Default classification (Account settings), or a scheduled classification where available. A scheduled classification applies only in the selected hourly cells within the roster or reservation period.

The classification order is:

1. A manual Business or Private change saved on the journey.
2. The highest-priority matching roster, reservation or zone enabled under Journey auto classification.
3. Journeys default to when no automatic source supplies a result.

Changing account rules can update how existing, unmodified journeys appear in reports. Manually classified journeys keep their saved classification. Record the current settings and test a short, known period before applying the result to tax or business reporting.

Important: Track My Ride applies the classification rules you configure; it does not decide whether travel is deductible or meets an employer's tax obligations. Confirm your policy and reporting obligations with a qualified tax adviser.

Steps

1. Add work hours with a roster

Use a roster when the driver's allocated work hours should classify journeys, even if that person uses different vehicles.

For the default-Private strategy, configure the roster to supply Business during the person's working hours. For the inverse default-Business strategy, configure it to supply Private during non-work hours such as evenings or weekends.

1. Open Vehicles > Vehicles and find the vehicle the person will drive.
2. Select the current driver control, which may show No driver assigned or another person's name, then choose the rostered person. Confirm that person's name appears on the vehicle. The allocation must be in effect when the journey occurs. A supported Driver ID reader can update this allocation when the person logs in.
3. Open People > Rosters and select New Roster.
4. Select the same person you allocated as the vehicle's driver.
5. Enter a clear title such as Regular work hours.
6. Set Classification to Business via schedule, select Schedule, and make the required work-hour cells green. Use Business instead when every matching journey throughout the roster period should be Business.
7. Set Repeating to Weekly, select the required weekdays, and enter the daily start and end times.
8. Set Period to the first and last dates on which the recurrence should operate.
9. Save the roster and confirm it repeats for the correct person, weekdays and local times on the calendar.

The example shows a weekly Monday-to-Friday roster from 08:00-17:00 over a three-month period. If Friday finishes at 15:00, use a Monday-to-Thursday recurrence plus a separate Friday recurrence. Create another one-off or recurring entry for approved overtime or weekend work.

The roster is person-based. It matches only when the rostered person is allocated as the vehicle's driver for the journey and appears in that journey's Driver field. If the journey does not show that person, correct the vehicle allocation or Driver ID workflow; making the roster wider will not create the missing driver match.

2. Add vehicle work hours with a reservation

Use a reservation when the vehicle itself is allocated for business use, such as a shared pool vehicle or a vehicle booked for a client visit.

For the default-Private strategy, configure reservations to supply Business during the vehicle's booked work hours. For the inverse default-Business strategy, configure reservations to supply Private during expected private-use hours.

1. Open Vehicles > Reservations and select New Reservation.
2. Select the vehicle. Select a person when useful for the booking, but classification matches the vehicle even when no person is selected.
3. Enter a clear title such as Recurring private use.
4. Set Classification to Private via schedule, select Schedule, and make the required private-use cells green. Use Private instead when every matching journey throughout the reservation should be Private.
5. Set Repeating to Weekly, select the weekdays, enter the daily start and end times, and set the recurrence period.
6. Save the reservation and check that it repeats for the correct vehicle, weekdays and local times on the calendar.

The example shows a weekly Monday-to-Friday Private reservation from 17:00-23:00 over a three-month period. For a pool vehicle available for business use from 07:30-18:00 on weekdays, create a separate recurring Business reservation for that vehicle. For vehicles booked only as needed, create each reservation around the approved booking instead. Do not create overlapping reservations unless the overlap reflects the intended policy and precedence.

Understand scheduled classification

Repeating and Schedule control different things:

• Repeating creates the roster or reservation on the selected days and daily times between the two Period dates.
• Business via schedule supplies Business only when the journey's tested start or stop time falls in a green cell in the Schedule grid.
• Private via schedule supplies Private only when the tested time falls in a green cell.
• Outside the green cells, that roster or reservation supplies no classification. Track My Ride then checks the next applicable automatic source or Journeys default to.

Select Schedule beside the Classification field and use a preset such as Business Hours (M-F 9-5), or click and drag to set custom green cells. The Schedule grid uses whole-hour cells; hour 09 covers 09:00-09:59. The account's roster and reservation matching rule still decides whether to test the journey start, stop, either endpoint or both endpoints.

4. Configure the account rules

1. Open Settings > Application Settings and find Journey Settings.

2. Choose the baseline for unmatched journeys:

• Keep the default Private and use Business rosters or reservations for work hours. Only journeys that match those hours become Business.
• Optionally select Business and use Private rosters or reservations for non-work hours, such as weekends or late at night. Journeys that do not match those Private periods remain Business.

3. Set Journey auto classification. Sources are evaluated from left to right, and a later matching source overrides an earlier source. For example, Rosters → Reservations → Zones gives a matching zone highest priority.
4. Set Roster & reservation matching according to which journey endpoint must fall within the work period.
5. Add only the padding needed for ordinary early departures or late returns.
6. Select Save and apply the settings when prompted.

Either journey start or stop time must be within
Departure, arrival or both fall inside the period. This is useful when a job starts or finishes just outside normal hours.

Both journey start & stop time must be within
The entire journey falls inside the period. This is the strictest option.

Match journey start time only
Departure falls inside the period.

Match journey stop time only
Arrival falls inside the period.

Padding extends the period used for matching; it does not change the saved roster or reservation. For example, an 08:00-17:00 roster with 15 minutes of padding at both ends is assessed as 07:45-17:15. Start with no padding or a small allowance because long padding can include unrelated travel.

5. Add a location rule when your policy requires one

Zones can classify journeys associated with a place, such as a depot, office, job site or an employee's home. Open Map, create a zone around the normal parking and access area, then set its Logbook value to Business or Private. Follow Create and manage map zones for drawing and boundary guidance.

An organisation might approve a Business zone around an employee's home when its adviser confirms that journeys between home and job sites qualify as business travel under that organisation's circumstances. In Australia, home-to-work travel is ordinarily private. Transporting bulky tools or equipment can be an exception only when the relevant conditions are met, including that the equipment is essential, bulky and has no secure storage at the workplace. There is no general rule in this guide based only on whether tools are worth more or less than $1,000.

Check the current Australian Taxation Office guidance on transporting bulky tools and equipment and obtain advice for the actual arrangement before marking an employee's home zone as Business. Keep the zone tight enough that nearby private travel does not match it, and test both arrival and departure journeys.

6. Check Journeys and Tax Logbook

1. Open Reports > Journeys and run a short period containing journeys whose purpose you know.
2. Check one journey inside the work period, one just outside it, and any journey that begins or ends in a classification zone.
3. Confirm the Driver, Classification, journey times and Auto Notes or classification source.
4. When sources overlap, confirm the source with the highest configured priority produced the intended result.
5. Correct genuine exceptions manually. A saved manual Business or Private value takes precedence for that journey.

After checking the individual journeys, open Reports > Tax Logbook, select the same vehicle and a suitable reporting period, then run the report. Compare its business and private distances with the reviewed Journeys results before exporting or relying on the percentage.

Common setups

Office hours, Monday-Friday 08:00-17:00
Private account default; recurring Business roster for each driver; small padding only if routine work travel starts just before or ends just after the shift.

Business vehicle with private evening use
Business account default; recurring Private roster or reservation for the approved evening period.

Business vehicle with private weekend use
Business account default; recurring Private roster or reservation covering Saturday and Sunday.

Different hours on Friday
One recurring roster for Monday-Thursday and a separate Friday roster.

Rotating or irregular shifts
Import or create roster entries for the actual driver shifts instead of one broad weekly period. Verify vehicle-driver assignment.

Shared pool vehicles
Private account default; Business reservations for each vehicle booking. The reservation matches the vehicle, so selecting a person is optional.

Vehicle used only for work
Use a Business default only if that accurately reflects all use and has been approved as policy; manually or automatically identify any private exceptions.

Home-based departure to changing job sites
Use a roster for work times first. Add a home zone only when the organisation has confirmed that the travel should receive that classification.

Depot should override after-hours rules
Give the depot zone the required Logbook value and choose an auto-classification order where Zones has higher priority than the roster or reservation.

How classifications are chosen

The classification order is:

1. A manual Business or Private change saved on the journey.
2. The highest-priority matching roster, reservation or zone enabled under Journey auto classification.
3. Journeys default to when no automatic source supplies a result.

Each roster or reservation can supply one of these values:

Business
Flags the journey as Business. This is the default for a new roster or reservation.

Private
Flags the journey as Private.

Default classification (Account settings)
Uses the current Journeys default to value.

Business via schedule or Private via schedule
Supplies that classification only during the selected days and hours inside the record's period.

What happens next

New unmodified journeys continue to be evaluated from the saved account settings and matching records. Editing a roster, reservation, zone or account rule can change the classification shown for unmodified journeys, so rerun the same short test period after every configuration change.

Keep a record of the approved business rules, timezone, matching choice, padding and test period. Review the setup when work hours, vehicle allocations or tax advice changes.

Troubleshooting

• A journey ignores a roster: Confirm the journey has the expected person, the roster belongs to that person, and the relevant endpoint is within the roster period after padding.
• A journey ignores a reservation: Confirm the reservation belongs to the journey's vehicle and that its classification and time range are correct. Selecting a person on the reservation is optional for vehicle matching.
• A journey keeps an older result: Check whether it was manually classified. Manual classification takes precedence over automatic rules.
• The wrong source wins: Read Journey auto classification from left to right. The last matching source in the selected order has the highest priority.
• A journey just before or after work does not match: Check the selected padding edge and amount. Padding the start extends earlier; padding the end extends later.
• Too many journeys match: Reduce or disable padding, check only the journey start or stop, or require both endpoints to be inside the period.
• A scheduled classification does not apply: Confirm the journey endpoint selected by the matching rule falls in a green day-and-hour cell as well as within the roster or reservation period.
• A home zone classifies nearby private travel: Tighten the boundary, check overlapping zones and confirm the selected precedence. Do not rely on the zone until representative arrivals and departures have been tested.
• Tax Logbook percentages are unexpected: Review the underlying Journeys classifications for the same vehicle and period, including manually changed journeys, before rerunning Tax Logbook.
• Journey Settings are missing: Sign in to the top-level account and confirm the plan includes journey reporting. These settings are not shown to sub-accounts or on the Lite plan.