Billable time for Travel

#1

Sole trader setup for Simplified accounting/Owner Equity. I am the only employee. My services are essentially IT support - onsite, (remote and sales).

I have been using billiable time for travel for my clients for onsite calls.
One client is set charge per hour (if I have driven 2 hours @ $50per hour then I bill them at that time) I have another rate for work performed while onsite.

All other customers have a set “call out fee” which I change accordingly - depending on distance (ie 2 tier call out fee structure.)

No problems using this method so far.

My issue is the ATO (Australia) have a ruling called Personal Services Income (PSI) - “reward for your personal efforts and skills”. I meet other criteria for Personal Services Business (PSB).
I will get accountant advice if travel time comes under PSI - ie, travel time is counted towards personal effort and skills.

Even if accountant comes back saying Travel time is part of my PSI, I’d like to start somewhow separating work vs travel so I can see a report of the 2 different billable times.

I have read other posts regarding Billable expenses, which I have used for flights, accomodation and has worked well and undertsand the concept but maybe I should be using that but I am lost on how to do it.

Any suggestions or best way of splitting up the Billing time?

Thanks in advance

#2

If you meet the criteria of a PSB then travel time will count toward your PSB. Total client time is either all PSI or all PSB income.

1 Like
#3

I assume you are referring to splitting them in the report.
For now, you can use divisions. Set up divisions ‘work’ and ‘travel’ and assign each billable time to respective divisions, that would be enough to achieve your goal
For a simplistic business structure like yours is sufficient
However, it doesn’t work for more complicated situations.

#4

Thanks Magnus. Ive just upgraded to the latest version and didnt know Divisions existed. I had a play and looks like exactly what I’m after. Cheers