Screenshots and electricity bills
A client has switched most of its company cars to electric. Drivers charge at home overnight. Each month, some send a screenshot from their charger app, some send their whole electricity bill, some send a guess, and some never claim at all and complain about the cost. Your team is asked to check the claims and send them to the client's payroll.
There is no consistent way to tell how much of each bill was the car, or how much of the car's charging was for business.
Why home charging claims are messy
Home charging mixes the company's car with the employee's house, on the employee's tariff.
- Some drivers have a smart home charger that records sessions, some use a plug socket.
- Tariffs differ between drivers, and some have cheaper overnight rates.
- The client may reimburse at a set rate per unit, or actual cost, or per mile.
- Business and private use are mixed in the same charge.
- Evidence arrives in every format, if at all.
What messy claims cost
Drivers under-reimbursed and unhappy, or over-reimbursed without the client knowing. Your team spending time interpreting screenshots. Inconsistent treatment across drivers. And a client who cannot tell what their electric fleet actually costs to run.
The reimbursement process we build
- Charging data is collected from each driver's home charger through the charger maker's API, with the driver's permission, or from the vehicle's own charging data where the manufacturer provides it.
- For drivers without either, a simple monthly submission with a photo of the charger or car's energy readout is accepted and marked as a lower-confidence source.
- Sessions at home are separated from public or workplace charging, which is handled through charge cards.
- The client's rule is applied: a rate per unit they set, the driver's own tariff, or a per-mile approach using business mileage.
- Each driver's monthly claim is produced with the sessions, units and amount, for the client's approver.
- Approved amounts go to the client's payroll or expense system, and each client sees their electric fleet's home charging costs by driver and vehicle.
| Data source | Confidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Smart home charger | High | Session data with the driver's permission |
| Vehicle charging data | High where available | Depends on the manufacturer |
| Driver photo submission | Lower | Marked for review |
| Electricity bill | Lowest | Only if the client allows it |
The rules are the client's
Drivers who also charge at work or at public chargers are handled without double counting. Workplace sessions are recorded from the client's own chargers where they share data, public sessions come from charge cards, and only home sessions are reimbursed through this process. Drivers see their own sessions and can raise a question on any of them before the claim goes for approval.
How much to reimburse, whether to use a fixed rate or actual tariffs, and how any of it is treated for tax are decisions for the client and their advisers. We do not give tax guidance. The process applies the client's chosen method evenly to every driver and keeps the evidence for each payment.
Home charging paid fairly and on evidence
At month end, a driver with a smart charger does nothing at all: her sessions have already been collected, and her claim appears on the approver's list with the units and amount worked out under the client's rate. A colleague who charges from a socket gets a text asking for a photo of the car's energy readout, which takes him a minute. The approver signs off the list in one go, and the amounts go to payroll with the evidence attached to each line.
Drivers stop sending screenshots and bills. Claims are produced automatically each month from real session data where it exists. Clients approve a list rather than chasing drivers. And the electric fleet's running cost becomes a known figure in their monthly report, next to fuel for the rest of the fleet.
Are home charging claims a mess?
- Home charging claims arrive as screenshots and bills.
- Drivers are reimbursed inconsistently.
- Some drivers never claim and complain about the cost.
- Clients cannot say what home charging costs them.
- Public and home charging are hard to separate.