How to Track and Reimburse Mileage with Paychex in 2025
Samson Kiarie
Last update on:
April 25, 2025 6:11 AM
Published on:
Paychex is a reliable payroll software application that automates human resource services (HR), employee benefits management, and payroll processing for businesses of all sizes. One of its features – Paychex mileage reimbursement – enables businesses with field teams to reimburse their employees for business mileage accrued while using personal vehicles.
In this article, we’ll explain how the Paychex mileage reimbursement feature works based on our first-hand experience. We’ll also discuss how integrating Paychex with Timeero – the best mileage tracking app – improves the accuracy of employee reimbursement.
Don’t let inaccurate mileage logs stop you.
Learn how Timeero makes mileage tracking a breeze.
Everything you need to know about Paychex Mileage Reimbursement
With Paychex Flex, you can reimburse your employees for business related travel costs incurred while using their personal vehicles.
Reimbursement methods
Businesses can choose to reimburse employees using the actual expense method or standard mileage rate.
Actual Expense Method
When using the actual expense method, employees submit vehicle expense reports.
Some of the costs may include:
Fuel
Oil changes
New tire purchases
Toll and parking fees
Auto insurance
Garage rent
Employees can take pictures of their receipts and upload them to Paychex to substantiate each expense. Individual costs must be approved before the employee can be reimbursed.
The actual expense method is great for freelancers, solopreneurs, and small businesses with a limited workforce.
Standard Mileage Rate
Businesses that reimburse employees according to the Standard Mileage Rate will multiply an employee’s total mileage by the IRS Standard Mileage Rate to calculate mileage expenses.
Your employees’ mileage logs must meet the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requirements for your business to qualify for tax deduction.
According to IRS guidelines, the mileage log should include:
Starting and ending points
Starting and ending times
Purpose of the trip (business, charity, medical or moving)
Mileage at the beginning and end of the trip
Does Paychex have a mileage tracker?
No, Paychex doesn’t have a built-in mileage tracker. Employees can either manually track their mileage or rely on an automated third party tracking solution.
Manual Mileage Logs
Manually tracking mileage via pen and paper can be extremely time consuming for employers and employees.
It’s not uncommon for drivers to forget to enter mileage entries at the end of the day, or after they make each stop.
In some cases, employees may inflate their mileage to receive a higher reimbursement pay out.
A good case in point is Jeffery Kendrick, a former Kentucky federal employee, who claimed $75,000 in reimbursement that he did not rightfully earn. Kendrick submitted 500 mileage reimbursement claims, but records show only 115 trips could be justified. Imagine if several of your employees made false mileage claims, your bottom line would take a significant hit.
Some businesses may provide employees with mileage tracking templates as a way to keep trip details in one place. While this resource may speed up the review process, it doesn’t take away from the fact managers will still need to manually calculate total mileage and reimbursement payments for each employee.
Automatic Mileage Logs
An automated GPS tracking system takes manual data entry out of the equation.
An automatic mileage tracker computes employee earnings on the go based on the latest IRS rates. Simply generate mileage reports from the app’s dashboard according to your payroll schedule and export them to Paychex for accurate reimbursement.
Using an automated GPS mileage tracking app like Timeero along with Paychex, increases the efficiency and speed at which you are able to calculate mileage and pay employees for business related travel costs.
But there are more benefits to the Paychex-Timeero integration than just a smooth reimbursement process. We’ll get to all of the benefits, but first let’s take a look at how the integration works.
Integrating Timeero with Paychex Payroll Services
Paychex integrates seamlessly with Timeero through the Application Programming Interface (API). Once you set up the integration, you can export mileage reimbursement totals calculated by Timeero, directly to the appropriate Paychex account.
How to integrate Paychex with Timeero
Follow the steps below to successfully integrate Paychex with Timeero.
Step 1. Get Paychex and Timeero Approval
Provide your Paychex company ID to a Timeero representative and ask them to approve the integration.
Step 2. Enable Access Inflex
Once the integration is approved, log in to Paychex and go to “company settings” → “Access” → “integrated apps” and enable “Access Inflex.”
Step 3. Open Paychex API
Log into Timeero and select “Paychex API” under Integrations.
Step 4. Connect Timeero with Paychex
Select “configuration” → “connect” and enter your Paychex Company ID. Click “connect” to start the configuration process.
Step 5. Configure Mappings
Once the two solutions are connected, click on the configuration tab and select “configure Mappings.” Add the required details.
Note: Mapping means matching a worker in Paychex to a corresponding employee profile in Timeero. It also entails matching the pay items such as mileage, hourly, and double-time rates. Make sure to map employees after every enrollment and onboarding.
Step 6. Sync Changes
Click “Sync changes from Paychex” to save the changes from Paychex.
After the above steps have been completed, you will need to configure the Paychex CSV exporter. We’ve created a comprehensive guide on how to set up Timeero with Paychex CSV.
Benefits of tracking mileage with Timeero
Now let's get to the benefits that Timeero can offer your company when you integrate with Paychex.
With Timeero you can:
Capture GPS time, mileage, and location data in real time
Increase employee accountability
Automatically classify trips
Expedite mileage reimbursement
Maintain IRS compliant mileage records
Minimize travel expenses
Improved accuracy with automatic mileage tracking
Timeero uses drive detection technology to log employee miles in real time. Employees don’t have to lift a finger to track mileage, they just clock in and drive.
Once the employee begins driving, Timeero records mileage as soon as the vehicle reaches the predefined speed threshold.
Tracking stops as soon as the employee stops the time clock. To increase the accuracy of mileage logs, you can create and send clock-in and out reminders within the app.
Additionally, if a field employee forgets to clock out, managers can use the Quick Time Clock to clock them out automatically.
Increase employee accountability with Segmented Tracking
There’s more to mileage tracking than just reimbursing employees and claiming tax deductions. Mileage reports can be used to monitor employee activity and productivity.
Timeero’s Segmented Tracking gives you an overall idea of your employees’ whereabouts.
Review your employees’ workdays with Segmented Tracking.
Employees using Segmented Tracking only need to clock in once at the start of their shift. Timeero continuously tracks their time, mileage, and location, and creates trip segments when they start and stop their vehicle at each location on their route.
Segmented Tracking provides details such as:
How long an employee spent driving to a location
The distance traveled between locations
How long the employee spent at the location
The time at which the employee arrived at and departed from the location
Segmented Tracking is available as an add-on feature for Pro and Premium plan users.
Increase productivity with automated trip classification
Employees that use their personal vehicles for business purposes may unintentionally misclassify travel.
If a personal trip is accidentally recorded on the business mileage log, your company will end up losing money. On the other hand, if a business trip is forgotten or misclassified as personal, your employee will wind up claiming less than they deserve, and your company misses out on a significant tax deduction.
Timeero automates trip classification by requiring employees to select a job assignment at clock in. The employee can switch tasks/jobs while clocked in, but all mileage is attributed to the specific job or task that is selected.
With automatic trip classification you can organize your travel, never missing a mile.
Expedite mileage reimbursement with automatic calculations
Once a manager approves an employee’s timesheet and mileage, Timeero automatically calculates reimbursement amounts according to your company’s mileage rates, as shown in Timeero’s company settings.
The data you export to Paychex shows the actual reimbursement owed to each employee.
As mentioned previously, the Timeero-Paychex integration supports employee mapping. When you export data to Paychex, it’s automatically attributed to that employee. This enables you to reimburse them with a click of a button.
Note: Below, we will show you how to export expense reports to Paychex from Timeero.
Maintain IRS-compliant mileage logs for tax purposes
To qualify for a tax deduction, your mileage logs must meet the conditions defined by the IRS.
Timeero is designed to track mileage with IRS compliance in mind.
Every mileage entry contains the following details:
Job and tasks completed during travel
Total mileage
Start and end date
Start and end time
The device used to track mileage
Map view with a turn-by-turn route
Commuting miles aren’t tax deductible and shouldn’t be included in an employee’s daily mileage log.
With Timeero’s commute mileage feature, you can automatically deduct the commute miles from your employees’ daily mileage.
The app’s suggested mileage feature does just what it suggests – it recommends a shorter route a driver can take to reach a destination. Reducing travel time decreases fuel and maintenance costs as well as prevents excessive wear and tear.
Streamline Other Business Functions
Timeero’s capabilities transcend mileage tracking. It has other powerful tools, such as:
Geofencing
Facial recognition
Employee scheduling
Real-time GPS location tracking
California Breaks Tracker
California Breaks Daily Sign-Off form
Integration with other payroll solutions such as QuickBooks, ADP, Gusto, Paylocity, Xero, and Viventium.
How to export Timeero mileage data to the Paychex dashboard
Exporting your mileage data to Paychex is easy. Before you begin, ensure all Paychex users are mapped to their corresponding Timeero profiles. Users who aren’t appropriately mapped aren’t included in the exported reports.
Log In to Timeero
Log in to your Timeero account and select “Reports.”
Generate Mileage Report
Click “Report By Mileage” and select an appropriate data range – or the period you want to reimburse employees.
Export Reports to Paychex
Audit the reports to confirm that everything is in order. If everything looks okay, click “Export” on the top right and select “Export to Paychex.”
Note: Make sure the Paychex Standard Payroll import functionality is turned on. When set up correctly, the Paychex-Timeero integration enables you to export mileage logs from Timeero directly into your Paychex account. You can export data for one user or multiple workers all at once.
Am I legally required to reimburse employees for mileage?
You are not required by federal law to reimburse employees for mileage. However, if failing to reimburse employees causes their wage to fall below the federal minimum wage, you could face lawsuits and legal penalties.
Some states do have explicit laws regarding mileage reimbursement. California, Illinois, and Massachusetts state laws require employers to pay employees for travel-related expenses and other costs incurred due to business use of a personal car.
While the legality of mileage reimbursement is a gray area in many states, it’s better to include it in your business operations as a tool to boost employee morale and retention.
Simplify mileage reimbursement with the Paychex-Timeero integration
Paychex doesn’t offer a built-in mileage tracker, but its seamless integration with Timeero makes up for what it lacks.
When employees track mileage using Timeero, managers are able to approve mileage logs and automatically calculate accurate mileage reimbursement amounts. With the Paychex-Timeero integration, simply export Timeero’s mileage data to Paychex with just a few clicks for expedited reimbursement.
Paychex Mileage Tracker: FAQs
How do I track mileage for payroll with Paychex?
To track mileage for payroll with Paychex, you need an automatic mileage tracker like Timeero, which uses employee smartphones to log miles automatically.
How do I calculate mileage reimbursement with Paychex?
Paychex uses the latest IRS mileage rates to compute employee reimbursement based on the business mileage data they input into the expense tracker.
How do I add an expense and mileage in Paychex?
To add an expense in Paychex, you need to input the expense amount, select the expense type, and upload receipts to substantiate the expense. Business owners can import mileage data from a mileage tracker like Timeero to reimburse mileage expenses.
Does Paychex track your location?
Yes, Paychex captures an employee's location, but it is only used for accurate time tracking.
Samson is a mathematician turned content marketer specializing in SaaS and Tech content. He focuses on the practical aspects of software systems while keeping abreast of the industry’s cutting-edge principles to create informative and engaging content. When he’s not writing, Samson spends time playing or watching soccer.
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