Review the following questions and answers to learn more about the Electronic Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) Logbook.

What information does FBT record?

The system records the start location, end location, distance, driver, and number of kilometers (kms) travelled as well as the trip purpose. The trip purpose is entered by the driver as either Private, or business, with the associated business reason.

How do I initially activate FBT for my fleet?

First, you must be in an EROAD plan that includes the FBT feature. The FBT add/remove vehicles wizard is automatically triggered when a Client Administrator clicks the Fringe Benefits Tax icon under the Tax menu. The wizard prompts you to select vehicles for FBT feature activation. Then, the driver is prompted to select the trip purpose after the selected vehicle's Ehubo2 is synchronised with MyEROAD. 

What happens when I add a vehicle to my fleet? 

New vehicles can be activated by a Client Administrator if they are added to the fleet after FBT tracking has already commenced. Use the add/remove vehicles function through the Action button on the FBT graph screen.  

How do I remove FBT features from my vehicles?

FBT features can be de-activated by your organisation's Client Administrator. Click the Action button on the FBT screen to select the Add/Remove vehicles option. 

What vehicles should I select for FBT?

All light vehicles that are eligible for FBT in your fleet should be included, in order to get a representative view of the organisation's FBT liability from an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) perspective.  

What happens if the driver does not select a trip purpose?

The trip purpose defaults to Private for ATO FBT reporting purposes, if the trip purpose is omitted. Unclassified trips are then reported in the Depot portal for investigation and are subsequently set to Private in the EROAD Electronic FBT Logbook. 

How does a fleet manager monitor unclassified trips?

The fleet manager can investigate unclassified trips (omissions) for driver training purposes. The number of unclassified trips are displayed on the FBT graph along with the percentage of business and private use. The fleet manager can see the percentage of business and private use as well as the number of unclassified trips for each vehicle. Export all of the individual trips to a CSV file for investigation. 

What happens if the trip purpose changes during the trip?

The driver can change a previously selected trip purpose when the vehicle is stationary by tapping the trip purpose shown in the upper right corner of the Ehubo2 screen.

How do I select a representative 12-week FBT period?

You can drag and drop the shaded blue area in the FBT graph to move it over different 12-week periods. The panel on the right side of the screen quickly re-calculates the percentage of business and private use to easily determine the most representative 12-week period. 

How can I import the electronic logbook into my accounting system?

You can export logbook data to a CSV file that contains the electronic logbook trips for multiple vehicles. 

How can I change the list of driver business trip reasons for my organisation?

The business trip reasons can be individually configured for each organisation on request. Contact EROAD for assistance. 

How can I calculate an employee's FBT liability?

The legal entity to which a vehicle belongs can change over time. The CSV logbook export includes the cost centre associated with each vehicle at the time the trip was completed. This cost centre, in effect, identifies the employer (or legal entity) that owns the vehicle at the time the trip was made. Extracting data by cost centre and driver name enables an employer to calculate employee FBT liability. 

Who has access to the Electronic FBT Logbook in Depot? 

Users with a Client Administrator role or Fleet Manager role can view and export Electronic FBT Logbook details in MyEROAD. Only Client Administrators can add or remove vehicle access to the electronic FBT Logbook. 

How do I determine FBT Employee Liability?

Perform the following steps to determine FBT Employee Liability for each trip:

1. Ensure that drivers specify their identify using EROAD's Driver Login feature. Driver login needs to be confirmed before the trip purpose is added.

2. Export this data from Export Trips, which is located at the top of the summary table. A CSV file is generated, which includes the driver for each trip. Then the file data can be manipulated to calculate the trip purpose per vehicle — for each driver or employee.

My organisation calculates FBT Liability across a number of business entities, so how do I view FBT data per business entity?

Perform the following steps to calculate FBT liability per business entity:

1. Click Settings  > Administration > Vehicles/Assets.

2. Click on the vehicle name in the vehicle list to open the Manage Vehicles screen.

3. Enter the vehicle allocation information in the Cost Centre field.

4. Click Update Details.

Now, the cost centre is allocated to each trip completed by the vehicle. Future changes to the cost centre are not retroactively applied in historic trips; they remain with the old cost centre. Only new trips are recorded against the new cost centre.

5. Export this data from Export Trips, which is located at the top of the summary table. A CSV file is generated, which includes the cost centre for each trip. Then, the data can be manipulated to calculate FBT liability per cost centre or business entity.

What are the benefits of continuous collection of Electronic FBT Logbook vs. collection for a 12-week logbook period?

Continuous collection of Trip Purpose keeps staff in the habit of maintaining logs and helps the business stay aware of evolving business patterns. It also maximises the likelihood of generating good quality data to identify an optimal 12-week sample for FBT calculation.

As FBT liability is calculated, the ATO requires that, "The 12-week period chosen should be representative of the car's business use." Continuous maintenance of logbooks is the first protection against being caught by a change in the pattern of usage of your vehicles. It helps you be more alert to changes in individual and collective patterns that might expose the business to risk.