The HSL Commuter Benefit (an auto-renewing season ticket or mobility budget) is an employer-provided benefit for daily commutes between home and work. HSL Business Travel is designed for journeys made during the workday, such as customer visits and journeys between offices. With this update, employers can simultaneously issue both the HSL Commuter Benefit and HSL Business Travel to the same employee.
If you are happy with your current way of issuing mobility budget, you do not need to do anything. You can continue using the service as before.
What has changed in the Business Portal?
The biggest change is that the HSL Commuter Benefit and HSL Business Travel can now be combined. This is especially useful when the zones covered by the commuter benefit do not cover all journeys during the workday: for example, when an employee travels between offices or attends customer meetings.
Employers can now:
- Simultaneously issue the HSL Commuter Benefit as an auto-renewing season ticket and HSL Business Travel to the same employee. The employee uses the season ticket for commuting between home and the office and HSL Business Travel for journeys during the workday that go beyond the zones covered by the season ticket. Both are available in the same app.
- Simultaneously issue both the HSL Commuter Benefit and HSL Business Travel as mobility budgets to employees for whom this works best. Employees can use the Business Travel budget for journeys during the workday and save the Commuter Benefit budget for commutes between home and work and for leisure journeys.
- Choose the mobility budget distribution frequency. You can issue mobility budgets monthly to some employees and less frequently to others, depending on what suits each team or individual. You are not tied to the same method for all your employees.
- Add a monthly mobility budget without resetting the existing mobility budget. This makes it easier to switch, for example, from an annual mobility budget to a monthly one, without removing a mobility budget already issued to the employee.
- Reset the mobility budget of an individual employee.
- Track the mobility budgets you have issued more easily.
What does this mean in practice?
For employers, the update means more options and less administrative work. The HSL Business Portal is a free online service for employers, where you can conveniently manage benefits, add beneficiaries and generate reports directly for payroll administration, the Incomes Register and tracking business travel.
For employees, the update means smoother everyday travel: one app provides a way to pay for both daily commuting and work-related travel during the workday.
Example 1: When the zones of a season ticket are not quite enough
An employee’s daily commute between home and work is in zones AB. They receive an auto-renewing season ticket for zones AB as a commuter benefit. Occasionally, they travel to zone C for a customer visit or a meeting. For these journeys, they have a Business Travel mobility budget provided by the employer. When needed, they can purchase a BC single ticket directly in the HSL app using the mobility budget. The employee does not need to pay anything themselves, and the employer does not need to handle expense reimbursements.
Example 2: When you want to get rid of expense claims
An employee uses the HSL Commuter Benefit mobility budget for travel between home and work. For business travel during the workday, they have previously submitted expense claims, which require work from both the employee and financial administration.
Now the employer can issue both the HSL Commuter Benefit and HSL Business Travel as mobility budgets. The employee can then buy tickets for business travel directly in the HSL app using the Business Travel budget and add a description of the journey. No separate expense claim is needed.
All ticket purchases are shown in the same report, making them easy to track without additional work. The employee’s commuter benefit remains available for its intended use, as employer-paid business journeys do not reduce it.
Example 3: When you want different distribution frequencies
You can now, for example, issue the HSL Commuter Benefit as a monthly mobility budget and HSL Business Travel as a mobility budget for the same employee as needed. In other words, you can choose the distribution frequency separately for each product.