Travels (booking and reimbursement)

Business trip travel expenses rules

Reasons for travel expenses for remote team members (even if living close to the office):

  • Onboarding/offboarding in the office
  • Workshops in the office
  • Conference/training in your city
  • Team events (2 times a year)
  • Real business trip, errands for the office etc.

Voluntary office days, normal team meetings e.g. 1 x week or month etc. can be only be recovered through the income tax return.

Excluded: Employees who always go to the office (office contract) or receive public transport allowance.

Only kilometers travelled or tickets e.g. tram, bus, train can be reimbursed in the travel expense reports. Reimbursement is not possible without a ticket.

If a team member who does not go to the office regularly and only has a private annual ticket (i.e. no public transport subsidy from the company), they cannot claim the costs via the travel expense report. They can only deduct them via income tax.

Public transport allowance

An allowance on public transport costs is possible with the following conditions:

  • You have an office contract or a hybrid contract (team members with a remote contract are not eligible).
  • You must go to the office at least 3 out of 5 days per week, each month, to be eligible.
  • The public transport allowance is up to 85 EUR per person per month. If your public transport ticket costs less than this amount, then you will receive that amount instead. Sounds like you? Then email Orga with your proof of purchase, and they will explain the next steps

Rules for train booking

  • you have to book the train tickets yourself
  • only 2nd class tickets
  • choose Sparpreis tickets (not Flexpreis; Sparpreis is a good choice, because one still has the option to cancel the train ride, while that is not possible with Super Sparpreis)
    • to get the city ticket option enabled, please choose your real start and end locations, not just the main stations of a city (e.g. Berlin Brunnenstr. instead of Berlin Hbf)
  • If possible, try to avoid traveling on Fridays. It’s a heavy commute day, therefore the probability of train delays and failure is higher. If you cannot avoid traveling on a Friday, please book a Flex Ticket one way. It’ll give you a little more flexibility with trains.
  • always book a seat as well
  • we strongly advise you to plan your trip well in advance to avoid high ticket costs and think your traveling plan through in order to avoid cancellation fees

Travel expenses reimbursement tool

After the trip you will submit the invoices for your tickets for reimbursement through the travel expenses reimbursement tool. All travel means apply - train, bus, taxi, flights, public transport - as well as travels by car and parking.

Link to the tool

For all employees of Thomann GmbH (the Headquarters) or partner companies (eg. Datadice, Sunlab, Coding Pioneers), the rules of the respective company apply. The thomann.io reimbursement tool is not meant for their use.

Meal allowance (Verpflegungsmehraufwand)

The daily meal allowance (Verpflegungsmehraufwand) only applies to travel with overnight stay. Please enter an honest count of the meals that have been paid for by the company (either through the hotel booking or team dinners, company events and alike). If all three meals in a given day have been provided to you by the company, you are not entitled to the meal allowance for that day.

Hotel bookings

Hotels will be selected and booked by the Orga-Team. The hotels are always booked with breakfast. Please inform the orga by email about your business trip.

The following information is needed:

  • Place
  • Date (arrival and departure)
  • Note if no breakfast is required
  • Possible allergies or other requirements (for example air conditioning in the summer, working desk in the room,...)

If possible, send hotel booking request to Orga-Team two weeks in advance.

Bahncard

There's a possibility for you to get a Bahncard. If you're eligible depends on the amount of roundtrips you're traveling cross-country (and for business purposes). Regional travel (e.g. Bamberg - Erlangen or within other metro areas) does not count for eligibility.

  • Bahncard 25 (2nd class): 4 cross-country roundtrips per year
  • Bahncard 50 (2nd class): 6 cross-country roundtrips per year

Consult your manager to estimate your necessary travels (e.g. take the last six months into account). When your manager approves one of the two options, purchase the respective Bahncard and hand in the invoice via the general reimbursement section of the travel expenses tool.