Employee-pay mode is a Bolt for Business setup where your employees pay for their work rides with their own personal or corporate payment card and reclaim the cost through your company's internal expense process. Your company is invoiced only for a service fee per ride, not the ride cost itself, while you keep full visibility, reporting, and policy control through the business portal.
This article includes information about the following:
How employee-pay differs from company-pay business account
| Company-pay | Employee-pay | |
|---|---|---|
| Who pays for the ride | The company, via a centralised card or postpaid invoicing | Each employee, with their own personal or corporate card |
| What the company is invoiced for | The full ride cost plus a service fee | A service fee per ride only |
| Employee reimbursement | Not needed — the company pays directly | Through your company's internal expense process |
| Reporting in the business portal | Full ride history, statements, exports, policies | Full ride history, statements, exports, policies |
Employee-pay mode is currently available for ride-hailing only and on the intermediary billing model.
Activating employee-pay mode for your company
Employee-pay mode is activated by our Business Operations team. Please reach out to us through the Support tab in your business portal and we'll connect you with the right team.
Once employee-pay mode is active for your account:
- The monthly service fee per ride (along with any Ride Booker or coupon charges) is billed to your company on your existing billing setup — credit card or postpaid.
- A single account cannot mix centralised company-pay and employee-pay users. If you need both setups, please reach out to us through the Support tab in your business portal and we'll connect you with our Business Operations team.
How employees set up their card
The moment you add or invite an employee to your Bolt for Business account, they receive an email and an SMS with a link to set up their payment card. They can also add the card later directly in the Bolt app under the Payment tab.
A few things to know:
- Each employee adds and manages their own card in the Bolt app — only the last 4 digits and the card brand are visible in your business portal.
- If an employee's company is on employee-pay, you cannot add or edit their card on their behalf from the business portal.
- Employees are blocked from placing business rides until they have added a valid card and selected it as an active payment method in the app.
- Supported payment methods today: personal and corporate payment cards. Cash, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Bolt Balance are not supported on employee-pay.
Monthly statement and service fee
By the 3rd of each month, your company receives a monthly statement for the previous month at the email address you have set in the business portal. The employee-pay monthly statement is structured like this:
- Ride costs per country — total ride costs paid directly by your employees with their own cards. This amount is for information only — it is not charged to your company.
- Refunds — any refunds issued during the period, shown as a negative line.
- Service fee — the fee per ride that Bolt charges your company. This is the only amount your company is billed for.
- Paid by users — confirms the ride costs were covered by employees on their own cards.
The monthly statement is an informational summary, not a VAT invoice. Per-trip VAT invoices are available separately — see the next section.
You can find and download all statements in the business portal under Billing → Statements.
Per-trip invoices for accounting and reimbursement
Each business ride generates an individual VAT invoice, with your company's legal details. Invoices are issued in the language of the country where the ride took place — this is by design and cannot be changed per trip.
You and your employees can access per-trip invoices in the following ways:
- Rides report from the business portal — download a CSV or XLSX file from Billing → Statements. The file lists every ride with direct links to each per-trip invoice, plus details such as the user group, policy, trip reason, and service fee. This is the recommended source for accounting.
- Email forwarding — you can nominate a single email address in the business portal under Settings to receive per-trip invoices automatically.
- Direct to the rider — per-trip invoices are sent automatically to the email address registered on the rider's Bolt account.
Refunds and compensation
Because the ride was paid by the employee, any refund or compensation for that ride goes back to the employee's original payment method — not to the company account.
- If an employee reports a ride issue in the Bolt app, Bolt's Support team handles the case directly and refunds the employee's card.
- If you, as an admin, report a ride issue from your business portal or by email, Bolt's Support team again refunds the employee's original card.
Please note that Bolt does not have visibility into your company's internal reimbursement system. If a refund is issued to the employee, please make sure your finance team is aware so that the same trip is not reimbursed twice.
Switching back from employee-pay
If you'd like to move your company from employee-pay back to a standard company-pay business account (or vice versa), please reach out to us through the Support tab in your business portal and we'll connect you with our Business Operations team.
