Know your real rate: link expenses to sessions

The number that matters is not the day rate

A £350 day at a practice 26 miles each way is not a £350 day. It is £350 minus parking minus fuel-or-mileage minus the coffee on the way in. Most locums know this in the abstract; few have the receipts joined to the right shift when it counts.

What we just changed

When you add or edit an expense in Sessional you now see an optional Link to session dropdown showing your last 90 days of shifts. Pick one and the expense is bound to that specific session.

On the Earnings page, sessions with tagged expenses now get a per-session margin table: gross rate, the tagged costs, the net, and the margin percent. Margins above 80% render green, between 0 and 80% neutral, negative red. The number you see is what you actually took home, not the headline rate.

Why bother

HMRC mileage audit trail. Approved mileage allowance payments (45p / 25p per mile) only apply to journeys made for work. Tagging the trip to a specific shift gives you a concrete record: 26 miles, 14 Feb 2026, the Bedford practice, locum GP cover. If HMRC ever asks, you have the answer in one click.

Real-rate decisions. A £350 session with £42 of travel and parking is £308 net. A £325 session in your own town with zero travel is £325. The "lower" rate is the better gig. Without per-session margin you cannot make that call quickly.

Workplace dispute evidence. If a practice short-pays or contests a paid claim, the linked expenses on that session are receipts-in-context to attach to your response.

What to link, what not to link

Travel and consumables: link them. Mileage, parking, tolls, congestion charge, on-the-day coffee or food when working away.

Overhead: do not link them. Regulator fees, indemnity insurance, CPD courses, business subscriptions, accountant fees. These are annual business costs not specific to one shift.

Where to find it

The dropdown appears on /dashboard/expenses whenever you add or edit a row. The per-session margin table appears on /dashboard/earnings once you have at least one tagged expense in your current period filter. Free on every Sessional plan that has expense tracking (Plus and Pro).