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Keeping Track of Travel Mileage as a Small Business

Aug 1, 2018 1:42:00 PM Kathy Dise Small Business, Financial Management

Do you struggle with keeping track of your Travel Mileage at your small business or startup? Do you find keeping track of your mileage to be a tedious task? I do. At the end of every year, I go through my calendar, note all the business events that I drove to, calculate the mileage using Google Maps, add up the miles on an excel spreadsheet (and I don’t drive nearly as much as many of you), and after multiplying by the allotted mileage reimbursement, I have entered a tidy business expense.  

My Search for a Better Way to Track Mileage

Dome 750 Mileage Log/Expense RecordThis year I was determined to find a better way. I searched online for a book to enter my trips as I took them. I went to Office Max and looked at the variety of product offerings. This one had all the features that I wanted. After I put what I considered the perfect tool into my car, I proceeded to never use it.

Then I looked for an app. I successfully use many apps. Why not use one for tracking my miles? I came across TripLog, which was highly rated. Intuit considers it the #1 Mileage Tracking GPS Mobile App. I added the app to my phone but found it too confusing to use.  

Finally, I asked my fellow QuickBooks Advisors for a solution. The app MileIQ was recommended. I signed up for the free version. Immediately I was impressed because the app knew when I was on the move. It logged my miles automatically. Within a couple weeks I signed up for the upgrade that costs me $4.99 a month.

Here’s how it works. As long as I have my phone, the app runs in the background logging all my trips. At the end of each week, I get a reminder email to categorize my trips. Going to the online site, I click the purpose one at a time or as a group (see below):

MileIQ

 

I was even able to load my prior trips this year (7 months of them) easily. MileIQ is a great solution to alleviate a tedious task and frees me up to focus on more valuable ones instead. If you need help finding great solutions to free up some of your time, contact BudgetEase.

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Kathy Dise

Written by Kathy Dise

Kathy has over 30 years experience helping small businesses succeed. As a commercial lender, commercialization expert and now as a QuickBooks diamond level advisor, Kathy understands the challenges small business owners face. Her experience helps business owners quickly accomplish their financial goals. As the owner of BudgetEase, Kathy works with clients to develop a plan to efficiently process 1,000s of small transactions so owners can make informed decisions. She lives in Shaker Heights, OH with her husband Ralph and enjoys golf, curling and walking in Cleveland’s fabulous Metro Parks.