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Overview of the 4 Best Mileage Tracking Apps

by
Sherri Hastings
on
9/24/2017
Overview of the 4 Best Mileage Tracking Apps

How many times have you found yourself dreading some task you needed to do, only to find out “there's an app for that?” Or wishing that there was one? Well, the latest chore that has now been taken care of by a smartphone application is logging your business miles. From now on you don't need to keep track of your driving because an app will do it for you. 

You're probably aware that whether you're a business owner, an employee, or a person who is self-employed, when you drive someplace for business there's a good chance that you can deduct it from your income taxes.  The key to getting that write-off is that you have to log every mile you drive to get the biggest benefit, and that can be a real challenge. It's not that it's hard to do, but it can be tough to remember to write miles down when you're thinking about the business purpose of your drive. Plus, it's not just the miles that are required. You also need to write down the who, what, why and where of it, and keep it in the format that the IRS or the company reimbursing you requires.

Well, now you no longer need to worry about finding paper or pencil, putting things into the right structure or any of the rest of it. Your phone has it covered! All of today's smartphones have GPS technology built in. There are apps that use GPS monitoring capability to pick up on every time you go for a drive. It will ask you where you went and for what purpose, and then at the end of the year, it will quickly and easily generate the information you need in exactly the way that the IRS wants it so that you can get your full tax write-off for the mileage you've logged. 

It doesn't get much easier than that. All you have to worry about is how much you want to pay for the app, and how much you're going to allow it to drain your battery.

Though you may find some that are free, most of the mileage trackers that have the features that you'll value most charge a fee – either yearly, monthly, or a single up-front payment. Though it may pain you to pay a price initially, you'll find that the technology pays for itself in catching trips that you would have forgotten to log and saving you time you would otherwise have spent on paperwork.

The one thing you need to understand about these applications is that in order to make sure they catch all your trips, they operate in the background at all times, and this can have an impact on how frequently you need to recharge your battery.  So keep a car-charging cord handy. 

Though there are plenty of these mileage-tracking apps available, I've chosen four that run the gamut in terms of features, look, and price. They all have the same basic function at their heart – and there are certainly other options available besides these – but reviewing what they offer will give you a good sense of what to look for and what these types of technologies should cost. 

Mileage Expense Log (iOS): Free or $3.99 for the Pro version

This app is only available for iOS, and it is pretty straightforward in terms of bells and whistles, but it's also one of the most affordable of all the tracking apps. For the extra $3.99 you'd spend one time for the Pro version, you'll find a lot more flexibility and freedom, plus you get the advantage of eliminating pop-up ads that frequently interrupt the interface in the free version. The Pro version also allows you to set the application so that it automatically tracks all your trips. Doing this is not as intuitive as in other apps: you start off seeing a blank dashboard, and there are no instructions to direct next steps. That being said, once you press the “+” sign, the fields for recording the specific data about your journey appear, including what vehicle you're driving, where you're going and why, and more. It is on this screen that you can opt into either an automatic tracking setting or a manual setting in which you enter your mileage after each trip. Even so, when choosing the automatic setting you still need to initiate and halt tracking each time you use the app.

MileIQ (Android, iOS): $5.99 per month or $59.99 annually

For those who are willing to pay more for an app that looks a lot better and asks a lot less in terms of figuring out how to use it, MileIQ is a good option.  With the highest price of the three mileage tracks discussed here, this one is also the easiest to use and has the most professional, slickest interface.

There are so many things to like about MileIQ. This app goes out of its way to be easy to use. It automatically records trips – all you have to do is swipe right to let it know that you're driving for business. Once the business function has been engaged, it lets you quickly categorize trips in terms of purpose, and even tracks your business driving totals and their values based on the IRS deduction rate.

If you want to minimize the amount of swiping you need to do between business and personal driving, you can even tell MileIQ what hours you work and what hours you don't so that it won't even ask about trips outside of your business drive times. Though it does still track those drives (which means it is still operating in the background and draining your battery), it makes up for that shortcoming by providing lots of choices for how to export its information, including being able to sync with some of the most popular accounting tools.

The other advantage that MileIQ offers is a much more comprehensive functionality from the automated mileage tracking: this app can be set to initiate based on a variety of choices, including based on time of day, movement above 4 miles per hour, when it's connected to a power source (such as a car charger), or when it connects to Bluetooth.

The app is definitely pricey, but when you pay the fee you get unlimited tracking, no matter how much driving you do.  If you don't have a robust travel schedule you may find that the free version is enough for you: it gives you the same functions, but only for 40 drives per month including the trips that are for not for business.

Read the latest reviews before your purchase.

TripLog (Android, iOS): Free, $1.50/month or $15/year for the Personal plan, or $2.50/month or $25/year for the Business plan 

This app offers users both a lower price than MileIQ and a lot of different pricing options based on their needs. There's a free version that can be set for either manual or GPS-based mileage tracking for up to 5 vehicles. It even offers a map-based route review and the option of tracking fuel and other expenses. But as useful as those basic features are, TripLog really shines once you sign up for its upgrades. That's where you'll find support both for its use and for backing up the information you've logged to the cloud, the ability to record photos of receipts for gas and other expenditures, and as many IRS-ready reports as you need.

There's no doubt that for elegant appearance and ease of use, MileIQ is miles ahead of TripLog, but if you're looking at the features and flexibility that you need at a much lower price, TripLog provides more than enough. 

QuickBooks Self-Employed Edition Mileage Tracking

 You can automatically track your mileage with the QuickBooks self-employed edition. According to the Intuit help desk, the self-employed version is currently only available online and includes mileage and receipt tracking. Other QuickBooks users can access various third-party plugins, including Triplog, from the Intuit Appcenter. 

The app will automatically calculate your driving time and mileage. Intuit claims that it does not drain your mobile phone battery. The app will sync with QuickBooks making the accounting side seamlessly. So maybe worth taking a look.

We'd be happy to hear your thoughts on other mileage trackers that you may be using. Feel free to leave your thoughts and recommendations in the Disqus comment field below.

Tim Murphy, CPA writes for TaxBuzz, a tax news and advice website. Reach his office at [email protected].

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Sherri Hastings

Sherri Hastings

Tim Murphy is the managing member at Murphy & Murphy, CPA, LLC, a full-service certified public accounting firm, with emphasis on tax preparation, audits of governmental, educational, and non-profit entities, retirement planning, estate planning, business valuations, litigation support, and banking. He is a Certified Public Accountant in Maryland and Virginia. Tim is also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional, Personal Financial Specialist, Accredited Estate Planner, Certified Valuation Analyst, and Investment Adviser Representative.

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