Digitizing distance: Apps to track your miles.

• Author: Gray, Bruce A.
• Position: Techtools review

Several months ago I was asking a colleague about possible tech-related topics that would be of interest to CalCPA members. He immediately responded that he wanted to see something about mileage tracker apps.

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I don't know about you, but my clients hate logging their mileage. I remind them that failure to maintain a contemporaneous log will generally result in a disallowance of the deduction for mileage. .Nonetheless, clients still struggle with this chore.

I started doing a little research and found a number of apps designed to help with this unpleasant chore. The technology utilizes the GPS feature of your smartphone to track your travel. Most of them will automatically track when you begin and end drives, based on the speed at which your phone is moving. While I didn't feel I could test drive all the various apps I discovered in my research, I selected three of them to evaluate: MileIQ, TripLog 2 and Everlance.

Like most of the offerings in the market, all three do a good job of sensing the beginning and end of a trip, as well as prompting you to classify the trip. They each have the option of identifying certain locations where you regularly travel so it doesn't just identify as an address or latitude/longitude coordinates. Each of them has a map showing the route traveled and the reimbursable value of the trip using current IRS standard mileage rates. Finally, all of them also provide reports to support the miles travelled.

Other features that appear to be common to most of the apps available are the ability to take photos of receipts using your phone camera, and track other operating expenses for your vehicle. Each app has its own set of rules about the number of vehicles it will track and in some cases will support multiple drivers. As with virtually everything else, the more features you want, the more you will pay.

MileIQ

MileIQ_is probably the most recognized app out there as it has invested significant time and, presumably, money on promotion. The company also allows tax professionals to sign up for free to encourage them to promote the app to their clients for mileage tracking. For everyone else, MileIQ has a free version that allows for 40 trips in a month for free. Now, considering that each time you start and stop for longer than the allotted time is considered a trip, it doesn't take long to reach your 40 trips. So. with MileIQ you ven quickly find yourself needing to purchase the app for it to be...