If you drive for work, sooner or later someone asks which trips were for work: your employer, a client or your accountant. A mileage log is the answer, and your iPhone is already in the car with you. This guide walks through what a mileage log usually records, then how to keep one with Mileage Cat, our mileage tracker for iPhone.
What a mileage log records
Most mileage logs keep the same few things for each trip:
- The date of the trip.
- Where from and where to.
- The distance, in miles or kilometres.
- What it was for: a client visit, a delivery, a site.
- Business or personal, so the work trips can be added up on their own.
Many logs also carry a rate per mile or kilometre, the amount it comes to, the driver's name and a line for a signature. What your log has to show, and what it means for your taxes or your expenses claim, depends on where you live and who you claim from. Mileage Cat keeps the log and does the sums. It isn't tax advice, so check your local rules, or ask your tax authority or an accountant.
The habit that matters most is logging trips as they happen. A log written up from memory at the end of the year is hard to get right.
Log each trip
- Tap Start trip on the Trips tab when you set off.
- Tap Stop & save when you get there.
- Forgot one? Tap + or Add trip and add a past trip by hand: from, to, distance and date. Pick its type while you're there (it starts on Business), and add a purpose and a client or job if you like.
Say what it was for
Open any trip to give it a purpose ("Client meeting"), a client or job, and notes. A purpose is what turns a distance into a record someone else can follow later.
You can also name the places you drive to often. Open a recorded trip and tap its start or end to name the place, like Home or Office, and every trip near it then uses that name. Your named places are listed in More, under Named places.
Mark it Business or Personal
Trips you record wait under To classify on the Trips tab. Tap Business or Personal under a trip, or swipe: right for Business, left for Personal. Swiped the wrong way, or deleted a trip by mistake? Tap Undo on the note at the bottom of the screen, which stays for a few seconds, to put it back.
Later, search your trips by place, purpose or client from the search field at the top of the Trips tab.
Pick a rate
Open More and tap Rates, then pick your country.
- US, UK, Canada or Australia: Mileage Cat has the published rates for your country, each with a link to its source. Each trip uses the published rate for its date. If the rate for a date isn't published yet, the trip uses the latest published rate, and the trip says so.
- Anywhere else: choose Other (my own rates) and set the rate you're allowed to claim or are reimbursed at, per mile or kilometre, in your currency.
- Your employer pays a different rate? Type it under Use my own rate instead, and it's used for every trip of that type.
The Trips tab then shows this tax year's total at the top. Which rate you should use is a question for your employer, your tax authority or an accountant.
Share the log
Open the Reports tab.
- Pick the dates: this tax year, last tax year, this month, last month, or your own dates with Custom.
- Add your name if you want it on the log: open More options and type it under Driver name. It's optional. Personal trips stay out of the log unless you turn on Include personal trips there.
- Check the PDF. The preview lists the date, purpose, from and to, distance, rate and amount for every trip, with the totals and a line for the driver's signature. If some trips in those dates aren't classified yet, Reports tells you, so you can sort them on the Trips tab first.
- Send it. Tap Share PDF, CSV for your spreadsheet, or the printer button to print. From the share sheet you can also save the file to Files.
Billing a client for the miles?
If you're self-employed and bill clients for travel, our guide on how to make an invoice on iPhone shows how to put it on an invoice. If you also track the hours you work, how to make a timesheet on iPhone covers that.
What it costs
Logging trips, sorting them, the totals and the PDF and CSV log are free, with one vehicle and no trip limit. There's no watermark, no ads, no account and no subscription.
Mileage Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase for people who drive more than one car or for several clients: several vehicles with odometer readings, client or project tags with a report for one tag, and a weekly or monthly reminder that opens last period's report in the share sheet. More on the Mileage Cat page.
Your trips, routes and places are kept on your iPhone and in your own backups unless you share, save or print them. There's no account and no analytics. Apple Maps turns a trip's start and end points into street names and draws the maps, and the App Store handles Mileage Cat Pro.
Quick answers
Do I need a laptop to keep a mileage log?
No. Log trips, pick the dates and share the PDF or CSV from your iPhone.
Can I log a trip I forgot?
Yes. Add it by hand with the from, to, distance and date.
Which rate should I use?
That's a question for your employer, your tax authority or an accountant. Mileage Cat has the published rates for the US, UK, Canada and Australia, with links to their sources, or uses your own rate.
Can I open the log in a spreadsheet?
Yes. Reports gives you a CSV as well as the PDF.
Can I keep two cars apart?
With Mileage Cat Pro. The free plan has one vehicle, and logging and reports stay free.
Try Mileage Cat
Try Mileage Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/mileage-cat