By Lara Gibbons
February 23, 2023
Replacing a car tire is no ones’ idea of a good time. Hopefully, your car comes with a kit to help you with the process: a jack, a spare, and a tire iron. But, if you’ve ever had to use the tire iron that came with the car, you know it’s hardly the most efficient. A lot of drivers will replace it with a bigger version for better leverage when unscrewing lug nuts. What’s the point of this metaphor? Sometimes, you’re good with what you have on hand. Other times, it simply isn’t enough. When it comes to mileage tracking, you want the best. But when it comes to mileage tracking, what does that mean? Here we’ll break down traits the best mileage tracker app should have.
Mileage tracking or mileage capture is recording a log of business miles driven. There are a few reasons to do so. Before the TCJA, employees would track miles for tax deduction. However, this is no longer an option. Most full-time employees or contract workers record their mileage for reimbursement purposes. Mileage tracking is essential to receiving a reimbursement. There are several ways to keep a mileage log. Some are easier than others.
A business mileage tracker uses the GPS systems and movement sensors in a driving employees phone to capture the distance they’re traveling. Some employees continue to record their mileage manually. However, that can lead to a number of issues. Mileage trackers simplify the process of recording miles by automating it. These tools are known by many names: mileage tracking apps, business mileage trackers, vehicle mileage trackers, mileage capture apps or simply apps to track miles driven.
It’s important to note that, while the device uses GPS and motion sensor capabilities of the phone, they aren’t sharing locations with employers in real time. This isn’t a surveillance effort, but a more convenient way to capture the business trips traveled accurately.
There are a considerable number of benefits to using a mileage tracker: IRS compliance, increased visibility, decreased mileage fraud, reduced administration. Let’s explore these benefits further, beginning with one of the most essential reasons to implement a mileage tracking app: IRS compliance.
There are two primary reasons for mileage logs: reimbursement and IRS-compliant records of the miles reimbursed. To meet IRS compliance, mileage logs must record four essential pieces of information. If the mileage tracker isn’t capturing start and end locations, dates and distances, it is not serving its purpose.
In a world of predictable expenses and monthly budget plans, mileage reimbursements stand out as a liability for businesses. Data from manual mileage logs can be captured and graphed manually. However, in today’s technology-driven world, being able to calculate expenses on-demand is incredibly valuable.
By capturing business driving trends more effectively, companies can analyze expense patterns, anticipate how much money will be spent each month and project how much total mileage reimbursement will be paid out over the course of a year. This level of business insight can give managers and executives a leg up when it comes to competitive strategy.
Mileage fraud is one of the most common forms of employee theft. Expense reimbursement fraud accounts for 17% of business expense fraud. Oftentimes, that fraud is directly related to T&E items. Many companies are simply unaware of the fraud because their processes are unable to check reports in an automated, efficient fashion.
With an automated mileage tracking app, companies receive GPS-verified mileage logs from their employees. This narrows the possibility of mileage fraud, intentional or otherwise, considerably.
A good mileage tracking app provides all the above. But the best comes with a team responsible for gathering the mileage information, managing reimbursements and providing insights into your workforce. Automating mileage tracking boosts productivity for those in the field and those busy filling out the logs. With a mileage app, logs can easily be submitted for reimbursement and free up the administrative work of verifying all employee mileage logs.
Business mileage trackers are implemented to increase visibility, meet IRS compliance, decrease mileage fraud and reduce admin work. But some mileage trackers are better than others. So what makes the best mileage tracker app? Here are a few ways that certain apps set themselves above the rest.
Automated mileage tracking benefits the company and its employees in numerous ways. Replacing unreliable manual mileage logs with automated tracking does away with accuracy challenges and administrative burden. Organizations that adopt mileage capture technology have been able to reduce mileage by as much as 25%.
Every business driver needs to track four key things in order to keep an IRS-compliant mileage log: the date, destination, the exact distance between two business stops and the purpose of the trip (which is the most commonly forgotten). The best mileage tracker app helps provide accurate information and a fair reimbursement for both mobile workers and the company they’re driving for.
Having a mileage capture app is one thing. Having one that begins with the tap of a button? That’s something else. Recording the odometer, start location, the date, those are all issues a driving employee won’t have to worry over with the right app. Once the trip is over, the app acknowledges the stop. All the employee has to do is fill in the purpose of the trip. From there it’s easy to submit.
Another benefit to automated mileage tracking? Easy mileage submission. No more scraps of barely legible handwriting turned in to an overworked member of the accounting team. A digital version should arrive, easily read and transferable to whatever program your company uses to compute mileage reimbursements. If a mileage tracker app does not offer this, it’s not really the best mileage tracker app. Not a must, but a really nice to have.
Everyone knows using a phone drains its battery. That’s doubly true if the phone is working hard at updating your location. Whether your phone is the latest version, or you’ve been holding out on updating it until you absolutely have to, a little extra battery can go a long way. Again, this isn’t necessary, but it sure is nice to have.
We’re through the basics. Now for the nice to haves. And it’s nice to have a feature that allows you to tell your phone when your business hours begin. Say the app starts recording your road trip to Disney with the family? You should be able to mark the trip afterward as a vacation.
As you might have guessed, we have a mileage tracker app. And yes, it passes all of these tests. Sure, you could have one that covers the basics. But, when it comes to mileage reimbursement, you want quality. The Motus Platform powers our solutions, providing accurate mileage reimbursement calculations, fleet personal-use charges and delivery mileage and device usage rates.
Our robust business intelligence and reporting tools serve information the way you want, when you want it. Leverage useful data to create targeted reports or modify a complete suite of packaged reporting. Interactive dashboards provide powerful data visualization into mobile workforce efficiency, field activities, employee behavior and drive better business decisions.
Curious to know why? Or just to know more? You can read more about Motus Mobile, or ask for a demo and we can show it to you.
With Motus, accurately capturing business mileage has never been faster or easier.
Contact us today or take a virtual tour of the Motus Platform.
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