How to Automate Mileage Tracking

Introduction

If your employees need to drive for work often, you’ll know just how important it is for business mileage to be tracked. By tracking mileage according to IRS guidelines, employees can be eligible for tax-free reimbursement. If drivers at your company are currently tracking business miles with a paper logbook or a mileage spreadsheet, it’s worthwhile taking a thorough look into whether this is really the best option for your team. Another option is available — automated mileage tracking apps — which frequently save businesses and employees significant time and effort. 

Benefits of automating mileage tracking

Automating the process of mileage tracking comes with immense benefits, both for companies and for their employees. To start off, mileage tracking apps make work driving tax-free. There are significant time savings, both for drivers and for administrators. In fact, using a spreadsheet or manually tracking miles with a paper logbook could be costing driving employees a full 40-hour workweek, each year. An IRS-compliant mileage tracking app could also allow for tax savings by enabling vehicle reimbursements to be tax-free. 

Beyond time and money savings, having mileage tracking be automated helps to increase the accuracy of the trips taken and miles tracked. This also reduces the possibility for errors and mistakes, helping to create an accurate picture of business mileage. An automated mileage tracking app can also streamline the reimbursement process, ensuring that reimbursements can be easily approved and paid out to employee drivers.

How to choose a mileage tracking app

When selecting a mileage tracking app for your business, it’s important to choose well and to choose carefully. Since there’s some time spent on initially setting up the app across your business, you want to ensure that the app you choose is best for the needs of your company — preventing any possible lost time, needing to switch down the line once the app has been established, and other issues. 

When choosing a mileage tracking app, make sure that it has all of the features that you need for your business — including things like accurate GPS-powered mileage tracking, an easy-to-use interface, and exceptional customer support and resources. As you search for the right mileage tracking app, it’s worthwhile to take the time to have a strong understanding of your business needs and priorities when it comes to mileage tracking, so you can more easily evaluate potential apps and solutions. 

Cardata Mobile: Best-in-class mileage tracking app

Through Cardata Mobile, companies get access to accurate and straightforward mileage tracking software. A robust app specifically designed for businesses, Cardata Mobile offers a strong suite of features, including advanced GPS technology that ensures accurate mileage tracking, an easy-to-use interface, and in-app visibility on reimbursements. The app is simple for drivers to navigate — allowing them to easily track their business mileage and categorize trips, and clearly see upcoming reimbursements. Cardata also offers customizable setups for businesses, allowing them to create a mileage tracking solution that fits your business. 

Cardata also offers IRS-compliant records of business mileage, allowing for the possibility of tax savings through tax-free vehicle reimbursements. Cardata is trusted by organizations like Crayola, Medtronic, Viemed, and more.

Setting up a mileage tracking app

A strong mileage tracking app should be straightforward to set up and implement within your team. To make implementation as easy as possible, take a look at what type of onboarding program your potential mileage tracker offers—this could look like support with account setup, customization potential, and training and onboarding for reimbursement program admins. 

With Cardata, drivers at your company can quickly and easily follow a link to download and install the Cadata Mobile app. Companies can set up their program and begin tracking mileage in just a few guided steps. A library of resources is available to answer common questions, alongside strong one-on-one customer support to assist with any further questions or potential issues. 

Take advantage of features for effective mileage tracking

Be sure to make full use of the suite of features on your mileage tracking app to take advantage of all of the potential resources and time saved for your business. Making use of different features will also allow you to help ensure that your business mileage tracking process and program is as effective and beneficial to your team as it can be.

Apart from the automatic mileage tracking using GPS technology, Cardata also offers simple categorization and classification of trips, making it easy to separate business and personal with one tap. With Cardata, you can also generate detailed reports on business mileage, including taxable income reports, daily trip reports, and mileage audit reports. These can allow your business to get a full view of business mileage, giving you data to back up potential business decisions. 

Ensuring data privacy and security

It’s critical that your mileage tracking app ensures data privacy and security, for the protection of your business and the privacy of your employees. Cardata Mobile keeps this top in mind. Cardata Mobile records the data that are needed to substantiate business mileage for tax purposes, including the mileage that’s traveled and the purpose of the business trip. 

As a privacy-first app, Cardata Mobile has robust security for data in motion and in Cardata’s private cloud. Cardata Mobile also offers manual driver privacy controls — including things like toggling off for tracking personal, and personal (non-business) trip concealment for weekend and evening driving. It’s a good idea to also create and follow best practices for data protection within your organization.

Integrating mileage tracking with reimbursement

A strong business mileage tracking program goes beyond the mileage tracking itself. Beyond accurately collecting business mileage data, an app that’s integrated with a reimbursement process can help simplify reimbursements. 

Take Cardata Mobile again, just for example — the app easily syncs with accounting and reimbursement management systems, also offered by Cardata, like direct pay, insurance compliance, and business intelligence reporting, allowing you to streamline your reimbursement program with a powerful mileage app as a cornerstone. 

In turn, employees are easily able to see upcoming reimbursements in the Cardata Mobile app, ensuring they get accurate and timely reimbursements. Reimbursement processes can also be set up in a way that they ensure compliance with any company policies and regulations.

Best practices for a successful automated mileage tracking program

Having an effective and robust business mileage tracking app is important, but there are still a few key things to keep in mind to help ensure your mileage tracking program is performing efficiently. It’s important to regularly review and audit mileage data, to both make sure that potential issues aren’t going unnoticed and to spot opportunities for optimization. It’s also key to communicate guidelines and expectations to your driving employees, so they have a thorough understanding of what they need to know about mileage tracking.

As your business mileage tracking program progresses, be sure that you’re providing ongoing training and support for employees on how to use the app. An easy-to-use app with strong customer service will help support you in this, and it’s key to make sure that there are resources available for employees with questions or issues. 

In conclusion

Automating mileage tracking can come with immense benefits — not just for the business itself, but for employees, as well. By switching from a manual mileage tracking process to an automated one, you can save your business and your employees valuable time by streamlining what could otherwise be a tedious and time-consuming process. Mileage tracking apps can also offer other significant benefits, including ensuring accurate business trip tracking, simplifying reimbursement, generating valuable reports on mileage data, and much more. Importantly, an IRS-compliant mileage tracker can also allow for tax-free vehicle reimbursements and help avoid tax waste.

If you’re curious to learn more about the benefits of automating your company’s mileage tracking, it’s worthwhile to explore potential solutions, such as Cardata. Automated mileage tracking is an efficient and convenient option for plenty of businesses with employee drivers.

Disclaimer

^{Nothing in this blog post is legal, accounting, or insurance advice. Consult your lawyer, accountant, or insurance agent, and do not rely on the information contained herein for any business or personal financial or legal decision-making. While we strive to be as reliable as possible, we are neither lawyers nor accountants or agents. For several citations of IRS publications on which we base our blog content ideas, please always consult this article: https://www.cardata.co/blog/irs-rules-for-mileage-reimbursements. For Cardata’s terms of service, go here: https://www.cardata.co/terms.}