Miles tracking apps/methods

I've been mystery shopping for many years but want to commit to recording miles/OOP expenses/payment next year. I'm not sure if I'll use this info for my taxes or just my own info. I'm probably looking for a unicorn. I'm now even sure all of the data I want to collect, I just want to look back and see what I did/spent.

I tried to start a Google sheets this year and gave up in Feb because it was so difficult as I tried to create my ideal data collection myself. Looking for an app that I can feed info such as "job is x Miles away, reimbursement $25 shop fee $25" or something and have it do all the calculations for me.

What do you all use to track your shops?

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I have a giant excel spreadsheet to track.

Date. Msc, store, town, fee, reimbursement, date approved, job notes. Once the shop is paid, i change the color to green. I have a sheet for each month. Not gonna lie, its a job to keep it up to date.

For millage, I just keep a notebook in my car and write down my start and end mileage. I didn't like the apps.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2024 12:53PM by Datagirl.

And all of that counts as "work hours" when you figure the fees/time ratio when discerning whether a job or route is worth the total pay for the effort involved.

Agreed. I just would like to collect my own data and be able to see it if that makes sense. I could just use a notebook, but there's gotta be a better way.

I don't need something like QuickBooks, I just need a way to capture date, distance, shop fee, reimbursement, msc, etc. Happy to pay for the right one!

I use Google maps to get the mileage of my locations. I enter this number into my spreadsheet. Sometimes I do other errands while shopping and those extra miles don't count. It does take time to keep up the spreadsheet. Mileage is really the only tax deduction. It is usually so much of a deduction it is well worth it to keep track.

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Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.

I use the Everlance app to track my mileage. It allows me to have categories so I can track my shopping mileage and rideshare driving mileage separately. It calculates the resulting tax deduction and everything. Way better than manually tracking the data and inputting into a spreadsheet. You can export reports by category as a spreadsheet for incorporating the data into other spreads if necessary.

Have synthesizers, will travel...

@CoolMusic wrote:

I use the Everlance app to track my mileage. It allows me to have categories so I can track my shopping mileage and rideshare driving mileage separately. It calculates the resulting tax deduction and everything. Way better than manually tracking the data and inputting into a spreadsheet. You can export reports by category as a spreadsheet for incorporating the data into other spreads if necessary.

Yesssssss this is exactly what I'm looking for! Can you add notes? I don't necessarily need it for taxes but I want to list for example a call shop where there was no travel but I made $10. I just want to have the data to play with and see what kind of jobs I'm doing, when etc.

I might adopt something similar. When I first started reporting mileage for taxes, I thought I was spending too much time tracking it. Lately, I will do something quick and easy, but take on a more conservative approach. But the one thing I always try to remind myself is to take a picture of the mileage on my car at the beginning and end of the year!

I use a spreadsheet like datagirl. If I'm doing a route (and I'm in a rural area, so mileage racks up quickly), I set the trip meter on my car back to zero when I leave. When I get home, that's the mileage I use.

It is easier to keep up than to catch up, so I try and record everything weekly, and monthly at the least.

I use a spreadsheet and use miles from Google maps. I also record fees received, reimbursed and non-reimbursed expenses, tolls, miscellaneous purchases (paper, staples, etc.), and the date payments are received. Each shop is a row in the spreadsheet.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

@Momtreal wrote:

Yesssssss this is exactly what I'm looking for! Can you add notes?

I just looked, and there is an icon to add a note for each trip. Was not aware of the feature before, but might find a way to start using it.

Have synthesizers, will travel...

Thank you again for your recommendation! I am at $123 in just a few days. I love how easy it is to swipe personal or business.

Hopefully I can find something similar for monitoring reimbursement where I input the data re:MSC, bounty, OOP expenses, etc and it will keep track for me.

I've used Everlane in the past and liked it. I currently use Quickbooks self-employed which is about $11/ month, and I like it as well. You can hook up your bank accounts and use that to track expenses as well which is nice.

I put (just recently) all my shops by date in separate sheet to my fees and reimbursement. That was about full year shops up to September, 2024. Now I just adding them when finished. I have mileage per trip in one column and multiply them by 0.67 in last one.

Shopping Eastern Pennsylvania since 2009

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2024 12:32AM by gene.

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Miles tracking apps/methods

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