Tracking your personal expenses can be quite difficult enough, but tracking business expenses, particularly auto expenses, and mileage is a whole other level. For some of us, a shoebox full of gas receipts is the only way to keep a record for future accounting. Unfortunately, sorting through these little pieces of paper can be time-consuming, and time you can use running and growing your business. Worse, this lack of organization can cause you to miscalculate your actual expenses which could lead to you missing out on some of your eligible tax deductions. It can also harm your business should you be audited by the IRS. For your employees, this lack of organized tracking can make them feel that they’re not being reimbursed fully for their expenses. For this coming tax season, why not make things easier for yourself and/or for your employees with an expense tracker. One that’s easy to set up and use. One that will help you save both time and money.
Understanding Mileage and Expenses
There are two methods offered by the IRS for businesses to calculate the cost of vehicle expenses. These are the Actual Expenses Method and the Standard Mileage Method. Which one is better? It depends. These methods can produce different quantitative vs qualitative results and have their own advantages as well as disadvantages. The good thing about this is that you can switch between these two methods to see which gives you a larger deduction. However, you need to use the standard mileage rate method in the first year that you use your vehicle for your business. Afterward, you can choose whichever method gets you a larger tax benefit.
So, let’s explain the standard mileage rate. This is the maximum per-mile rate provided by the IRS that you can use to calculate how much it costs to operate your vehicle for business purposes. The current standard mileage rate for 2020 is 57.5 cents per mile for business miles. For medical or moving expenses, the rate is 17 cents per mile. For vehicles of charitable organizations, the rate is 14 cents per mile.
Why Mileage Tracking Software is Important
Tracking your business miles is not something you can afford to ignore. Not unless you don’t mind paying more than you should come tax season. Now, for some of us, this means using a spreadsheet or a logbook as our business mileage tracker. Fortunately, manually keeping an eye on your business miles and mentally estimating your miles and expenses after a long day at work is not the only option. You can also choose to use a mileage tracker app or an expense tracker app. Below are some of the reasons why utilizing mileage tracking software is the best path to take:
Mileage tracking software removes the guesswork.
With a mileage tracking app, you’re no longer required to rely on your memory to keep accurate notes on your expenses. There’s no longer a need to make estimates after a long day of driving around. There’s no fear of having forgotten any expenses that need to be included. In short, there’s no more uncertainty. Instead, all the data is automatically tracked by the app and you can review as well as revise when needed.
It eases your mind.
With tracking software, you don’t have to worry about getting audited and penalized. For employees, they won’t have to worry about not getting fully compensated for their expenses. Everybody can focus on what’s more important – run and grow a successful profitable business.
Why Choose AMGtime’s Expense and Mileage Tracker?
We’ve already talked about why it’s important for a business to invest in a mileage tracking software. The question we now need to ask is why choose AMGtime employee time and attendance solutions for tracking expenses and mileage? These features are smart solutions for companies who want to easily account for their employees’ expenses with the added bonus of being convenient, cost-effective, and in control.
Each feature enables the employee to easily record their expenses and business miles with the touch of a button. Each one also provides managers the ability to review and approve reports per employee before it reaches accounting. Pen and paper are a thing of the past. Even better, employees can use their own smartphones for tracking miles and expenses – no extra equipment required. Companies can even try this digital solution for free to see how well it suits their current operations. Not sure about this tracking software? Check out the features and benefits of each tracking software below.
Mileage Tracker
Manually recording time, travel, distance, the purpose of the trip into a central location can be burdensome for even the most organized person. Gone are the days of grabbing a logbook out of the glove box and manually entering miles traveled with a pen or pencil. Our in-app feature makes the process of calculating miles as easy as clicking a button. The mileage tracking feature — which allows your clients to track their mileage easily while on the go.
Press start at the beginning of your destination, add multiple stops along the way, and automatically calculate miles traveled with the use of GPS.
- Eliminate paper records with our digital solution
- Automatically lists points of destinations and stops.
- Create reports on miles traveled for each employee
- Managers can modify before approving miles traveled by an employee
Expense Tracker
Gone are the days of grabbing a logbook out of the glove box and manually entering miles traveled with a pen or pencil. Our in-app feature makes the process of calculating miles as easy as clicking a button. The mileage tracking feature — which allows your employees to track their mileage easily while on the go. Press start at the beginning of your destination, add multiple stops along the way, and automatically calculate miles traveled with the use of GPS.
- Simply enter the amount and snap a photo of the receipts
- Eliminate the collection of paper receipts with the snap of a shot
- Run custom reports for each employee
- Managers can modify before approving expense reimbursements
