Mileage tracking

How mileage tracking works

MileLedger can record drives automatically in the background using your phone's location and motion sensors, or you can start a recording manually or enter past drives by hand. Distances are derived from filtered GPS samples—MileLedger never invents mileage.

Automatic mileage tracking

Automatic tracking records drives in the background without you touching your phone. It requires Always location access and works best with Motion & Fitness access enabled. Certain conditions—force-quit, Low Power Mode, and Airplane Mode—will prevent background tracking.

Manually add a drive

If automatic tracking missed a trip, or you prefer to log drives by hand, MileLedger offers two manual options: start a live recording that tracks GPS in real time, or enter a past drive by typing addresses and a distance.

Edit a drive

Edit drive details—including distance, category, vehicle, purpose, date, and notes—in the MileLedger phone app. The web app shows synced drives but does not edit them.

Delete a drive

Delete drives individually or in bulk on phone. Deletion is permanent. The web app does not delete drives.

Categorise drives as business or personal

Accurate categorisation is the foundation of a valid mileage deduction. MileLedger gives you several ways to categorize drives: a quick swipe, bulk actions, purposes, work hours, Saved Places, and Smart Routes.

View trip details

The trip detail screen shows everything MileLedger recorded: distance, duration, start and end addresses, GPS route map, quality flags, vehicle, category, purpose, and notes.

Understand trip distances

Trip distance is calculated by summing the straight-line distances between consecutive GPS coordinate samples that pass accuracy filtering. Poor GPS conditions reduce the number of usable samples and can result in a shorter-than-actual recorded distance—MileLedger flags such trips rather than guessing.

Review trip routes

The route map on a trip detail screen plots the GPS samples collected during the drive. Routes are only shown when GPS samples exist—manually entered past drives may not have a route. To keep cloud storage efficient, routes stored server-side are downsampled to a maximum of 80 coordinate points.

Search and filter drives

On phone, search drives by location, purpose, or notes and filter by categorization. On the web, filter synced trips with All / Business / Personal / Uncategorized tabs.

Historical drives

MileLedger stores an unlimited number of drives on all plans, including the Free plan. You can scroll back through your entire drive history, apply date filters to find older trips, and include historical drives in any report or export.

Associate a vehicle with a trip

Every drive in MileLedger can be associated with a specific vehicle. You can set a default vehicle that is applied to new automatic trips, assign or change a vehicle on individual drives, or bulk-update multiple drives at once.

Mileage calculations

MileLedger calculates your total mileage by summing the distances of all drives that match your report criteria. Reimbursement values are derived by multiplying the total business miles by the applicable standard mileage rate.

Troubleshooting: missing trips

If automatic trips are not appearing in the Drives list, the most common causes are insufficient location permissions, the app being force-quit, Low Power Mode, or Airplane Mode. This guide walks through each scenario.

Troubleshooting: incorrect mileage

If a trip shows an unexpectedly short or uncertain distance, MileLedger's quality flags tell you why. Poor GPS signal, interrupted sessions, and duplicate trips all have distinct flags. You can always manually correct a distance.

Saved Places vs Smart Routes

Saved Places are about a single location (home, office, client). Smart Routes are about a route you repeat. They work together with Work Hours to reduce uncategorized drives.