And this is mine, empty except for a beginning mileage. Replace it with yours, play with the form a little to see how it works, and you're ready to enter miles from whatever notebook or digital device you use in the car. I've included some hints in the description the attachment software prompted me to write.
A little more elaboration: if you want to keep track of out of town multi-day trips to claim a meal allowance, you can type an asterisk before the date, and it will stand out in the list. Dates are formatted for month/day. I like to put the first day of the month in bold. To enter data quickly, enter the day, double tab, enter the end miles, double tab, enter the customer name or the errand (i.e. "P.O."), tab, enter a one or two letter location ("su" = Summit, "mcm" = McMinnville, etc.), double tab, then enter any personal miles (how far you went out of your way to do shopping, etc.) For a non-business trip, enter the whole trip miles from the "business miles" shaded column, which will self-total to zero as soon as you leave the "personal" field..
To get back for the next line, after entering "personal" (if any), press the down arrow and then "home" and you'll be ready for the next line. One can get quite quick at making entries, especially if the car notebook is set up in the same order as the form.
Until you finish the year, the self-totals in the upper right won't make sense. At the end of the year when you've entered your last trip, where the form offers a new "start mileage" figure on a new line, delete it, and the totals will appear correctly in the upper right. Insert the current year's IRS per mile allowance, and the form will give you an amount for your deduction, along with total miles, business miles, and the percentage of business miles.
I keep an empty version of the form, which I "save as" using the new year's date in the filename. Type in the year (in blue, could be black) and your beginning odometer reading, and you're ready to go. To empty a filled form, delete only the unshaded fields. The shaded fields are formulas, which must not be disturbed.
To print out your data, use the print preview to determine how many pages you have filled, and then print only that number of pages. The self-total formula in the upper right has been set arbitrarily to 371 lines. I've never used anywhere near that number, but if you make lots of trips, click on the shaded "business miles" and "total miles" fields and put in a larger second number. i.e.=SUM(G3:G371) could be turned to =SUM(G3:G450)
I don't know how this compares with "apps" and so forth, but this form has served me well through the years -- and for some Luddite reason, I like keeping my data OUT OF the "CLOUD".
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Susan Kline
Philomath, Oregon
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-16-2015 01:31
From: Geoff Sykes
Subject: Mileage Tracking
Attached is an empty but ready to use Excel spreadsheet for keeping track of business mileage. The formulas are already in place. This is the spreadsheet I use. Here are the instructions:
Excel spreadsheet to log and calculate business and personal miles.
NOTE: Log ONLY business miles. By default, personal miles will be all miles not included on this spreadsheet.
Initialization Steps
Line 3, Col B "date" : Put in January 1, 2015, or whatever year you want.
Line 3, Col C "start": Put in the complete odometer reading as of January 1
Line 3, Col D "end" : leave empty
Line 3, Col's E "totals", F "business", G "personal" : Ignore for now
How to use
Col A - Purpose : Brief description of trip. eg: Jones - tune
Col B - Date : Enter the month and day of your trip. eg 4/27 (April 27)
Col C - Start : Enter odometer reading at beginning of business trip
Col D - End : Enter odometer reading at end of business trip.
Col E : Will automatically show total business miles for that trip
Col F : (at top) will automatically show running total for all business miles entered.
At end of year, Dec 31, enter complete odometer reading in Row 3, Col D.
Row 3, Col G will update to show total personal miles for year.
This sheet will automatically separate business from personal miles as well as document the date and purpose of the trip. Your tax person will love it. Mine does.
When I leave in the morning I just jot down the last three digits of the odometer. When I'm done with business travel, I jot down the last three digits of the odometer. When I get home I enter those numbers, plus the purpose of the trip, into the spreadsheet. Voila. All the documentation you could ever possibly need.
Enjoy --
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Geoff Sykes, RPT
Los Angeles CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-15-2015 13:59
From: Keith McGavern
Subject: Mileage Tracking
All,
After reading the responses thus far, it seems to me that the issue is not what you use to keep track of business miles as the best way, but understanding the differences of which is business, and which is personal.
Surely everyone knows what mileage constitutes business, and what does not.
And if, for some reason, that is not the case, it's would be wise to learn, and forget about the methods of how to keep track, just know which is which.
Keith McGavern, RPT
Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA
http://www.cokptg.org
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