I Can See For Miles and Miles

The other day my client George and I were working on his expense reports. George is not the best record keeper, so we were putting together a simple system to help him keep track of things and get reimbursed more quickly (and completely) by his clients.

As we talked about the obvious things – receipt tracking, reconciling expenses by trip, recording the business purpose for each expense – I asked him about his recent trip to New York City. I saw a receipt for parking at the Route 128 garage outside of Boston, but I didn’t see any notes about mileage. I asked him how he tracks that.

You know that look your children give you when you ask if they’ve brushed their teeth? That was the look on George’s face when I asked that question.

“Uh, I guess I don’t do a very good job of that,” he said. “But I don’t drive my car very much for business anyway.”

I promptly called a time out to have a little chat about mileage.

As I explained to George, I don’t drive that much for work either. And so for a long time, I didn’t bother tracking mileage. After all, it hardly seems worth the effort  for a 4-mile round-trip to Staples for office supplies.

And it isn’t, if that’s all you do. But if the trip to Staples is accompanied by visits to client offices, Starbucks meetings, the post office and other stops, multiplied by two or three or four times in a given month, it adds up to something significant.

Realizing this, I began diligently tracking mileage a few years ago. I began with a clean slate on January 1 and, at the suggestion of my friend Michael, got myself a Dome Auto Mileage Log and Expense Record. 

This tiny booklet ($5.40 on Amazon, here),divided into months, stays in your car.  

Each time you get in (don’t worry, you’ll get in the habit very quickly), you record your current mileage and where you’re going.

When you return to your office, you record the mileage again. At the end of the month (or year) you just add it all up.

And I’m so glad I did. In January alone, I drove 257 miles for business. That’s 31 days worth of meetings here, meetings there and those trips to Staples and more. With the 2013 IRS allowed deduction of 56.5 cents per mile, my trips added up to  $145 dollars for just one month!  I couldn’t believe it. 

(By the way, I used to use Google Maps to track my miles after a long trip. I later realized that I was losing money on those teeny tiny in-between trips that I forgot about.)

George is convinced now as well. And why not? While a $145 deduction won’t make or break you, as long as you’re driving to Starbucks to meet that new business prospect over a double, low-fat, extra milk latte, you may as well let Uncle Sam pay for it!