Uber and Lyft drivers should always track mileage for tax purposes. These six free mileage tracker apps make it easy to do so right from your smartphone. This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of...
If you’re a driver for Lyft or Uber or (Instacart or DoorDash or Ubereats or…), you probably already know how important it is to track your work-related mileage and expenses.
You need that information to appease the IRS gods come tax return time and to make sure you’re squeezing out every last penny in deductions.
Rideshare drivers aren’t the only people eligible for mileage tax deductions. If you drive your personal vehicle for other kinds of paid work or use it for charitable, moving or medical purposes, you may also qualify for a standard mileage rate deduction.
6 Free Mileage Tracker Apps We Love
Back in the old days, tracking mileage meant dragging a notebook out of the glove box and hoping your pen wasn’t out of ink.
But now we live in an age of wonder where there’s an app for everything — including ones that automatically track mileage for you.
Here are our favorites.
1. Everlance
This versatile app not only tracks your mileage but also helps you keep track of all your other business expenses.
Everlance starts and stops automatically. It detects when your car starts moving, and it records the miles you drive. With a quick swipe of your finger, you can categorize each trip as work-related or personal. You can also set your work hours, automatically classifying drives during those hours as business trips.
With business expenses, you can photograph receipts and store them in the cloud, avoiding paperwork. You can also sync your bank account and credit cards to it, if you want. Everlance also has a tool that allows you to connect your credit or debit card to the app, then it will help you find deductions and generate an IRS-compliant Excel or PDF report for tax purposes.
The app costs $8 per month or a $60 annual payment, which amounts to $5 per month. A free version tracks 30 trips per month. Everlance is also the top-rated mileage-tracking app on iTunes and Google Play. And it comes with a free seven-day trial.
2. Stride
This free app runs in the background, quietly logging every mile you drive, and then it generates an IRS-ready report that you can use to do your taxes.
Stride also tracks expenses like car washes, parking fees, tolls and even snacks you hand out to passengers. If you’re not sure what expenses are trackable, the app will walk you through the steps to figure it out.
Stride is available at iTunes and Google Play.
3. TripLog
This app’s mileage and expense tracking features are free, but you can pay $4 per month to unlock additional features like cloud data backup and auto tracking.
TripLog also lets you look at your driving route for the entire day and swipe through to review trip cards.
TripLog is available at iTunes and Google Play.
4. Hurdlr
The basic version of Hurdlr is free and includes expense, income tax and semi-automatic mileage tracking.
For $7.99 a month, you’ll get the premium features, including tracking all your mileage automatically and creating real-time quarterly and year-end tax estimates so you can always see where you stand with the IRS. You can also buy this as an annual subscription for $60, which breaks down to $4.99 a month.
Hurdlr connects to thousands of financial institutions, allowing users to link their Hurdlr account to their bank or credit union. Every time you get paid, Hurdlr sends you a real-time notification.It also integrates with Uber, Square, Freshbooks, Stripe and Paypal to automatically import expenses and income.
Hurdlr is available on iTunes and Google Play.
5. MileIQ
If you don’t drive often for Uber or Lyft, MileIQ may be the app for you. The free version offers 40 free drives per month, though you can upgrade to unlimited drives for $5.99 per month.
Like other mileage tracking apps, MileIQ automatically captures your drives and delivers a comprehensive mileage log whenever you need it. You can classify your drives into categories like business, personal or charity and then simply swipe with your thumb to assign them to the correct list — or let MileIQ do it automatically.
MileIQ is available on iTunes and Google Play.
6. Mileage Expense Log
This free app stands out for its included rate book that allows users to quickly check mileage rates. As long as you keep your phone’s GPS turned on, Mileage Expense Log automatically tracks and logs all your drives.
If you’re a number cruncher, you’ll enjoy sorting data by date, purpose or even vehicle. Or you can export your entire database as HTML or CVS.
Mileage Expense Log is only available for iOS on iTunes and includes support for Apple Watch.
Lisa McGreevy is a former staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.