Mileage Log Template
Business journeys recorded properly, totalled at your rate.
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| Claimant | [name] |
| Period | [date] to [date] |
| Rate | $ [amount] per km |
| Date | Route | Purpose | Km |
|---|---|---|---|
| [add one journey per line] |
| Total distance | 0 km |
| At $ [amount] per km | $ 0.00 |
Home to a permanent workplace is ordinary commuting and is not claimable. Journeys between sites, to customers and to suppliers are. Each entry needs a purpose specific enough that someone else could verify it.
What is a Mileage Log?
A mileage log records each business journey — date, route, purpose and distance — so the miles can be totalled and claimed at a per-mile rate. It exists because tax authorities will not take a round number on trust. When a claim is queried, the log is the evidence; without it, a deduction that looked settled can be disallowed years later, along with the interest that has accrued on it.
Employees claiming back business travel from an employer, directors reimbursing themselves from their own company, sole traders and contractors claiming a deduction, and anyone running a vehicle used for both work and personal trips all keep one. Delivery drivers, mobile trades, sales staff, carers and consultants generate the most entries. Employers also require logs before paying an approved mileage rate, because the payment is only free of tax where the underlying journeys were genuinely business ones and can be shown to have been.
The rate and the rules are national. HMRC publishes approved mileage allowance payment rates in the UK; the IRS sets a standard mileage rate each year in the US and requires a choice between that and actual expenses; the ATO in Australia caps the cents-per-kilometre method at a set number of kilometres; the CRA in Canada sets its own per-kilometre limits; in India the treatment usually runs through employer reimbursement policy and the relevant income tax rules rather than a single published per-kilometre deduction. Look up the current figure for your country and tax year before totalling anything.
The log records journeys; it does not decide which of them qualify. Ordinary commuting between home and a permanent workplace is generally not business travel, and writing it in the log does not make it so. The log also does not replace the receipts you may need for fuel, tolls, parking and congestion charges, which are treated separately from a per-mile rate in most systems. And it is not a substitute for the choice between a mileage rate and claiming actual running costs, which has consequences you should check first.
What to put in a Mileage Log
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Business name | For example: Barton Supply Co. |
| Your address | For example: Unit 7, Barton Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| Issued to (full name) | For example: James Whitfield |
| Period from | Free text |
| Period to | Free text |
| Distance unit | Free text |
| Rate per unit distance | For example: 12 |
| Journeys | One per line: Date | Route | Purpose | Distance |
How to write a Mileage Log
Record the odometer at the year start
Note the reading at the beginning of the period and again at the end. The difference gives total distance travelled; your business entries give the business portion; everything left is private. Without opening and closing readings, nobody can test whether the business miles you claim are plausible against the distance the vehicle actually covered, which is exactly the check an inspector runs first.
Log each journey on the day
Fill in the row when you get back to the car, not at the year end. Reconstructed logs read as reconstructed: identical round numbers, no odd distances, and journeys on days the diary shows you somewhere else. A phone note or a photograph of the odometer at each stop is enough to write up properly later, and it takes seconds.
Write the business purpose in full
Each row needs date, start point, destination, purpose and miles. Site visit, Meadow Lane development, meeting with the site manager is a purpose. Business is not. Name the client, the site or the meeting, because the purpose column is what turns a distance into a deductible journey when someone asks two years later why you drove to Leeds.
Separate business, private and commuting
Use three columns and put every journey in one of them. Detours matter: driving eight miles to a client and then four miles to collect shopping is not a twelve-mile business trip. Where a single journey mixes purposes, split it on the row and say how. Round trips should say so explicitly rather than being entered as a one-way distance.
Total and apply the current rate
At period end, total business miles and multiply by the approved rate for your country and tax year, applying any tiered band correctly — several systems pay a lower rate above a threshold, and the tiers reset in ways you should check. Show the calculation on the sheet. Keep the log with the year's records for as long as your tax authority requires, which is usually several years.
Common mistakes
- Writing up the whole year from memory in one sitting produces suspiciously tidy figures and is the pattern an inspector is trained to spot.
- Claiming home-to-office travel as business mileage is the most frequent disallowance, and it usually takes the credibility of the rest of the log with it.
- Using last year's rate because it was on the old spreadsheet either underclaims or overclaims, and only one of those is merely annoying.
- Leaving the purpose column as a single word makes each entry unverifiable, so a claim that was entirely genuine cannot be defended.
- Failing to record opening and closing odometer readings removes the only sanity check on the total, which invites the whole log to be questioned.
Frequently asked questions
What details does a mileage log need to be accepted?
As a minimum: the date, where you went from and to, the reason for the journey, and the distance. Opening and closing odometer readings for the period, and ideally per journey, make the log far harder to challenge. Keep it contemporaneous. Requirements vary by tax authority, so check the published guidance for your country before deciding what to leave out.
Can I use an app instead of a paper log?
Yes, in most systems. Tax authorities generally care that the record is accurate, complete and made at the time, not what it is written on. If you use tracking software, keep the exported records rather than relying on the app still existing at audit, and review automatic classifications — apps guess at purpose, and a wrong guess is still your claim.
Do I claim mileage or actual vehicle costs?
Both approaches exist in most systems and they are usually mutually exclusive for a given vehicle, sometimes for its whole life in the business. A per-mile rate is simpler and covers fuel, servicing, insurance and depreciation in one figure. Actual costs can be worth more for expensive or heavily used vehicles. The rules on switching are strict, so take advice before choosing.
How long do I need to keep the log?
Long enough to cover the period during which your tax authority can open an enquiry, which is several years in most countries and longer where a return was filed late or an error is suspected. Keep it with the rest of the year's records rather than in the glovebox, and keep a scanned copy — faded paper is a poor answer to a question about a journey four years ago.
Does the log need to include private journeys?
It does not usually need every private trip written out, but you do need to show the split. Opening and closing odometer readings plus a full record of business journeys let you derive private mileage as the balance. Where a vehicle is provided by an employer, private use may itself be taxable, and the rules for that are separate — check them.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.