Blog

The average American worker spends 25.4 minutes commuting to work, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of course, some workers spend much more time behind the wheel. The good news is that small business owners can often write off their mileage as a necessary business expense, assuming they must travel for work. But keeping up with how far you drive and when it’s always easy, especially when you’re busy performing the countless number of other tasks that go into running a successful business.

Well, it appears that Intuit has come up with a solution: automatic mileage tracking for users of its Quickbooks Self-Employed accounting software. As you may already know, Quickbooks Self-Employed is designed specifically for self-employed individuals who either run their own business or work as independent contractors. It’s a slimmer version than traditional desktop Quickbooks, yet it still offers all of the featured needed for small business owners and independent contractors.

So, how exactly does the automatic mileage tracking feature in Quickbooks Self-Employed work? The feature is connected directly to the Quickbooks Self-Employed mobile app. Once downloaded to your smartphone, it automatically tracks how many miles you’ve driven, recording this information directly in your Quickbooks Self-Employed account. There’s no need to manually log into your account to add mileage, as the app performs all of this work on your behalf.

Best of all, after making a business-related trip, you can log back into your Quickbooks Self-Employed account to see what deductions you’ve earned.

Intuit says this feature is beneficial for self-employed workers, including those who rely on daily commuting as part of their normal business operations. According to Intuit, for every 1,000 miles a business owner or self-employed worker drives, he or she can expect up to $500 in tax deductions. Of course, the IRS must see all trips in order to receive these deductions, including both business-related and personal trips. This adds another layer of complexity to the process of tracking mileage.

If you work as a driver for a ride-sharing service like Uber or Lfyt, chances are you’ll spend a significant amount of time behind the wheel. Keeping up with all of this mileage can be a painstaking process. Thanks to Intuit’s new automatic mileage tracking feature in Quickbooks Self-Employed, however, it’s now easier than ever to track mileage. Just download the app to your smartphone, make sure it’s running when you drive, and it does the rest!

What do you think of automatic mileage tracking being added to Quickbooks Self-Employed? Let us know in the comments section below!