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Entry of mileage information

robrob Member Posts: 1

I can't seem to find any way to enter business mileage. I haven't found a way to create the category under expenses, nor any way to enter business mileage.

I know there are other apps (MileIQ, TripLog, etc.) that can track mileage, but I'm wondering how self-employed people enter their business miles as expenses. I use my car, as well as my wife's, for a couple of different self-run businesses, and using mileage tracking for work related errands is a large part of my accounting needs.

Thanks for any information.

in Accounting Feature Ideas

Comments

  • Dante_BulluckDante_Bulluck Member Posts: 52 ✭✭

    Hi. Wave doesnt have a mileage tracking app but I use the bills tool to record a mileage expense when I need to. You can create a product for the per-mile rate, and add it as a product to a bill with the mile quantity to calculate the mileage expense...it's not perfect, but it works.

  • CharlotteCharlotte Member Posts: 671 admin

    Hi Rob! Just a note: I've gone ahead and removed your other post related to this issue in the Mobile topic because we've covered this here and that topic is generally for discussion of Wave's mobile apps - though I totally relate to your 'everything on mobile' philosophy. We can continue the discussion here if anyone else would like to jump in.)

  • Susan SimmonsSusan Simmons Member Posts: 2

    Hi, Charlotte! I got your message and your link to this discussion. I have created a category for mileage in the Accounting program, but I'm not sure how to enter all my mileage without it messing up my bank register. I'm not sure what the per mile product rule for the billing is (my bills to pay or invoicing?). Could the mileage totals be entered into the ledger - that way it doesn't affect the bank register?

  • CharlotteCharlotte Member Posts: 671 admin

    Hi Susan! Thanks for following up and apologies for my failure to respond here. Because our form doesn't have the ability to directly respond to someone who comments on a post, I didn't receive a notification that you had followed up. This is something we'll be changing very soon - stay tuned.

    To answer your question, you may find this blog helpful. You should be able to make a journal transaction applying $x amount to your vehicle expenses, and offsetting it with the same amount to Owner Investment (or Shareholder Loan).

  • jahydejahyde Member Posts: 5

    Mileage is a super important function that I have been waiting for years to see in Wave, and more specifically, with a mobile friendly method for employees to log with their daily time. Since it never got added, I was forced to use another accounting package that does everything Wave does including mobile time logging/mileage... I am urgently waiting to switch back to Wave, since it seems to work so much more smoother!!

  • ManiMani Member Posts: 82 ✭✭✭

    @jahyde what accounting packages did you consider when making your switch, including the one you use now? This helps inform us of the combination of solutions you find valuable in one place. There in turn, we can consider how to better serve your needs.

    We appreciate all this feedback regarding mileage tracking and will have our product teams look deeper at the need.

  • mirandakat07mirandakat07 Member Posts: 1

    Please add something similar to Quickbooks Self-Employed. I would really like to continue using Wave, but mileage is huge for me.

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi @mirandakat07.

    We do have a workaround available for handling mileage in Wave. If you can find it here. It's not perfect for every situation, but it does work for some of our users. Let us know if you have any questions on that.

  • cstadlercstadler Member Posts: 1

    Hi @Alexia . Thanks for the link. I found that article pretty helpful. But I'm wondering why you wouldn't just create one bill with all of your mileage for the year. Is there anything wrong with that, rather than creating a bill for each trip?

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @cstadler.

    You would have to look at the rules of your tax administration regarding mileage in that case. I know for sure that both the IRS and the CRA require detailed logs of every trip. You could create a single bill with every trip entered as separate items if that's what you mean.

  • jahydejahyde Member Posts: 5

    @Mani We looked at several, the main runners were Nutcache, Freshbooks, Zoho and Simple Invoices, we chose Nutcache for its time management options. A worker can easily "clock-in" at a customer location using a mobile app, once they clock out it is in the system, and they can leave some notes there on what was done and any expense items used. At the end of the day we then go through this list and generate invoices on all the logged time. The system asks what time period you would like to create invoices for, we pick 24 hours, or 7 days, etc, and then select which customers, and it batches them all in a single process and emails all the invoices out.

  • LJB2018LJB2018 Member Posts: 3

    Come on, guys, Mileage tracking is a REALLY obvious feature that you need to integrate into your app. There is no question. QuickBooks Self-Employed does it well. Pay someone to copy that design. It doesn't take much to understand why this is important.

  • AlexiaAlexia Member Posts: 3,314 ✭✭✭✭

    Hi, @LJB2018,

    I understand why you would expect a mileage tracking feature to be part of Wave. While this isn't something that's currently available as a dedicated feature, we do have a workflow to keep track of your mileage in Wave. It's very much a workaround, but it works for a lot of other Wavers and you might find that it works well for you as well. You can find it here. I hope that helps!

  • MissRosieMissRosie Member Posts: 5

    What would be an incredible update, if Wave wants to take accounting software by storm, is to not only integrate a mileage feature, but to create an app that detects mileage by GPS (which can be set to auto or manual), that automatically integrates into the Wave Accounting System.

    One step even further, would be to allow us to select our country, so that the detected mileage, not only updates into the accounting system, but also tells us how much we can claim (dollar amount) for each trip. Naturally you would need to keep constant check of any updates via country for charges, however I am also willing to bet many taxation departments would love to work with Wave in implementing this and keeping it up to date, if it guarantees that citizens are actually claiming the correct amount for their mileage.

    There are free apps that provide these options, but if it was all in one for Wave (ie. accounting, receipts + mileage), it would be creation the ultimate small business accounting system.

    I'm would even suggest many of us would pledge on Patreon for the creation of these features.

    Thank you for your consideration Wave, and again thank you for an amazing product.

    Rosie

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