If you are an accountant providing bookkeeping services, dealing with your client’s travelling expenses can be a frustrating task. Especially trawling through their (probably incomplete) mileage records? And worse: don’t you resent the time it takes to try and translate these records into coherent figures so that tax deductions and reimbursements can be claimed?
In the past, businesses would often lease cars to employees; however, company cars are not particularly tax efficient. As such, I am now starting to see more and more people use their personal cars for business use. This means keeping a track of how many miles employees have done so they can expense it later, which can often be a bit of a guessing game.
The modern-day answer to this problem? Mileage apps. These days, there’s an app for everything – so, I bet it’s no surprise to learn there’s an app for tracking miles too! Apps such as Mile IQ, TripLog and SAP Concur automatically log miles as they’re being driven, so it couldn’t be simpler to keep track…
Automate your workload
As a Managing Director, I understand how much of a challenge it can be when records are patchy or inaccurate – and I’m sure that as an accountant, you know this better than anyone! If you’ve ever had to go through a client’s mileage records, you’ll also know just how dry and time-consuming it can be.
But thanks to automatic tracking and clients being able to immediately upload their miles, you can forget the days of incomplete records. By providing a holistic view of how many miles an individual travels during any given period, mileage apps make it much easier to see how much they need to be reimbursed. These simple apps will also give you the accurate information needed for a range of business purposes such as filing taxes or expense reporting.
Mileage apps will make your job as an accountant much easier and help you to gain back valuable hours, meaning you can focus on more important tasks instead. So, believe me when I say you’ll see a significant spike in productivity levels, as well as fewer headaches, once your client has incorporated a mileage app into their work-life or company.
Removing the guesswork
In the fast-paced world of business, I know few individuals have the time or inclination to sit down and attempt to remember where they travelled to and from, when the journey took place, how many miles it was and why they took that journey in the first place. But as a company, it is important to keep track of how many miles employees are racking up and, ultimately, how much money they are spending on fuel.
Mileage apps will remove the guesswork and ensure 100% accuracy. This allows employees to submit precise expense claims without any hassle while giving your client’s company a reliable and easy way to track how many miles have been driven and for which purpose – meaning they won’t have to worry about possible overpayments or incorrect predictions.
To comply with HMRC regulations, mileage records (along with all other ones) must also be kept for up to six years, so a mileage app is a simple way to keep this information together in one place. What’s more, as all of the data is logged to a Cloud database, it will be accessible across multiple devices from any location.
Do you need a helping hand? Get in touch today to find out more about how mileage apps and Pro Drive IT can help you to manage your client’s expenses.
