One of the biggest struggles we find as tax preparers is helping clients track their mileage each year. It’s hard to remember when you get in your vehicle to write down your mileage! However, writing off business or medical mileage is a great way to help you save on your tax bill.

Earlier last year, we were given the opportunity to test the unlimited version of the smartphone app MileIQ for possible promotion as a way to help our clients track their mileage. Having tested other apps and finding the lacking, we accepted the offer somewhat skeptically.

Much to our (pleasant!) surprise, we were presented a solid app that helps us track our mileage without even thinking about it.

So how does it work?

MileIQ runs in the background of your smartphone at all times and it detects when you’re traveling and where you travel through GPS technology. It does the majority of work for you. All you have to do is classify drives afterwards as personal or business with the swipe of your finger. You can further classify drives as what you were doing exactly (for example, shopping, doctors visits, client visits, meetings, etc.) and what vehicle you were in, if you have multiple vehicles.

You can choose to have the app send you a notification when you have drives to categorize, or you can just remember periodically to go back into your app and doing several days worth of drives at once.

As you categorize drives, you’ll see a running total at the top of the screen as to how much money you’ve “made” driving, and how many miles you’ve gone over time. At the end of the year, you can run a log of the year to submit with your taxes.

It’s without a doubt the most simple and efficient way we have personally found for logging mileage.

Now keep in mind, all good things do come at a cost. There is a free version of this application available, but it limits the number of drives it will log for you in a month. So if you travel a lot, the free version will leave you hanging… especially when you realize you could have multiple drives in a day.

The unlimited version costs $59.99 per year, or $5.99 a month. But as our client, we can offer you a 20% discount off the yearly plan if you use promo code MSCH227A.

MileIQ is available for both iPhone and Android systems.

 Disclaimer: We received this product for free in exchange for an unbiased review and promotion to our clients. The opinions and all statements in this review are 100% our own, and we do not receive compensation for this review.