Vehicle & Mileage Logs

Track vehicle mileage, fuel costs, and maintenance for your fleet.

Vehicle Logs & Fleet Tracking

The Vehicle Logs plugin helps contractors track mileage, maintenance, fuel, and expenses for every vehicle in their fleet—critical for tax deductions, cost control, and compliance.

What This Feature Does

  • Log business vs. personal mileage per trip.
  • Record fuel purchases, maintenance, repairs, insurance, registration.
  • Schedule and track preventive maintenance (oil changes, tire rotations, inspections).
  • Generate IRS-ready mileage reports and fleet cost summaries.

When To Use It

  • You have one or more vehicles used for business.
  • You need to separate business/personal mileage for tax purposes.
  • You want to control fleet operating costs.

Core Concepts

Vehicles

Each vehicle record stores:

  • Year, make, model, VIN, license plate, GVWR.
  • Ownership type: owned, leased, personal (reimbursed).
  • Assigned driver/crew.
  • Odometer baseline (starting reading).

Trips

A trip is a single business journey:

  • Date, start/end location, purpose (job site, supply run, client meeting, etc.).
  • Start/end odometer or GPS distance.
  • Auto-calculates business miles.
  • Optional: link to a Job/Task for job-costing.

Expenses

Any cost tied to a vehicle:

  • Fuel (gallons, price/gal, total, receipt photo).
  • Maintenance/Repair (vendor, description, cost, receipt).
  • Insurance, registration, tolls, parking, washes.
  • Category tags for reporting.

Maintenance Schedules

Recurring service intervals per vehicle:

  • Mileage-based (every 5,000 mi) or time-based (every 6 months).
  • Service type: oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection, DOT inspection, etc.
  • Due alerts sent to assigned driver and fleet admin.

Setup Checklist

  1. Open Vehicle Logs plugin.
  2. Add each vehicle—enter VIN, plate, baseline odometer.
  3. Assign primary driver.
  4. Create maintenance templates (e.g., "Standard Oil Change – 5k mi").
  5. Apply templates to vehicles to activate schedules.
  6. Set notification preferences (email, in-app, SMS).
  7. Import historical fuel/maintenance data via CSV if desired.

Daily Workflows

Logging A Trip (Mobile Friendly)

  1. Open app, tap New Trip.
  2. Select vehicle (defaults to your assigned).
  3. Enter purpose, start/end address (or use GPS).
  4. Odometer auto-fills if you enter start/end readings.
  5. Save—trip appears in log with business miles calculated.

Logging Fuel At The Pump

  1. Tap New Expense → Fuel.
  2. Enter gallons, price/gal, total (any two calculates the third).
  3. Snap receipt photo.
  4. Odometer reading captured automatically.
  5. Save—updates fuel economy stats.

Logging Maintenance

  1. Open vehicle, tap Log Maintenance.
  2. Pick template or custom entry.
  3. Enter vendor, cost, odometer, notes.
  4. Save—next due date recalculates.

Completing A Scheduled Service

  1. Alert: "Vehicle #12 – Oil Change Due".
  2. Tap alert, click Complete.
  3. Confirm details, add receipt.
  4. Schedule advances to next interval.

Reporting

Mileage Report (IRS Compliant)

  • Date range filter.
  • Columns: Date, Vehicle, Purpose, Start/End Location, Business Miles, Personal Miles.
  • Export CSV/PDF for tax preparer.

Fleet Cost Summary

  • Total cost per vehicle (fuel, maintenance, insurance, other).
  • Cost per mile.
  • Fuel economy trend (MPG over time).
  • Upcoming maintenance calendar view.

Job Cost Allocation

  • Trips linked to jobs roll into job financials.
  • See vehicle cost as line item on job P&L.

Best Practices

  • Require daily trip logging—set end-of-day reminder.
  • Use GPS auto-capture on mobile to reduce manual entry.
  • Reconcile fuel receipts weekly against credit card statements.
  • Schedule maintenance during off-peak weeks.
  • Archive sold/retired vehicles—keeps history for audit.

Common Issues And Fixes

Missing Miles On Report

  • Check for trips marked "Personal" or "Uncategorized".
  • Verify odometer readings aren't decreasing (data entry error).
  • Ensure date range covers the period.

Maintenance Alerts Not Firing

  • Confirm schedule is active on vehicle.
  • Check notification settings for driver and admin.
  • Verify odometer is being updated (fuel/trip logs feed it).

Fuel Economy Looks Wrong

  • Ensure every fill-up is logged (partial fills skew average).
  • Check for duplicate or zero-gallon entries.
  • Use "Full Tank" toggle consistently.

SEO Context

This page supports contractor software, contractor management software, and construction time tracking software keywords for fleet operations and mileage tracking.

Related Docs

  • Equipment Tracking: /docs/plugin-equipment
  • Expense Tracking: /docs/core-expenses
  • Project Management & Tasks: /docs/plugin-tasks

Last updated: 2026-07-19