The Pitfalls of Using a Mileage Tracker Spreadsheet

Keeping a mileage tracker spreadsheet is often considered a happy marriage of analog and more digital tracking methods. While it’s certainly better than jotting down odometer readings by hand, as anyone who’s ever had to use a spreadsheet before can tell you, this tracking method has some serious pitfalls that could be costing your organization time and money. 

The Reality of Manual Data Entry Errors

We need to acknowledge that any mileage tracking method relying on manual data entry is prone to errors, including your mileage tracker spreadsheet. Manual data entry errors, such as typographical mistakes and misplacing decimal points, are common when using spreadsheets. Though these errors might seem minor, they can accumulate significantly over time. In fact, research shows that 88% of spreadsheets contain errors. No matter how accurate your formulas are, a simple error in one cell—such as typing 8,5 instead of 8.5—can easily affect calculations downstream. 

Logs with overstated or understated mileage claims can be a significant challenge for your organization. If incorrect figures consistently appear in an employee’s spreadsheet, it can lead to inaccurate mileage reimbursements. These errors can become major issues during an audit. If you underpaid, you might owe employees retroactively; if you overpaid, you face the uncomfortable situation of asking employees to return the excess funds or writing them off as a loss.

Time Consumption

Time is money, and wasted time is wasted money, right? So what do you call a mileage tracker spreadsheet? They may be faster than actually using a pen and paper, but manually typing in data into spreadsheets is still a time-intensive process. The time your employees spend staring at a computer screen doing data entry for their mileage log is time that could be much better utilized elsewhere – like performing their actual job duties, for example. And make no mistake, that wasted time has a financial impact! Lost time means lost productivity costs, not to mention the lost opportunity costs of your hardworking employees’ precious time. 

Messy and Disorganized Spreadsheets

Organization is a key component of well-kept records. While a mileage tracker spreadsheet may seem like a good system for mileage reimbursement logs at first, keeping important mileage data in spreadsheets can quickly become overly cluttered and difficult to effectively manage. 

Besides the obvious downside of inconsistent formatting between different employees’ mileage sheets, organizations will also be faced with the problem of overlapping data. It can also be difficult with a mileage tracker spreadsheet to find and update specific entries quickly and easily. 

Disorganized spreadsheets also have a severe impact on not only data retrieval, but the ability to analyze data to seek out patterns of behavior and noncompliant reporting behavior. This disorganization will only cause further problems, like increased amounts of time finding and correcting log information, and higher operating costs due to inefficient data management.

Potential for Non-Compliance With Regulations

While we talk about convenience, ease, and efficiency, never forget the primary function of mileage tracking logs: to maintain regulation with IRS regulations for mileage reimbursement. While the IRS doesn’t dictate how mileage logs are kept, they do require that all mileage reimbursement logs are completed and submitted in a timely fashion, and that they contain the trip’s mileage, time and date, location, and business purpose. 

Let’s say each of your employees use a mileage tracker spreadsheet to keep track of their work travel for reimbursement. If those mileage logs contain incomplete or missing entries, or aren’t properly organized, this could lead to the IRS rejecting the mileage log. This kind of noncompliance could incur costly fines or penalties. Additionally, unorganized and noncompliant logs will make it difficult to prove an audit trail if and when your organization ever has to prove one, causing further headaches. 

Advantages of Automated Systems Over Spreadsheets

All this talk of possible mileage tracker spreadsheet snafus must have you wondering: Surely there’s a better way to keep track of mileage for reimbursement, right? And there is! As technology improves, more and more businesses with high numbers of mobile employees are moving to using mileage tracking software, letting automation take over logging from manual methods like the spreadsheets, or pen-and-paper mileage logs. 

Automated systems offer a huge improvement from more analog mileage tracking methods in a number of ways. Automating the logging process instead of relying on manual data entry immediately introduces an uptick in accuracy, reducing the margin for error, and even the opportunity for employees to make errors that will end up in their mileage logs. Automated mileage tracking software is also extremely customizable and centralized, increasing the organization and ease of access of your employees’ mileage logs. These benefits will also create a massive increase in time efficiency, as employees can put all of their attention on doing their jobs instead of carefully keeping track of and recording mileage data. 

Automated systems also offer features that greatly benefit management and supervisors within companies that require mileage tracking. Automated systems and processes make it much easier to prove an audit trail for the IRS. Additionally, mileage reimbursement software offers greater oversight and transparency, with real-time data entry and consistent, automated updates. Automating reimbursement tracking also means automating reimbursement itself, integrating with payroll systems for faster, more efficient payments, boosting employee morale. 

CompanyMileage: Automated Mileage Tracking Made Easy 

CompanyMileage is here to offer a more advanced software solution for mileage reimbursement, without sacrificing efficiency or ease of use! Let spreadsheets and mileage logs become a thing of the past. SureMileage, our mileage reimbursement software, makes odometer readings and mileage calculations a thing of the past, using a unique point-to-point calculation method to determine the mileage for reimbursement, while tracking all relevant information to remain compliant with IRS mileage log rules.

SureMobile, our mileage tracking app, your organization’s mobile employees can record, organize and submit their trip data with a simple touch of a button right from their smartphones! Once submitted, reimbursement reports move through an automated approval workflow that integrates with all major and accounting software, streamlining the approval process at every level within your organization. 

To find out more about how saving time and energy on mileage logs can also save you money, contact CompanyMileage for a demo today!