Car Log Books – Throw Out Your Paper Logbook!
It seems like there is an app on your smartphone to make your life easier for everything these days. Gone are the days where you need to rely on pen and paper to manually record and keep track of everything.
The traditional car logbook can now be handled with an app that will make your life easier and your annual tax processing easier.
Business vehicle use impacts your tax accounting both in terms of ongoing expenses and end-of-year processing (such as Fringe Benefits Tax).
There are now better solutions than the traditional battered, semi-legible logbook that seems to have a habit of disappearing into the black hole in your filing cabinet or glove box. Remember anything you spend on these logbook apps are tax deductible.
Three that are worth exploring are:
- If you’re an individual or sole trader, the ATO’s app (which works well and meets all Australian requirements) allows you to record and manage your car trips, expenses, and other deductions on the go using myDeductions if you’re an individual or sole trader. This is a free app.
- Everlance tracks your trips automatically in the background on your smartphone using GPS. Trips can then be classified with a single swipe. At any time reports can be generated in Excel or PDF format. Your bank or credit card can be linked to track motor vehicle expenses such as fuel automatically with the ability to upload receipts and store them in the cloud. The cost of this app is $8 USD per month (tax deductible).
- Logit is Fleetcare’s ATO compliant logbook app and it makes keeping a vehicle logbook easy. Simply record journeys on your smartphone using GPS, and save them in an ATO compliant format for submission at a later date. This is a free app. The app is currently offline while they make further improvements but it is well worth looking at when it is released again.
Do you currently use an app to track your motor vehicle usage? What apps do you currently use and how effective have they been?
I would love to hear your comments.