How do you distinguish between normal mileage and work mileage? Specifically, how do you distinguish between “home-to-work/work-to-home” commuting and “work-to-site/site-to-work” commuting?
The question above was posted on LinkedIn and I figured it would be important for Quino readers to know. Not to mention, I have dealt with this problem myself when recording my mileage.
Devesh Dwivedi on LinkedIn says, “If the employee goes to a client site and the mileage is less than normal commute (normal commute being, his home to your office/ primary place of him employment) then there’s no reimbursement however, anything traveled more than the normal commute should be reimbursed.
For example, if the employee visits a client 10 miles from his home and does not come in to office that day, the 20 miles roundtrip drive of the day will not be reimbursed for (being under the normal commute 40miles round trip in your case) however, if the employee visits the client plus comes at work then miles over normal commute should be reimbursed (20 miles in this case).” http://www.linkedin.com/answers/hiring-human-resources/personnel-policies/HRH_PPO/277363-230164?searchIdx=0&sik=1258516961637&goback=%2Easr_1_1258516961637
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In addition, in my situation, I was using my car to get to and from networking events. Some days I would go to the networking event from home and then go to the office after the networking event. Adhering to the processes set by my company, I would subtract 14 kilometres (my daily commute to work from home) from the kilometres accumulated to the networking event and back to the office. The Calculation would be 30 kilometres (mileage to networking event from home) + 40 kilometres (mileage from networking event to office) – 14 kilometres (daily commute to work from home) = 56 kilometres; therefore, after my calculation I am entitled to 56 kilometres for reimbursement.
As always, consult your accountant to be informed of your company’s specific tactics when addressing this issue. OR if you want to consult the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) go to http://www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/travel.asp#commtime.
-Ashton Byrne, Marketing Coordinator for Quino Solutions Inc.
An article published by eHow.com opened my eyes. “How to Keep Vehicle Mileage Tax Records” was posted 2 or 3 years ago, it opened my eyes to how complicated it can be to track your mileage with a pen and paper.
Nowadays everything is moving to digital. Why? It is easier and faster to work digitally than using any technologies of the past.
Again, throw out your log books. They aren’t worth the stress anymore. Quino Solutions’ MileTracer tracks your mileage automatically; you buy the MileTracer you buy into efficiency. According to eHow.com there are 25 steps to tracking your mileage manually:
Step 1: Get a notebook and a pen with a pocket clip. Clip pen to notebook.
Step 2: Designate a readily accessible spot in your vehicle for the notebook and pen.
Step 3: Write in the notebook the odometer reading of your vehicle every January 1 ‘ or the odometer reading on the date you begin using the vehicle for business.
Step 4: Label a file folder, “Vehicle Expenses,” and write on the folder the current year.
Step 5: Designate a handy place to keep the file folder. The glove compartment is a possible location.
Step 1: Write down the date, the number of miles driven and the business purpose for each business errand or trip, in one section of notebook.
Step 2: Continue to add each trip to the list.
… And the steps go on and on and on
How does that compare to Quino Solutions MileTracer? It takes only 4 steps to track your mileage with Quino Solutions’ MileTracer.
Step 1: Leave device in vehicle
Step 2: Plug device into PC via USB
Step 3: Filter your information
Step 4: Export to excel and add any other vehicle expenses
It is 6 times more efficient to track your mileage with the MileTracer then it is to use a pen and paper. How about that for efficiency?
- Ashton Byrne, Marketing Coordinator for Quino Solutions
A blog post from Quino Solutions’ old website… Worth reading
As a small business owner, reviewing costs and analyzing what is best for the company’s cash flow is at the forefront of my mind daily.
We recently hired a salesman for our company. We had never had anyone dedicated to sales before so the expenses arising were new to me.
I contacted our outside accountant and viewed the Revenue Canada website. I confirmed that the prescribed rate to reimburse an employee was 52 cents per km to cover gas, insurance and car payments etc. So I notified our salesman to keep track of his business km driven for business purposes using our “MileTracer” product. The system works beautifully. He checks his mileage report from our “MileTracer” product and reports it to me at the end of each month.
The other owner of the business reviewed the expense report and said that looks a little high to me, wouldn’t it be cheaper just to pay for a company car and pay the gas and insurance costs? Well, I had been paying about $200 a month to cover the mileage km driven. So I immediately began to create a cost benefit of the situation.
It would cost about $200 a month in car payments for a compact car. About $1,600 per year in insurance and on top of that about $100 a month is gas receipts. There is no mention in this scenario yet of car repairs and maintenance. It was clear that reimbursing by the km was a lot better for our small business as cash flow is king.
The only scenario is where a sales rep drives many km per week and is constantly on the road. If a sales rep averaged 200 km per day in driving. I had met one once who worked for McCain’s and drove constantly from one supermarket to another. They would average about 200 km (day) x .52 cents = $104 in mileage costs times around 22 days per month – this bill would be $2,288 monthly to the company. In an instance such as this with a salesman constantly on the road it definitely makes sense to foot the bill for the car payment and the insurance etc.
So, the results are if you have a salesman who just visits a few customers around town then definitely go with the mileage reimbursement based on km driven. If you do, however. have a salesman who is constantly on the road for days at a time it is definitely cheaper to go with paying for a company car.
- Natalie Pinter, VP Finance of Quino Solutions
