IRS mileage tracking — logging trips, exporting your annual report

Self-employed? Track business miles per vehicle the way the IRS wants them, then export a clean annual report your accountant can drop straight into Schedule C. Available on Owner Pro and all Shop plans.

1. What the IRS requires

To deduct business miles (whether you use the standard mileage rate or the actual expense method), the IRS requires a contemporaneous log — meaning it's written close to when the trip happened, not reconstructed a year later. The log must capture four things per trip:

TemplateVault captures all four on every trip entry, tied to the VIN, and stores them in an immutable audit log.

2. Log a business trip

1. Open your dashboard and click the vehicle you drove. (Shop staff: same flow from the Shop Dashboard.)
2. Click Mileage Log → + Log trip.
3. Enter the date, start odometer, end odometer (TemplateVault calculates miles for you), destination, and business purpose.
4. Mark the trip Business (Personal trips are stored too, but excluded from the IRS report).
5. Click Save trip. The entry is timestamped and locked into the audit log.

3. Have a DIMO-connected vehicle? Even easier

If your vehicle is connected via DIMO, TemplateVault pulls trip data automatically — start/end odometer, distance, and timestamps. You only need to tag each trip as Business or Personal and add a destination/purpose for the business ones.

1. Open the vehicle and click Integrations → Connect DIMO.
2. Sign in to DIMO and authorize TemplateVault.
3. New trips appear in the Mileage Log automatically. Open each business trip, add purpose, and save.

4. Export your annual mileage report

1. Open Reports → IRS Mileage Report.
2. Pick the tax year (defaults to last completed calendar year).
3. If you drive multiple vehicles, pick a vehicle or choose All vehicles.
4. Click Export PDF for a printable report, or Export CSV if your accountant wants the raw rows.
5. The report includes: total business miles, total personal miles, total miles, per-trip detail, and the IRS standard mileage rate calculation for the year.

5. Standard mileage vs actual expenses

The IRS gives self-employed drivers two ways to deduct vehicle costs. You pick one method per vehicle per year (with restrictions on switching after the first year, especially if you've claimed depreciation).

• Standard mileage rate — multiply your business miles by the IRS standard mileage rate for the tax year. Simpler. TemplateVault's IRS Mileage Report does this calculation for you using the published annual rate.
• Actual expenses — track all vehicle expenses (fuel, insurance, repairs, depreciation) and deduct the business-use percentage. More paperwork, sometimes a bigger deduction for expensive or low-MPG vehicles. TemplateVault stores your repair receipts and parts costs per VIN, so the data your accountant needs is already in one place.

This article is a summary, not tax advice — confirm the method that suits your situation with a CPA.

6. What to keep in case of audit

• Your full annual mileage report (export and save the PDF at year-end).
• Your underlying trip records — TemplateVault keeps these in the immutable log so you can re-export anytime.
• Supporting documents that corroborate trip purpose: calendar invites, customer invoices, parts receipts. OCR Receipt Import stores parts-receipt photos against the vehicle automatically.
• If you also use actual expenses: vehicle repair receipts, fuel receipts, insurance docs.