Mileage Tracking

Capture business driving the moment it happens, let Kantivo apply the current IRS standard rate, and let the deductible amount flow into your expense ledger as a real journal entry.

Logging a Trip

Every business mile is potential deduction. Logging it in Kantivo builds the contemporaneous record the IRS wants if your deductions ever get questioned.

1. Open the Mileage Tracker from the sidebar (also accessible from Accountant Tools)
2. Click Log Trip
3. Set the date
4. Enter start and destination locations
5. Fill in distance (miles or kilometers based on your locale)
6. Pick a category for the trip purpose
7. Add an optional note explaining the business reason
8. Click Save

Importing Trips from QuickBooks

Moving from QuickBooks Online? Bring your whole mileage history with you instead of re-keying it.

1. In QuickBooks Online, open the Mileage page, set the date range you want, and click Export.
2. In Kantivo, open Mileage and click 📥 Import from QuickBooks.
3. Choose the exported file (.csv or .xlsx). Kantivo shows every trip it found: date, purpose, vehicle, miles, category and deduction.
4. Check the preview. Trips already in your log appear faded and are skipped, so importing the same file twice is harmless.
5. Click Import.

Business trips keep the deduction QuickBooks calculated, which used the IRS rate for each trip's date. That matters when your history spans more than one tax year. Personal trips, and any QuickBooks hadn't classified yet, come in with no deduction. A spreadsheet you kept yourself works too, as long as it has a Date column and a Miles (or Distance) column.

Trip Categories

Categories tag each trip with its purpose, which shows up in mileage reports and helps your tax preparer slice the data:

• Client visit — meetings, consultations, on-site work
• Errand / supplies — picking up materials or office supplies
• Between offices — driving between work locations
• Delivery — transporting goods or documents
• Conference / event — trade shows, training, industry events
• Other business — anything else with a qualifying business purpose

IRS Rates

Kantivo applies the current IRS standard mileage rate to the trip's distance to calculate the deductible amount. Rates update annually as the IRS publishes them.

The math: distance × IRS rate = deduction. A 45-mile client visit at $0.70/mile = $31.50 deductible.

Auto-Convert to Expense

Logged miles aren't expenses on their own — they're just records. Kantivo converts them into real journal entries when you're ready:

1. Open the Mileage Tracker summary
2. Select the trips you want to expense (or hit Select All)
3. Click Convert to Expense
4. Kantivo posts a journal entry — debit vehicle expense, credit the offset account you've configured
5. Converted trips are flagged so they don't get expensed twice

This is the path of least friction for getting mileage onto the books without doing arithmetic or creating individual transactions.

Mileage Reports

Run mileage summaries over any date range for tax prep, audit support, or expense reimbursement:

• Total miles for the period
• Total deduction at the applicable IRS rate
• By category — miles per trip purpose
• By month — monthly totals to see seasonality
• Trip detail — every individual trip with date, route, distance, purpose, and note

Export as PDF or CSV — share with your tax preparer or archive alongside year-end records.