Mileage tracking
Can you track mileage without an app? (Yes, but you probably shouldn't)
Manual mileage tracking with a notebook or spreadsheet is still allowed by the IRS — here's why almost no contractors do it well.
By MileTracker · March 30, 2026 · 6 min read
Yes, you can technically track mileage in a notebook or a spreadsheet. The IRS does not require an app. The catch is that very few people actually keep up with manual tracking.
The math on manual tracking
If you drive 8 business trips a day, that's 40 trips a week, or 2,000 trips a year. Logging each by hand takes about a minute. That's over 33 hours a year of recordkeeping — and you'll forget at least 10–20% of trips.
Why automatic wins
Automatic tracking with one-tap classification takes about 30 seconds a day and catches every trip.
MileTracker detects every drive in the background, lets you classify business or personal in one tap, and exports an IRS-ready PDF and CSV at tax time. Download MileTracker free on the App Store.