Last updated: May 28, 2024
In today’s fast-paced business environment, keeping accurate mileage logs is crucial for businesses and self-employed individuals alike. These logs are essential for tax deductions, reimbursements, and regulatory compliance. Traditional mileage logging methods, however, often present significant challenges such as manual entry errors and time-consuming processes. Even with the advent of mileage logging apps, many of these challenges persist, leaving room for improvement.
Enter artificial intelligence (AI), a transformative technology that offers innovative solutions to these longstanding problems. This article delves into how AI can streamline mileage logging and introduces MileageWise’s AI Wizard, showcasing its features, benefits, and market-leading capabilities.
Technology on the side of mileage loggers
Artificial intelligence can speed up various processes in a way that has never been seen before. Development in the various fields of production can only be limited by human imagination.
For example, for a very long period, people thought about the task of mileage logbook keeping as a manual activity, requiring a physical pen and paper done without the help of any mobile application, software, or other online tools. But despite this common belief and practice Mileage tracker apps and mileage logging Software Solutions are already on the market.
Mileage tracker apps are useful for those who need to track their mileage to be prepared for the upcoming tax season. However, by combining continuously accurate mile tracking with advanced AI technology, generating monthly mileage logs that comply with IRS guidelines becomes effortless.
Download MileageWise’s automatic mileage tracker app from Google Play or the App Store & try it for free for 14 days. No credit card required!
join the ai mileage logging revolution
The Challenges of IRS Mileage Log Requirements
There are numerous pieces of information and circumstances a taxpayer has to pay attention to when keeping a mileage log on paper. In theory, it looks like an easy task to keep track of trips. In practice, the IRS can request all of the taxpayer’s business data: Business expense reports, Odometer readings recorded at the Mechanic, Traffic cams, Tolls, Fees, etc.
For example, one cannot report more mileage than it is possible to drive based on the size of a vehicle’s tank. An inspector can calculate that information. Or, in the case of an IRS Audit, if they check the taxpayer’s current odometer reading and the numbers don’t match with what the odometer is supposed to show according to the mileage logs that will lead to a penalty. If these documents do not match with the data in the mileage logs an IRS Fine may be enormous.
According to Publication 463 of the IRS:
“If you use your car for both Business and Personal purposes, you must divide your expenses between Business and Personal use. You can divide your expense based on the miles driven for each purpose.”
What about inaccurate, fragmented, semi-finished, or non-existing Mileage logs?
Without proof of one’s Personal trips, proving the Ratio of a taxpayer’s Business and Personal trips is not possible. Both Personal and Business Mileage should be recorded but only the Business driving purpose is deductible.
Sometimes Mileage Tracker Apps promise they are going to start working automatically with the start of one’s phone, then they fail to deliver on that promise leaving users with fragmented mileage logs at the end of the month.
The presence of AI technology in the Mileage Logging Market
There are three fundamental ways to use artificial intelligence on the market: machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision.
A new way of ensuring that a mileage log is “IRS-Proof”, containing zero contradicting information and gaps between trips and deficits in the total mileage, is utilizing AI- technology – specifically, machine learning -, to check finished documents and to offer an improved mileage log draft that takes into account the user’s habits and pre-set parameters.
Not to mention that by using AI the whole process of creating a monthly mileage log can be reduced to approximately 7 minutes, which is a fraction of the time it takes to create handwritten mileage logs.
MileageWise has developed and inserted an AI-based tool called the AI Wizard feature into their mileage Logging Software, which is based on the aforementioned mechanisms. This AI-based approach is unprecedented when it comes to Mileage trackers and mileage Logging Software Solutions in the U.S. market and it provides users with never-before-seen benefits. Users will be able to create IRS-Proof documents in a matter of minutes.
MileageWise’s AI Recommendation Wizard
MileageWise has a two-platform formula to cover a full service for its users: A Mileage Tracker App for recording daily mileage on the go and a Web Dashboard where, with the help of the AI-based AI Wizard feature, users can pre-set their daily driving habits (such as their working hours, holiday dates, recurring daily trips).
Based on these settings and the information that the software gathers through the daily use of the Mileage Tracker App and the Web Dashboard, it will generate a mileage Log Recommendation for the user by auto-populating the driver’s former trips and even import data from Excel or Google Sheets and Google Timeline.
Furthermore, the Odometer reading in the produced mileage log draft will correspond to the Odometer reading found in the user’s vehicle. The program will also check and correct 70 logical conflicts in the mileage log to ensure that the content is IRS-compliant.
Download MileageWise’s automatic mileage tracker app from Google Play or the App Store & try it for free for 14 days.
Main features of the AI Wizard
Retrospective Log Creation
Assists users in creating mileage logs retrospectively, ideal for those who haven’t tracked their trips previously and need to compile a comprehensive log for tax or reimbursement purposes.
Gap-filling
You can also use the feature to recreate the miles you might have missed due to technical issues or forgetfulness. Even if your device runs out of juice or you are using manual logging and you forget to log trips, The AI Wizard will recommend trips that will result in the largest deduction possible according to your travel history.
Customized Settings
When utilizing the AI Wizard, you can set it to create trips for a certain amount of miles or the amount of possible deductions you require. The program not only uses your previous trips and clients for trip creation but also gives you the option to set your own expectations for a more optimized result. These settings are the following:
- Maximum travel distance for a day,
- Minimum and maximum number of trips for a day
- Using nearby or close client destinations
- How often to use a client in the month
As it says in the name, the AI Recommendation Wizard’s results are “only” recommendations. You have the authority to make edits and also to re-run the Wizard for alternative results until you receive a result to your liking.
FAQs
What are the primary ways AI is utilized in the market?
Artificial intelligence is mainly applied through machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision, each facilitating unprecedented advancements in their respective fields.
How does AI technology transform mileage logging?
Traditionally seen as a manual task, mileage logging has been revolutionized by AI, particularly with apps and software solutions. These tools offer accurate, IRS-compliant mileage tracking and reporting, shifting the perception and practice of mileage logging.
What challenges exist with traditional mileage logs?
Manual mileage logs often face issues of inaccuracy, incompleteness, and inconsistency, leading to potential IRS audits and fines. The meticulous detail required can be overwhelming and prone to errors.
How does AI address these challenges?
AI technology, through mechanisms like machine learning, evaluates and improves mileage logs by identifying and correcting inconsistencies, filling in gaps, and tailoring recommendations to individual habits and parameters. This results in an efficient, compliant mileage log creation process.
What is MileageWise, and how does it incorporate AI?
MileageWise utilizes AI to offer a unique mileage logging solution. Its AI Wizard feature assists in creating comprehensive, IRS-proof mileage logs quickly by analyzing driving habits, auto-populating trips, and correcting logical conflicts.
What are the main features of the AI Wizard?
The AI Wizard supports retrospective log creation, gap filling, and customized settings for optimized mileage logging. It ensures that logs are IRS-compliant and maximizes deductions, with the flexibility to adjust recommendations as needed.
