Track mileage and claim deductions in Studio

The Mileage page keeps a logbook of your drives, tells business from personal, and turns business miles into a deduction with the rate you enter. Its tabs are Trips, Vehicles, Rates, Rules and Reports. AceMoney Studio Mobile, coming to iPhone and Android with version 1.2, adds a Tracking tab that detects drives automatically. Distances are entered and shown in miles. Manual trips, vehicles, rates, rules, reports and posting a trip as an expense are free; the tax-pack export and classifying automatic trips past the free cap need the Mileage plan, which AceMoney Cloud includes.

Before you begin

To see a deduction, add a rate on the Rates tab first. Studio ships no rates.

Add a trip

Open Mileage, stay on Trips and choose Add trip.
Pick a Vehicle (optional); your default vehicle is preselected.
Set Start and End (a date picker, then a time picker each).
Enter Distance (miles).
Fill in Purpose (optional), which the reports and the expense use, and Note (optional).
Enter Odometer start or Odometer end if you keep them; enter one and the other is filled from the distance.
Choose Unclassified, Business or Personal, then Add.

Trips are listed newest first; the icon at the left shows Manual entry or Auto-tracked.

Classify trips

Every trip carries Unclassified, Business or Personal in the dropdown at the right of its row. In the phone app (from version 1.2), swipe a row to the right for Business or to the left for Personal; the row stays where it is. Only business trips count toward a deduction.

Add your vehicles

On Vehicles, choose Add vehicle and enter Vehicle name, License plate (optional) and Starting odometer (optional). The star on a row sets the Default vehicle used by new trips. Delete vehicle removes it from the picker; existing trips keep it, shown as “(deleted)”.

Enter a mileage rate

On Rates, choose Add rate.
Enter the Jurisdiction (e.g. US, UK, CA), the Year and the Category (the default is “business”).
Enter Rate per unit and pick per mile or per km.
Set Effective from; it defaults to 1 January of the year.
Choose Add.

A trip uses the rate for its jurisdiction and category that was in effect on the trip’s date. Rates are not deleted; a newer Effective from date supersedes an older one, so a rate change mid-year is two rows.

Auto-classify with rules

On Rules, choose Add rule to classify future trips for you: give it a Label, pick what it Matches (Near a place, A specific route or Commute (excluded)), choose Classify as Business or Personal, enter the point or points as Latitude and Longitude (copy them from a maps app), set the Match radius (meters) and leave Active on. Rules apply only to trips that arrive unclassified; trips already classified are never changed.

Run a mileage report

Open Reports on the Mileage page, pick a Period (the current month by default) and, if you have rates for more than one jurisdiction, pick Rate for. Three cards show Business, Personal and Unclassified trips with their counts and miles; the Business card adds Deduction: with the total at the rate that applies. A note tells you when some trips have no matching rate and were excluded.

Export the tax pack

With the Mileage plan or AceMoney Cloud, the Reports tab shows Tax pack (CSV). It exports the business trips of the period with the columns Date, Vehicle, Purpose, Distance and Deduction, plus a total row, for one jurisdiction at a time. On desktop a save dialog opens; on a phone the share sheet. Without the plan the button reads Unlock the tax report; on a computer it explains the plan, and in AceMoney Studio Mobile (from version 1.2) it opens the AceMoney Cloud offer, and is hidden where that offer is not available. On a computer, Studio sees your Mileage plan or AceMoney Cloud subscription when you are signed in with the account that holds it (Settings ▸ Account).

Post a trip as an expense

A business trip can become a transaction in your register so the deduction shows in your books.

On Trips, choose Post as expense on a Business trip.
In Post trip as expense, pick the Account and, if needed, Rate for.
The category is fixed to Vehicle:Mileage (created for you) and the Amount is distance times rate, not editable. Adjust the Comment if you like.
Choose Post. The row now shows a check, Posted as an expense.

See the route of a trip

A trip detected on a phone (from version 1.2) keeps its route: open it with Edit trip and a map card shows the path. Map tiles are downloaded from a public map service only when you open such a trip. Manual trips have no route.

Automatic tracking on your phone

In the phone app the Tracking tab holds Automatic tracking. Only one app on a phone can track drives at a time, so trips are never recorded twice:

If AceMoney Receipts is installed, Receipts tracks the drives. The switch Track mileage in this app stays off, and its subtitle says drives are recorded in AceMoney Receipts and appear here automatically.
If AceMoney Receipts is not installed, turn Track mileage in this app on. Studio then records drives into its own logbook.

Turn detection on

Under Detection, choose Enable automatic tracking.
Read the Automatic mileage tracking notice (location is used in the background only while you drive, stays on your device, and can be turned off at any time), choose Continue, then allow location when the system asks.
After your first trips, the card Get automatic detection appears. Choose Upgrade and allow location Always, so drives are detected without opening the app; the system prompt repeats that location is used in the background only while you drive.
Choose Allow on Motion & activity access; motion activity tells driving from walking, so only real drives are logged and battery is saved.
Choose Allow on Notifications to be told when a drive is detected.

When a step needs the system settings, the button reads Open Settings instead.

Battery usage

Pick Battery saver (only very confident trips record), Balanced (recommended) or High accuracy (faster detection, more battery). On Android, Advanced ▸ Exempt from battery optimization ▸ Enable stops the system from pausing detection on some phones. A line saying Reduced detection means battery saver on the phone is limiting background checks.

Detected trips carry a badge (High, Medium or Low confidence); their date, time and distance are locked because they came from GPS.

The free cap and the Mileage plan

Manual trips are free and unlimited. In the phone app (from version 1.2), automatically detected trips are free up to 20 per calendar month; a line above the list counts them, with Get Mileage at the right, which opens the AceMoney Cloud offer (it is hidden where that offer is not available). Trips past the cap are still recorded but show Locked — unlock to classify and stay out of reports until the Mileage plan (or AceMoney Cloud) unlocks them, retroactively. The plan also enables the Tax pack (CSV) export.

The Mileage plan is one yearly purchase that unlocks unlimited automatic trips on every AceMoney app you use, and AceMoney Cloud includes it. On a computer, Studio does not sell it; the Get Mileage dialog only explains it. In AceMoney Studio Mobile (from version 1.2), Get Mileage and Unlock the tax report open the AceMoney Cloud offer instead, and are hidden where it is not offered. For where to buy it, see pricing.

macOS

No Tracking tab and no automatic detection; every trip is entered by hand.

Windows

Same as macOS.

Linux

Same as macOS.

iOS (iPhone and iPad)

From version 1.2 (AceMoney Studio Mobile): the same tabs plus Tracking. Studio detects drives itself only when AceMoney Receipts is not installed on the same phone; when it is, Receipts tracks and its drives appear in Studio.

Android

Same as iOS.

Common questions

Is mileage tracking free?

Trips, vehicles, rates, rules, reports and posting a trip as an expense are free. The Mileage plan, also included in AceMoney Cloud, adds the tax-pack CSV and unlimited automatic trips.

Which rate should I enter?

The standard mileage rate your tax authority publishes for the year. Studio does not include rates; enter the number from the official source and its effective date.

Can I enter kilometers?

Distances are entered in miles. A rate can be per km, and Studio converts.

Will drives recorded in AceMoney Receipts show up in Studio?

On the same phone, yes, once mileage arrives in AceMoney Receipts 2.0 and AceMoney Studio Mobile is released with version 1.2. Studio and Receipts share one drive log on that phone: when AceMoney Receipts does the tracking, its detected drives appear on Studio’s Trips tab by themselves, and the Track mileage in this app subtitle says so. Studio on a computer does not receive them; add such trips there with Add trip.

Why does the phone need “Always” location?

Detection watches for the start of a drive while the app is closed; with access only while using the app, drives are recorded only while Studio is open. Location stays on your device.

Can I edit an automatically detected trip?

Everything except the date, time and distance, which are locked because they came from GPS.

Troubleshooting

Reports says “Add a rate in the Rates tab to see a deduction total.” No rate exists yet. Add one on Rates with the right jurisdiction and year.

“No rate configured for” my jurisdiction when posting a trip. The trip’s date is before the Effective from of every rate for that jurisdiction. Add a rate whose effective date covers the trip.

“Add an account first.” Posting an expense needs an account. Create one on Accounts.

The Business card excludes some trips. Their jurisdiction has no rate for their year. Add the missing rate or pick another Rate for.

No drives are detected. Check that Track mileage in this app is on, that location is Always with precise location, and that AceMoney Receipts is not installed (it takes over tracking). A new drive can take a few minutes to appear.

“Currently tracked by another app on this device”. Another AceMoney app owns tracking on this phone. Record drives there, or uninstall it and turn the switch on in Studio.

Trips show “Locked — unlock to classify”. You have passed 20 automatic trips this month. Classify manual trips as usual; locked trips unlock with the Mileage plan or AceMoney Cloud.

The tax pack is still locked after I bought the Mileage plan or AceMoney Cloud. Open Settings ▸ Account and sign in with the account that holds the purchase.

“Reduced detection — battery saver is limiting background checks”. The phone’s battery saver is on. Turn it off, or on Android choose Exempt from battery optimization.

Mileage tracking in AceMoney Receipts
Mileage trips, vehicles and rates in Receipts
Receipts Pro and the Mileage plan
Categories and budgets
Export and print
Privacy and security in Studio