Overview

If you drive for business — visiting clients, making deliveries, attending meetings, picking up supplies — those miles are a legitimate tax deduction. The IRS allows you to deduct business mileage using the standard mileage rate: a flat per-mile amount set each year. For most small business owners, this is simpler and often more valuable than tracking actual vehicle costs.

Money Pro's mileage tracker lets you log business trips and generate the documentation the IRS requires. You enter where you drove, how many miles, and the business purpose — Money Pro calculates your deduction automatically at the current IRS rate.

Important before you start: Money Pro uses manual mileage tracking only. There is no automatic GPS tracking running in the background. You log each trip yourself — ideally at or near the time you take it. The IRS calls this "contemporaneous record-keeping," and same-day logging is your strongest audit defense. Mileage tracking is available in both the ZenBusiness mobile app and on the web.

Current IRS standard mileage rates:
- 2025: $0.70 per mile (IRS Notice 2025-2)
- 2026: $0.725 per mile (IRS Notice 2025-70)

What Counts as Deductible Business Mileage?

The IRS is specific about which driving qualifies:

Deductible:
- Driving to meet a client or customer
- Traveling to a temporary work location
- Driving between two business locations
- Going to the bank, post office, or supply store for business
- Driving to a business conference, training, or industry event

Not deductible:
- Commuting from home to your regular office (even if you work from home sometimes)
- Personal errands — even if near a work destination
- Driving to a permanent second work location

Home office exception: If your home qualifies as your principal place of business (you claim the home office deduction), trips from your home to client locations and other work sites may be deductible. Ask your accountant if this applies to you.

Setting Up Vehicles

Set up each vehicle you use for business before logging trips:

1. Go to Money Pro → Mileage Tracker
2. Click the gear icon → Cars
3. Click "Add Car"
4. Enter: nickname, make, model, vehicle year, whether it's your primary car, and optional odometer year and reading
5. Save — this vehicle is now available when logging trips

You can add multiple vehicles. When logging a trip, select which vehicle you used.

Saving Favorite Locations

Save your office, frequent client sites, and other common destinations so you can select them in one tap instead of typing each time:

1. Go to the Mileage Tracking page
2. Click the gear icon → Favorite Locations
3. Click "Add New Favorite Location"
4. Enter a name and address → Save

Your saved favorites appear in the location selector when logging a new trip.

How to Log a Trip

What the IRS Requires

Five elements must be documented for each business trip:

1. Date of the trip
2. Destination (address or general location)
3. Business purpose (what business was conducted — be specific)
4. Miles driven for that trip
5. Total annual miles on the vehicle (for calculating your business-use percentage)

Money Pro captures all five. The most commonly missed element is business purpose — document it specifically. "Errand" won't hold up in an audit. "Bank deposit for January invoices" will.

Standard Mileage vs. Actual Auto Expenses

The IRS gives you two ways to deduct vehicle use — you can choose whichever results in a lower tax bill:

• Standard mileage rate: Multiply your business miles by the IRS rate (Money Pro tracks this automatically)
• Actual auto expenses: Deduct the business-use percentage of real vehicle costs — gas, insurance, repairs, depreciation

To compare both methods and toggle your preference, go to your Tax Profile in the Taxes section. Look for the "Use Mileage Deduction" setting — toggling it updates your estimated tax calculations so you can see which method benefits you more. Money Pro handles the standard mileage rate calculation automatically; your accountant or tax software applies the actual expense method at filing time.

Mileage Reports

Generate your mileage report for tax time:

1. Go to Mileage Tracking → gear icon → Reports
2. Select the report type:
3. Business Mileage by Business — total business miles and deduction per business
4. Business Mileage by Client — breakdown of business miles by client
5. Mileage Detail List — downloadable spreadsheet with every trip: date, from, to, purpose, miles, deduction
6. Personal Mileage by Category — summary of personal driving logged
7. Select your date range (typically January 1 – December 31 for annual filing)
8. Download as PDF or CSV

The Mileage Detail List is the report your accountant needs — it contains the per-trip log with all five IRS-required fields.

Tips for Staying on Top of Mileage

• Log immediately after the trip — five minutes after you park is much easier than reconstructing trips at month-end
• Use favorite locations — save your office and client sites to reduce logging time to a few taps
• Review monthly — open the Mileage tab at month-end and scan for any trips you may have missed
• Note your year-end odometer — record your vehicle's odometer reading on December 31. Your accountant may ask for it, especially if you're comparing standard vs. actual expense methods

Frequently Asked Questions

Still need help?

Reach us at (844) 493-6249, via live chat on your dashboard, or at support@zenbusiness.com. We're available Monday–Friday during business hours.