Using Google Tools to Track Mileage for Real Estate Investors

Even though I’m fairly new to the real estate game, I know I want to take advantage of all the tax benefits that I can. I’m a fairly organized person (when it comes to things I really care about) and have been iterating on perfecting my organization of all the things I need to track come tax season.

The one thing I have found to be the most tedious is keeping a mileage log. I have tried a few things with this. Keeping a paper notebook in my office that I write notes in was the first attempt. It wasn’t too long before I realized this wasn’t working because I would just forget about it. I tried a small paper notebook in my car, which lasted a little longer, but ultimately got lost under a seat, or shoved in a glove box. I then decided to move to something online. It just seemed like a natural fit where I could easily access and post my log notes whenever I needed.

I utilized Google Sheets for this and set up a basic column structure on my spreadsheet:

1. Date
2. Miles
3. Task
4. Time (for personal reference)
5. People (so both I and my business partner can log in the same place)

It worked fairly well. I’ve gotten into the habit of accessing the sheet on my phone and logging my mileage when needed. My business partner, on the other hand, quickly fell off the bandwagon. Her biggest complaint was that the spreadsheet was too small to use on her phone and, thus, was more of a hassle. So, here we are at 2017’s iteration on the mileage log:

A mobile-friendly, online form that’s connected to a spreadsheet behind the scenes

If you’re familiar with Google Forms, you may know that the form itself isn’t mobile-friendly. But, I was able to find a workaround to take care of that problem.

Once I designed the form to fit my needs, it just took a little bit of coding behind the scenes, setting up a webpage, and giving my partner the url. If you’re an iPhone user, urls can be saved to the home screen, making it appear as though it’s an actual app, which is pretty cool.

You can see a screenshot of my form below. I’ve blurred out some of the information for privacy, but you’ll see the quick references to regular trips we make for business, as well as typical tasks and people involved. This way, there’s not a lot of typing that needs to happen, just tap what you need. I also made sure to include notes to some of the most common places we travel so there’s no need to stop and recall those distances. Like I mentioned earlier, all of this information is then saved behind the scenes in a nicely organized spreadsheet (which also automatically tracks the date and time of the actual recording).

And guess what! My partner is logging her mileage! She likes how easy it is to use the form on her phone while she’s on the go. Given my mobile-friendly hack on the form itself, she can access it on her phone or tablet and it will resize accordingly. And I am left feeling satisfied with an organized mileage tracking system that we both can stick with to produce an organized mileage log. Let’s hope I’m right this time.