Synthesis, Inc. - Synthesis, Inc. - Administrative Support for Creative People

Keeping track of business miles in QuickBooks is easy and can even be billed to your customers or clients. Here is how to track mileage in QuickBooks:

First, you will need to set up the vehicle(s) and the mileage rate.

• Under the Company menu select Enter Vehicle Mileage.
• Click on the Vehicle List button. Using the drop down arrow on the Vehicle button select New. Enter the name and description of the vehicle.

Click on the Mileage Rates button. Change the effective date and rate which is 51 cents per mile for business in 2011 as of May, 2011. Be sure to check often with irs.gov as these rates tend to change when the cost of fuel increases! Click Close to close the Mileage Rate Window.

Now you can begin to record your mileage.

• Select the Vehicle from the drop down list
• Enter the dates of the trip
• Enter the odometer starting and ending or the total miles driven
• Identify the Customer and Job, Item, and Class if applicable
• Check the Billable box if you are going to invoice the customer. Note: to bill a customer you will need to set up an item for mileage. I track mileage as a Reimbursed Expense (Income Account)
• In the notes section detail the purpose of the trip.

To bill the customer for mileage select the Add Time/Costs… button at the bottom of any invoice or, in later versions of QuickBooks, a window will pop up reminding you of the outstanding billable time and/or costs. You can save the option to select the outstanding billable time and costs to add to this invoice as a preference:

On the mileage tab select the mileage you want to bill. The default option transfers the activity notes to the invoice. You can change this using the Options button to either the item description or both notes and description.

You have now effectively captured your costs and billed your client for mileage on a job, something many of us may have to begin charging considering the cost of fuel today!
If you have questions regarding this or any QuickBooks or Peachtree Accounting process, contact us. We train and/or do the work for you – whichever you prefer. Have a great summer.