Mileage Log Template

Each trip is one row. The sheet subtracts the odometer readings to get Miles this trip, sums the business-flagged rows into total business miles, and, only if a rate is present, multiplies by the cents-per-mile rate:

miles this trip       = max(odometer finish − odometer start, 0)
total business miles  = Σ miles this trip   (business-flagged rows)
estimated deduction   = total business miles × rate
2026, by trip date    = business miles Jan 1 to Jun 30 × $0.725 + business miles Jul 1 to Dec 31 × $0.76
% business use        = business miles ÷ total miles

A backward odometer pair (finish < start) is guarded to 0 and flagged, so totals never go negative. Leave the rate blank for a miles-only sheet: no deduction or $0 appears anywhere. The % business use line shows only when a personal trip is present (with all-business trips it is trivially 100% and suppressed).

The IRS split 2026 into two business rates: 72.5¢ per mile for January 1 to June 30, 2026 and 76¢ per mile for July 1 to December 31, 2026 (IRS standard mileage rates, retrieved October 17, 2026). With the IRS rate source selected, the preview prices each business trip at the rate for its date; a trip dated outside 2026 gets no rate rather than a guessed one, and the preview says how many miles that leaves unpriced. Choose your own rate for another tax year or a reimbursement policy: that cell starts at 76¢, the latest published rate. In the Excel workbook the rate is one editable cell, so when your trips cross July 1, 2026, keep one copy of the sheet per rate period and confirm each rate at irs.gov. This worksheet uses the IRS standard mileage method (a flat cents-per-mile rate); the "actual expenses" method is a different record. This is tax prep, not a filing, and it is not an IRS-certified record. Nothing is saved; there is no GPS, no automatic trip capture, and no stored trip database.

The log records miles after the fact; two other tools sit either side of it. Before the week starts, the route day planner is where you sequence the stops those miles come from, and tightening that sequence is the whole point of route density. After the fact, a cents-per-mile deduction is not the same as what the truck costs you: the vehicle cost per mile calculator loads fuel, maintenance, insurance and depreciation into one operating figure, which is also the number a fuel surcharge is meant to recover when pump prices move mid-contract.