Bookkeeping Tips • October 22, 2026 • by Zachariah Smiley
Mileage is one of the most valuable deductions a small business has — and one of the easiest to lose, because almost nobody writes it down when it happens. In January, owners try to rebuild a year of driving from calendar entries and memory, and the result is part log, part fiction.
Log each business trip right after it happens: the date, where you went, why, and the miles. Client visits, the bank, the supply store — they all count, and they add up fast at the standard mileage rate.
The QuickBooks Online mileage tracker keeps business trips separate from personal driving automatically. However you track it, the rule is the same: contemporaneous beats reconstructed, every time.
This is exactly the kind of thing I clean up and keep clean for Wichita small businesses — catch-up projects and monthly bookkeeping, quoted flat after a free look at your books.