Updated: May 11, 2026 · Reading time: 6 minutes.
At the 2026 IRS standard mileage rate of $0.70/mile, a tradesperson driving 15,000 work miles a year can deduct $10,500 on Schedule C — saving roughly $2,500-$3,000 in actual tax. Most solo tradespeople never track this and lose every dollar. Daily Invoice Maker v5.10 has a built-in GPS mileage tracker that fixes that in 5 seconds per trip.
The math nobody runs
The IRS lets you deduct work-related driving at a standard mileage rate. For 2026 the rate is $0.70 per mile. (Up from $0.67 in 2025, $0.67 in 2024.)
Run the numbers for typical trades:
- Plumber, 15 service calls a week, 50 weeks/year, average 20 mi round-trip: 15,000 mi × $0.70 = $10,500 deduction
- Pool tech with a 12-stop weekly route, 40 weeks/year: ~$6,000 deduction
- Electrician doing residential/commercial mix: $8,000-$12,000 typical range
At a 25% combined federal+state marginal tax rate, that's $2,500-$3,000 of tax bill that disappears. But almost no solo tradesperson tracks this rigorously, because existing apps cost $5.99/month forever (MileIQ), require manual entry every trip (Stride), or bundle it into $69/mo accounting suites you don't otherwise need.
The 5-second workflow
Open Daily Invoice Maker. Tap Mileage in the menu. You see a hero card with a big blue Start Trip button.
Tap it. Phone GPS starts watching your location every 5 seconds. As you drive, the mileage counter ticks up live: 0.3 mi → 1.2 mi → 5.6 mi.
Arrive at the job site. Tap End Trip. A modal opens pre-filled with:
- Today's date
- The tracked distance
- Start & end GPS coordinates (so you can verify if needed)
- Current IRS rate: $0.70/mi
Pick the customer (optional but recommended). Add a purpose: "Service call," "Supply pickup," "Estimate visit." Save.
That's it. 5 seconds of tapping plus zero seconds of thinking.
What makes this different from MileIQ
MileIQ runs in the background, classifying every trip you make as personal or work. That sounds nice — until you realize:
- Always-on GPS drains your battery dramatically
- It logs every trip including grocery runs, which you then have to swipe to classify
- The IRS has explicitly warned that always-on tracking with auto-classification may not satisfy the contemporaneous-record requirement
- And it costs $5.99/mo, forever
Daily Invoice Maker's approach is different: you explicitly tap Start when you leave for a work trip. Battery only drains during the trip. Every logged trip is by definition a business trip (you told the app so). The contemporaneous record requirement is satisfied because you logged it the moment you started.
The year-end deliverable
Open the Mileage page. Pick the year from the dropdown. You see:
- Total trips for the year
- Total miles
- Estimated deduction — the big green number
Tap CSV. You get a spreadsheet: Date, Miles, Rate, Deduction, Customer, Purpose, Start, End, Vehicle, Notes. Email it to your CPA. They'll plug the total into Schedule C line 9.
Or pull the Schedule C summary PDF — it includes your mileage deduction automatically on line 9 with a detail line showing the math: "Includes 8,432 mi × $0.70 = $5,902.40."
Smart details that matter
Per-row rate snapshot. Each trip stores the IRS rate at the time it was logged. So when the IRS bumps the rate in 2027, your 2026 trips don't get retroactively re-priced. Bookkeeping integrity matters when an auditor asks how you computed the deduction.
Manual entry works too. If you forgot to tap Start, just add the trip manually. Same form, just type the miles instead of tracking them.
Customer linking. Optional, but if you do link trips to customers, you can later pull "all the miles I drove for Sarah's pool" — useful for cost-of-service analysis or invoicing reimbursable mileage.
What about commute miles?
IRS rule: the drive from your home to your first job site of the day is generally not deductible (it counts as commuting). But the drive from job 1 to job 2 to job 3, and from job 3 back home, IS deductible.
Practical implication: don't start the trip from your driveway. Start it when you arrive at job 1, end it when you get back home. That's the deductible chunk.
(This is not tax advice — talk to your CPA. But this is the rule that makes most tradespeople's deduction much higher than they think.)
Frequently asked questions
Will the GPS drain my battery?
Only during an active trip. Once you tap End Trip, the location watcher stops. A typical 4-trip workday adds maybe 3-5% battery drain — less than streaming music in the truck.
Does it work without internet?
Yes. GPS is satellite-based, not internet-based. As long as the app is installed on your phone, mileage tracking works in basements, backyards, and any signal-dead spot.
Can I add miles for past trips I forgot to log?
Yes — tap "Manual entry" instead of "Start Trip." Enter date, miles, purpose, customer. Same data, same year-end report.
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