Multi purpose mileage

Accounting
1

Continuing the discussion from Business mileage expense:

If I travel 50 miles to a meeting, then 10 to a second meeting, then 50 miles home again how do I record the mileage?

  • do I enter one trip of 110 miles and enter both clients as the reason for the trip
  • do I enter two trips of 55 miles each
  • do I enter one trip of 50 miles for the first client and one of 60 miles for the second

I realise from a tax point of view it makes no difference but is any of these more correct than the others?

2

Also interested in this issue. Can anybody help me in this tough situation?

3

I am not an accountant but it would depend on other factors.

If the cost was just going to be accounted as a general expense and then I would use the first for the sake of simplicity
If the costs were being allocated to different projects or cost centres then I would use the second
The third is not an expense but if you are charging the costs to the client then you could do it this way, It seems as if you are ripping off the client but against somebody might query why some visits seem to be billed at double rate (They will definitely not regard the 55 miles as half rate)

4

I was going to reply to this the other day but it’s a bit of a how long is piece of string question, 6 of one and half a dozen etc…

As above, if you are billing clients for mileage to/from meetings what have you agreed/what do your Ts & Cs say? Do you even charge clients for mileage or is it just going down as a general expense? If the latter then it doesn’t matter in the slightest what you put as long as you have written down what you want for future reference.

5

As an electrical contractor for 35 years I tried many methods of charging for mileage.
I eventually settled with including it the price per job based on distance bands from my Base (Office) rather than actual mileage.

However, if you prefer using actual mileage then charge each client from your base to the client, you will win in your example above, but in fairness adjust your mileage charge lower, so it will all average out over time.

That way you will charge the same for each client even if you visit them on different days, or if the clients are 50 miles apart not 10.

6

I’m not billing my mileage so I’ll just go with option 1 I think.

Thanks.