Log a trip, or record one with GPS

Trips

+ → Trip. A trip has a purpose (business, personal, commute, medical or charity), where and why, and its start and end odometer or just the distance. A trip over several days takes a start and an end date and time; leave the end blank while it’s under way.

A business trip can name its client or project, which the reimbursement report groups it by.

Its place is where it ended: a recorded trip keeps its end, and Use where I am adds one to a trip you type.

Record a trip

In the phone app, + → Record a trip measures the drive with GPS. The app can be in the background or the screen off.

Android shows a notification while it records (the first Start asks to allow notifications for it), iPhone the blue location pill; don’t swipe MileWorks away until you’ve stopped. If the phone closes it anyway, open MileWorks to carry on (the stretch while it was closed may read short).

Stop, and save

A bar above the tabs shows the distance and time (and the car, with more than one in use), with Stop (“Waiting for GPS” until the GPS has a precise fix).

Stop opens the trip with the distance, the start and end times, the vehicle and where it began and ended (its end kept as the trip’s place): add the purpose and save.

Closed without saving, the trip waits on the Dash (Save it, or Discard) at any level; a new recording asks about it first.

Saved, the trip keeps what Driving now showed, as a tracked drive does: on its form, The drive has the path with Open the map, the speeds, the time moving and stopped, and the miles in each place.

The odometer at the start

Start then asks for the odometer now (optional: Skip it and GPS gives the distance). Type what the dash shows, in your car’s own unit; while it records, the bar shows “Started at 18,577”, and Add odometer adds it later.

Stop opens the trip with its start and end odometers, the end the start plus the GPS distance for you to check against the odometer. A start below the car’s last reading, or further past it than a car drives since, is said first; Save anyway keeps it.

GPS and your location

GPS can read a little short of the odometer on winding roads or with a weak signal; type the start and end odometer to use those instead, and the form says how the two compare.

Recording a trip needs precise location “While using the app”, not “All the time” (only automatic tracking asks for that; approximate location is too rough to measure a drive, so Start asks you to turn precise on). Nothing is sent anywhere but the start and end spots, to your phone’s own maps service for the addresses.