Log Book
Every business kilometre, written down properly
A motor vehicle log for a business that uses its car. Record a trip in seconds, keep the twelve week logbook the ATO asks for, and hand your accountant a spreadsheet at the end of the year instead of a shoebox.
A day of trips. Each car keeps its own colour.
What it does
- A trip in about ten seconds the starting odometer is already filled in from where the last trip finished, and the kilometres work themselves out
- The twelve week logbook start it, keep driving, and it tells you your business use percentage and whether the period actually holds up
- What the year comes to business kilometres per car, the cents per kilometre figure at the published rate, and a warning when you pass the 5,000 km cap
- Something to hand your accountant a spreadsheet of the year, dates, destinations, purposes and odometer readings, in one download
- More than one car each with its own colour and its own cap, because the cap is per car
A colour for each car
- Bubblegum
- Marigold
- Brown Sugar
- Malachite
- Lagoon
- Denim
Getting going
Make an account
An email and a password, at least eight characters. If you already use Clear Run, that account works here too.
Add your car
Give it a name you would actually say out loud, and a colour. Then record today's odometer reading under Cars, so the first trip has something to start from.
Record trips as you go
Tap the plus button. The starting odometer is already there. Put in the finishing reading, say what the trip was for and where it went, and save. Trips you do often come back as a tap.
Start a twelve week logbook
Under Logbook. It fills in the finish date as exactly twelve weeks and takes the opening odometer reading. Keep recording trips as normal, then close it off with the reading on the last day.
Put it on your home screen
On Android: tap the three dots, then Install app. On iPhone: tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. It then opens like any other app rather than a browser tab.
Questions people ask
Is this tax advice?
No. It is a record keeping tool. It works out kilometres, a business use percentage and the cents per kilometre figure at the rate the ATO publishes, and it shows you what the ATO asks a logbook to contain. Whether you should use one method or the other, and what you can claim, is a question for your accountant or a registered tax agent. Nobody here is one.
What does the ATO actually require?
For the logbook method: the destination and purpose of every business trip, the odometer reading at the start and end of each trip, a continuous period of at least twelve weeks, the odometer on the first and last day of that period, and a reading at the start and end of each income year you rely on it for. For cents per kilometre you do not need receipts, but you do need a record showing how you worked the kilometres out. This app is built around both lists, and they are printed on the Logbook screen so you can check it against the ATO's own page.
What if I forget to take the odometer readings?
Record the trip anyway with just the kilometres. It still counts towards cents per kilometre, and a trip written down beats a trip lost. The app marks it, on the row and in the year's totals, because the logbook method cannot use it.
Can anyone else see my trips?
No. Trips are private to your account, and that separation is enforced by the database itself rather than only by the app, so it holds even if something in the app goes wrong. The spreadsheet download is the only way anything leaves, and only you can start one.
What does it store?
Your cars, your odometer readings, and for each trip the date, the kilometres, where you went and what it was for. That is a record of your movements, so treat it the way you would treat a diary. It does not touch your calendar, your mail or your bank.
How safe is it?
Everything travels encrypted and passwords are hashed and never visible to anyone. It is not encrypted end to end though, so anyone with administrative access to the hosting could in principle reach the database, as with any normal app.
Who runs this?
Ange Grayndler, on her own, for herself and a few other people. It is free, there is no support desk, and nobody is on call if it breaks. Download your spreadsheet at the end of each year and your records are yours regardless of what happens to this app.
Worth knowing
This is a private tool, not a product, and it is not tax advice. There is no support desk and no promise that it will always be up. It keeps a record of where you drove and why, that record is only ever visible to you, and you can download the whole lot as a spreadsheet at any time.