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If you're like most gig workers, you're probably looking to save as much of your paycheck as you can, as easily as you can.

Making more money as a gig worker doesn't always mean working longer hours or taking more deliveries per hour—sometimes it just means maximizing the amount of your paycheck you actually get to keep.

The problem is, gig workers often waste tons of time, miss out on tax deductions and create more tedious work for themselves all because they didn’t realize they need this one simple tool for gig work: 

an app to track mileage.

Why does a mileage tracker make such a big difference? Well, in short, because it can: 

  • Help increase your take-home pay and save you money on taxes
  • Simplify your taxes and help you track more deductions 
  • Save you time (and time = money) 
  • Allow you to easily track mileage and expenses for tax deductions 
  • Stay IRS-compliant with all of your deductions 
  • And more! 

Here’s everything you need to know about why gig workers need a mileage and expense tracking app to make gig work easier (and more profitable). 

1. Increase your take-home pay 

Let’s face it: no one wants to pay more in taxes than they have to. With gig workers having to pay self-employment tax, income taxes and more, tax season can cost a pretty penny that many gig workers don’t have. 

Using a mileage tracking app can help you increase your take-home pay and save more on taxes. How? 

For one, using an app increases the accuracy of your mileage tracking, making sure you never miss a mile. For gig workers who use a platform like Uber or Lyft that also reports miles, you may think that gets the job done—but don’t be misled. Gig apps only track miles when you are actively on a ride, with passengers in your car. 

However, there’s a LOT more mileage you can deduct than just those rides. For example: 

  • any miles you drive in between two rides
  • miles driven to pick passengers up
  • driving to pick up supplies for your work
  • driving to a better location to increase available rides

and so on are all tax-deductible. A mileage tracking app like Everlance allows you to capture all of those miles—and all of those tax deductions

Plus, an app can help you track both mileage and expenses, helping you save more on taxes by increasing your deductions. Did you know the average Everlance driver saves $6,500 a year on taxes, just by tracking mileage and deductions with Everlance?

Yeah, we’d say that’s a pretty big benefit. 

2. Simplify your taxes

Whether you do your taxes for gig work by yourself or have a professional help you out, getting ready for tax season can be stressful. And if you’re self-employed or a gig worker paying quarterly taxes, that’s four times the stress. 

A mileage and expense tracking app makes filing your taxes way easier. How? 

1. Manage your mileage and expenses deductions all in one place.

With an app like Everlance, you can keep track of all of your deductions—mileage, business expenses, subscription costs and more—all in one place. No more trying to find all your receipts at the end of the year or dig out old mileage logs. Just open the app, head to the Tax Center and get the reports you need.

2. Get tax-ready reports. 

Speaking of reports, Everlance makes taxes easy with tax-ready reports: no calculations needed. You don’t have to bother calculating your total mileage, the amount of deductions you’re eligible for based on the IRS mileage rate or tally up expenses. Everlance will do all the calculations for you, so you can simply plug and play the final deductions numbers into your tax software, or export a copy of your deductions for your tax professional. 

3. Last-minute tax help.

Didn’t prepare throughout the year? No worries. Use Everlance’s Instant Deduction Finder to get a list of potential business expenses and deductions you can claim in less than a minute. Then you can easily review potential deductions, swipe to classify all the expenses that are business-related, and get an IRS-ready report in no time. 

Like we said—simple. 

3. Saves you time  

When you’re doing gig work, or if you’re self-employed, you already have a lot to keep track of. You’re not just showing up everyday, clocking in and out. You have to find gigs, understand what people need, pick up orders, log deliveries, sit through traffic, find the most efficient ways to pick up and deliver orders, take people to the airport at midnight and more. 

So why would you want to spend more time and mental energy tracking miles and keeping track of tax deductions by hand? Less time logging mileage manually, remembering to keep track of business expenses, storing receipts and more—more time to focus on growing your business. 

Using a mileage and expense tracking app can automate all of that, saving you tons of time in the process. Not only does it reduce manual work, but it also increases accuracy. And, in reducing manual work, it also makes you more productive as a gig worker. In this case, time really is money. 

4. Stay IRS compliant 

As a gig worker or small business owner, taxes can be scary. In fact, the majority of gig workers don’t take the maximum amount of tax deductions they’re eligible for, either because they don’t realize they’re eligible for them, or because they haven’t been recording tax-deductible mileage and expenses accurately throughout the year. 

A mileage and expense tracking app not only makes taxes for gig work easier, but it also helps you stay IRS-compliant for deductions you are taking. Everlance gives you tax-ready reports whenever you need them for your mileage and business expenses, making it easy to take advantage of deductions you’re eligible for and save more on taxes.

In addition, using automatic mileage tracking with Everlance ensures your mileage logs include everything you need to stay IRS-compliant and reduce your chance of getting audited. If you file your own taxes, Everlance gives you an easy-to-understand, tax-ready report to help you navigate your deductions. Or, you can simply export the report and pass it off to your tax professional. 

5. Keeps you organized

Not only does a mileage tracking app help you save time and money when it comes to self-employed taxes, but it also helps keep you organized throughout the year. 

With Everlance, you get tons of features that will help you stay organized, track your income and expenses and make sure everything is ready to go for tax season. For example, gig workers who use Everlance can easily manage multiple gigs, classify their mileage and expenses, and more. How? 

  • Income sources: Gig workers often manage multiple gigs. With Everlance, it’s easy to track mileage and expenses and attribute it to whatever gig platform or client it’s related to. Simply tap to classify your trips or expenses as whatever income source is relevant, whether that’s Lyft, Doordash, Thumbtack or something you’ve created unique to you. If you’re curious how to create a unique work purpose (or income source), here’s how
  • Tags: Sometimes just classifying a trip as “Uber” or “Doordash” isn’t quite enough. That’s where tags come in! You can use tags to categorize both trips and transactions by project, client, business or more. You can also use multiple tags for each trip or transaction. Here’s how to use them.
  • Vehicle classification: If you have multiple vehicles that you drive for work or personal use, you can add each of them to your Everlance app and classify mileage accordingly. Here’s how to do it. 

6. Makes mileage & deductions tracking easier 

Sure, a mileage tracking app saves you time and money—which is often enough motivation for us to do something new—but it also makes your life easier as a gig worker or freelancer. 

With automatic trip tracking so you don’t even have to worry about remembering to start and stop tracking. Just leave your Everlance app open, get in the car and start driving—Everlance will automatically track your miles and you can classify them accordingly later. 

If classifying all those miles sounds like a lot of work too, good news: you can set up automatic classification rules with Everlance. Two classifying rules gig workers love: 

  • Work hours: if you drive for work during certain hours, you can set Everlance to automatically classify any driving done between those hours as one of your work purposes. Always drive for Uber between 10pm - 12am? Set it and forget it. Everlance can automatically track and classify that for you. 
  • Long session: if you drive for longer shifts rather than just a trip or two at a time, you can use long session tracking to set Everlance to track your driving as one long trip rather than a bunch of small trips. For example, if you drive for Doordash and are busy making pickups and deliveries from 2-5pm, Everlance might track each time you stop and get out of your car to pick up an order or drop one off as a new trip. That’s a lot of classifying at the end of the day! Instead, you can use long session tracking, and Everlance will group all that mileage into one trip, which you can then simply swipe to classify the whole group at once.

    Here’s how to set up long session tracking

But wait, there’s more! Everlance also allows you to track expenses and deductions automatically as well—just connect a card or bank account to your Everlance account, and the app will keep an eye out for potential tax deductions and securely keep track of business expenses for you. (You can also add expenses manually, store photos of receipts and more.)  

7. Learn from your data and maximize your earnings 

This one takes a bit more effort, but when you’re ready to level-up your money making strategy with gig work, a mileage tracking app like Everlance is there to help. 

With a mileage tracking app, you can use your mileage (and by extension, your time logs and gas expenses) compared to your income sources, money earned, and other classifications you’re tracking to understand when and where are the most profitable times and places to work. 

Do you get the most bang for your buck with Doordash orders downtown or late at night? Do you drive fewer miles for Lyft but get more rides in one neighborhood than another? How do you maximize your time and earnings?

Your Everlance data can help. 

Ready to save time and money and make your life easier with Everlance? 

We thought so. By the way, did we mention that you can get started with Everlance for free? 

Sign up for a free Everlance account today and get started saving money.

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