QuickBooks 2013 For Dummies

Tracking Vehicle Mileage

QuickBooks supplies a business vehicle-mileage tracker that you can use to track and tally business mileage. As you may already know, you need to know both your total miles and your business miles to accurately deduct vehicle expenses on your tax return. (If you’re not sure how this works, confer with your tax advisor. I also have a little write-up that explains how all this works, including how the notorious sport utility vehicle tax loophole works, at my website, www.stephenlnelson.com/faq.htm.)

Identifying your vehicles

By law, you’re required to track your mileage by vehicle. QuickBooks, accordingly, provides a Vehicle list. To add items to the Vehicle list, follow these steps:

1. To display the Vehicle list, choose Lists⇒Customer & Vendor Profile Lists⇒Vehicle List.

QuickBooks displays the Vehicle List window, as shown in Figure 18-4. Initially, because you haven’t yet added any vehicles, the list shows no assets.

2. Click the Vehicle button (bottom-left corner) and choose New from the menu that QuickBooks displays.

QuickBooks displays the New Vehicle window, as shown in Figure 18-5.

Figure 18-4: The Vehicle List window.

Figure 18-5: The New Vehicle window.

3. Enter a name for the vehicle in the Vehicle text box and enter a description ...