How are motoring expenses recorded?

 Hello M-cordingley-tis, 

Welcome to the Community page, 

What exact motoring expenses are you wanting to enter in exactly? 

Manually recorded trips.Are they calculated automatically in the VAT figures?.How can you see where they ve been entered?

Thanks for coming back and clarifying the exact motoring expenses you want to enter. It's my priority to help you record the trips in QuickBooks Online (QBO), m-cordingley-tis.

We can manually the trips and vehicle info during the year so you have everything you need to make deductions at tax time. Just turn on the mobile app and let QuickBooks handle the rest. All you have to do is categorise the trip so they'll post correctly in on your VAT figures. f you haven't already, set up the automatic mileage tracking feature. Before you start tracking trips, add your vehicles to QuickBooks Online. This way, you can match trips to the right vehicle. Here's how to add trips manually:

1. Sign in to QuickBooks Online in a web browser.
2. Go to Apps and select Mileage.
3. Select Add trip.
4. Add the trip date, starting and ending locations, distance, and purpose.
5. Select the vehicle you used.
6. Press Save.

Then, categorise your mileage by following the steps below:

1. Go to Apps and select Mileage.
2. Find the trip and select the checkbox.
3. Select Mark as Business or Mark as Personal for the type.
4. Review the details.
5. If you need to edit the location or distance, select the trip, make your changes and then select Save.

To access where the trips are entered, follow the steps below:

1. Sign into QuickBooks Online in a web browser.
2. Go to Apps and select Mileage.
3. Select the Unreviewed, Business, Personal, or All tab.
4. Find and select the trip.

You can check out these articles for more details about tracking mileage in QuickBooks Online: 

• Automatically track mileage in QuickBooks Online
• Set up mileage tracking and vehicles in QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed

We'd be happy to hear any updates after performing the steps as we want to ensure this is resolved for you. Also, if you have questions about running tax reports, please add a reply below. I'd be happy to assist you further.

Hi

In your reply you say 'All you have to do is categorise the trip so they'll post correctly in on your VAT figures'.

So I am tracking my mileage in QB Online (UK) and categorising trips as personal or business. QB is calculating the mileage split between those two use classes.

How is the VAT reported in QB as I cannot see it? DO I have to post through a manual entry to achieve VAT recovery? If VAT is reported automatically as you infer then how are the petrol receipts recorded to back up the VAT claimed?

If you could provide step by step instructions it would be very useful.

Thanks 

Hi slipperx, thanks for joining this thread - in QuickBooks Online, the mileage feature is used for record purposes only to track the total business miles. The expense for this would need to be created separately (via + New > Expense) for this to then show on the VAT return to be reclaimed. 

Hi Georgia

Thanks for clarifying that. So the question is what expenses can be claimed and how to claim them. I know about the 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles allowance but isn't there also an apportionment method.

So lets say I buy tyres, service the car etc. totalling expenses of £1,000 plus VAT over the year which are recorded as expenses with VAT reclaimed as normal and paid for from my self-employed business account. I also have fuel expenses of £2000 plus VAT over the year which are not entered as expenses as they occur an so no VAT is recovered. Quickbooks records 8000 business miles and 2000 personal miles over the year.

So I am treating non-fuel car expenses as regular expenses, fuel expenses are not recorded at all except for treatment by the mileage calculator built in to QB.

If I use the 45p per mile then I would have an allowance of 0.45 x 8000 -=   £3,600 - how is this entered in QB, how is the VAT accounted for and are adjustments needed for the non-fuel expenses already claimed?  

Is there some other method?

It seems that the VAT element of motor expenses is poorly explained and understood or I am just not very smart. I am confused really what I need to record apart from the record of mileage that QB makes but does nothing with until the user utilises the records to make journals of some sort.

Could you please indicate what to record, when to record it and precisely how to record it?

Thanks

Ian