Record a new mileage claim

This article explains how to record mileage travelled in your own car for business purposes, in FreeAgent.

Navigate to Out-of-Pocket Expenses

If you're a sole trader and you have no employees, select the ‘Expenses’ tab at the top of the screen.

If you're a sole trader with employees, a limited company director or a partner in a partnership, navigate to the ‘My Money’ tab at the top of the screen and select 'Expenses' from the drop-down menu.

Alternatively, you can select 'Mileage' from the ‘Add new’ drop-down menu on the Overview screen.

Choose the relevant user and add a new mileage claim

Select the relevant user from the drop-down menu.

Please note that if you’re the only user on the FreeAgent account, you’ll not have the option to select the relevant user as your user profile will be selected automatically.

Next, select 'Add New’ in the top-right corner and choose ‘Mileage Claim' from the drop-down menu.

Complete the mileage claim details

Next, you’ll need to complete the following details for the mileage claim.

Attachment

You can upload an attachment, for example a scanned copy of a fuel receipt, which is particularly important if you are claiming VAT on the fuel.

To attach a scanned image, choose 'Select a file' in the 'File to attach' area. If you used the FreeAgent mobile app to capture an image file and save it to the Files area of your account, select 'Choose from saved files' instead and follow the instructions.

Mileage details

Enter the date you made the journey and how many miles you travelled, remembering that you may need to double the mileage for a return journey.

Enter the reason for the journey in the 'Description' field and choose the type of vehicle you travelled in from the 'Vehicle Type' drop-down menu. Please note that sole traders and partners in partnerships cannot claim bicycle mileage.

Reclaim the mileage

If you would like to reclaim the mileage, select ‘At Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) Rate’ from the ‘Reclaim mileage rate’ drop-down menu. FreeAgent will apply the HMRC approved mileage rate according to the type of vehicle that you used. Find out more about claiming motor expenses.

Please note that the reclaim rate does not need to be the same as the re-bill rate.

If you don’t want to reclaim the mileage, select ‘Don’t reclaim, just rebill’ instead.

Reclaim VAT on the fuel

If your business is registered for VAT and you have a VAT receipt for fuel enough to cover the mileage travelled on this journey, you may be able to reclaim VAT on the fuel. Please note that you can only reclaim VAT on the fuel, not the full cost of the mileage travelled.

To reclaim VAT on the fuel, tick the ‘Yes, and I have a VAT receipt’ checkbox and enter the fuel type of your vehicle and the capacity of its engine. FreeAgent will work out the correct VAT reclaim for you.

Rebill the mileage

If you would like to rebill this mileage to a customer because it was incurred while working on a particular project, select the relevant project from the ‘Link to Project’ drop-down menu and set the rate at which you're going to charge it to the customer.

Set up a recurring claim

If you will be taking this journey again, you can select the relevant frequency from the ‘This Mileage recurs’ drop-down menu to enter the future journeys into FreeAgent now.

Once you've entered the relevant details for the mileage claim, select ‘Create New Expense’ to complete the process. You’ll then be able to see the mileage claim in the list of costs incurred by this user.

Recording mileage rates for a company car

The mileage rate that FreeAgent automatically uses is for business travel in private cars only, but you can create additional mileage rates, for example for a company car.

To do this, work out your mileage manually and enter it by selecting 'New Expense' instead of 'Mileage Claim'.

You can also add a new category to track these expenses, for example 'Company car mileage'. Please note that you won’t be able to name the category 'Mileage' as FreeAgent uses this automatically for business mileage in private cars.

Need the total miles for the tax year?

To find your total mileage for the tax year, begin by exporting all data from your FreeAgent account. Next, navigate to the 'Expenses' tab of the exported spreadsheet file and then total up the numbers in the column that details your mileage entries.