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An ATO-compliant logbook app built for rideshare drivers

If you want to claim your actual car expenses — fuel, servicing, insurance, depreciation, interest — the ATO's logbook method requires a valid logbook covering a continuous 12-week period that represents your usual pattern of use. For rideshare drivers, whose car is the business, this is usually worth far more than the cents-per-kilometre method. It's also the record most drivers don't keep properly.

What the ATO requires

• A logbook kept for at least 12 continuous weeks, representative of your travel pattern.
• For each business journey: dates, odometer start and end, kilometres, and the purpose of the trip.
• Odometer readings at the start and end of the logbook period (and each income year).
• The resulting business-use percentage is then applied to your car expenses — and generally holds for up to five years unless your pattern changes.

Why paper logbooks fail rideshare drivers

A rideshare shift is dozens of small journeys. Writing odometer entries between pickups is unrealistic, so paper logbooks get backfilled from memory — and a logbook that doesn't stand up to scrutiny can invalidate the whole claim. The fix is capturing it digitally, as you drive.

The EarningsPilotAU Vehicle Logbook

The built-in logbook uses geofence-assisted trip capture: rather than asking you to write down odometer readings between pickups, it works with location boundaries to help capture your business journeys as you drive, and structures them the way the ATO expects.

1. Record shifts in the built-in Vehicle Logbook with geofence-assisted capture, structured to what the ATO needs — dates, odometer, kilometres, purpose.
2. Your business-use percentage is calculated for you as the logbook builds.
3. That percentage flows straight into the Tax & BAS module, so GST credits and deductions on car costs are claimed at the right proportion automatically.

A note on background tracking

Phone operating systems place strict limits on what an app may do in the background, and those limits differ between iOS and Android and change between OS versions. Treat geofence-assisted capture as a powerful assistant rather than something to leave entirely unattended: check your logbook at the end of a shift and correct anything that needs it. A logbook you have reviewed is a logbook that will hold up.