Business Mileage & Travel Expense Log (US) 2026 – mileage, expense reports, travel policy

Every month, business trips in a personal vehicle, hotel nights and flights have to be documented, capped by your rules, reimbursed and sent to your accountant. This log does that work in an Excel workbook with no macros, using the 2026 IRS business mileage rates, dated and sourced, including the July 1 change.

The Business Mileage & Travel Expense Log (US) 2026 is for businesses: small companies without expense software, owners, freelancers operating through an LLC or corporation, and the accountants and bookkeepers who support them.

What you get

• Mileage-Expense-Log-US-2026.xlsx – the blank workbook, 8 tabs, native formulas only:
  • How to use: the 5-step start, color key, what is still to verify.
  • Settings: company, year start, approver; 20 claimants; your rules (receipt threshold, submission delay, distance alert, excess paid or not); your reimbursement rate (blank = IRS rate); a limit per expense category; a ledger account column to fill in with your accountant.
  • Rates: IRS business standard mileage rates read on irs.gov on October 18, 2026 (page updated July 28, 2026): 70 cents for 2025 (IR-2024-312), 72.5 cents from January 1 to June 30, 2026 (IR-2025-128), 76 cents from July 1 to December 31, 2026 (IR-2026-29); a 2027 row 'To verify'.
  • Mileage log: 500 rows; business miles, the IRS rate of the trip date, the IRS reference amount, your reimbursement and the difference, tolls and parking, 8 checks per trip (purpose missing, possible duplicate, date outside the year, no rate for the date, negative value…).
  • Expense reports: 500 rows; currency and exchange rate, amount, optional tax, policy limit, excess, amount kept with its tax and net (tax pro rata when capped), status, 9 checks per expense (receipt missing, above the limit, late submission or invalid date, duplicate, fuel claimed on a mileage day…).
  • Monthly summary: month and claimant selectors, total to pay, already paid, balance, a table for your accountant by type of cost, sign-off block, one Letter page.
  • Annual totals: per claimant and by IRS rate period, business miles, IRS reference amount, reimbursed and the difference; a year with no IRS rate yet is flagged.
  • Checks: counters per type of alert and integrity tests (totals, summary, annual totals).
• Mileage-Expense-Log-US-2026-SAMPLE.xlsx – the same workbook filled with fictitious data (Sample Services LLC: 3 claimants, 60 trips, 40 expenses and 4 deliberate anomalies that the Checks tab finds).
• Mileage-Expense-Log-Guide-US-2026.pdf – 14 Letter pages: quick start, settings, dated rates and how to update them, mileage log, expense reports, checks, monthly summary, annual totals and your accountant, Google Sheets, worked example, FAQ, dated sources.
• Travel-and-expenses-policy-template-US.docx – an 8-page Word template to complete (highlighted [fields]): 14 sections (travel, own vehicle, lodging, meals, receipts, approval, currency, checks…), limits in an appendix matching the workbook, a travel request form, a checklist and an acknowledgement.

What the log does not do

It does not replace payroll, accounting software or your accountant's advice. It does not tell you whether an expense is deductible or whether your plan is an accountable plan. Your company chooses its reimbursement rate: the IRS rate is shown as a reference. It does not read receipts: entry is manual.

Dated official rates

IRS business standard mileage rates: irs.gov, 'Standard mileage rates', page last reviewed or updated July 28, 2026, read October 18, 2026. Accountable plans: IRS Publication 463 (2025), chapter 6, read October 18, 2026. GSA per diem rates are not copied: cells 'To verify on gsa.gov'.

Quality

No macros, no external connections. Functions available in Excel 2016 and later (no XLOOKUP, LET, LAMBDA or dynamic arrays); dates shown in US English (Jul 1, 2026) whatever the language of your Excel, while thousand and decimal separators follow your computer settings. Drop-down lists, frozen panes, filters, conditional formatting, print areas. Full recalculation in Excel: 0 error cells in the blank workbook and in the sample; sample results recalculated independently (767 checks, no difference); negative values and dates pasted as text are flagged, with no error cells. The Google Sheets import was not tested: the guide lists what to check after importing.

Use within the licensed business · resale and redistribution prohibited