Every Deduction. One File. No $20/month.
PHIT Expense + Mileage Tracker logs a receipt in five seconds and a trip in ten — with the correct 2026 IRS mileage rate applied automatically by date. One HTML file, runs in your browser, works with no internet, and your numbers never leave your computer.
No account. No email. Nothing you type is ever uploaded.
What can a contractor deduct?
Materials, fuel, tools, insurance, subcontractor labor, vehicle repairs, phone and internet, advertising, software, permits, half of business meals — and every business mile at the IRS standard rate (72.5¢ per mile January–June 2026, 76¢ July–December). The catch: the IRS expects records made at or near the time of the expense, and most missed deductions die in a shoebox of faded receipts. This free tracker captures each one as it happens and exports a clean CSV for your tax pro — the job QuickBooks Solopreneur charges $20/month to do.
What's inside
Three screens, zero learning curve: an expense log with twelve contractor categories, a mileage log that does the rate math for you, and a dashboard that shows the number you actually care about — estimated deductions so far this year.
A CSS sketch of the real thing — open the tracker above to use it live.
Five-second expense entry
Date defaults to today. Type the amount, pick one of 12 categories, hit Enter. Vendor, job, and note fields are there when you want them, ignorable when you don't.
Mileage that does the math
Enter miles — or odometer start and end, and it computes the difference. The correct IRS rate is applied by each trip's date, including the 2026 mid-year change.
Deductions dashboard
This month's spend, year-to-date totals, category bars, mileage deduction, and one headline number: estimated deductions YTD, with meals counted at 50%.
Year selector
Entries are tagged by year. Flip to last year at tax time, this year for planning. The 2025 rate (70¢/mile) is built in, so old trips compute right too.
Tax-pro-ready exports
One click for an expenses CSV, one for an IRS-style mileage log — date, purpose, miles, rate, deduction, with totals. Hand them over and you're done.
Autosave + backups
Every entry saves instantly on your device with a "last saved" indicator. Export a JSON backup any time; deleted something by mistake? There's an Undo.
The top 10 deductions contractors miss
Tax preparers say the same thing every April: the money isn't lost to the IRS, it's lost to bad records. These are the write-offs that most often never make it onto a Schedule C:
- Business mileage. The big one. At 2026 rates, 12,000 business miles is roughly $8,900 of deduction — but only with a log showing date, purpose, and miles. "I drive a lot" doesn't survive an audit; a dated log does.
- Cell phone and internet. The business-use share of the bill you already pay every month. Sixty percent business use of a $95 plan is about $684 a year.
- Small tools and equipment. Blades, bits, cords, ladders, batteries. Individually forgettable, easily $1,000+ a year — and generally deductible in the year you buy them.
- Insurance premiums. General liability, commercial auto, tool coverage. Paid annually, forgotten by April.
- Vehicle repairs. If you deduct actual vehicle costs instead of the standard mileage rate, repairs and maintenance count — but you must pick one method per vehicle, not both. Track it either way and let your tax pro choose.
- Software and subscriptions. Estimating apps, plan software, cloud storage, even the website hosting bill. Small monthly charges add up to real money.
- Advertising. Yard signs, truck lettering, lead-platform fees, your website. All of it.
- Safety gear and work clothing. Hard hats, steel toes, hi-vis, gloves — protective gear is deductible. (Regular jeans and flannel aren't, even if you only wear them on the job.)
- Permits, licenses, and fees. Building permits, license renewals, bonding fees, professional dues. Often paid in cash or by card at a counter and never recorded.
- Half of business meals. Lunch with the GC you're bidding for counts at 50%. The tracker's Meals category carries the 50% note so the estimate stays honest.
Every item on that list has the same failure mode: it happened, nobody wrote it down, it's gone. The fix isn't accounting software — it's a place to write it down that's faster than not bothering.
The 2026 IRS mileage rate: two rates in one year
For 2026 the IRS did something it rarely does — it changed the standard mileage rate mid-year to reflect higher fuel costs. That means the rate that applies depends on the date of each trip:
| Period | Rate per mile | 100 miles = |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 (all year) | 70¢ | $70.00 |
| Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2026 | 72.5¢ | $72.50 |
| Jul 1 – Dec 31, 2026 | 76¢ | $76.00 |
Source: IRS standard mileage rate announcements at irs.gov; mid-year 2026 adjustment covered by the Journal of Accountancy. Rates apply to business use of a car, van, pickup, or panel truck under the standard-mileage method.
The practical consequence: a June trip and a July trip of the same length are worth different amounts, and a mileage log that applies one flat rate to the whole year is wrong in both halves. This tracker stores the rate table by date — a 100-mile trip logged June 15 computes to $72.50, the same trip on August 1 computes to $76.00, and your CSV export shows the rate used on every line, which is exactly what a preparer wants to see.
How to use it
Open the tracker (button above) — or download the file and double-click it. No account, nothing to install. Load the sample data first if you want to poke around.
Log expenses as they happen. At the register, in the truck: amount, category, Enter. Date defaults to today, and the form remembers your last date and job for batch-entering a stack of receipts.
Log trips the same day. Miles or odometer start/end, plus a purpose ("supply run — Henderson deck"). The right IRS rate and the deduction are computed for you.
Check the dashboard monthly. Category bars show where the money goes; the headline shows estimated deductions YTD. That number is also a rough guide for what to set aside for quarterly taxes — ask your tax pro.
At tax time, export both CSVs for the year and hand them over — plus a JSON backup for yourself once a week, because browser storage is only as safe as your browser.
What the paid alternatives cost
PHIT Expense Tracker
- Expenses + IRS-rate mileage log
- 2026 split rate built in
- Works offline, one file
- Data stays on your computer
QuickBooks
- Solopreneur: $20/mo
- Simple Start: $38/mo
- Prices after the July 2025 increase
- Full bookkeeping + bank sync
MileIQ
- Automatic drive detection
- Phone app, cloud account
- ~$72/yr for the mileage half alone
- Expenses need another app
Typical 2026 published figures — QuickBooks Online tiers post–July-2025 price increase (Solopreneur $20/mo, Simple Start $38/mo, Essentials $75/mo); MileIQ ≈ $5.99/mo. Verify current pricing yourself; plans change.
To be fair to the paid guys: QuickBooks reconciles bank accounts, runs payroll add-ons, and files 1099s — if you have employees and an accountant who wants QBO access, it earns its keep. MileIQ auto-detects drives from your phone, which is genuinely convenient. But if what you actually need is "write down what I spent and where I drove, and total it for my tax pro," you'd be paying $312 a year for that pair. A spreadsheet does it for free and most people quit updating it by March — this is the version that's fast enough to stick with.
The honest limits
It's one person, one device. No login, no sync, no phone-to-desktop magic. Your data lives in one browser on one machine — Export/Import JSON moves it between machines.
It's not accounting software. No bank feeds, no invoices, no double-entry books, no tax filing. It's the record-keeping layer — the part you actually have to do daily — done well and done free.
No bank sync is a feature, not a gap. Bank sync means a third party holding your credentials and transaction history. Typing "$84.12, Materials" takes five seconds and nothing about your money ever leaves your device.
Browser storage is real storage, but back it up. Clearing browser data clears the tracker too. The Export JSON button exists for a reason — use it weekly. And when you've got a bookkeeper and payroll, graduate to real accounting software; until then, why pay?
Prefer a copy on your desktop? Download the file — it works with no internet.
Know your real numbers — the rest of the family
Common questions
What is the IRS standard mileage rate for 2026?
The IRS set two rates for 2026: 72.5 cents per business mile for January 1 through June 30, and 76 cents per mile for July 1 through December 31 — a rare mid-year increase to reflect higher fuel costs. The 2025 rate was 70 cents. This tracker applies the correct rate automatically based on each trip's date.
Is this expense tracker really free?
Yes. No trial, no paid tier, no card on file. The whole tracker is one HTML file that runs in your browser. There is nothing to upgrade to — this is the whole product.
Where is my data stored?
In your browser's local storage, on your own computer. Nothing you type is ever uploaded — there is no server to upload it to. Use Export JSON any time to save a backup file you control.
Does it connect to my bank?
No, and that's by design. Bank sync means handing a third party your login and your transaction history. Here you type each expense in about five seconds, and nothing about your money ever leaves your device.
Can I hand the exports to my tax preparer?
Yes — that's the point. One click exports a clean expenses CSV and an IRS-style mileage log with date, purpose, miles, rate, and deduction columns. Both open in Excel or Google Sheets.
What happens if I clear my browser data?
Clearing site data wipes the tracker's storage too. Take a JSON backup once a week — it's one click, and Import brings everything back exactly as it was. The same rule applies to the downloaded copy.
Is this accounting or tax software?
No. It's a record-keeping tool: it captures expenses and mileage as they happen and totals them by category and year. It doesn't file returns, reconcile accounts, or give tax advice. Bring the exports to a tax professional — with your records already organized, you're paying them to think, not to sort receipts.
Built by PHIT Web
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