Mileage guide
Canadian self-employed vehicle records: one logbook for each vehicle
By FlatMile ·
General Canadian self-employed recordkeeping information. Check CRA guidance for your fiscal period and circumstances.
At a glance
A Canadian self-employed vehicle logbook should connect business journeys to total vehicle use and the expenses for that same vehicle. Record kilometres throughout the year and retain receipts; an employee allowance rate is not a substitute for your self-employed expense calculation.
The CRA's vehicle-record guidance identifies a full-year log as the best evidence. Its business-trip fields are date, destination, purpose and kilometres. Keep opening and closing fiscal-period odometer readings, plus change dates and readings when a vehicle is acquired, sold or traded. Separate records are needed for separate vehicles.
Set up the file around the vehicle
Create one folder or spreadsheet tab per vehicle, labelled with an identifier you will still recognise next year. Add the reporting period to every exported file. Store the kilometre log, expense receipts and reconciliation together, while preserving the original documents separately from your working calculations.
A useful review sheet has three parts: annual distance evidence, the sum of business-trip rows and an expense index. The index can point to receipts instead of embedding scans in a large spreadsheet. Check that each receipt belongs to the correct vehicle and period.
Reconcile a fictional full-year example
A consultant records an opening odometer of 42,100 km and a closing reading of 60,100 km. The vehicle therefore travelled 18,000 km during the period. Reviewed business trips total 7,200 km.
| Check | Fictional result | What to investigate |
|---|---|---|
| Total vehicle use | 18,000 km | Missing or mistyped opening and closing readings |
| Recorded business use | 7,200 km | Duplicate trips or unreviewed purposes |
| Remaining distance | 10,800 km | Whether business records omit genuine journeys |
| Business-use ratio | 7,200 ÷ 18,000 = 40% | Whether the underlying log is complete |
The 40% is an illustration of a distance ratio, not a determination that every vehicle cost receives that treatment. Cost limits and particular expense rules still need consideration. Give the original figures and receipts to your preparer instead of sending only the percentage.
Explain exceptions while they are fresh
If the vehicle went in for repairs, note the dates and identify any replacement vehicle used. Do not add the replacement's kilometres to the original vehicle's odometer difference. A second vehicle deserves its own record even when it was used for only a few weeks.
If a trip combines a client visit and a personal errand, describe the actual stops. Keep an unresolved flag until the business portion is reviewed. Avoid rounding every journey to the same convenient figure or replacing actual routes with an identical estimated round trip.
Missing receipts and missing journey evidence are different problems. A service invoice may corroborate an odometer reading, but it does not explain all the business journeys between two services. Conversely, a complete route log does not establish that an unsupported expense was paid.
Package the records for review
At the end of the period, provide the per-vehicle log, odometer evidence, expense index, replacement dates and a short list of questions. Check the unit displayed on every file; importing miles into a kilometre column can distort both the total and ratio.
If you are considering a shorter future log, read the CRA three-month sample guide. It requires a suitable full base year and a comparison; it is not permission to keep only three months in your first year.
You can adapt the free mileage-log template to kilometres and add these vehicle-specific totals. A general template organises records; it does not calculate all Canadian tax rules or certify a claim.