Automatic vs Manual Mileage Tracking for Gig Work

Manual tracking is you writing miles at the end of the day. Automatic tracking is the phone counting distance while a session is open. Most people who stick with it use automatic during the shift and glance at the total when they clock out.

GigMeter counts miles with GPS only while you are clocked in, not paused, and GigMeter Pro is active. Download on the App Store.

Manual logs

A notebook or spreadsheet with date, start/end miles, and why you drove can meet a tax pro’s idea of a log if you actually fill it in. It falls apart when you stack three apps in one evening and reconstruct the odometer from memory at 11 p.m.

Automatic GPS

GigMeter starts location when you clock in (after you allow While Using the App). Pause stops GPS and freezes time. Resume starts both. Clock out stops location. Switching to DoorDash or Uber during the shift can keep miles counting for that session; iOS shows the location indicator. Force-quit GigMeter and GPS stops until you open it again.

Authorization is While Using the App, never Always. If you decline location, you can still clock in. Time and earnings work. Miles stay at zero until you allow location in iOS Settings → GigMeter → Location.

Which is “better”

Automatic wins on a messy multi-gig day because you are not typing. Manual still matters for a forgotten session: you can edit clock-in, clock-out, and distance after the fact. GigMeter does not reconstruct last year’s missing miles from your carrier or from Uber.

IRS documentation is about contemporaneous records of business use, not about a particular brand of app. GPS totals help. They do not replace knowing which miles were work. See mileage and taxes.

How to start

1. Decide when a shift begins (leaving home for the first pickup is a common rule).
2. Clock in then. If you have more than one saved vehicle and auto gas is on, GigMeter asks which car.
3. Pause for personal stops.
4. Log payouts as they land.
5. Clock out when you are done. Read the summary before you close it.

Setup detail lives in how to start tracking mileage.