How it works

It starts because it knows the car.

Most mileage apps guess from motion alone, so they log your bus ride, your passenger seat and the walk to lunch. TripSnap keys on a connection your phone already has — CarPlay, or the Bluetooth stereo in a car you saved. If it isn't your car, it isn't a trip.

Recognizes your car

CarPlay is proof on its own. A factory head unit is matched by the Bluetooth audio route you saved — the only handle iOS gives an app on a Classic Bluetooth stereo. Nothing scans, nothing connects.

Tracking Health

Permissions reset on an iOS update and you find out six weeks later. A dashboard card watches Precise Location, Motion, Bluetooth power, Background App Refresh and Low Power Mode, and says so the moment one degrades.

The report, not the raw log

A formatted PDF expense report with the period total on top, per-row purposes, and odometer lines in the header. CSV, JSON and GeoJSON when something downstream wants the data instead.

Pay periods, not just months

Weekly, every two weeks, twice a month or monthly, anchored to your actual payday. One tap opens a mail composer to a saved manager address with the PDF and CSV attached.

A clock on unclaimed miles

Trips you haven't submitted age visibly — "$187 unclaimed, oldest 24 days" — with a reminder timed to the reimbursement windows that matter, including the 30-day statute in Illinois.

Proof it's recording

A Live Activity on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island shows the miles climbing while you drive, and a home-screen widget carries tracking health and today's total. Missed-trip anxiety, answered by glancing.

Two kinds of driver

The same miles. Opposite paperwork.

A W-2 employee and a delivery driver record identical drives and then do completely different things with them — and telling either one the other's rule costs them real money. TripSnap asks once, during setup, and every screen that mentions money follows the answer.

Employee reimbursement

Your employer pays you back.

You use your own car for work and submit an expense report. TripSnap builds that report and watches the submission clock.

Money path: Employer reimbursement under an accountable plan
Deadline that matters: Your employer's substantiation window — 30 days in Illinois
What you send: A PDF expense report, per pay period, to a manager

Gig & self-employed

You deduct them yourself.

Rideshare, delivery, contract work. TripSnap tracks shifts and what they actually paid after the driving, and totals the miles you claim.

Money path: Schedule C deduction at the standard mileage rate
Deadline that matters: Quarterly estimated tax
What you get: A year-to-date mileage total, plus $/hour and $/mile per shift

Why the split exists. Since 2018 — made permanent in 2025 — a W-2 employee cannot deduct unreimbursed business mileage on a federal return, so for that driver the standard rate is the tax-free reimbursement benchmark rather than a deduction. A self-employed driver deducts those very same miles on Schedule C. A handful of states, and a few specific professions, are exceptions to the federal rule. TripSnap is a mileage log, not a tax advisor; check your own situation with one.

Privacy

Your employer gets the report. Never your location.

There is no manager dashboard, because there is no server for one to run on. TripSnap has no account, sends nothing anywhere, and the only time a trip leaves your phone is when you personally export or email it.

Every trip, route point, vehicle and setting is stored on the device, in the app's own database.
No account, no sign-in, no cloud sync, no server to sync to.
No analytics, no advertising SDKs, no third-party trackers.
Location is used to record where you drove and how far — and for nothing else.
Bluetooth is read only to check whether it's powered on and which car audio route is connected. It never scans for or connects to devices.
You choose the moment anything leaves: a share sheet, or a mail composer you send yourself.

By the numbers

The specs.

Trip capture	Automatic via CarPlay or a saved Bluetooth car stereo, plus automotive-motion detection and manual entry
Trip purposes	Business · Personal · Commute · Medical · Charity · Unclassified
2026 IRS rates	72.5¢ business · 20.5¢ medical · 14¢ charitable, per mile (Notice 2026-10)
Rate handling	Keyed by tax year, so a January rate change never reprices last year's log. Custom employer rates supported.
Exports	PDF expense report · CSV · JSON · GeoJSON
Pay periods	Weekly · Every 2 weeks · Twice a month · Monthly, anchored to your payday
Vehicles	Multiple cars with per-car fuel or energy profiles — gasoline, diesel, hybrid, electric
Pre-export audit	Flags unclassified trips, overlaps, very short trips, business trips with no route, and business trips with no stated purpose
Shift tracking	Clock on/off with platform tags and earnings; $/hour, $/mile and take-home after fuel and tolls
Glanceable	Live Activity during a trip, plus a home-screen widget
Units	Miles or kilometres, with a selectable currency
Platforms	iPhone & iPad
iOS minimum	18.0
Accounts	None. No sign-in, ever.

The fine print. Automatic capture depends on iOS permissions and background execution that the system, not the app, ultimately controls — TripSnap's job is to tell you loudly when one of them has been turned off. Distances are measured from GPS and will differ slightly from your odometer. Fuel and energy costs are estimates from the economy figures you enter.

Never misses a drive. Never logs your bus ride.