# Going back to add miles/earning into Stride



## blssed2bme (Jun 20, 2019)

I was bad and had not been keeping my own track of mileage. I am now as of March 2022 and I'm using the Stride app.
I'm trying to "guessitmate" the miles driven in Jan and Feb. I'm trying to use the Monthly Tax Summary to figure out my earnings and I'm confused which figures I use should.

Should I use the Gross Payment amount or the Net Payment amount?

Or should I just going into the Earnings portion of the app and use the weekly amount there as my earnings?


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## Uber's Guber (Oct 22, 2017)

blssed2bme said:


> I'm trying to "guessitmate" the miles driven in Jan and Feb.


There is no right answer to a *wrong *question...
The IRS does not allow you to "guesstimate."


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## blssed2bme (Jun 20, 2019)

So I’m your opinion should I omit miles from Jan and Feb and just start with March?


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

I would not omit them. I would go back into trip receipts and record how many miles you got paid for.

Then I would look at the next couple months and see what your average paid to dead mile ratio is and use that to add dead miles to the first two months. While not accurate and probably not an approved method by the IRS it is what I would do if I were in your position.


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

blssed2bme said:


> So I’m your opinion should I omit miles from Jan and Feb and just start with March?


I agree with @FLKeys that you should estimate them and not omit them. I personally wouldn't put as much work as he suggests into it, but his method is probably more accurate.

1. Do you record Odometer readings at all? If so I would look at the total mileage on your car for January and Feb and apply the % of miles you feel you use the car for Food Delivery vs personal.
or
2. Without odometer readings then I would look at March's data to see the average miles per day you're putting on your car doing food delivery. I would then just apply that average mileage per day x the approximate number of days you worked in Jan or Feb.

Of course neither is necessarily an IRS approved method but if the rest of the year is documented then even in an audit, if the estimate made sense to an auditor they probably would let it go.

P.S. I don't know if your using a paid or free version of Stride. I haven't looked at Stride in several years but last I looked it just gave number of miles with no odometer readings. Just for an added layer of protection it is quick and easy to just record your odometer reading when you leave your driveway(and the date) and record it again when your done working and hit your driveway again. It's easy to put into a spreadsheet or to do it the old fashion way with pen and paper. Odometer readings are an important part of documentation although there is court precedent for accepting tracked mileage totals.


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## reg barclay (Nov 3, 2015)

Also a reminder that if you had any maintenance or repairs done, the mechanic probably logged the mileage of your car. So you could get a copy of that and use it.


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