RyeDCAutomatic car logbook: drives recorded without a Start button
Turn on Track drives automatically and RyeDC records each drive: when it ran, where it went, how far, and its route on a map. Every drive is filed as business until you say otherwise, and your car logbook is built from what you confirm.
What you do, and what the app does
Turn it on
Settings › Automatic Mileage. Under the toggle is a list of everything tracking needs, from location to notifications, with a Fix button that takes you to each setting.
Tell it your car
Match each car to the Bluetooth stereo in it. A drive is then recorded against that car, and a ride in someone else's is easy to tell apart.
Drive
On Android a drive is usually picked up within seconds of starting the car. On an iPhone it is usually 3 to 8 minutes after you set off; the distance before that is estimated, and any drive containing an estimate says so.
Check your drives
Each drive is Business, Personal or Not categorised, with a reason on the business ones. Open a drive to see its route, move it to another car or delete it.
Filed as business, until you say otherwise
A detected drive is filed as business by default and marked as the app's assumption, not your decision. Turn off File detected drives as business and new drives wait for you instead. The Mileage screen says how many drives need checking; tap it to open History.
Where the app is not sure, because a drive may have been public transport or it could not tell which car you were in, it files the drive as Not categorised and says why, rather than guessing. It never files a drive as personal on your behalf.
Tuned to your car
Detection threshold is a slider from 1 to 10, set to 5 until you change it. It sets how sure the app has to be that you are driving your own car before it records a drive, so you can tune out the rides that are not yours: a bus, a train, a lift in a friend's car.
- 5, the default, waits until your phone is connected to a Bluetooth device before it records.
- 6 to 10 ask for clearer signs that you are in a car: fewer wrong drives, and a drive that starts a little later.
- 1 to 4 record some drives with nothing connected, so a car with no Bluetooth can still be tracked. A bus or a train may be recorded too.
At every level, a drive picked up without your car's stereo is filed as Not categorised rather than business, so a ride that was not yours is easy to find and delete. If drives you did not make keep turning up, raise the setting. If your own are being missed, lower it.
Short stops
With Combine drives split by a short stop on, two drives that end and restart in the same place are recorded as one journey: a quick stop for fuel, say. You set how long the car may stand and still count as the same journey. Drives are only ever combined in the same car on the same day, which is what the tax law allows for consecutive business journeys.
Reminders
Reminders sends a notification when your logbook needs something from you: an odometer reading at the end of a drive when one is due, a reading as one tax year ends and the next begins, and drives to categorise while they can still be changed freely. Drives are recorded with it off, but your dash readings are what keep the distance true, so leaving it on is recommended.
Business use the ATO way
Your business-use percentage is business distance divided by the distance your odometer actually moved over the income year, not by the distance the app managed to detect. A drive the app missed counts in your total and never as business. The law says the same thing the other way round: a journey left out of the logbook lowers the percentage it shows (s28-125(1)).
So Update odometer is worth a moment every few weeks. As you type the reading, the app compares it with the drives it recorded since your last one and tells you when the dash moved further than they add up to.
The ATO logbook page has the rest: the twelve weeks, the five years, and what the export holds.
Who it is for
Anyone in Australia who needs a logbook: a rideshare driver between fares, a tradie between sites, a courier, a sales rep, a support worker visiting clients. If you drive for a ride-sourcing platform, the reason Ride-sourcing: carrying a passenger for a fare is there for the journeys that carried one.
What tracking needs
Automatic tracking needs your phone's location in the background. Plainly: RyeDC collects location data to detect your drives and record their route and distance in your mileage log, even when the app is not in use. Detected drives are saved to your RyeDC account. Nothing about your location is sent to an advertiser, and turning tracking off stops the collection. The Automatic Mileage screen lists each requirement and why it is needed:
- Location set to Always (iPhone) or allowed all the time (Android), and precise location.
- Background App Refresh on an iPhone. Motion & Fitness, which Android calls Physical activity.
- On Android: Bluetooth on, Nearby devices, a notification while tracking runs, and your car selected.
- Low Power Mode (iPhone) or power saving (Android) off, since power saving suspends background location.
Nothing is asked for at launch. Each permission is requested when you turn on the feature that needs it, with a line on why.
You decide what each drive was for. Being filed as business does not make a journey deductible; the reason you give it, and whether it was really for work, is what the ATO reads. General information, not tax advice.
Questions drivers ask
Will it record a bus, a train or a ride in someone else's car?
At the default threshold a drive is recorded only once the phone is connected to a Bluetooth device, and a ride picked up without your car's stereo is filed as Not categorised, so it stands out. Raise the slider if the wrong drives keep turning up.
Does it run with Fare Meter?
Yes. A fare drive becomes a Fare Meter trip and a detected drive, in separate records. They are never added together, and Fare Meter trips never count towards your business use.
Can I still record a shift by hand?
Yes. Tracking pauses while a shift is open, so the same driving is not recorded twice, and starts again when you end it. If a shift and a drive do overlap, both are counted and the shift is flagged, so you can delete whichever is wrong.
What if I close the app?
On Android, swiping RyeDC away from Recents keeps tracking running; Force stop in Settings ends it until you open the app again. On an iPhone, leave RyeDC in the app switcher: swiping it away means a drive may be picked up later than usual, or not at all. After an iPhone restarts or updates, open RyeDC once: until you do, iOS does not let it record drives.
Where do I read more?
The Help covers every setting: Automatic mileage, what RyeDC asks permission for and what to check when a drive was not recorded.
Get RyeDC free
On iPhone and Android. No subscription: RyeDC is paid for by adverts.