Help & Guide

Getting Started

When you first open KeptMiles you'll see a short onboarding flow:

1. Welcome screen: tap Get Started.
2. Vehicle: choose your vehicle type (car, van, motorcycle, or bicycle) and optionally add a name and registration.
3. Work type: select how you work (self-employed, employed, company director, or landlord).
4. Home location: tap "Use current location" to set your home. This helps auto-classify personal and commute journeys. You can skip this and set it later.
5. Permissions: grant the permissions KeptMiles needs to track automatically. All required permissions must be granted before you can continue. See Permissions below for details.

Once permissions are granted, KeptMiles starts monitoring for driving activity in the background. There's nothing else to set up. Just drive.

Permissions

KeptMiles needs several permissions to detect and record journeys automatically. These are requested during onboarding and must all be granted before tracking can start.

Required Permissions

• Location (Allow all the time): records GPS coordinates as you drive. "While using the app" is not enough. KeptMiles must have "Allow all the time" to detect journeys when the app is in the background.
• Activity detection: uses your phone's motion sensors to detect when you're in a vehicle, so GPS only activates when you're driving.
• Notifications: shows the persistent tracking notification and alerts when journeys are recorded.
• Background activity (battery optimisation exemption): prevents Android from killing the tracking service while you're driving.

Setting Location to "Allow all the time"

Android does not let apps request "Allow all the time" directly from a pop-up. If you initially chose "While using this app", KeptMiles will take you to your phone's Settings where you can change it:

1. Tap the Location permission item in KeptMiles.
2. Your phone's app settings will open.
3. Tap Permissions → Location → select Allow all the time.
4. Return to KeptMiles. The permission will update automatically.

Permission Recovery

If permissions are lost (for example after transferring to a new phone, reinstalling the app, or revoking permissions in system settings), KeptMiles will show the permissions screen automatically when you open the app. Grant the missing permissions to continue.

If a permission has been permanently denied (you previously tapped "Don't allow" twice), tapping it will open your phone's app settings where you can enable it manually.

The "Allow & Start Tracking" button stays disabled until all required permissions are granted.

Dashboard

The dashboard (Today screen) is your home screen. It gives you an at-a-glance view of your current tax year:

• Tax Year Progress: business miles, claim total, and a visual bar showing how close you are to the 10,000-mile threshold where the rate drops from 45p to 25p.
• Tracking Toggle: start or stop automatic journey detection. When active, a pulsing indicator shows tracking is running.
• Today's Journeys: your trips today with distance, addresses, and classification status. Tap to open details, or swipe to classify.
• Merge Suggestions: when two journeys are close together in time, a merge chip appears between them. Tap to combine them into one journey.
• Manual Entry: tap the + button to add a journey manually if tracking missed one (for example, when the app was not running).

The app has four main tabs at the bottom: Today, Journeys, Stats, and More.

Today screen showing tax year summary and recent journeys

Tap any journey on the dashboard to jump straight to its detail screen.

Journey Tracking

KeptMiles tracks journeys automatically using your phone's Activity Recognition and GPS:

1. Driving detected: Activity Recognition notices you're in a vehicle and wakes the GPS.
2. Route recorded: GPS logs your position at regular intervals as you drive.
3. Journey ends: when you stop for more than 3 minutes, the journey is saved automatically.

You don't need to open the app or tap anything. Journeys appear on your dashboard and in the Journeys list ready to classify.

Battery Management

KeptMiles adapts GPS accuracy based on your battery level and charging state:

• Plugged in: maximum GPS accuracy. Ideal for work vans and vehicles with chargers.
• Battery OK: balanced accuracy that preserves battery without losing route detail.
• Low battery: reduced GPS frequency to conserve power. Routes may be slightly less detailed.

Activity Recognition itself uses negligible battery when you're not driving.

Live tracking screen showing route in progress

Classifying Journeys

Every journey needs classifying so KeptMiles knows which miles to include in your HMRC claim:

• Business: visiting clients, suppliers, job sites, or travelling between workplaces. These miles count towards your claim.
• Personal: shopping, social trips, errands. Not claimable.
• Commute: your regular home-to-workplace journey. Not claimable.

Single Journey

Tap any journey to open its detail screen, then tap Business, Personal, or Commute.

Quick Swipe

On the Journeys list, swipe right on a journey to mark it as Business, or swipe left to mark as Personal.

Swipe right for Business, left for Personal

Batch Classification

Long-press a journey to enter selection mode. Select multiple journeys, then tap Business or Personal in the toolbar to classify them all at once.

Route Map & Playback

Every journey with GPS data has an interactive route map on its detail screen.

Viewing the Map

Tap any journey to see its route drawn on an OpenStreetMap. The route is colour-coded by classification: green for business, grey for personal, blue for commute, amber for unclassified. Green and red markers show where the journey started and ended.

Tap the map to expand it to full screen. You can pinch to zoom and drag to pan.

Route Playback

In full-screen mode, tap the chevron button in the bottom-right corner to open the playback controls. These let you replay your journey on the map:

• Play / Pause: animates a marker smoothly along your route. Follow mode activates automatically, keeping the marker centred on screen.
• Step forward / back: move one GPS point at a time with smooth animation between points.
• Skip to start / end: jump to the beginning or end of the journey.
• Scrubber bar: drag to any point in the journey.
• Speed presets: choose from 1x (real-time), 10x (default), 25x, 50x, or 100x playback speed.
• Follow mode: keeps the map centred on the moving marker. Tap the crosshair icon to toggle.
• Loop mode: replays the journey continuously. Tap the loop icon to toggle.

Live Stats

During playback, the panel shows real-time data for the current position:

• Speed: calculated from GPS points, shown in mph.
• Distance: cumulative miles travelled so far in the journey.
• Heading: compass direction of travel (N, NE, E, etc.).
• Elapsed: time since the journey started.
• Time: actual time of day from the GPS timestamp (24-hour format).

Journey Browser

While the playback panel is open, use the left and right arrows at the top to browse to the previous or next journey without closing the map. The route, addresses, and stats update in place.

Calendar View

The calendar gives you a visual overview of your journeys across days and weeks. Open it from the calendar icon on the Journeys screen.

• Month view: shows the full month with coloured dots on each day indicating journey classifications. Tap a day to see its journeys in the agenda below.
• Week view: shows a single week with more detail. Swipe left and right to move between weeks.
• Filter chips: filter by Business, Personal, Commute, or Unclassified to focus on specific journey types.

Tap any journey in the agenda to open its detail screen.

Search

Tap the search icon on the Journeys screen to find any journey by address or purpose. Results update as you type. Tap a result to open the journey detail.

Saved Locations

Saved locations let you automate journey classification. When a journey ends near a saved location, it's automatically classified based on the rule you set.

1. Add a location: open a journey detail screen and tap the destination address, or go to Settings > Saved Locations > Add.
2. Name it: give it a meaningful name like "Workshop", "Client: ABC Ltd", or "Home".
3. Set the rule: choose what classification to apply when a journey ends here (Business, Personal, or Commute).

Locations use a radius to match arrivals, so you don't need to park in the exact same spot every time.

Saved locations with auto-classification rules

HMRC Mileage Rates

KeptMiles uses HMRC's Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) to calculate your claim:

• Cars and vans: 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p per mile after that.
• Motorcycles: 24p per mile (all miles).
• Bicycles: 20p per mile (all miles).

These rates have been unchanged since 2011.

The 10,000-Mile Threshold

For cars and vans, the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year are claimed at 45p. Any business miles above 10,000 are claimed at 25p. The threshold resets each tax year (6 April).

KeptMiles tracks this automatically. If a single journey crosses the 10,000-mile threshold, the app correctly splits it: part at 45p, part at 25p. Most competing apps apply a flat rate and get this wrong.

Journey crossing the 10,000-mile threshold, correctly split between 45p and 25p

What Counts as Business Mileage?

Any journey made for work purposes: visiting clients, suppliers, job sites, or travelling between workplaces. Your daily commute from home to a regular workplace is not business mileage. However, journeys between workplaces are claimable.

Statistics & Export

The Stats tab gives you the tax-year overview and lets you generate HMRC-ready reports to send to your accountant or import into tax software.

Tax Year Overview

Stats shows your totals for the selected tax year — business miles, personal, commute, total claim — alongside a monthly bar chart and a projected year-end claim based on your pace so far.

PDF Report

A formatted mileage report containing:

• Summary page: totals, rates applied, total claim amount.
• Journey log: date, from, to, purpose, miles, rate, and claim for each business journey.

CSV Export

A spreadsheet-friendly export with all journey data. Works with Excel, Google Sheets, Xero, FreeAgent and QuickBooks.

The Stats tab with PDF preview, PDF export and CSV export

To generate a report, open the Stats tab, pick the tax year, then tap Export PDF or Export CSV. Preview PDF opens the report in your device's PDF viewer without sharing it.

Backup & Restore

KeptMiles can back up your data to Google Drive so it's safe if you lose or change your phone.

• Enable backup: sign in with Google, then go to Settings > Backup and enable it.
• Automatic backups: backups run automatically when significant changes are detected.
• Manual backup: tap "Back up now" in Settings > Backup at any time.
• Restore: when you sign in on a new device, you'll be offered the option to restore from your most recent backup.

Backup data is stored in your personal Google Drive in a hidden app folder. Only KeptMiles can access it.

Recycle Bin

Deleted journeys are moved to the recycle bin rather than being permanently removed. You can access the recycle bin from Settings > Recycle Bin.

• Restore: tap the restore button on any deleted journey to bring it back.
• Delete permanently: remove a journey for good. This cannot be undone.
• Empty bin: permanently delete all journeys in the bin at once.

Settings

Open the More tab at the bottom of the app to reach all settings. Key options include:

• Google Sign-In: sign in or out, view your account status.
• Saved Locations: manage your saved places and auto-classification rules.
• Vehicle Settings: set your vehicle type (car/van, motorcycle, or bicycle), name, and registration. The correct HMRC rate is applied based on vehicle type.
• Tracking Settings: adjust GPS accuracy (battery saver, balanced, or high accuracy), stop detection delay (how long the app waits before ending a journey), and journey merge window.
• Theme: choose between system default, light, or dark mode.
• Backup & Restore: enable/disable automatic backups, trigger a manual backup, or restore from Google Drive (premium).
• Recycle Bin: view and restore deleted journeys.

The More tab: account, settings, data and notifications in one place

FAQ

Contact

Need help? Email mark@keepcomputing.co.uk and I'll get back to you.