To make mileage tracking as automated (and easy) as possible, TripLog has several features to help automatically categorize trips by activity (business, personal, etc.) and vehicle. The goal of this article is to help you customize your app for efficient, automatic categorization of your trips. In addition, if you have noticed your trips have been categorized incorrectly or attributed to the wrong vehicle, this article may help you discover the default setting that is causing the issue.
Activity Defaults
Trips can be automatically categorized by activity (business, personal, etc.) with to three factors: vehicle default, location default, and business hours default. To automatically categorize the activity of a trip, TripLog will follow these steps:
Activity Auto-Assignment Priority:
To Location Setting (if both locations have a setting)
From Location Setting
Vehicle Activity Setting
AutoStart: Business Hours Defaults
Last Trip Activity
Location Default Activity
TripLog will check the ending location (To Location) of the trip. If the TO location has a default activity set, it will use that activity, if the From location has a default activity, it will use that activity. If both have a default activity set, the app will use the To Location's Default Activity to classify the trip.
In the app or web you can set the default activity for a location by editing the details and selecting the desired Default activity.
Vehicle Default Activity
If there are no location default activities then TripLog will check if the Vehicle (see vehicle section) that was selected has a default activity. If the vehicle has a default activity associated with it, TripLog will categorize the trip to match the vehicle's activity default.
Activity defaults for vehicles can be set under TripLog app > Menu > Vehicles > Android: Select the three dots associated with the vehicle you wish to edit
iOS: Select the vehicle to edit
'Edit' > 'Show More' > Set the default activity to your satisfaction > Save. This path is the same for both Android and iOS. Screenshots for the Android app are pictured below.
Working Hours
If both the vehicle and locations do not have default activities, the trip will then use your business hours defaults. The settings for business hours can be found under TripLog app > Menu > Auto Start > Work Schedule
You can set your business hours to reflect the times and days when you are most likely to be driving for your business. Once you have defined which days and hours you will be driving for work, you can set TripLog to automatically categorize trips taken during these hours.
During your configured business hours, trips will be categorized as the activity set in the 'Business Hours Activity' field and After Hours trips will be categorized as the activity you can define in the 'After Hours Activity' field. You can add additional timeframes for differing schedules with our paid plans. You can find a more detailed breakdown of this setup under Setting Your Work Hours to Auto Classify Trips
The Business hours define the trip type based at the beginning of the trip, you can always override the selection during or after the trip if needed.
Last Trip Activity: If there are no preset defaults for the location, vehicle or business hours, if all previous trips to the ending location of the trip have been categorized as the same activity, the next trip to that location will also be categorized as that activity (e.g. if all trips to the location 'Office' are categorized as 'Business', the next trip to 'Office' will be categorized as 'Business').
Vehicles
If you only have one vehicle you do not need to configure a default, this includes it you have a disabled vehicle. If you have multiple vehicles it is recommended to select a default vehicle. You can select a vehicle in your list to be your default vehicle. This will be used with MagicTrip, Plug n Go as well as manual GPS tracking and Manual Entry. If you do not select a default, some options will use last vehicle selected. When starting a Manual GPS tracked trip it will ask you to select a vehicle.
Selecting a Default Vehicle
Vehicles > Select the Vehicle > In the options MARK AS DEFAULT
There are a few different methods that TripLog uses to automatically detect which vehicle you are driving as defined below:
1. If you are using the TripLog Drive. TripLog Beacon or Car Bluetooth Auto Tracking, your TripLog app will automatically detect which vehicle you are using based on the signature of the Bluetooth connection. The app will attribute trips to the appropriate vehicle accordingly.
2. If you are using another auto-tracking setting and you would like for all of your trips to be attributed to one vehicle unless otherwise specified, you can set a default vehicle for all of your future trips. To do so, please open TripLog app > Menu > Vehicles > Press on the three dots associated with the vehicle you wish to mark as the default vehicle > Mark as Default (Android) or open TripLog app > Menu > Vehicles > Press on the vehicle you wish to mark as the default vehicle > Mark as Default (iOS)
3. If no default vehicle has been set, the trip will automatically be attributed to the vehicle driven in the previous trip. This can be changed via manually editing a trip by opening TripLog app > press the trip to edit > Change the vehicle to the desired vehicle > save.