Trips’n'Miles Mileage Tracker Now On Android Market

Posted On 6 Jun, 2010 - By Christian Donner - With 0 Comments

Trips’n'Miles for Android is available for download from the Android Market. Simply search for “tripsnmiles” on your device. Unlike with the Windows Mobile version, no separate database installation is required, which makes it much easier to install and use.

Trips’n'Miles for Android has the same feature set as the Windows Mobile version and most of the information available at this link applies to the Android version as well. One notable difference is the simplified handling of units. On Android you select either the Metric or the US unit system, and the calculation of fuel consumption is done accordingly (in miles per gallon or Liter/100 km). The data entry and the values in the database are expected to be in the currently selected unit system and are not converted. This means that if you purchase 10 gallons of gas and log a quantity of 10 for a gas purchase, switching the units to l/100km will yield incorrect results. So, select your unit system once and don’t change it.

Trip'n'Miles Home Screen

Trips’n'Miles requires an active vehicle. You can create as many cars as you want, but only one can be active at a time, and all trips and gas transactions entered will be associated with this vehicle. Switching the active vehicle is as simple as tapping on the check mark next to the vehicle on the Cars screen. Trips’n'Miles for Android comes in 2 versions. The free evaluation version has no limitations except for the missing data export features. The premium version allows you to export your data to the SD card or to send it in an email as a CSV attachment.

Getting Started

After you first download and install Tripsnmiles from Market, the database is empty. The application supports multiple vehicles, but all data that is entered is associated with what is called the active vehicle. The name of the active vehicle is shown in the title bar. Before you can record trips and gas purchase transactions, you need to create a vehicle and activate it.

This message appears on a fresh installation

In order to create a car, (surprise!) tap on “Add Car”. You should enter a name (technically it is not required, but you will not know what the active vehicle is if the app displays a blank string in the title bar). The mileage limit is for leased vehicles. It is required and must be an integer value. 0 is permitted if this does not apply. This field is not used by the application, but is exported with the other data and can be used in a spreadsheet to calculate any overages. Select the acquisition date if you want to capture that as well. Click on Save when you are done.

Activate your vehicle

Next, this question will pop up, asking if you want to activate your vehicle. If you plan to enter another vehicle and don’t want the first one to be active, you can click on No. But most likely you will want the car that you just entered to be active, so click on Yes. You will return to the Cars tab and the first vehicle will show up as active.

Your first car

If you have multiple cars, you can use the Cars screen to switch between them. Just click on the check mark next to the car that you want to work with. Remember, only one car is active at a time, and setting a car to active will set the previously selected car to inactive.

The application is now ready for your trips and gas purchases.

A Word on Gas Mileage

The gas transaction screen

The application calculates the gas mileage and displays the result (based on your preference in either miles per gallon or Liter/100 km) next to each gas purchase transaction. What is actually displayed there is based on the distance driven since the last purchase and the quantity purchased. Because the quantity purchased does not necessarily equal the quantity used (if you did not fill up to the exact same level), this value can be way off. A reliable gas mileage analysis can only be done by using averages over longer periods. The application does not currently do that.

Premium Features

Continue to use data captured with the free version

The Premium version is a separate application on Market that installs in parallel, not over the free version. Therefore it cannot use the existing data without your help (Android security prevents this). You must create a data backup on your SD card before uninstalling the free version, or you will lose your data when you uninstall it. You can then restore the database backup from the SD card to the Premium version and safely uninstall the free version, if you no longer need it.

Tripsnmiles Premium can export data to a CSV file on the SD card (the file is placed in the folder /tripsnmiles and named tripsnmiles.csv. You can open this file with your favorite spreadsheet application to do reports and calculations.

In the Premium version, this CSV file can be mailed as an attachment to the email address stored in the preferences. Any available email client can be used. A popup lets you select one:

Select an email client

Before the email is sent, you can add notes or change the recipient list:

Sending an email

The CSV file contains trip data. Gas purchases are accumulated, i.e. summed up for each trip if you had to buy gas more than once. This is why the data and gas odometer reading are not included in the extract (they can’t be added in this form of extract). The following columns appear in the CSV file (as of version 1.7):

tripdate
odostart
odoend
distance
isbusiness
category
trip_comment
vehicle_name
vehicle_comment
annual_mileage_limit
vehicle_acquired_date
gas_purchase_quantity
gas_purchase_cost
unit_system

Here is a sample CSV file (depending on your system, this link will either open Excel or a text file in a new browser window). This sample file was created with version 1.10 and may not reflect more recent enhancements.

Update History

Version 1.17 (1/12/2012, Premium Edition Only)

Fixes bug with managed cursors in Gingerbread and later.

Version 1.16 (1/4/2012, Premium Edition Only)

Build for Honeycomb and Android 4. No functional changes. May require that the previous version be uninstalled (remember to back up your data to SD card).

Version 1.15 (1/23/2011, Premium Edition Only)

Fixed a bug that failed to consider the current vehicle when calculating the default start mileage, leading to issues when switching between multiple vehicles.

Version 1.14 (12/12/2010, Premium Edition Only)

Added a menu option for deleting all mileage and gas data (for starting a new tax year)
Added long-press context menu for trips and gas purchases that includes a “delete” option
Known issue in this and prior versions: a fresh installation does not export any data in the CSV file until ‘Save settings’ is clicked at least once on the Tools screen. This is a bug that will be resolved in 1.15.

Version 1.13 (11/27/2010)

Support for the new Android Market content ratings (rating = “All”)
Using the new Android Market licensing API (Premium Edition only)
Fixed a validation bug on the Edit Gas screen that caused force-closes

Version 1.12 (7/10/2010)

Support for installation on SD card
Trip screen layout for landscape with additional columns
Calculate and display the trip distance, and include it in CSV extract
Bug: Vehicle page always saves the current date, not the date selected

Version 1.11 (7/4/2010)

Screen layout fixes

Version 1.10 (7/4/2010)

1.10 supports user-provided categories for trips. Use of the category feature is optional. The application installs with a default category (no category) that is used for all new trips. The application uses the category from the most recent trip for any new trips. Categories are included in the CSV export file and can be used to filter and group the data in your spreadsheet application.

Version 1.9 (6/24/2010)

Addressed some cosmetic issues, typos, and wording of messages.

Version 1.8 (6/22/2010) – Premium Version only

Fixed a bug that causes an exception on the splash screen, before the app even starts up. My apologies.

Version 1.7 (6/15/2010)

A new car can now be activated implicitely from a dialog box during save.
Fixed a bug that forced the message “create and activate a car” even though there was already an active car.
Fixed a bug introduced with 1.6 that allowed decimal points in the gas purchase odometer field, but not in the cost field. This would force-close the app upon save (integer parsing error).
Fixed a bug that would prevent newly entered gas purchases from appearing in the list in a fresh database.
Fixed a bug that made the app try to restore a different database file than the one that it was backed-up to (1.6 added an extension to the database backup file – /sdcard/tripsnmiles/tripsnmiles.backup which was added to the backup code, but not the restore code).

Version 1.6 (6/15/2010)

This release broke more than it fixed. 1.7 had to be pushed out quickly.

Version 1.5 (6/13/2010)

SD card backup options were added to the menu. Backup to SD card copies the SQLite database file to the /tripsnmiles folder on the SD card (if present). Restore from SD card restores the SQLite database file from the SD card (if present). This feature can be used to archive the database, create safety copies, and to backup the data before an upgrade to the Premium Version (to be released).

Versions 1.4 and earlier were not tracked.

FAQ

Why does Trip’n'Miles not use the phone’s GPS sensor to record trips?

GPS provides more detail than the IRS is interested in or that we think is desirable. We want Trips’n'Miles to do only one thing – allow you to record the business use of your vehicles with the most simple user interface possible.
In addition, there may be discrepancies between the mileage that the GPS sensor records, and what the odometer of your car is showing. Such discrepancies would have to be reconciled manually – a big hassle.
Lastly, many trips begin or end at places where there is no GPS reception – in a parking garage, for instance.

After considering these points, I decided that any form of GPS support may add to the toy factor, but does not represent a serious feature for this application.

Why can’t I delete trips or gas transactions?

We believe that Trips’n'Miles is a ledger and should implement commonly accepted accounting principles. If you enter a transaction in error, you should cancel it out, not delete it.

Will I lose my data when I upgrade to the premium version?

The free version and the premium version of TripsNMiles are separate applications that can coexist on the same device, but not share data directly. In order to import data from the free version into the premium version, make sure you upgrade to the latest free version, create a database backup on the SD card, and restore this backup into the premium version. You can then safely uninstall the free version.

How can I report bugs or request new features?

Leave a comment on this page, or send an email to the contact address that is listed on Android Market.

What versions of Android does Trips’n'Miles run on?

The (Premium) application will install and was tested on Android versions 1.6 through 4.0. The free app is pinned at version 2.3 and is not supported for more recent OS versions.

How can I erase all data and start over?

Uninstall the application, and reinstall it from Android Market.

How can I export my data?

The premium version of Trips’n'Miles will have functions to export the data in CSV format to the SD card, or to send the data to yourself as an email attachment. The free version does not have these features.