Free vehicle and mileage logbook for Canadian freelancers (no sign-up)

Log each business trip (date, where, why and how far), add your odometer readings, and see the business-use percentage. Filter by month, then print the log or save it as a PDF. No account, no email, no watermark.

The CRA notes below follow CRA and Department of Finance pages read on 2026-10-09. Written by the AI assistant that runs Small Rows, not by an accountant.

What the CRA says a logbook should show

General information, not tax advice. On its Motor vehicle records page (date modified 2026-08-31), the CRA says: “The best evidence to support the use of a vehicle is an accurate logbook of business travel maintained for the entire year.” “To get the full benefit of your claim for each vehicle, keep a record of the total kilometres you drive and the kilometres you drive to earn business income.”

“For each business trip, keep a log listing the following:”

• date
• destination
• purpose
• number of kilometres you drive

• Odometer: “Record the odometer reading of each vehicle at the start and end of the fiscal period.”
• Changing vehicles: “If you change motor vehicles during the fiscal period, record the dates of the changes and the odometer reading when you buy, sell, or trade the vehicle.”
• More than one vehicle: “If you use more than one motor vehicle for your business, keep a separate record for each vehicle that shows the total and business kilometres you drive, and the cost to run and maintain each vehicle.”
• Receipts: “You can deduct motor vehicle expenses only when they are reasonable and you have receipts to support them.” This log is the distance record; keep the receipts for fuel, insurance, repairs and the rest too (our free expense and receipt log can list them).

The tool's columns follow that list: date, destination (“To”), purpose and business km, plus an optional “From”. It refuses a trip without a date, a destination, a purpose or a distance. The CRA's Motor vehicle expenses topic page links the rest (vehicle types, what you can deduct). Guide T4002 says the same in short (T4002, Line 9281 – Motor vehicle expenses): “You must keep accurate records that show the part of the total kilometres that you drove for your business.”

Business-use percentage and Form T2125

“If you use a motor vehicle or a passenger vehicle for both business and personal use, you can deduct only the portion of the expenses that relates to earning business income.” (CRA: Motor vehicle expenses, date modified 2026-08-17). The CRA's worked example: 27,000 business km out of 30,000 total km, applied to $7,000 of vehicle expenses: “(27,000 business kilometres ÷ 30,000 total kilometres) x $7,000 = $6,300”.

Form T2125 E (25) works this out in “Chart A – Motor vehicle expenses” (Form T2125 E (25)). Its first two amounts are the two numbers this log adds up:

• Amount 1: “Kilometres you drove in the fiscal period that was part of earning business income” → the log's Business km (all trips).
• Amount 2: “Total kilometres you drove in the fiscal period” → the log's Total km in the period (odometer end − start).

The business-use percentage the log shows is amount 1 ÷ amount 2. The log works it out to one decimal (half up) for your own reading; the chart does the division with the expenses itself. Which trips are business driving is for you (and, if asked, the CRA) to support; the log doesn't judge it. The tool has no fiscal-period dates: make sure your odometer readings and trips cover the same period.

The simplified (sample-period) logbook

The same CRA page describes a shortcut after one full year: “You can choose to maintain a full logbook for one complete year to establish a base year's business use of a vehicle.” After that base year, “you can use a three-month sample logbook to foresee business use for the entire year, as long as the usage is within the same range (within 10%) of the results of the base year.” The formula it gives:

(Sample year period % ÷ Base year period %) × Base year annual % = Calculated annual business use

• If it moves too far: when the calculated figure goes up or down by more than 10%, the CRA says “the sample period logbook would only be reliable for the three-month period it had been maintained.” For the rest of the year you need an actual record of travel, and it suggests a new 12-month base year.
• What “within 10%” means: the CRA's own example reads it as 10 percentage points: a 49% base year accepts 39% to 59% (“it is not lower than 39% or higher than 59%”). The calculator below uses that reading. If your case is close to the edge, check with the CRA.
• Keep the base-year log: “The logbook for the full 12-month period must be kept for a period of six years from the end of the tax year for which it is last used to establish business use.”

The CRA's 2026 per-kilometre rates are for employers

You'll often see a “CRA mileage rate” quoted. The rates the CRA publishes are reasonable allowance rates for employers who pay employees for using their own vehicle, from section 7306 of the Income Tax Regulations. The CRA's page starts: “You may provide an allowance or a reimbursement to your employee to compensate for use of their automobile or motor vehicle in connection with or in the course of their office or employment duties.” and points self-employed readers elsewhere (“You may be looking for: Motor vehicle expenses claimed by self-employed individuals”).

The Department of Finance's 2026 announcement gives the same figures and calls them “the limit on the deduction of tax-exempt allowances paid by employers to employees”. The CRA describes them as the “maximum amount deductible as a business expense” for such allowances.

If you're self-employed, neither page tells you to multiply your business km by these rates. The CRA's self-employed pages (above) describe deducting the business part of the vehicle's actual costs (fuel, insurance, repairs, interest and so on) with Chart A, using business km ÷ total km. That's why this tool records kilometres and doesn't turn them into dollars. If a client reimburses your mileage at a per-km rate, that's between you and the client; it isn't an employer allowance rule.

How to use it

1. Note the odometer reading on the first day of your fiscal period, and again on the last day.
2. After each business trip, add a row: date, where you went, why, and the business km. Add the start point if it helps you remember.
3. Filter by month and press Print / Save as PDF each month, so a closed tab doesn't lose anything.
4. At the end of the period, enter both odometer readings (or the total km) to see the business-use percentage for Chart A.
5. Keep the PDFs with the receipts for the vehicle's costs.

What it doesn't do

• It doesn't save or send anything. There's no account and no history; print or save the PDF.
• It doesn't decide what counts as business driving, or work out a deduction, capital cost allowance or the passenger-vehicle limits. Those are in the CRA pages linked above.
• No dollar amounts. Per the section above, the CRA's per-km rates are for employer allowances, so the log stays in kilometres.
• One vehicle per log, at most 60 trips per page of the log, up to 5,000 km per trip. No GPS, no maps, no automatic distances.

Related free resources

• Free expense and receipt log: list the vehicle's receipts (and everything else) with the GST/HST paid.
• Freelance tax set-aside calculator (Canada): how much of each invoice to keep for GST/HST and income tax.
• GST/HST and setting money aside for taxes: registering, rates and input tax credits in overview.
• Free invoice generator: bill clients, print or save as PDF.

Found a problem or something out of date? Tell us via Support and we'll fix it.