Expense tracking on PDA

[dazza12]

My client reimburses me for mileage expenses incurred whilst doing business for him. Up until now I have been keeping paper records and have been happy doing this.

Recently however, the amount of mileage has been substantial, and it is taking a very long time to transfer this to a neater form. I have therefore been looking into alternative ways of logging this. I have both a Palm Tungsten T and a Smartphone running Windows Mobile 2003 would be interested in using one of these to do the job.

Does anybody know if mileage tracking software up to the job? Ideally any tracking software would be able to export either in CSV format or directly into Excel. If it allowed me to customise the report so I can replicate the client's mileage claim this would again be ideal.

Failing that, I'll be dusting off my Access book and looking at using a database to do all of this. But I want to avoid this if necessary!

Many thanks for any pointers.

[xoggoth]

Eh? Only have an ancient Psion myself but can't believe that these PDAs you mention don't have spreadsheets with formats that import into Excel?

Was thinking of getting a Tungsten T from missus for xmas as bloke I know has one and he reckons there is loads of free software for it. Is he wrong? Have you searched on internet?

[dazza12]

There are a few mileage tracking progs for the Tungsten, none that actually link to a desktop program to convert to a report. It also doesn't have a built in spreadsheet without me paying for Docs to Go or something similar.

The Smartphone also doesn't have a spreadsheet, although it is in effect a Pocket PC, it is a very cut down version of it.

The mileage trackers that do exist tend to concentrate on the whole car, ie servicing, economy etc. Either that or they just literally log the information and export to a CSV file. This isn't too much of a problem, as I can write an Excel macro or Access database to convert this and produce a claim form. But if there was something available already, it would save me some time.

[Vetran]

quickbooks / quicken and handsoft (?)

[dazza12]

Problem possibly solved. Orange have just launched the M2000 phone (same as the XDA II S), and I've just ordered one.

This means I can either edit it as an Excel spreadsheet or enter Access tables into it without having to convert it.

Thanks for the pointers though guys.

[Vetran]

yep xog - Documents to go. really excellent I carry my word docs spreadsheets round on a palm m500 (powerpoint seems a waste though), synch them easily with my PC. Even better I carry loads of manuals and books round in PDF format on the PALM which is very handy.