A mileage log in SharePoint for a small team

Short answer: use one SharePoint list with one row per trip, and a Microsoft Form on a phone to fill it in. Add a Number column for miles, group the view by driver, and turn on the Totals setting so the view adds up the miles. A month column lets you see one driver for one month without a spreadsheet to sort by hand.

This page covers the list, the phone form and the monthly view. It does not tell you what rate to pay per mile, what a trip must record for any rule or what you may claim. Ask your accountant or your own policy for those. Menu and action names in Microsoft 365 change from time to time, so the exact names may differ on your screen. The Microsoft pages used are listed at the end.

Why mileage logs go wrong in a spreadsheet

One place to start is a mileage log template in Excel. It works for one person. With a team it gets hard.

Causes to look for:

Each person keeps a copy. Someone has to merge them at the end of the month.
Start and end numbers are typed by hand, and a wrong digit gives a wrong total.
Trips are written down days later, from memory.
Dates are typed in different ways, so sorting by month breaks.
The sheet is on a laptop. The trip happened in a car.

A list with a form fixes the typing and the merging. It does not fix memory. Ask people to log a trip the same day.

Signs this is happening in your team

Someone spends part of each month adding up miles.
Two people send two files with the same trip in each.
The total changes when someone fixes a date.
You cannot see one person's miles for one month without a filter and a calculator.
A trip has no purpose written next to it, and nobody remembers why it happened.

Plan the data before you build

Keep the log about the trip. Write down who drove, the date, the miles, the purpose and a short note. Do not collect more about people than you need.

One way to start: take last month's sheet and list the columns you actually used. Build only those. You can add columns later.

If you also track service and fuel for each vehicle, that is a different log. See "A fleet vehicle maintenance log in SharePoint".

Step 1. Build the Trips list

Open your list tool from https://www.microsoft365.com, or go to your SharePoint site. Create a new blank list. Name it "Trips".

Use the Title column the list already has. The Title column is required by default, so every row needs a value. Rename it "Trip". Example: "Driver 3 site visit". If you do not want to type a name each time, turn off the Require setting for this column in its settings. If the form fills it in for you, keep it required.
Add a column named "Driver". Type: Person or Group.
Add a column named "Trip date". Type: Date and time, date only.
Add a column named "Miles". Type: Number. Set it to allow decimals if your team logs tenths of a mile.
Add a column named "Purpose". Type: Choice. Use number prefixes so the choices keep your order:
1 Client visit

2 Delivery

3 Supplies

4 Other
Add a column named "Notes". Type: Multiple lines of text.
Add a column named "Month". See Step 2.

A Choice column sorts by its text. The number prefix is there to keep your order. It is not a position that SharePoint tracks.

The Number column matters most. A Microsoft Q&A answer says: "I recommend you to use the number column, which has a built-in sum function. Other types of columns do not have this function." So keep Miles as a Number column, not text and not a calculated column.

Step 2. Add a Month column

You want to see one driver for one month. SharePoint does not give you a month to group by out of the box, so add a column that holds it.

Add a column named "Month". Type: Calculated.
Use the TEXT function on the trip date. Microsoft's page of formula examples says: "To combine text with a date or time, use the TEXT function and the ampersand (&) operator." Its examples use date formats such as "mmm-dd-yyyy".
A formula in this pattern should work: =TEXT([Trip date],"yyyy-mm"). Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: use a year-then-month pattern like this one, so the months sort in order when the text is sorted. Test the formula on one row before you rely on it, because the exact format codes can differ by region setting.
Set the result type to Single line of text.

Date columns are the safe place to keep the real date. The Month column is only a label for grouping.

A calculated column cannot hold today's date. SharePoint blocks the [Today] value in a formula. That is fine here, because the Month column only reads the trip date.

Step 3. Fill the date in for the person

Typing the date can cause errors. A column can start with a default value. Microsoft says: "The TODAY and ME functions are not supported in calculated columns but are supported in the default value setting of a column."

Open the settings for the "Trip date" column and look for its default value setting.
Set the default to today's date with the TODAY function.
Do the same for the "Driver" column with the ME function if you want the person who adds the row to be the default driver.

Exact names may differ on your screen. If you do not see a default value option, skip this step. The form in Step 5 also gives people a date picker.

Step 4. Build the monthly view

This view adds up miles for each driver. It uses the Group by and Totals settings of a view.

Microsoft's page on views says Group By will "Group list and library items by information in the columns." It says Totals "Displays summary calculations for the columns in the view, such as: count, average, maximum, minimum." Check your view's Totals menu for the choices on a Number column. Microsoft says: "The columns that are available for totals and the settings available for each column differ depending on the type of column, such as number, and the type of list or library the view is being created for."

Open the list. In the command bar, choose the view menu and then Edit current view. Microsoft's steps are: "Select View options > All documents again, and then select Edit current view." Names may differ on your screen.
In the Group By section, group by "Driver". Add "Month" as the second level.
Under Totals, set "Miles" to the sum choice, if your menu shows one. A Microsoft Q&A answer says "You can find the totals option in the small arrow next to each column." That is the column menu you see in the list itself.
Save the view. Name it "Miles by driver and month".

Open the view and expand a group. Check it against a few trips you add up by hand. If a group total is not shown, look at the Totals menu for the Miles column again. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: if your team needs a count of trips as well, set the Title column to Count.

To see one month only, add a filter on the Month column that equals the month text, such as 2026-10. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: set blank and "is not equal to" filters in the classic view editor too.

Step 5. Add a phone form

People log trips from the car. A Microsoft Form works in a phone browser without an app.

Go to https://forms.office.com and create a form. Name it "Log a trip".
Add questions for the trip name, date, miles and purpose.
Send each answer to the Trips list. For the full setup, see "Save Microsoft Forms answers to a SharePoint list".
Share the form link. Put it on the home screen of each phone. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: also tell people to log the trip the same day.

If your team uses the Microsoft Lists app on a phone, read "Microsoft Lists phone app is gone: what to use now" first.

Step 6. Let people see only what they need

A view is not security. Anyone who can open the list can open another view and see all the rows. If drivers should not see each other's trips, that is a permissions question. See "Let each person see only their own items in a SharePoint list".

What to avoid

Do not store miles as text. You cannot sum text.
Do not make Miles a calculated column. A Microsoft Q&A answer says the column "is a calculated column, and it does not have a sum option."
Do not make Miles a Choice column. Add a Number column for amounts.
Do not rely on a filter view for security.
Do not pay or claim from the totals until you have checked the rule that applies to you. This page does not cover that.
Do not leave the Title column blank by accident. It is required by default, so fill it in, rename it, or turn off Require.
Do not log trips days later from memory. The total is only as good as the entries.

Honest limits

A list adds up what people enter. It cannot tell if a number is true. It does not read your phone's location. If you need proof of each trip, that is a different tool and a different decision.

If a trip date is changed, the Month label changes with it. If your team has thousands of rows in a year, test a filtered view first. See "SharePoint list over 5,000 items: what breaks and the fix".

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

Can SharePoint add up miles for me?

Yes, with the Totals setting of a view. A Microsoft Q&A answer says a Number column "has a built-in sum function." Check your view's Totals menu for the exact choices.

Why is there no sum for my miles column?

Check the column type. A Microsoft Q&A answer says a calculated column "does not have a sum option." Change Miles to a Number column.

Can staff log a trip from a phone?

Yes. A Microsoft Form opens in a phone browser. Send each answer to the Trips list so it appears as a row.

Can I see one driver for one month?

Group the view by Driver, then by Month, and add a filter on Month for the month you want.

Does this tell me what to pay or claim?

No. This page covers the list and the view only. Ask your accountant or follow your own policy for rates and rules.