MileageManager
Group Members
- Pam Chuang
- Ari Dukes
- Leo Espindle
- TA: Anh D. Nguyen
Problem Statement
Typical companies have either inaccurate or cumbersome methods of tracking and reimbursing employee mileage. In most cases, employees either estimate or query a mapping program repeatedly to get total mileage and often have to attach printouts of the trip route to fill out expense reports. In addition, there is typically little detail on personal mileage once the expense report is filed, which hinders accurate auditing.
Our product will help to address issues for travelers, their managers, and auditors. For the primary user (the travelers themselves), we will make both business trip planning and reimbursement easier so that they can spend time working on the main parts of their jobs. Currently, if you consider a salesperson driving regularly from Boston to NYC on sales trips:
- Assume drive is 225 miles (Google Maps distance between Boston and NYC) * $.50/mile (IRS reimbursement per mile) * 2 trips (Round trip) = $225/week/employee
- Assume the hotel is an average of 10 miles away from the clients on that trip, and they visit the client 5 days a week: 10 miles * $.50/mile * 2 trips * 5 days = $50/week/employee
- Assume that salespeople travel twice a month: $550/month/employee
If there is an overcharge of 10% on the mileage (for instance, if travelers regularly round up from 225 miles to 250 miles), that works out to $660 / year / person waste on mileage expenses. Depending on the size of the company and the amount of travel, that could be a significant waste of money. In addition, the same trip would require a minimum of 2 map printouts per week on the part of the employee, which would certainly get annoying!