SmallBusinessNewz

While it's hard to argue with the functionality of this approach, carrying around a crumpled piece of paper and scribbling various distances on it is perhaps not the most elegant way of tracking business-related mileage.  The National Association for the Self-Employed would like to help by offering businesspeople an iPhone app called TripAlly, instead.

An NASE representative explained in an email to SmallBusinessNewz that the app "tracks, calculates and records miles driven to create a tax-deduction mileage log."

What's more, "TripAlly pings your GPS location every .3miles, not just your start and end location," according to her note, and users should be able to categorize trips according to their purpose and add notes for later reference.

Other nifty features include the ability to store and print trip logs, save a route that you'll take again, and manually add a trip you forgot about.  Plus, the app can provide some tips about how to report mileage on tax forms.

Note this one catch: you can't get the whole shebang for free.  Indeed, you'll have to pay $9.99 to access some of TripAlly's more advanced options, and in terms of iPhone apps, $10 isn't exactly the lowest price point.

However, the app doesn't cost a thing on a trip-by-trip basis, meaning it's possible for iPhone owners to trump the paper-and-pen option without spending a dime.

This is at least something worth looking into if you have an iPhone and make frequent business trips.