Probably one of my biggest expense is when I drive to a customer to do some consulting or teaching. Texas is large and I can drive several hundred miles to do a gig. What makes it worth it is keeping accurate records of my mileage, and the business purpose of the trip. Bento has made that extremely easy. This project needs Bento 3 and does benefit if you have the bento app for an iPhone.
Before I make tables or libraries as they are called in Bento, I need to go through what kind of information I need to keep in this database. The bare minimum is the name of the vehicle. I use the name of the vehicle as I present it to the IRS on my returns. I store the date of the trip, and I store the business purpose of the trip. Things like Drive to Dallas for Excel class. The next thing I need to stoe is the odometer reading at the beginning of the trip, and at the end of the trip. Bento does give me the ability to have a calculated field, so I am going to have a total miles traveled field, which is end – start. You can add any more information that you want to store, but this is the bare minimum.
Now we need to create the Library. Go to the file menu and click on new blank library.
We need to rename the library/ So double click on the library. This will allow the name to be edited.
In Bento three I’d like to use an icon, so right click on the library and select choose library icon
Choose one of the icons. Select what trips your trigger.
In the lower left hand corner of the window click the (+) button to add fields to the library.
Add a date field for the trip date. This is so that you can add dates in arrears. The two supplied date fields are too rigid. Add two text fields, car name, and business purpose. Add two number fields Odometer end, and Odometer start. Add a calculated field. When you do this you have to hit the continue button. Here is the finished dialog.
Click on create. You’re done. What Clay what about the form? I use my iPhone to enter this information into the database. The table view is more than enough for me, but if you want to create a form for your desktop use. Then have at it.
How about you? How do you use Bento?
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