Keeping up with the competition requires efficient tools and strategies. This is where Salesforce, a powerful cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution, plays a central role.
Over the years, Salesforce has become a go-to solution for businesses of all sizes looking to streamline operations, improve customer relationships, and boost overall productivity. With its fully customizable features and capabilities, it isn’t surprising that Salesforce has a 19.8% share of the CRM market - more than its four leading competitors combined.
Primarily, Salesforce centralizes customer data it gathers from various sources, allowing for personalized interactions and empowering sales and marketing teams with actionable insights. But beyond its core CRM functionalities, Salesforce’s capabilities extend into various aspects of business management.
Today, we will focus on how Salesforce handles mileage data and how you can benefit from this feature. We will also discuss situations when a standalone mileage-tracking solution may be the option you would like to consider.
Tired of not having a clear insight into your sales team’s mileage and routes?
Capturing mileage data for outside sales reps and integrating it into Salesforce can benefit your businesses in many ways. We’ve covered some of the benefits of the Salesforce mileage tracker below:
Mileage Reimbursement
Sales representatives are often on the move, meeting clients, attending conferences, and making sales calls. These tasks often involve using their own personal vehicles for business-related purposes.
Tracking business mileage is vital to ensure that your sales reps are accurately paid for their travel costs.
Without an accurate record of miles traveled, there’s a risk of either overcompensating or undercompensating them, which can impact their motivation and job satisfaction.
Tax Deductions
Capturing business mileage data serves a dual purpose when it comes to tax deductions. This can translate into substantial savings for companies. However, accurate mileage records are necessary to claim these deductions from the IRS.
Integrating mileage tracking into Salesforce simplifies this otherwise time-consuming process. It ensures that businesses are well-prepared for tax season, reducing the risk of costly errors or missed deductions.
Operational Efficiency
Effective travel and field operations management is crucial for companies looking to optimize their resources. You can gain valuable insights into your sales representatives’ travel patterns and habits by tracking mileage.
You can identify areas where efficiency can be improved, such as optimizing routes to reduce travel time and fuel costs. This data-driven approach can lead to significant cost savings and improved operational efficiency.
Transparency and Accountability
Having mileage data integrated into Salesforce, a platform often used by the sales team, offers higher transparency and accountability. It allows managers and team leaders to access and review mileage records easily.
This transparency can also improve trust and accountability among team members, as the mileage tracking process is standardized and fair for all team members. Each sales rep’s activities are recorded and can be verified when needed.
Client Relationship Management
Efficient client relationship management is the foundation of successful sales. If you include mileage data in Salesforce, you can use it to plan client visits more effectively.
Sales reps can optimize their schedules to ensure they make the most of their time on the road, visit key clients, and attend crucial meetings. This will help improve the overall client experience and boost the chances of successful sales conversions.
Can Salesforce Track Location?
Salesforce can track location through its Salesforce Maps feature.
Salesforce Maps is available for download for iOS and Android devices.
However, it’s important to note that the Salesforce Maps App is separate from the main Salesforce mobile app and billed separately. To use it, you must have both the Salesforce license and the Salesforce Maps license.
Salesforce Maps offers a range of capabilities that can benefit businesses in various ways:
Visualizing Data
Salesforce Maps show crucial customer information on your computer or phone, highlighting where these customers are located. This feature simplifies understanding data by putting it in a geographical context.
Data-Driven Prioritization
Salesforce Maps can enhance customer outreach by considering factors like Einstein score, potential revenue, last connections, and proximity to an address.
Salesforce Maps Mobile enables users to review key data in the field, helping them identify high-priority leads and plan for upcoming calls or visits.
Planning Territories
Businesses can efficiently manage their territories using Salesforce Maps. It visually represents customer locations, helping strategically allocate resources and customize sales and service efforts based on geography.
Tracking Live Locations
Salesforce Maps goes beyond just maps; it can track the real-time locations of mobile teams.
This is particularly valuable for businesses with people on the fly, allowing for better operational management and efficiency.
Optimizing Routes and Schedules
A standout feature of Salesforce Maps is its ability to optimize routes and schedules. You can use it to plan schedules quickly, considering current and past traffic conditions. This results in smarter routes that reduce travel time, enabling more customer interactions and cost savings.
How Do I Track a Live Location in Salesforce?
Before using Salesforce’s live location tracking, you must Install Salesforce Maps for your iOS or Android devices. Once the installation is complete, open the Salesforce Maps app and log in using your Salesforce details.
If prompted, you must allow Salesforce Maps to access your location by selecting “Always Allow.” This permission is essential for live location tracking.
You can also access the Tracking Log on your mobile device to see when the location was tracked. This feature allows users to use live location tracking for various purposes, including real-time tracking of field operations and optimizing routes.
Does Salesforce Have a Mileage Tracker?
Salesforce Maps also includes a mileage tracking feature that streamlines the process of capturing business miles traveled by sales reps.
Source: Salesforce Maps App Store
This feature is designed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the mileage tracking workflow for businesses using the Salesforce platform.
Here are the critical details on how the Salesforce Mileage Tracker works.
Salesforce Maps Live Tracking
To capture miles in drive trip records, your sales reps must enable Salesforce Maps Live Tracking in the Salesforce mobile app. This feature ensures that mileage data is recorded accurately throughout their daily activities.
Pause Mileage Tracking
Reps can pause mileage tracking during breaks between stops. This means that only the relevant business trips associated with client visits and work-related activities are recorded, eliminating unnecessary tracking during downtime.
On-Board Sensors for Vehicles
For vehicles with onboard sensors, drive trip records can capture all miles, even during breaks between stops. This ensures derailed mileage tracking for businesses that rely on vehicles with this technology.
How to Activate Salesforce Mileage Tracker?
To implement this feature, administrators or users responsible for mileage tracking configuration can create or modify a daily summaries configuration. During this process, they should select “Track Mileage Using Mobile Devices.”
Salesforce’s mileage tracking feature lets businesses achieve accurate mileage logs while allowing sales reps to pause tracking during non-work periods.
While Salesforce Maps offers impressive functionality, it’s essential to consider the downsides, the major being cost-related.
Salesforce Maps pricing
On top of your Salesforce license, with the most cost-effective option being the Salesforce Professional at $80 per user per month, you must also purchase a Salesforce Maps subscription.
Salesforce Maps is accessible to Salesforce Classic, Salesforce Lightening, and Salesforce mobile app uses under two pricing options: Salesforce Maps and Salesforce Maps Advanced.
Let’s break down their pricing to understand their impact better.
Salesforce Maps - $75 per user per month
This plan provides:
map-based visualization,
data-driven prioritization, and
automated routes and schedules
At $75 per user per month, it’s an investment to consider, especially for businesses with multiple users.
However, the benefits of efficient mileage tracking and other location-based features can balance this cost.
Salesforce Maps Advanced - $125 per user per month
The advanced version offers even more capabilities. It includes:
thematic maps,
routing with advanced business logic and
routing for longer time horizons.
While these features can turbocharge your field productivity, the $125 per user per month is notably higher. Also, remember that the prices of both editions are billed annually.
The advanced location and mileage tracking functionality comes at an increased cost. You must carefully evaluate your business needs and the value you expect from the Salesforce Maps features.
The basic Salesforce Maps plan may suffice for some organizations, providing essential mileage tracking and location-based insights without breaking the budget. However, if your business requires more advanced geo-analytics and route optimization, the productivity benefits may justify the higher-priced Salesforce Maps Advanced plan. The catch lies in balancing functionality and budget for startups, smaller businesses, and other more price-conscious organizations.
The truth is, with costs being at a higher end, Salesforce’s mileage tracking feature may not always align with businesses' financial constraints. In these cases, it’s worth considering alternatives, such as using separate location and mileage tracking tools that offer cost-effective solutions tailored to specific requirements.
Salesforce has a few API integration options on the AppExchange market, the most popular being TripLog, a mileage and business expense tracking tool.
Ultimately, the choice between Salesforce Mileage Tracker or other GPS mileage tracking software will depend on your business’s needs and financial constraints. By choosing a cost-effective app, you can allocate your finances more efficiently. You can invest in other critical areas of your operations while benefiting from robust GPS location and mileage tracking capabilities.
Some of the best GPS mileage tracking apps come at competitive, budget-friendly pricing. This makes them an attractive choice for businesses looking to maximize their cost-efficiency.
Additionally, standalone apps often allow companies to pay only for the features and user licenses they need, providing scalability. This means you can start with a few licenses and expand as your business grows without incurring higher costs.
Why is Timeero the Best Alternative to Salesforce Mileage Tracker?
Timeero is an excellent alternative to Salesforce Mileage Tracker. Here are the key reasons why.
Automatic Mileage Tracker
One of Timeero’s standout features is its mileage-tracking automation.
The software uses advanced drive detection technology to simplify mileage tracking to the utmost degree.
Timeero tracks business mileage and routes accurately.
The process is as simple as setting a base speed threshold, typically around 4 miles per hour. When a sales rep reaches the predefined speed threshold while driving, Timeero automatically starts logging their mileage without requiring additional input.
So, as sales reps go about their day, attending client meetings and making sales visits, Timeero silently and accurately records their mileage without them lifting a finger.
Segmenting Tracking
Unlike traditional methods that require clocking in and out at each stop or customer, Segmented tracking enables sales reps to clock in only once at the start of their day and clock out at the end. Timeero then segments the entire rep’s workday based on customer visits, time spent driving,
See your sales rep's day at a glance.
You will have precise data on the business trips your reps took, how much mileage they’ve covered, and how long they’ve traveled. You will also see how much time they spent with each client.
If they spend some time on a specific location with a potential new lead, for example, it will automatically capture its address, so you will have no problem following up. Plus, if there are any inefficiencies, you can spot them right away.
Real-Time Location Tracking
Timeero’s GPS tracking feature lets you see the real-time location of all your available sales reps in a single “Who’s Working” dashboard.
Always know your reps locations.
Using it, you can easily track how they’re progressing with their jobs on the field and find the nearest rep to cover for a customer meeting or an appointment.
Route Replay for Accountability
Are your sales reps taking the shortest routes or choosing the longer and scenic ones? Timeero's route replay feature comes to the rescue.
See sales reps' routes with breadcrumbs.
It allows you to recreate a sales rep's route in real-time, revealing all the necessary details on your rep's path. This level of accountability can improve team efficiency and ensure your reps follow the vehicle speed policies.
Commuter Mileage
Timeero goes the extra mile by accounting for commuter mileage, which is typically non-reimbursable. By setting predefined distance thresholds, you can ensure that mileage is only logged when employees travel beyond a specified distance, eliminating unnecessary expense claims.
Shortest Distance and Suggested Mileage Optimization
Are you aiming to keep travel expenses in check? Then, you can add the addresses of your clients to the jobs you assign to your reps and let the app point them to the shortest path to their destination.
Your reps can easily see the shortest route to their clients.
In addition, Timeero's suggested mileage feature compares the shortest and most cost-effective routes to predefined destinations.
Compare actual vs. shortest routes.
By encouraging sales reps to take the fastest route, you can save on fuel costs and reduce mileage reimbursement expenses. In the long run, this can contribute to lower vehicle maintenance costs, a significant benefit for businesses with substantial mileage.
User-Friendly Mobile Apps
Timeero offers user-friendly mobile apps available for both Android and iOS. These apps are designed to be easy for all employees, ensuring a smooth transition to the new mileage tracking system.
The Timeero mobile app is easy to use.
Pricing Flexibility
Timeero provides pricing flexibility with a 14-day free trial and plans starting at just $4. While some unique features come at slightly higher prices, they remain affordable and scalable to meet your evolving business needs.
Timeero's compatibility with QuickBooks, Rippling, Gusto, and other software further improves its appeal, making it a robust choice for businesses seeking an alternative to Salesforce Mileage Tracker.
Salesforce Mileage Tracker: Is It the Right Fit for Your Business?
In evaluating whether Salesforce Mileage Tracker is the right fit for your business, consider your budget, integration needs, and the benefits the features will bring.
While the Salesforce mileage tracker offers a robust solution, businesses with limited resources or those seeking cost-effective alternatives may find standalone mileage trackers, like Timeero, more tailored to their needs.
Weigh the benefits against your specific requirements for a well-informed decision.
Need a better way to track your sales team’s routes and mileage?
Learn why Timeero is the perfect match for your business.
Andjelka is a sociologist turned digital marketer. She specializes in creating content for SaaS and software companies. When she’s not researching the most effective employee management techniques, Andjelka loves cooking, reading, and fighting for human rights.
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