Turn your car maintenance spreadsheet into an app
Updated · SteerLog: free for one car, Pro is a one-time purchase (price shown in the App Store for your country)
A spreadsheet is an honest way to keep a car log. It’s yours, it moves with you, and it never shows you an ad. SteerLog keeps all that (on your phone, your own iCloud, free export forever). And it adds what a spreadsheet can’t: reminders by date and mileage on your lock screen, fuel economy worked out for you, and logging at the pump in seconds. Your rows come along. Only a date column is needed.
From sheet to app in three steps
- Download your sheet as CSV. Google Sheets: File › Download › Comma Separated Values. Excel: Save As › CSV. Numbers: File › Export To › CSV.
- Check your header row against the table below. Most sheets already use names that match, like
Date,Odometer,Cost,Notes. Rename any that don’t match. - Import it — steps below. Dates, odometer readings, costs, fuel volumes, and notes all come in as real entries. Charts and fuel economy update right away.
A header row that just works
Starting a new sheet, or want the easy path? Use this header row. SteerLog knows every column as it is, and only date is needed:
| date | type | odometer | title | cost | gallons | price | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-14 | fuel | 28450 | Shell | 37.34 | 9.6 | 3.89 | |
| 2026-03-20 | service | 28710 | Oil & filter change | 89.00 | Full synthetic | ||
| 2026-04-02 | expense | Registration renewal | 160.00 |
Keep your spreadsheet habit, but skip the typing at a desk. Log at the pump, get a reminder before the next service, and export back to CSV for free, forever.
Get SteerLogImporting into SteerLog
- Get your CSV onto your iPhone — AirDrop, iCloud Drive, Files, or email it to yourself.
- In SteerLog, open Settings › Export & Import › Import CSV. The file goes into the car you have selected. So pick the right car first.
- Choose the file. SteerLog tells you how many entries it added, how many duplicates it skipped, and how many rows it could not read.
- Check the History tab. Your entries are there, and your charts and fuel economy are worked out from the new fill-ups right away.
One CSV goes into one car. Free covers one car with every feature. More cars take a single one-time purchase. There is no subscription.
Column names SteerLog recognizes
Case, spaces, and punctuation don’t matter — Fuel-up Date, fuelup_date, and FuelUpDate all match. Only a date column is needed. All the rest are optional.
| Field | Accepted column names |
|---|---|
| Date (required) | date, fuelup_date, service_date, entry_date, day |
| Odometer | odometer, odo, miles, mileage, km, kilometers, odometer_mi, odometer_km |
| Fuel volume | fuel_volume, volume, gallons, litres, liters, fuel_qty, qty, quantity |
| Price per unit | price_per_unit, price_per_gallon, price_per_liter, unit_price, price |
| Total cost | cost, total_cost, total_price, total_spent, total, amount |
| Entry type | type, entry_type, category — values like fuel, service, expense |
| Title / place | title, services, service, station, fuel_brand, location, description, name |
| Notes | notes, note, comments, comment |
| Full-tank flag | full_tank, filled_tank, full |
| Partial-fill flag | partial_fuelup, partial |
No type column? A row with a fuel volume or unit price counts as a fuel-up. The rest become service or expense entries. If the file has no total cost, SteerLog works it out as volume × price. European decimals are safe: 9,6 litres comes in as 9.6, not 96. If you import the same file again, SteerLog skips the duplicates (same day, type, odometer and cost). So you can’t double your history by mistake.
Questions, answered
What columns does my spreadsheet need?
Only a date column is needed. Any common format works, like 2026-03-14 or 3/14/2026. Odometer, cost, fuel volume, unit price, type, title and notes are all optional and matched by name. A row with no readable date is skipped and counted, never guessed.
Is the import free?
Yes, fully. Import, CSV/PDF export, iCloud sync, and backup files are free in SteerLog, forever. Free covers one car with every feature. A single one-time purchase unlocks as many cars as you like. There is no subscription.
Will my fuel economy history carry over?
Yes. SteerLog works out MPG (or L/100km) again from your fill-ups, using full-to-full math. If your file has a full-tank or partial-fill column, SteerLog uses it. A partial fill is added to the next full tank, so it can’t skew the average.
My export uses commas for decimals — will it import correctly?
Yes. SteerLog’s import reads both decimal styles. 9,6 litres comes in as 9.6. It also reads thousands marks, like 1.234,5 or 1,234.5. This matters for exports made in Europe, Brazil and many other regions.
Can I go back to a spreadsheet later?
Yes, any time. CSV export is free forever and gives you a clean spreadsheet of every entry. A log you can’t leave with isn’t yours. So the way out is never behind a paywall, on purpose.
Why the import is free
SteerLog starts from one idea: your car’s history belongs to you. It lives on your phone and your own iCloud. No account, no company server, no subscription. Import, export, backup files, and CSV/PDF are free forever, because a log you can’t move isn’t yours. See how SteerLog works.