Q7 by Frontline Software Technology is the only specialized trucking software on this list that has built-in accounting features—making it our best standalone trucking company accounting software. It allows you to manage bookkeeping tasks, such as paying bills, sending invoices, and reconciling bank accounts. It also has a powerful fleet maintenance program that will track your fixed assets and help you schedule routine maintenance, whether it’s based on months or miles driven. Keeping accurate books may not be the most exciting aspect of managing your trucking business, but it’s essential to maintaining its success. So you can lessen your load, we’ve compiled a list of the best trucking bookkeeping services to make your life a little easier. From filing quarterly IFTA fuel taxes to invoicing, there is a trucking bookkeeping solution for your business.
All in all, updated financial records mitigate the risks of errors and missed deductions. For owner-operators looking to learn and personally engage in bookkeeping processes, some tips make the whole process much more straightforward. Here are the best tips for managing the bookkeeping for a trucking business. We manage the accounting for owner-operator and small fleet trucking businesses.
Why You Can Trust Fit Small Business
The IRS can ask you to provide supporting documentation anywhere from three to seven years after you file your taxes. That’s why it’s imperative that you keep a record of your expenses for years to come. There are definitely worse things than sorting through your personal and business transactions because they’re on the same account. However, there’s nothing more time-consuming than having to perform unnecessary work simply because you are overlooking a critical process. Bookkeeping is one of the oldest processes of social society with almost every recorded form of human civilization having some type of number-based records. Bookkeeping is essentially the act of recording financial transactions in an organized manner.
- Simply use your phone camera to take a photo of any receipts, invoices, business cards, or paper documents.
- Self-employed truck drivers needing basic tracking of their income and expenses can even save money with Zoho Books’ free plan.
- Quickbooks has all of the automation features that businesses need in order to automate, track time and keep track of what employees are doing on an hourly basis.
- Trucking companies that need to track income and expenses and manage trucking operations in one platform should use trucking accounting software.
- Bookkeepers can be a great source of financial knowledge and may be able to share valuable insight that can improve your business’ overall performance.
- The ever-expanding capabilities of modern software have made many aspects of business ownership significantly easier.
Many bookkeeping services online help with tax preparation for truck drivers. Integrating your tax filing with your bookkeeping can save time and ensure accuracy. Bookkeeping and tax services specially designed for trucking companies also make it easy to access and complete all required tax forms for your business. Created by a professional accounting firm in Atlanta, Georgia, TranspoCFO provides quality bookkeeping services to trucking businesses.
How is trucking bookkeeping software different from general bookkeeping software?
Using a trucking management software that is linked to your ELD streamlines your IFTA and IRP prep. When a trip is entered as a dispatch, the route computes the miles per state, which is confirmed by your ELD. For example, most small business owners can only take 50% of meal expenses, but truckers are allowed to take 80% of either their actual costs or per diem allowances. In broad terms, bookkeeping involves maintaining financial records of your trucking business’s day-to-day transactions in a general ledger. It’s a routine, administrative process that requires relatively little critical thinking. Generally, records are recorded daily to ensure that the books are up to date.
Trucking accounting software has unique features, such as the ability to dispatch drivers and track load status. Meanwhile, general purpose bookkeeping software lets you perform common accounting tasks, such as invoicing, billing, and expense tracking but they often lack specialized trucking features. Make sure you research any and all deductibles your owner-operator trucking business could be eligible for.
Benefits of Trucking Bookkeeping Services
If not, you will be happy you took the time to keep your records in order. One out of every 25 owner-operators gets audited by the IRS for taxes each year. You want to avoid that happening to you, but you want assurances that you’ve done everything right if it does. With an accrual system, you recognize revenue when it’s earned (before it’s paid) and bills when received (before they are paid). TBS has the knowledge and experience to help you navigate through trucking permitting services across state lines. TBS will process your MC#/USDOT Number and BOC-3 for free (both are required to activate your authority), with no annual membership fee or application processing fee.
You have two options for deducting the cost of meals and lodging—either by how many days and nights you were on the road or with your receipts. You can deduct the greater of 80% of the per diem rate for each day or deduct 80% of the total expenses for the receipts you have collected throughout your trip. It’s also essential to keep proper documentation on hand in case you’re ever audited by the IRS. If you’re just starting your business, you’ll have to factor in the costs of the trucks themselves and the insurance to cover them. You’ll also likely need a general business license, sales tax license, and possibly a license to conduct business across state lines.
Make More Money
Finally, Tailwind TMS’ pricing falls in the mid-range when compared with other software options on our list. It’s more affordable than the combined cost of QuickBooks and RLS, but it’s more expensive than Rigbooks and Zoho Books. The Pro and Enterprise plans have a 30-day free trial available with no credit card required. truckers bookkeeping Meanwhile, QuickBooks Online’s notable weakness is customer service, even with the added support from the RLS integration. QuickBooks Online Plus and the lower plans don’t allow you to place a phone call to an agent directly, which is something you can do with other providers like Tailwind TMS and Zoho Books.
