Scanned images of receipts are acceptable, but keep original paper copies for warranty purposes for any big-ticket items you purchase. One of the best ways to streamline your IFTA reporting is by using a dedicated fuel card. These work much like any other credit card, except they’re tied to a unique driver number and provide fuel discounts. If you owed taxes in the previous year but not the current one, you must file Form 2290 to report the change and suspend your responsibilities. Accounting is more sophisticated and analytical than bookkeeping, and there’s often more at stake. For example, accounting errors could cause you to miss out on valuable financing or get you in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
- Pay the balance in full every month to ensure you aren’t racking up additional business debt.
- It enables trucking companies to generate invoices, enter expenses, track loads, verify payments, create trip reports, and so on.
- Whether it’s a problem with the numbers or the software, there may be times when you need help from a professional.
Above all, professional accounting manages your collections, reports, and expenses to see where you stand in your cash flow. This saves you from poor accounting management, which can lead to substantial losses. For those interested in building their trucking expenses spreadsheet, the YouTube tutorial below offers a detailed guide on creating a custom trucking expenses spreadsheet in Excel. Tracking expenses in the trucking industry is crucial for the success of any trucking or transportation business.
Professional accounting keeps track of all your revenue and expenses. Under these terms, you’ll recognize revenue and expenses once you raise them, regardless of when the funds moved in or out of your accounts. Join over 1 million businesses scanning receipts, creating expense reports, and reclaiming multiple hours every week—with Shoeboxed.
Trucking accounting software is the best option for trucking companies because it is designed to meet the unique needs of trucking companies, such as mile and IFTA tracking. PCS TMS doesn’t offer its own accounting software, but it does partner with various third-party software and services. This is a great option for companies looking to build a custom and comprehensive transportation management system. Each membership tier allows for a different number of third-party integrations, allowing you to select software and companies that will help you do everything from accounting to fleet tracking.
Financial projections template for a trucking company
However, if you are looking for a way to save money on your trucking accounting services and taxes, outsourcing is the way to go, in addition to the right tucking accounting software. DMJPS PLLC, specializes in providing logistics accounting services for the trucking industry’s largest carriers. A Top 300 INSIDE Public Accounting firm, we have decades of experience serving the finance and bookkeeping needs of the nation’s leading logistics businesses.
- Trucking accounting software encompasses a wide range of technological solutions you can use to maintain your trucking business’s finances.
- This includes paperwork for all your expenses like fuel, maintenance, toll, food, and so on.
- While there’s no substitute for experience, here are some common pitfalls you should know to avoid.
- Are you looking for ways to expand your business or cover operating expenses?
That’s another reason paying for tax services is essential for the transportation business. You don’t want to leave money on the table or risk triggering an audit. The ever-expanding capabilities of modern software have made many aspects of business ownership significantly easier. You must be strategic about which tools you invest in to avoid wasting resources, but it’s worth utilizing in many areas.
Keep an eye on the money going in and out of your bank account to ensure you are getting paid what you’re owed. With an accrual system, you recognize revenue when it’s earned (before it’s paid) and bills when received (before they are paid). Executing proper transportation accounting procedures requires as much training and expertise as the transporting itself. While there’s no substitute for experience, here are some common pitfalls you should know to avoid.
While most businesses are only required to file an annual tax return, truckers are often required to file quarterly tax returns. Choosing the right accountant is an important decision for trucking companies. Many truckers are too busy to check changes in regulations that affect them. But with an accounting service, you’re always on top of compliance and won’t face hefty penalties.
Grow Your Business With Efficient Accounting
This works, but once your business gets bigger, you’ll also start committing mistakes. Often, these mistakes have devastating consequences on their cash flow. Since an accounting service provider will handle all your paperwork, you can focus on driving and delivering. At the end of the year, the accounting company will send you reports and tax preparations that you can review and give to your CPA. Overall, accounting makes all the bookkeeping efforts make sense for your business.
Explore our Other Solutions
We ranked trucking accounting software based on pricing, ease of use, and how it performed across the general accounting and trucking-specific features we look for. To ensure the accuracy and integrity of our list, we evaluated all applications using an internal rubric scoring system with five categories, each with a calculated weighted score. While Tailwind TMS isn’t a complete bookkeeping solution, it’s great for invoicing and bill payment, which are two major needs of a trucking company. It has comprehensive A/P and A/R features that let you track bills and payments from different personnel involved in your operations, such as vendors, employees, carriers, and customers. The Invoice List and Bill Posting modules are intuitive and comprehensive, and they help you review and track bills and invoices easily.
How to choose the best accounting firm for my trucking?
Join over 1 million businesses scanning & organizing receipts, creating expense reports and more—with Shoeboxed. Hannah DeMoss is a staff writer for Shoeboxed covering organization and digitization tips for small business owners. Her favorite organization hack is labeling everything in her kitchen cabinets, and she can’t live without her mini label maker machine. Typically prepared contractor or employee time to get it right every 3 months or annually, a Profit & Loss statement helps you understand your net income by listing out revenue and expenses during a specific period. Variable costs, on the other hand, fluctuate based on the number of miles driven and may include fuel, maintenance, and repairs. Once you’ve categorized and input the data, it’s time to calculate totals for each expense category.
With ATBS, you can rest easy knowing your taxes will be filed promptly and correctly thanks to the support of expert tax advisors. SuiteTax calculates taxes on every transaction, and provides flexible reporting. FreightWaves Ratings reference a list of approved sources for use of research to support editorial research and drafting.
We ranked each accounting software based on its affordability, considering the number of users included in each plan and the costs to add an extra seat. While QuickBooks Online handles all your accounting processes, RLS helps you accomplish trucking-related tasks. For instance, you can use RLS to manage your loads, dispatch orders, and track delivery status.
Do I need professional accounting for my trucking business?
If not addressed early, such errors can have financial and legal repercussions. Letting a professional company handle your accounting needs will let you focus more on running your business. You can spend more time finding high-paying hauls instead of being distracted by accounting duties.
Features of this software include payroll, fleet management, trucking dispatch, and IFTA tax calculation. Trucking accounting software encompasses a wide range of technological solutions you can use to maintain your trucking business’s finances. It provides tools and functions that are tailored to the specific financial and accounting needs of your business and manage its overall financial health. By utilizing a trucking software solution, you can simplify financial management processes, save time, and gain greater insights into all financial aspects of your business. Do you want to reduce operating costs and improve your company’s profit margins? A nationally-renowned accounting firm with more than 70 years of experience, our professional team can provide tailor-made solutions to solve your company’s unique challenges.