Bookkeeping services for truckers help in keeping accurate records. Bookkeeping is an essential part of any trucking business. The bookkeeping service will help you stay organized and ensure your finances are in order.
Bookkeeping Tips for Truckers
As a trucker, you know that keeping track of your finances is essential. Here are seven bookkeeping tips to help you stay on top of your business’s finances.
- Open a separate account for your business
- Save your receipts regularly
- Maintain records every day
- Save all your records
- Use bookkeeping software made for trucking
- Know your cost per mile
- Use online banking and credit cards to make tracking finances easier.
Open a Separate Account for Your Business
When it is time to look at your business’s income and expenses, you must go through each transaction. And it will not be easy to remember which are personal and which are business-related. The IRS might even check up on you if you act like this.
Opening a separate account for your trucking business will help you save yourself from trouble. You do not need the most expensive business account as a sole proprietor. You can keep your business separate by opening a new personal account.
Save Your Receipts Regularly
Most of the time, you do not think to save your receipt before you throw it away. But many costs come with driving a truck, and you want to be able to deduct as many of those costs as possible when you file your taxes. So, you can pay your taxes with all tax breaks considered.
Maintain records every day
Keeping good records is easier if you spend a few minutes updating everything daily. Try to keep your records up to date every week.
Knowing how much money you have can make better decisions about how to spend it. It also helps you keep your transportation business running well and grow it.
Save All Your Records
Keeping your logbooks is an easy way to keep track of your books since you already must do it.
Your logbooks are essential to any trip because they are the best way to prove how much you spent on per diem. Whether you use an ELD (an electronic logging device) or a paper logbook, you can look at the past to see how much you spent.
Use Bookkeeping Software Made for Trucking
Using bookkeeping software for the trucking industry is one of the best ways to keep track of your books without having to double as an accountant.
Bookkeeping software can be used to:
- Keep track of your spending
- Make financial reports
- Send out bills
- Keep an eye on cash flow analysis
- Handle payroll
- Make it easier to do your taxes
Using bookkeeping software for your trucking business can save you much time and make it easier to come up with financial plans to help your business grow.
Know Your Cost Per Mile
The most important thing for commercial truckers is the average cost per mile which is helpful in many ways:
- It helps transportation companies set the correct prices for their services based on the current rates.
- It helps your business make more money.
- It enables you to determine where high costs are to decide where to save money.
- When you plan for maintenance and repairs, you can avoid money problems before they happen.
It is easy to figure out how much you spend per mile.
Just add up all your fixed costs for the month and all your variable costs. Then divide that number by the miles you drive in a month. It is always recommended that you figure out this number again every six months.
Minimize Your Day’s Sales Outstanding (DSO)
DSO stands for “days sales outstanding,” which measures how long it takes for your sales to turn into cash.
The faster money gets to your bank account, the lower your DSO. There is also a DSO inside and outside the company. External means how long it takes for your customers to pay you after they get an invoice.
This could be hurt by things like how happy your customers are or how often they pay you.
Internal DSO is the time taken for your invoice to be sent after you finish a shipment. For example, if it takes an extra day to use a Word template to make an invoice after delivering a load, you have increased your DSO.
Using a trucking bookkeeping service that can streamline your invoicing is an easy way to fix a problem like this.
Conclusion
Bookkeeping is an essential part of any trucking business. By keeping accurate records, you can avoid any penalties from the IRS and make sure that your finances are in order. With the help of TranspoCFO bookkeeping services, you can focus on running your trucking business.