Best 4 Trucking Accounting Software Programs for 2022

The best accounting software for trucking businesses should make it easy to manage loads, dispatches, orders, and expenses. The software must also provide the ability to run detailed reports for billing customers, paying drivers, and filing International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) reports. Keeping accurate and detailed information on mileage and trips is also important―whether you’re an owner-operator or you’re running a small trucking business.

Of all the available products on the market, we’ve narrowed it down to this list of the best four trucking accounting software options:

• QuickBooks Online with TruckingOffice integration: Best overall trucking and accounting software
• Tailwind TMS: Best invoicing and bill payment software for trucking companies
• Rigbooks: Most affordable trucking management software for tracking revenue and expenses for loads
• Q7: Best stand-alone double-entry bookkeeping system with trucking features

Comparison of Best Trucking Accounting Software

We included Q7 in our list based on its reputation within the trucking industry and a review of the features on its website. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to access the software and, therefore, are unable to provide a rating.

QuickBooks Online and Trucking Office: Best Overall Trucking Management and Accounting Software

While QuickBooks Online isn’t a specialized trucking accounting application, it has powerful accounting features for trucking businesses, like income and expense tracking, bank reconciliation, and invoicing, making it our choice for overall best small business accounting software. It also has an outstanding mobile app that can be used to send invoices and scan receipts while on the road.

QuickBooks alone has no trucking-specific features, but when you use it with TruckingOffice, it becomes a powerful trucking management system (TMS) and accounting software combined. TruckingOffice is cloud-based trucking management and accounting software that helps truckers accomplish various tasks such as dispatching, invoicing, expense tracking, and fleet maintenance.

Find out which QuickBooks Online product is right for you in our QuickBooks Online comparison guide.

Read our reviews of QuickBooks Online.

Features

QuickBooks Online Features

• Income and expense tracking: If you only need basic tracking of your trucking business’ income and expenses, then QuickBooks alone should be enough. However, if you want to generate truck-specific reports like scales, tolls, and maintenance, you can connect it with TruckingOffice for even deeper income and expense tracking.
• Bank reconciliation: Unlike the other trucking accounting software on the list, QuickBooks Online allows you to connect your banks and reconcile your bank accounts.
• Payroll: Integrate with QuickBooks Payroll to pay drivers and contractors, track workloads across multiple worksites, and monitor contractor payments.

TruckingOffice Features

• Accounting: TruckingOffice can create and send invoices to customers, pay and track bills, and charge customers based on a variety of fees, including flat, per mile, per ton, or per weight. However, we recommend connecting it to QuickBooks Online to track assets and liabilities and produce a wide range of business reports.
• Dispatching: You can create and assign trips, including the driver, accessory driver, and truck. Premium users also have the option to track LTL hauls.
• Fleet maintenance: TruckingOffice allows you to set up a maintenance plan by mileage or calendar and track the work done on each truck.
• IFTA tax report: TruckingOffice generates IFTA reports for tax filing. You can select which trucks to include, and the report breaks the miles and gallons down by state.

Expert Opinion

If you’re a self-employed trucker, you don’t need all the features included in the more expensive software covered in this guide. You mostly need to keep accurate track of your income and expenses, and nobody does that easier than QuickBooks Online.

If you’re a fleet manager or an owner-operator, we recommend integrating QuickBooks Online with TruckingOffice to activate truck-specific accounting features like load tracking, dispatching, fuel mileage tracking, and fleet maintenance. TruckingOffice offers an extensive range of trucking-specific features for trucking companies, freight brokers, and carriers. We particularly recommend it for large trucking companies that manage many trucks. The Pro plan, in particular, accommodates more than eight trucks, which is significantly more affordable than other similar software.

Simply put, QuickBooks Online becomes a powerful trucking management and accounting software when combined with TruckingOffice.

Tailwind TMS: Best Invoicing and Billing Software With Comprehensive Trucking Management Features

Tailwind TMS is a cloud-based TMS that is designed to help trucking companies and freight brokerages manage their customers and operations as well as their accounting workflows. While it’s not a complete bookkeeping solution, Tailwind is a great solution for invoicing and bill payment. It has comprehensive accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R) features that let you track bills and payments from different personnel involved in your operations, such as vendors, employees, carriers, and customers.

Features

• Bill tracking: Associated expenses will sit in the appropriate module for easy tracking. For instance, when an order is completed, you can find the expense in the Bill Posting module until you post the bill. When the bill is posted, it’ll move to the Vendor Pay List until it’s paid.
• Invoicing: Tailwind TMS provides an easy way to invoice customers and track all your A/R. You can track which invoices have been paid and which are waiting for payment easily.
• Order management: This feature lets you create orders for customers, set up basic freight charges or fuel surcharges, track commissions sales, carrier partner pay, and company driver pay by the mile or by the hour.
• Self-service portals: Included in the Enterprise and Unlimited plans, you can set up a self-service portal for your customers and carriers. The Customer portal gives your customers access to information about their accounts, shipments, and invoices.
• Dispatch and shipment tracking management: Track and manage shipper and shipment details easily, such as appointment times and pick-up and delivery windows.

Expert Opinion

Tailwind TMS offers a huge array of tools to help you manage your freight brokerage company. While it’s not a complete bookkeeping system, it does pretty well in terms of paying and tracking bills and sending invoices. There isn’t a bank reconciliation feature to ensure that your bank account balances are accurate, but it syncs with QuickBooks Online Plus, which we recommend highly.

You might consider upgrading to the Enterprise plan to be able to offer customer and carrier self-service portals. Customers can log in to view their account information, shipments, and invoices. Carriers can access available loads, shipments you have dispatched with them, and amounts you owe them.

Rigbooks: Most Affordable Trucking Management Software for Tracking Revenue and Expenses for Loads

Rigbooks is a cloud-based trucking management system that is ideal for trucking businesses with up to five trucks. It is used to track business expenses, fuel mileage, trips, and orders. It’s an affordable option for small trucking companies that need to track cost per mile and understand which of their loads are the most profitable.

Features

• Expense tracking: Rigbooks tracks fixed and variable costs. You can add loads and trips and attach revenue and expenses to better understand the profitability of your loads.
• Order tracking: You can monitor loads based on status, and each status has a separate tab for easy tracking.
• Invoicing: Rigbooks lets you create an invoice from existing trip records, including instant billing, partial payments, and private notes.
• Fuel purchase recording: Record your fuel purchases for each truck to help you track oil and gasoline costs and keep detailed records of truck mileage for tax reimbursement.

Expert Opinion

If you’re hauling different types of loads and want to understand which of them are the most profitable, Rigbooks is the most affordable option. For as low as $19 per month, you can track cost per mile, profit per mile, and average miles traveled per trip to stay on top of your revenue and expenses. Rigbooks even pulls in your mileage automatically, whether it’s from your electronic logging device (ELD), IFTA mileage records, or trip and load records.

Q7: Best Standalone Bookkeeping Software With Trucking-specific Features

Q7 is a trucking management system that combines fleet management, dispatch operations, and accounting features in a single platform. Even without integration with online accounting software, you can perform bookkeeping tasks such as paying bills, sending invoices, and reconciling bank accounts. While it is the only full-fledged accounting program on the list, we weren’t able to deeply evaluate its features and rate it due to the unavailability of a free trial.

Features

• A/P: Q7 allows you to pay vendor bills, create purchase orders, track vendor invoices, and set up recurring expenses, such as loan payments.
• A/R: You can create, send, and track customer invoices and payments. Invoices are tied to a dispatch to ensure that loads are only invoiced when complete.
• Banking: You can write and void checks, create deposits and transfer funds, and reconcile bank accounts.
• Financial scoreboard: The Financial Scoreboard provides a complete view of your financial data, and you can create a customized report based on your needs.

Expert Opinion

Q7 is a full double-entry accounting system that will work best when there is someone dedicated full-time to utilizing the software’s extensive features. In addition to standard accounting features like A/R, A/P, bank reconciliations, and payroll, Q7 has modules for dispatch, freight billing, and pay settlement. You can track fuel and miles by truck through integrations with trucking mileage programs like Rand McNally and ProMiles to generate fuel purchase, state mileage, and IFTA tax reports.

Q7 also has a powerful fleet maintenance program that will track your fixed assets and help you schedule routine maintenance, whether based on months or miles driven. If you have a fleet of trucks and at least one person that will be dedicated to learning the software, then Q7 will be worth the investment.

How We Evaluated Trucking Accounting Software

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 each accounting application using an internal rubric scoring system with five categories, each with a calculated weighted score.

Bottom Line

Overall, there’s no single accounting or trucking management software that can cover all the various needs of truck drivers and fleet managers. While each of the four best trucking accounting software has a wide range of features, you can create a more useful package by integrating your existing software with other applications. For instance, if you need powerful accounting software with comprehensive trucking-specific features, you can integrate your QuickBooks Online account with TruckingOffice.