IFTA Preparation: QuickBooks or TruckingOffice?

IFTA is due at the end of this month. How are you managing your IFTA preparation?

IFTA Preparation Options

As we see it, there are several options to complete your IFTA preparation.

1. You can do it by hand. We truly hope you are not doing this. The chances of mathematical errors, accurate miles per state reporting, up-to-date tax tables, and simply spending too much time that you could be doing something else – like driving or playing with your kids – makes this option the hardest. You deserve better.
2. Hire a bookkeeper or an accountant to do it. Unless you’ve hired a trucking accountant or a bookkeeper who specializes in trucking taxes, you may be playing with fire. IRS fire. IFTA preparation requires specialized knowledge and access to your records to people who may not know when something is wrong. On top of that, they may ask you to enter your data into QuickBooks. That’s trouble.*
3. You purchase a stand-alone IFTA preparation software. You may have to import all your numbers into this program – by hand – and you may not be confident that the program has the latest tax rates in all the jurisdictions. You’re going to do all the work – and not get the confidence that it’s being done right.
4. You use a full trucking management software package that uses your dispatch and routing information to compute your IFTA fuel taxes.

Which one do you want to do?

The Problem with QuickBooks

We don’t have a problem with QuickBooks. It’s the world standard for accounting. Accountants and bookkeepers know it and use it. It’s like they can do magic with it.

But the magic doesn’t extend to trucking.

QuickBooks offers several preset reports that are standard in the accounting industry. But if you want to know your miles per state? It’s not in there. Nor is there any way to enter it.

So there’s no way for QuickBooks to prepare your IFTA fuel taxes. The program can’t do it.

We know that many truckers and fleet managers have to submit their financial reports to accountants – so we’ve made it possible for your data in TruckingOffice trucking management software to be exported to a file that QuickBooks can use.

But QuickBooks still can’t compute IFTA.

Or IRP.

Or tell you what your profits per mile are. Or your costs per mile.

Trucking Industry Accounting and IFTA Preparation

Every industry has their unique accounting issues. Trucking has many. But because many of our finances aren’t based on time, standard accounting software can’t handle our needs.

IFTA preparation is just the most obvious one.

What the government wants from truckers – accounting software can’t provide. So what are you going to do if you’re an owner-operator and you have to file IFTA and IRP?

You need a complete trucking management software solution that handles all of your accounting and your tax reports. You need a program that will take the data you’ve already entered and compute your taxes for you.

You don’t need QuickBooks. You need TruckingOffice TMS.

The Big Load and the Little Load

We’ve all seen the tractor trailer pulling a load – that looks like the rig might not make it. Extra long loads of windmill blades or airplane parts – with unnecessary OVERSIZE LOAD banners because no one on the road is going to miss them.

Then there’s the opposite situation. A big 18 wheeler with a flatbed trailer has a load that’s about six foot square and you wonder just how much it weighs because that trucker is moving fast on the highway – when going uphill.

Call it the Goldilocks load. The just right one – a truck that’s carrying its load and it’s perfect. The tarp doesn’t flap, the load doesn’t shift, it’s a good-paying haul for a good day’s work.

That mammoth load? That’s QuickBooks. It’s the big one and everyone knows it – but is it right for your trucking business?

That little bitty load? That’s the IFTA preparation software that doesn’t do anything else – but it makes you work for your report.

TruckingOffice TMS: How It Saves You Time, Effort, and Money

What’s your preferred method for keeping up with receipts from fuel purchases and other expenses incurred after a long day on the road?  Is it a big size 13 shoebox?  Or do you prefer to stuff the receipts in the glove box of your vehicle?  

If that’s working out for you, congratulations.  But it must be a time-consuming and annoying effort when you need to sort through them to complete your logbook and other reports.  

You need to save time and make more money, so give us a minute to tell you about a better way.

At TruckingOffice, we’ve created a trucking software (TMS) that makes all your business accounting easier and more accurate.  You’ll save time and effort when it comes to filing IFTA and IRP reports. 

No, you won’t need to dig out those receipts again. Our system retrieves the information you’ve already entered to compute your quarterly taxes.   Also, real-time data on drivers and vehicle locations makes dispatching and routing more effective, which ensures that your customers get the service they expect.  

It will be easier to fully appreciate our TMS if you experience it firsthand, so sign up for this 30-day free trial and see why TruckingOffice should be part of your business plan.  

We want to be just right for you.

We’ll give you a free trial of our complete software package so you can discover what a full trucking management software can do for your trucking business. Whether you’re hauling the giant loads or the little ones, you need a software solution that can handle either without creating more work for you. Your IFTA preparations will take less than a minute with TruckingOffice.