Do you like figuring out a Sudoku puzzle? Sometimes when numbers not in the right place – you have to go to the solution to figure out what went wrong. It can be the same for a trucking business. The wrong name or the wrong number and suddenly, the invoicing is a mess. When a trucker faces a puzzle like this, a trucking business management solution is necessary.
How to Solve a Trucking Management Crisis
We get calls from owner-operators in a crisis. Whatever their system was in the past doesn’t matter – it’s a mess now.
Google is no help. When you try to search for “trucking business accounting crisis” or “trucking business accounting problem” – you don’t get anything that can help you solve your problems.
- Are you out of money? You might resort to a freight factoring – getting money from an agency based on your incoming invoices. You pay for that privilege, but sometimes it’s the only option.
- Are your invoices not getting paid on time? Too many owner-operators aren’t paying attention enough to the late pays. Suddenly they find they’re in trouble – not just the business, but their homes or truck loans are due.
- Are you not sure how much you’ve billed? Maybe you use a standard template in a Google doc to send out your invoices. Do you just reuse it by deleting the information from the last bill? Did you save a copy of it, or are you sure you even sent it?
While many truckers say that business organization is their biggest management problem, money and accounting has to be the largest part of the puzzle. When the accounting is not managed properly, the business can’t succeed.
What’s the solution?
Trucking Management Business Solutions
If you’re in a financial crisis, the last thing you want to hear is “spend money” but in this case, it may be your only choice.
Because of ELDs, IFTA, and other DOT regulations, you probably have a pretty good idea of how much you’ve driven recently. Collect that data and print it out. Don’t depend on a Google spreadsheet at this point – get the documents. Did you save copies of your BOLs? You’ll get dates from those.
Then you may have two choices: calling an accountant or getting a trucking management software package. If you’re in legal trouble, you better call a lawyer and an accountant. But if it’s not that horrible a situation, you may be able to use a trucking management software as the solution to your problems.
Working Backwards to a Trucking Business Management Solution
TruckingOffice offers a free trial of our entire system. That’s important that you get access to every module in a free trial if you’re going to use it to solve your crisis. Only being able to add a couple of dispatches or not use the invoicing program is only going to make your situation more stressful.
Once you get the free trial, then start by adding your last load into the system. You can use this video to help you get started. You’ll find it’s pretty easy to do. Then do the load before it.
Work your way backwards – this is why having the printouts is important. Going back and forth between computer screens might be simpler, but you’ve got a problem and you need to solve it. Do the work and don’t just cut and paste. You might find the problem gets solved because all you had were a couple of numbers put in the wrong place.
Will One Month’s Data Might Save Your Trucking Business?
After you have a month’s data entered, now get your bank statements and enter your expenses into the TruckingOffice program. Add any maintenance tasks you’ve taken care of recently into the maintenance module. (This is useful later on when you need to prove you’ve taken proper care of your rig during an inspection or an audit, or if a repair is still under warranty if the problem occurs again.)
Finally, put into the invoicing module all your payments you’ve received. Since it’s only the past month’s information you’ve entered, maybe there aren’t many loads you’re already paid for. But if you can enter the paid invoices from previous months, you may find someone who still owes you money as you check the payments against your bank and load records.
Will one month’s data save your trucking business? We can’t promise that. But it may show where your problems lie and give you some ideas how to fix them. If last month’s data isn’t showing any problems, then repeat the process for the previous month. (The nice thing about TruckingOffice TMS is that it remembers things – like shippers, billing addresses, miles per state – so that entering load data gets faster as you go.)
Solve the Root Problem of your Trucking Business Management Crisis
We can’t guarantee that you’ll get all your solutions, but we believe you’ll discover more about your trucking business than you ever will with TruckingOffice Trucking Management Solution. That’s more important than if you just hire an accountant and throw everything into a shoe box to give to them. Getting a solution is critical right now – solving the puzzle of how it got there and how not to do it again – may not be so important at this moment, but why go through this stress twice? Solve the basic root problem now.
If you think you’re in trouble and taxes are involved, it’s smart to involve an accountant or attorney who understands the trucking industry and accounting practices. This advice is given to help owner-operators solve their business accounting solutions and does not replace professional accounting or legal advice.
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