At some point, anyone with a trucking business has to produce an invoice in order to get paid. That’s how business works. So many new owner operator truckers are looking for an easy way to produce those invoices. The obvious answer is to find some trucking invoice templates and choose one that works for their business. Why recreate the wheel? If someone else has created a trucking invoice template, why not use it?
Free trucking invoice templates cost you money
We all know nothing is free. A company may advertise on Google that they offer a free invoice template and let you fill out all the details – but they don’t let you print without getting your VISA card number first. That’s because they’re not free. Maybe – just maybe – the first one or two is free, but then you have to create an account and pay monthly for the service.
Don’t get suckered into those so-called “free” invoice templates. They’re worse than useless because they COST you time and effort that you’ll have to repeat with every single invoice.
What we truckers are selling is delivery of the shipper’s freight. That’s our trucks, our fuel costs, the wear and tear of our equipment and our time. Using a software system to produce invoices that doesn’t work with our billing program is an utter waste of our time. It costs you more in the end when you have to repeat data entry over and over, and maybe introduce mistakes that delay getting your invoice paid.
Using a Word or Google Docs Invoice Template is free, right?
Google Docs and Sheets are free – up to a point. At some point, you’re going to have so many invoices in the Google cloud that you’re going to have to buy more memory. So if you want to use Google’s invoice template, consider that you may be looking at free – at a price down the road.
The same with any word processing software. Microsoft’s Word for Windows has 13 different invoice templates, but none of them are configured for trucking.
The Invoice That Will Get Paid
Trucking invoice templates come in a variety of styles. Maybe you can customize it with your business logo. You add in the necessary details and that’s enough, right?
Are you sure you’ve got everything? Will a generic invoice include your reimbursable expenses? Have the appropriate factoring payment options? Include the extra pay for detention fees?
The Invoice that Pays You
The reason that most invoices are “free” is because they’re come-ons to get you to buy into an accounting software system for your business. None of the first page of Google search results when I looked for “trucking invoice template” was for software dedicated to a trucking business. NONE. All those ads were for accounting software designed with accountants in mind, not truckers.
Get past the hype and you’ll see that what these companies offer isn’t what the independent owner operator trucker needs.
Trucking Management Software Will Produce Invoices For YOU!
We’re not going to bash any accounting software. There are certainly workable and successful programs out there that truckers have made work for them. We even added an integration option for Quick Books because so many of our clients use accountants for their taxes and needed to download their data quickly. (pun intended.)
But here’s a little secret you need to know: Some of those trucking accounting companies are using TruckingOffice PRO to manage your trucking business financials. Yep, we’re telling the truth.
They take your data and put it into TruckingOffice PRO to prepare your IRP and IFTA reports, to track your invoices, current and past due, and to manage your expenses records.
So what are you paying them for if you can use TruckingOffice PRO to do it yourself?
TruckingOffice PRO trucking invoice templates
First of all – if you’re using TruckingOffice PRO, you don’t need to use any other trucking invoice templates because we’ve already produced what you need. We have two options:
- BASIC: a single line for the load. The software totals up the invoice for you and produces the simplest type of invoice that’s clean and easy to read.
- DETAILED: an invoice with more details, including delivery address and dates.
Both styles include reimbursed expenses. You can attach an image of a signed BOL to either and send it right to the shipper, even from the cab of your rig while you’re waiting at the delivery dock.
Whether your shipper or your broker requires extra information, you have it at your fingertips because you entered this data when you accepted the load and entered it as a dispatch in TruckingOffice PRO. As you add expenses, the accounting software in TruckingOffice PRO handles all of those numbers and adds them to the invoices.
The correct invoice gets paid. A random trucking invoice template may not be correct.
Trucking Invoice Templates may delay your pay
Any question about the accuracy of an invoice will delay the payment. That’s why TruckingOffice PRO is the best for independent owner operator truckers. With the data already in the system, the numbers will be correct. If you’re using a template, it’s easy to mix up numbers. TruckingOffice prevents this problem by handling the numbers for you and producing the trucking invoice PDF to send to the shipper. No need for the calculator app on your phone to add up all the expenses. TruckingOffice PRO does it for you.
TruckingOffice Trucking Management Software
Using a single trucking management software package gives the independent owner operator the same benefits that big trucking companies have in expensive software solutions. TruckingOffice offers the best options for the solo trucker. We’ve got affordable trucking management software that handles everything. TruckingOffice PRO makes your life easier and managing your business smoother by helping you handle your tasks better and faster:
- dispatches
- routing
- invoice generation and tracking
- expense management
- IFTA and IRP
- maintenance
- Trucker Stats™– reports to show the state of your trucking business.
Combined with the TruckingOffice ELD, you’ve got everything you need to build a successful trucking business – even from the cab of your truck.
Contact us today to learn how TruckingOffice PRO can help you avoid loads that cost you money to deliver and to discover what equipment is the most profitable for you.
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