Do you use any software to manage your business?

Mystic from NASTC... has a few issues, but definitely covers 98% of what we use to manage our trucks

 

Quicken Home & Business.

A couple spreadsheets and an Access database I developed.

 

I use my laptop, to monitor my trips. Tom Tom, Garmin does the same thing. It runs off my truck 24/7. It's my own design, and keeps the expense in grasp. I get lazy tho and don't upload it for days. Hits the bank if I do it or not. I like 15K but sometimes that don't happen. Tires, repairs. My Droid sends the data. Pretty cheap for what it does. An Accountant was charging me $ 300.00 a month. Plus I payed postage.

 

Excel ... I upload reports from my carrier, as well as all my accounts. I manipulate the data as I need it, to do my accounting and analysis.

 

QuickBooks Pro and Payroll

 

I used excell. What i would really like to see is a software package that can do my taxes....like turbo tax ecept for owner operator truckers.

 

Part of the reason I use Home & Business.

You set up your small business and it fills out the Schedule C for you and the other self-employment forms.

 

OP: I think your biggest challenge will be creating something that offers better value than what's already on the market, without having first hand knowledge of the industry.

In my opinion, the weakness with industry-specific solutions is that they try to be all things to all trucking businesses. You can already see from the responses that use cases are all over the place. Some just want automated tax calculations, others may want KPI reporting, some may want payroll and other reporting needs met, and so on. Business form is all over the place as well. You have everything from sole proprietor to c-corp, and folks that are leasing to a carrier with a single tractor to more robust trucking companies that own a collection of equipment, possibly real estate like an office and/or a terminal, and other logistics operations like brokering, storage, cross-dock, and the like.

If I had some software development money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd create a set of QuickBooks modules that would enhance it with transactions, document storage, and the like that are unique to trucking. QuickBooks is as close to an accounting standard as there is, and it's capable of a lot more if you have the time and know how to customize it.

FWIW, I'm using QuickBooks Pro for accounting, along with a set of spreadsheets, for reconciliation and KPI reporting. If I had a twin with unlimited time to spend on it, QuickBooks could be doing a lot more for me and streamline my office tasks.

 

you'd do well to consult with MNdriver and/or Red Foreman if you get serious about developing this product. I've used many of their posts and advice to develop my book keeping system, which is an area I struggle with. I'm actually waiting for MNdriver to write a book on O/O accounting !