Hello everyone! I am new to the business side of the trucking industry from an owner/operator standpoint. I have done our own taxes involving reimbursed employee expenses but of course now things are a little more involved. Currently we are set up as a DBA. That may change in the future but unsure as of yet; trying to keep things as uncomplicated as I can. My question is office programs...Quick Books Pro 2012 to be exact. Some people have recommended that particular program but I wonder if it is too much. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance and be safe out there
Do you plan on staying a DBA? For a sole prop, I prefer Quicken Home and Business, as it does both your business and personal accounting. Quickbooks is more for corporations.
The ones that are often posted here http://solutions.letstruck.com/Answers/Category/ProfitGauges and here http://solutions.letstruck.com/Answers/Category/Bug+Report
I have used Quickbooks since 1995, best software available for the small business person. It is not suited well to the trucking industry, but with a few of your own personalization solutions it will work very well, also, TurboTax is made by the same company, (Intuit) I have used Turbotax since 1996 as well, with these two programs, you will be able to take care of your record keeping and taxes in pretty short order. It will take you some time to learn the Quickbooks program, but it isn't something that you can't master, I started with it back before Windows on the old DOS system. They have a version just for sole proprietors and LLC corporations that is all you will need, and as a footnote, you will pretty much just need the basic program, not the PRO version. I used the basic for years and only recently got the PRO version, but in hindsight, I wasn't missing a thing with the basic version. The ability to generate reports, (nearly any kind you can imagine), and set up your own accounts the way that you want to, is what sets Quickbooks apart from the others. Also if you keep your version of Quickbooks up to date, with TurboTax, you can import most of the data right in to your tax forms at tax time. But like all things this will turn out to be a personal preference issue as well. Good Luck, just remember, when you start keeping books, always keep your paper receipts as well, I kept all paperwork in file folders broken down by month and year, if you start out keeping detailed records from the beginning it will pay you dividends later, I recently went through an IFTA Audit, and it is SO much easier when you have your records well kept.
better not buy any software, ever. All software has bugs. Google quickbooks bugs once. I've been involved with computers...programming and hardware...for 25 years. No code is perfect. Just sayin'
My Quicken Home and Business 2004 did not cost me close to $228 one time, much less per every year I've used it. Never have had a problem with it. Rutherford's Profit Gauges has been out close to a year and has close to 200 reported bugs, not a good record. I've known him now, for about 4 years, maybe 5. Met him personally a few times. His interest is in his pocket, not the driver's well being, as he tries to get people to believe.
