How come no one mentioned how much work is involved for authority audit?

I hope your at least scanning the actual receipt

 

Quickbooks even has a feature where you can scan and attach a digital copy of the receipt right into the line item of the check register.

I just camscan all my receipts as I go and drop them into a specific digital folder on my G Drive. Once I do, the paper receipt gets ripped up and thrown away.

 

Just make sure you are doing regular back ups and ideally to a remote drive as well as a remote server. If your machine takes a #### the IRS will say F you pay me.

 

G Drive IS a Cloud (Google) Drive.

I also have a local 8TB Drive connected to my desktop that gets regular backups as well.

In addition, I backup my Quickbooks to my G Drive once a week too.

Pretty well covered

 

Best to save every actual receipt for at least 2 years. Just put them in a folder(s) after you scan them.

 

My son hooked me up well.

Another thing he did was set up a PLEX account with a remote server access. He has over 1000 movies (not kidding) loaded up on that PLEX account. All I have to do is log into the account with my laptop (via my phone mobile hotspot) while I'm on the road and can watch movies to kingdom come, if I so desire

The technology today is amazing.

 

Nah, not necessary. I've been soft audited twice by the IRS in the past 10 years and have never had a problem producing digital receipts as my backup.

 

I first got my authority in April of 2014 and was a lot more worried about the itty bitty stuff than I am now. In 2015, about 15 months in, I had my new MC audit. I was worried. I headed in to an office in Texas and figured I would be nailed to the wall for SOMETHING.
Nothing happened.
We sat in what looked like a converted closet and all she did was look at my logs. Nothing else if I remember correctly. The only hitch was she wanted me to do a pre trip AND a post trip which I refused to do. I let her win and have only been doing a pretrip up to now.
I don't care it is stupid.
In sept last year I retriggered my authority and haven't lost any sleep about an audit.
Why?
Because I have already been told that if I receive another, and I probably will, it will be like the first which is to say it is just a lookie see over what you have been up to. If something is wrong they will tell you and you correct it. I do not see them as ogres more like someone who wants to go to lunch.
If they see that you are picking up shut downs, violations, speeding tickets and accidents then of course they will stick you under a microscope. If on the other hand you have a light out now and then and basically you are just a working guy they will just advise.
The only thing that bothers me is the fact that I have not contacted a previous lease guy. He is a douche who I had to get a lawyer onto. He tried to steal a trailer from me. He is not my friend.
I also haven't redone an employment form or any of the other nonsense. I have all the original stuff and will present it if needed. If they say no, no, no you have to update all this I will be super surprised and vow to comply immediately if not sooner.
It isn't worth losing sleep over. Personally I see it as more of a process than an event. Just do as the teacher says and correct your homework and you won't have to stay after school.
I really don't believe that the greater majority of these folks are looking to destroy your business - unless you are a problem child.

 

My friend read my previous post and try not to be too worried. The really bad / stressful time in setting up your own authority is the initial malarkey you go through at the very beginning. It took me 3 weeks to dot i's and cross t's. A right pain. Now I don't worry about it too much.
It is a bit like the CSA score. It is something that you want to be aware of and somewhat guard but it isn't a showstopper. I swear if I hear one more idiot tell me (usually some company moron) that the score is vital and that you won't get the same rate as someone else from a broker I will choke. Secret - they couldn't care less.
Taking care of the authority isn't as bad as some think. The main thing is don't have accidents, don't persistently lie on logs (an occasional 'mistake' is ok), don't drink or take drugs and don't smartmouth a cop. Rules to live by. All the best everything will be ok.

 

Yes but you need them anyway.
Here is how I do receipts.
I have an expanding folder that lives in a cupboard. When I fuel I always ask for a big ticket if possible. The tickets have the odometer reading written on them at the top. I then slide them into a notebook I keep. When sitting in a dock and in the mood I write all the info from the tickets - in date order preferably - into the notebook. I then take all the original fuel tickets (if there are duplicates I select the best legible one) and slip them into the expanding folder. In fact all receipts go into the folder.
Once a year I take a week off and do the bookkeeping. First thing I do is the fuel. I run through the book and ratify each entry with a real ticket.
This way it is really easy to keep tabs on things.
For bookkeeping I use Profit Gauges. Rutherford has made it easy and it is worth $20 a month.
The fuel stuff is automatically imported from Fuel Gauges into Profit Gauges. Bingo done !!
If the nice man in the fancy costume and carrying a gun REALLY wants to dig deep. Throw the lot on the table and say have at it Fuel Boy.
I joke - what you do is lay the book and the folder on the desk and invite him to do what he wants. It is up to him to match every receipt with a fuel entry on your logs. He doesn't want to do that he will be there all day and he has other audits that day too. Not just you.
Lastly with fuel receipts the logs do not have to match exactly. 15 minutes either way is fine. Anyway you should be using electronic logs at this point which should make it even easier. Just press the button.
The appearance of utter cooperation and willingness to both admit mistakes and learn is vital. Under your breath you can say what a !@#$ just keep the crocodile smile on your face.