O/O which accounting soft you use to track expences?

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by Wildkat, Jan 30, 2009.

  1. Cowpie1

    Cowpie1 Road Train Member

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    I am old school, I guess. I have found that a good spreadsheet program works best for me. I can tailor it to fit my needs and make relational sheets that share information from one to another for such things as profit and loss statements and such. Takes a little time to set up, but there is no canned software package on the market that can match it when you have it set up for your particular needs and wants. Best of all, one of the best spreadsheets out there is absolutely FREE! Open Office makes a good office suite package that is compatible with MS Office and does about 95% of what MS Office does and can export and import from just about any other office package ever made. You can even export the information to a tax preparation package such as TurboTax.

    Seems a little too simple and cheap, but there are a number of large corporations that also rely on good 'ol fashioned spreadsheet programs and a couple of them have also started using Open Office. Spreadsheets are flexible and can virtually be changed "on the fly" to reflect some change in a person's business. Sometimes, simple is better.

    I enter the information as it occurs, since I carry the laptop on the truck with me. I also sync up my desktop with the laptop so that there is a backup there, and also backup to DVD's and store them in a safety depost box. I scan all my receipts into PDF files on the computer and back them up as well. I have everything nice and neat and quickly available.
     
  2. mc8541ss

    mc8541ss Road Train Member

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    I made my own spreadsheet with Microsoft XL. No need to buy somthing I can make myself and my accountant seemed happy enough when I took it to him. You can also go online to while in Excel and find spreadsheets people have made and posted. Then all it needs are a few minor mods to make it work for you.
     
    Travelinman Thanks this.
  3. 73MG

    73MG Bobtail Member

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    I tried Easy Trucking Software but lost all my data on Vista and am trying Nautilus which seems pretty good. Enter trip pick up, drop miles and fuel and expenses and it calculates everything.
     
  4. merlroot

    merlroot Bobtail Member

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    I have been using "Truckers Helper" to record my daily activities. The beginning of this year I switched to "Nautilus IV". It has been a great program until I lost a HHD and had to reinstall the program. It required me to request a license, that I purchased. For the last month I have asked for any support to help. I cannot receive any reply, and all my data was with this company. I properly backed everything up, but without the host program, it does little good. If anyone knows how to contact these people, please post.
    I have just tried "truckn pro 7" and it seems to work OK. I'm open to ideas and suggestion other truckers are doing. Again, Truckers Helper is OK to use.
    Thank you.
     
  5. Poconorob

    Poconorob Light Load Member

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    Im using internet truck stops web based dispatch software...its actually pretty complete for what I pay per month. Works for me :biggrin_255:
     
  6. Double L

    Double L Heavy Load Member

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    The only thing I recommend is Quickbooks. It makes life a lot easier.
     
  7. Hanadarko

    Hanadarko Independent Owner/Operator

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    I'm looking for accounting software to keep track of expenses (repairs especially) and if possible, ideally mileage - especially for IFTA.

    Any suggestions?

    My operations aren't expected to start until 2011, but in the meantime I am dealing with many startup expenses (and repairs) that appear to be worthy of deductions and need a better way to manage my records besides chicken strips of paper scattered in folders.

    :biggrin_2556:
     
  8. thelastamericanhippy

    thelastamericanhippy Road Train Member

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    No offense, but the last thing I'd list here is my company name !!!!!!!!
     
  9. Hanadarko

    Hanadarko Independent Owner/Operator

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    I own it...its public...MY DOT is on the side of my rig and all of the info is public and fully listed too - not sure what the concern/issue is....
    I got nothing to hide and I only work for myself...my screen name matches my company name, so even if I exclude it from my signature
    how hard can it be to figure out?

    :biggrin_25524:

    Did I miss something ???
     
  10. thelastamericanhippy

    thelastamericanhippy Road Train Member

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    10-4.......................