I recently posted about another accounting program for truckers. I know some have been using Quick Books to run their trucking business. So, I thought it would be good to look at other software. I looked at Quick Books at one time. I did a search and did not find as much information on the program as I had hoped. I would like to see what those who have used the program have to say about the software and if they might tell us more about the program and how it is working in your business. I know some have used the Quick Books Pro. I believe it can be customized, at least to a point. If you have used Quick Books Pro perhaps you could share some of the pros and cons of the software.

 

i use quickbooks and i love it. the best part is how easy it is for you and the accountant. with a few clicks the accountant has the quarterly statements. they donthave much for trucking per say, however, but you can add into the catagorys. another thing that i like a lot is that is that you can keep track to everything invoices to what goes in and out of your account by the penny. they also have many graphs to show almost anything. they also have something that you can download your bankstatment right into quick books for your in and out money, same goes for some credit cards. i really like the program a lot. they have something for the mobile app for your smart phone too but i'm too paranoid to try it for the fear if someone breaks into my phone. another thing, the invoicing is next to none. you can make your invoices any way you'd like. custom or from the templates they got.

now i do not use the payroll feature.. yet. my parents do and i do know that you need to activate it and its for a fee. i'm sure there is a lot i'm leaving out.. been a very long week. any questions.. feel free to ask i'l try my best to answer.

 

I read somewhere that you could download your bank statements to Quickbooks. I believe my bank offers that download ability. I can see how that would be a good feature. It could save time. Quickbooks is more readily available and I know some accountants do use the program. I can see that as useful. What about keeping up with maintenance and other records we must maintain in this business? Can you set up a maintenance file to be compliant with the fmcsa or do you need to handle that with a spreadsheet or some other method? Another question I have is being able to separate business and personal accounting information. I own a corporation so it is important that I keep personal records and corporate files separate. I understand that some people will mix their personal and business records when they own a sole proprietorship. I am not sure how that would work. I like being able to keep personal and corporate or business files separate. Is there a way to do that with Quickbooks, or do you have a different way to keep personal tax information?

 

that is the downside with the maintenance. i do it in my own way. i set up the trucks with a rand mcnally gps. they have 2 different mile settings that i use. example: maintenance 1. is my oil changes. maintenance 2. is what i use to run my overhead. i also use the "neat" program. scans all my recipts in and that'll break down into different categories. (that program you can also DL into quick books). as far as personal i guess you could open a personal account as well as a separate account. actually the more i think there is a calendar that i never looked into maybe you can something with that.

 

Quickbooks doesn't even come close to Axon software. I would bet that 95% of truckers trash Quickbooks after being confused out of their minds. Axon on the other hand is designed for trucking.

 

I can customize my maintenance reports. I can set it up to show me what I spend on pm's, tires, etc., Parts and repairs are all included in maintenance. With my software, I can key in the repairs and then check a box to include it in my maintenance report. I can also show it as for a particular trailer or specific truck. I can print out a maintenance report by the piece of equipment and at any time. I used to do all that with a spreadsheet. It is much easier and neater the way I do it now.

I went to the Quickbooks website. I had hoped to find more information on the program, such as how various reports could be compiled, etc., It would be helpful to know how things can be separated into the program. I am not familiar with the "neat" program. I like keeping my business banking separate from my personal. It is also much better if you ever get audited. I keep everything separate in my business. But, I also operate under a corporate structure, so it is more critical in my situation.

 

What is the cost of the Axon program? I looked at it and it seems like you need to buy different modules. I didn't see any costs on their website.

 

I don't know, I got it with laptop e-logs from a company I worked for. It must be expensive, but if I were an O/O, I would pay whatever the cost because it's an investment. There are other trucking specific software programs out there and even the most basic of them will save you money because of all the trucking features. Quickbooks, Neat, or any of these other generic programs and too time consuming to use for a trucker...

 

We've always used QuickBooks and that's all I would ever use. Definitely can separate personal from business. I haven't used it myself (I have a full time bookkeeper) in a while but you can track maintenance. I remember there was a section where you could separate things by class (each class could be a unit number).

We also used QuickBooks online or Intuit on line payroll which was great but when we switched to the employee leasing company we had to stop. Also you can always send portable files to your accountant.

 

A bit of time to learn basic accounting and Business management principles and quicken home & business or QuickBooks. It took me little time to set up my accounts or my chart of accounts (called categories) in H&B.