Can someone tell me which accounting program is the best one for the trucking industry? I want to start out with the right one. My husband and I will be joining the trucking family soon, so I want to have everything ready in advance.

There are several programs on the market. It depends on what you want to do. Are you going to be a company driver, owner operator or run your own authority. Do you plan on having drivers, or go it alone? Do you plan on adding trucks or stick with a single unit? What about trailers? Will you buy a trailer, lease one or use one from the carrier, if you lease to a carrier will you use one of their trailers? Do you want something to help compute and report your fuel taxes? What about logs? Do you need something that will check logs? Do you need a program that will do payroll? If you need payroll, there are several different ways in which to compensate a driver. There are a couple that will do different types of payroll, such as percentage, salary or mileage.

There is a broad range of programs and features. There is no point in spending more money on a program that does much more than you really need. You can spend from $50 to $2,000. I have looked at a number of programs and purchased a couple of them. If you will tell us what you want to do and the type of operation you will run, we can better answer your questions and make some suggestions.

We are going to start out as company drivers, with the goal of eventually owning our own truck. I currently have QuickBooks, but they don't have the needed programs to manage mileage or the log book. I am open to your suggestions.

One of the better inexpensive programs is TrucknPro published by www.foglinesoftware.com. It was designed by a trucker and he has 3 versions. One is for company drivers and sells for about $49. It is a basic program and will help you track road expenses, etc., They have an owner operator version which has about everything you will need except payroll and fuel taxes. It sells for $75. They just added logs to the program. If you run for Landstar they have a specific program designed just for Landstar BCO's. The price for the BCO program is the same as the other owner operator version. One thing I like about it is that you can see exactly what you are doing immediately. It is easy to use and doesn't cost an arm and leg to buy. You can usually get in touch with them if you have a problem. From what you are telling me, this would be a good choice for you. Another program I have purchased is Easy Trucking Software. It is designed for the owner operator. It does most everything you would need including fuel taxes and logs. It is more than you would need at this time. The main problem I and others have had with them is getting in touch with someone if you have a problem. I will say, however, that I had a problem with a computer and had to replace it. They got back with me the next day and reset the software for me. I really appreciate them doing that for me. It is a little more involved than the TrucknPro program and costs about twice as much at $149. There are others on the market. Most are designed for the owner operator.

You can print reports out with either of these programs and input them into Quick-Books or any other accounting program. If the main thing you want to do is track road expenses and do your logs, the TrucknPro would be your best bet. The main advantage with a program such as Easy Trucking is that you can do your fuel taxes. If you plan on lease on to a carrier, they normally do your fuel taxes for you. Unless you want to check them, it may not be of that much value to you. Besides, you can always import the tax tables into Excel and do your own calculations.

Thank you GMAN, this has been a lot of help. See you on the road soon.

You are welcome. By the way, they have a demo you can see before you buy it. Most of the better programs have a demo you can either view or try. Let me know how you like it.

Thank you GMAN. When I was first looking for an accounting program, I saw one that had a section where it kept the drivers logs, but it was not set up like the log book. Do you know which one that one is?