Best Trucking Company Software offers a complete trucking business solution for a small fleet with more than 20 trucks. Perfect for startups and established fleets, our software comes with all the necessary features that will allow you to handle important trucking tasks in one place, including accounting and freight audit, dispatch, job management, customer relationship management.
As a trucking owner, you need to make sure that your business operates as efficiently as possible. Free software can help you with this goal. One of the most effective free trucking software programs is a spreadsheet. Trucking spreadsheets are excellent tools for small businesses like yours because they can help you keep track of costs, manage customer and vendor information, and more.
Q7 Trucking Business Software: Best Overall Trucking Management and Accounting Software Combined
Q7 is serious trucking software for companies that need help managing a fleet of trucks. The accounting software is deeply integrated with the trucking management software to make accounting entries automatically as you conduct your business.
- Choice of desktop or cloud-based program
- Free training and support
- Extensive list of trucking management features
- Integrated payroll
- No upfront pricing
- Desktop version is not compatible with Mac
- Complex system requires training and dedication
Plans & Pricing
Contact Q7 for a free demo and a customized price quote.Read our Q7 Trucking Review
Our Expert Opinion
Q7 is a complex system that will work best when there is a full-time person dedicated to utilizing the software’s extensive features. In addition to standard accounting features like accounts receivable (A/R), accounts payable (A/P), bank reconciliations, and payroll, Q7 has modules for dispatch, freight billing, and pay settlement. You can track fuel and miles by truck through integrations with trucking mileage programs like Rand McNally and ProMiles to generate fuel purchase, state mileage, and IFTA tax reports. Q7 also has a powerful fleet maintenance program that will track your fixed assets and help you schedule routine maintenance, whether based on months or miles driven. If you have a fleet of trucks and at least one person that will be dedicated to learning the software, then Q7 will be worth the investment.
QuickBooks Online: Best Accounting Software for Owner/Operator Truckers
QuickBooks Online is our pick for best overall small business accounting software and is a great affordable option for truckers that need to keep track of their income and expenses. The software has an outstanding mobile app that can be used to send invoices and scan receipts while on the road.
- Easy to use
- Outstanding mobile app
- Track profit and loss by load
- Track profitability by customer
- Plenty of Quickbooks ProAdvisors nationwide for assistance
- No trucking-specific features
- Cannot directly call customer support
- A little expensive for a solo trucker
Plans & Pricing
- Simple Start: $25 per month for one user
- Essentials: $50 per month for three users
- Plus: $80 per month for five users (our recommendation for truckers)
- Advanced: $180 per month for 25 users
New users have the choice of 50% off for three months, or a free 30-day trial with no credit card required.Read our QuickBooks Online Review
Our Expert Opinion
If you’re a self-employed trucker, you don’t need all the features included in the more expensive software covered in this guide. You mostly need to keep accurate track of your income and expenses, and nobody does that easier than QuickBooks Online. You can connect your bank and credit card accounts so that transactions flow into your books automatically. All you do is classify them once they are transferred. Bank reconciliations are intuitive. If you prefer, you can outsource your monthly reconciliations to QuickBooks Live, which will match you to a bookkeeper for assistance. You can also work with QuickBooks Live when initially setting up your QuickBooks to tailor it exactly for the needs of a trucker.
The Plus plan offers you multiple features to help you select the most profitable loads. You can assign income and expenses to “projects,” which for truckers could be a load. You can separate loads into different classes and track the profit for each class. For instance, perhaps you want to track your profitability based on the length of a haul. Finally, you can print a report showing your profitability by customer.
Rigbooks: Best for owner-operators, small fleets
Price: Rigbooks starts at $19 per month for one truck. The Basic Entry plan includes expense tracking as well as fuel mileage, expense, and profit and loss reporting. The Small Fleet plan ($149 per month) includes up to five trucks. You can add more trucks to each plan for an additional charge.
Pros
- Free trial for 30 days and satisfaction guarantee.
- Customized billing to invoice by mile, item and weight.
- Ability to log expenses from your smartphone or tablet.
- IFTA tracking and calculation included with basic package.
Cons
- No training resources or manuals.
Why we like it
Rigbooks is an affordable accounting software designed to help truckers understand the true cost of each run so they can choose the most profitable load each time. Users can get a quick view of cost and profit per mile, and can bill by mile, item, load, weight or as a lump sum. The software is cloud based, so you can access it via a laptop, smartphone or tablet.
Rigbooks does not provide training resources or a site manual but users can ask questions via phone or email. Phone support is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT.
Axon: Best for midsize operations
Price: Quote only.
Pros
- Real-time integrated reporting eliminates bookkeeping overhead.
- Dispatch software minimizes empty loads.
- Automatic IFTA tax calculations.
Cons
- Price transparency is low: quotes only.
- Remote access not available.
Why we like it
Axon does what a great accounting software should do — it eases administrative overhead. The software’s integrated reporting eliminates the need for duplicating data entry across multiple views. Simply enter data in one area and it’s instantly updated across all relevant areas. The full-service software includes payroll, fleet management, trucking dispatch and IFTA tax calculator, among other things.
Axon is not cloud-based; instead, it is installed locally on a desktop computer and can be accessed only from that device. That works well for a bigger operation, but is not ideal for independent drivers who need access on the road.
Additional options for trucking accounting software
- TruckBytes: Free accounting software for truckers.
- TruckingOffice: Good for IFTA tax filing.
- RAMA Logistics Software: Good for QuickBooks integration.
Truckstop.com Load Board
Simplify the way you find and post loads with one easy-to-use solution, the Truckstop.com Load Board. With our load board, you get access to vetted users and unlimited truck/lane searching. Add to that decision tools that gauge negotiation strength with truck-to-load ratio and activity by origin and destination so you can negotiate better rates. And then there’s Book It Now–instant load booking with partners you prefer and trust. It’s free to carriers who use the Truckstop.com Load Board and available to brokers and shippers with Load Board Pro or Premium. Our load board options include real-time load refresh and other advanced features like accurate rate data by equipment type, plus rate trends and rate levels for even more negotiating power. Access our entire product line-up of easy-to-use solutions that help you simplify every aspect of your business, including back-office organization, bookkeeping, and more, saving you time and money.
Tailwind TMS: Best Trucking Software for Freight Brokers
Tailwind TMS has all the features needed by Freight Brokers at a reasonable price that is given upfront. While Q7 would also work well for Freight Brokers, it’s more expensive and packed with features that Freight Brokers don’t need.
- Dispatch and track shipments
- GPS confirmed event tracking
- A/R and A/P management
- Customer & Carrier Self-Service Portals
- Not a complete bookkeeping system
- No integrated payroll
- No bank reconciliation feature
Pricing
- Pro: $117 per user per month
- Enterprise: $176 per user per month
- Unlimited: $235 per user per month
Most freight brokers will be well served by choosing the Pro plan. The Pro and Enterprise plans have a free trial available with no credit card required.Read our Tailwind TMS review
Our Expert Opinion
Tailwind TMS offers a huge array of tools to help your freight brokerage company. While you can send invoices and pay bills, it’s not a complete bookkeeping system. Most importantly, there is not a bank reconciliation feature to ensure that your bank account balances are accurate. To fill this gap, Tailwind TMS will sync with QuickBooks Online Plus, which we highly recommend. QuickBooks Online Plus is $80 per month, so be sure to include this cost if you’re choosing between Tailwind TMS and Q7.
You might consider upgrading to the Enterprise plan to be able to offer customer and carrier self-service portals. Customers can log in to view their account information, shipments, and invoices. Carriers can access available loads, shipments you have dispatched with them, and amounts you owe them.
Conclusion
Trucking companies come in all sizes and shapes so it makes sense that there is a software solution that fits all size budgets. Trucking Business Software for Small Trucks provides customizable, easy to use business management software for small trucking companies. SMST helps truckers keep track of fuel and maintenance expenses, create estimates, generate invoices and more in their desktop application. It also has a mobile app for tablets that helps truckers at the job site or on the go.