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Recordkeeping Made Easy

Once again, a new year is upon us. Once again, thousands of truckers will do last year's taxes and vow to do better bookkeeping this year. Here is a system that may help. If you do not use full-fledged bookkeeping or accounting systems like Quicken or QuickBooks, the easy system described below provides is a step forward.

Whatever the item of information is (store receipt, receipt for an online transaction, settlement statement, bank statement, motor carrier contract, Form 1040 tax return, etc.), file it in your computer (or the cloud), and label it with the date/name format shown below. Examples:

2014-01-09, Truck Fuel
2014-01-09, Truck LOF
2014-01-10, Roadside Inspection Report
2014-01-11, Complaint Letter to (vendor name) About LOF
2014-01-12, Groceries
2014-09-30, Annual Violations Report to Motor Carrier
2014-11-23, Steer Tires
2014-11-25, Car Rental
2014-11-25, Rental Car Gas
2014-11-25, Settlement
2014-11-25, Cable TV Bill
2014-11-25, Health Insurance
2014-11-25, Walmart, Truck Supplies
2014-11-26, Visa Business Account Statement
2014-11-26, Visa Personal Account Statement

The date format is YYYY,MM,DD (year, month, date). This allows you to sort all documents in chronological order, newest first or oldest first, your choice. By adding meaningful words to the file names, you can also search by key word (LOF, Rental, Settlement, etc.).

You can put all documents in one folder (simple) or create folders by major topic (fuel, truck maintenance, bank statements, etc.) and file the documents in their respective folders (keeps folders small in size). Another option is to use one folder and after it grows large, create sub folders by year and archive your old data year by year.

Note that the sample documents above include non-financial items too (inspection report, complaint letter). That is not bookkeeping, it just keeps everything in one place so you can easily find it later.
Half of the bookkeeping battle is capturing the information for later use. This simple system does that. You do the same thing with every document every time. It takes a little time but little thought. The task is routine once you are in the habit and it goes faster with practice.

Capturing the info does not tell you if you are profitable or if you are ready to buy a new truck. Analyzing the info does. The next step is to put your business data in a format that supports analysis.

This is where purchased bookkeeping and accounting programs shine. But the downside of those includes the expense and the time and effort it takes to learn them. The alternative is to develop a spreadsheet of your own. Spreadsheets also take time to learn and develop but they cost less. Some spreadsheet programs are available free (OpenOffice.org Calc and Google Docs).

Whatever you use to analyze your info, you must first gather it together. The above system does that. Even if you are a shoot-from-the-hip, take-it-as-it-comes driver who dislikes accounting programs and spreadsheets, this system of organizing your information is helpful. It allows you to easily answer questions like "When did I buy that last set of steer tires? and "I know I paid for that tool with Visa last year. Where is the statement that shows it?"

If you spent more than five minutes looking for a document or receipt of any kind last year, try using this system in 2015 to make your life easier.