Every load has two sides. You bill the shipper for moving the freight and you pay the carrier who actually hauled it. The accounting only works if both sides are tied to the same load and you can see what each one made or lost.

Start with a load number on every transaction. The rate confirmation you send the carrier, the invoice you send the customer, the carrier’s bill to you, the BOL, the POD, and the entries in your accounting software all carry the same load number. Without that thread, you end up with invoices and bills floating around that nobody can match. With it, you can pull up any load and see the customer rate, the carrier rate, the documents, and the margin in seconds.

The AR side starts when the load delivers. As soon as the POD comes in, invoice the customer. Most shippers won’t pay without a signed POD attached, so chasing drivers and carriers for paperwork is part of the job. The longer that document sits in someone’s cab, the longer your cash sits out. Build the invoice with the load number, customer reference or PO, pickup and delivery locations, dates, and the agreed rate plus any accessorials like detention, lumper fees, or layover.

The AP side starts when the carrier sends their invoice. Match it against the rate confirmation before you approve it. Carriers sometimes bill for accessorials that weren’t agreed to or use rates from a different load. Verify the POD is attached because most customers won’t pay you without it, which means you shouldn’t pay the carrier without it either. Once it matches, enter the carrier bill against the same load in your accounting system.

Payment timing is where brokers get squeezed. Customers pay on net 30, 45, or 60 terms. Carriers want their money in 7 to 15 days, sometimes faster if they’re using their own factoring company. You’re funding the gap. Track AR aging closely and set up clear collection touchpoints at 30, 45, and 60 days past due. Track AP separately by carrier so you can see who needs to be paid this week and who is on quick pay terms.

If you’re using a factoring company, the entries change. When you factor an invoice, the factor advances you a percentage of the invoice value, usually 90 to 97 percent, and pays the rest when the customer pays them, minus their fee. Record the advance as cash received and a liability to the factor. When the customer pays the factor, clear the liability and book the factoring fee as an expense. Done correctly, your AR ledger shows what’s been factored versus what’s still on your books, and your margin calculations stay clean because the factoring fee is recorded as a cost of doing business, not buried in revenue.

Gross margin by load is the number that matters. Customer revenue minus carrier cost minus any direct load expenses like factoring fees on that invoice. Run a report that shows margin per load, then roll it up by customer, by lane, and by carrier. You’ll quickly see which customers pay well but expect impossible rates, which lanes are profitable, and which carriers run reliably. Most brokers find out a customer they thought was a top account is actually low margin once factoring fees and slow payment costs are factored in.

QuickBooks Online can handle this with classes or projects assigned per load, though the volume gets heavy quickly. Many brokers use a TMS like McLeod, AscendTMS, or Tai for load management and sync summary entries into accounting. Either way, the books need to reflect what the TMS shows, with reconciled AR, reconciled AP, and accurate margin reporting. We work with carriers and brokers across the Carolinas on freight and logistics accounting and can set up the workflow so load-level data flows into your financials without manual rekeying.

The brokers who run clean books know their margin per load within a day of delivery. The ones who don’t usually find out at month end that they took losses on loads they thought were profitable. If your current process feels like guesswork or your aging reports don’t match reality, that is where to start. Bookkeeping, tax, and consulting services built around how freight brokers actually operate make a real difference in cash flow and decision making.