Trucking is a paperwork-heavy business because the IRS, the FMCSA, and IFTA all want documentation for different reasons. Your bookkeeping has to capture more than just dollars in and dollars out. It needs to tie fuel, miles, and equipment costs together in a way that supports tax filings, quarterly IFTA returns, and your own per-mile cost analysis.

Fuel receipts are the foundation. Every fuel purchase needs to show the date, vendor location with state, number of gallons, price per gallon, total cost, and the truck or unit number that took on the fuel. Card statements alone are not enough. You need the actual receipt or a fuel card report that lists gallons by jurisdiction. If you operate across state lines, this is what your IFTA filings are built on, and bulk fuel purchases from your own tank need separate documentation showing how much went into which truck and where it was used.

Trip and mileage records have to show miles driven in each state or province. Most carriers use ELD data or trip sheets that capture starting and ending odometer readings, the route, and the jurisdictions crossed. Keep these by trip and by truck. At a minimum you want date, origin, destination, total miles, miles by state, and the unit number. Without this you cannot calculate the apportioned fuel tax owed to each jurisdiction or defend your numbers if you get audited.

Toll records belong in their own category. EZ Pass, PrePass, and similar accounts produce monthly statements showing each charge by location and date. These are deductible business expenses and should be coded to a tolls account rather than buried in general truck expenses. Save the statements and match them to your trip records so you can tie tolls to specific runs when needed.

Repairs and maintenance need to be tracked by unit. A truck with $18,000 in repairs over a year is telling you something different than a truck with $3,000. Save every invoice, code the expense to the right truck, and separate routine maintenance from major repairs. Tire purchases, oil changes, brake work, engine repairs, and DOT inspection costs all belong here. This data also feeds into decisions about when to retire a truck versus keep running it.

Settlement statements from brokers or your own carrier operations need to be reconciled monthly. Each settlement should match what hit the bank, and the deductions on it including fuel advances, insurance, escrow, and equipment leases need to be coded properly in your books. Driver settlements work the same way. The gross pay, deductions, and net pay should all be documented and reconciled so the numbers on your books match the actual cash flow.

Insurance, permits, licenses, and tags are recurring costs that need clean records. The 2290 heavy vehicle use tax filing, IRP registration, and state permits all generate documentation you need to keep for the year and beyond. Annual filings often require numbers from prior years, and an audit could reach back several years.

The system that ties this together matters. Most trucking clients we work with use QuickBooks Online combined with a transportation management system or a fuel card provider that exports clean reports. The bookkeeping job is to make sure fuel gallons, mileage by state, tolls, settlements, and repair costs all reconcile to the bank activity and feed accurate financial statements. That is what makes freight and logistics accounting different from generic small business bookkeeping. The records are not just for tax time, they drive operational decisions about lanes, equipment, and pricing.

If your records are scattered across glove boxes, fuel card portals, and an inbox of broker statements, that is a sign the system needs work. GMJ Accounting provides small business accounting, bookkeeping and tax services in Jacksonville, NC and works with trucking companies across the Carolinas to build record-keeping systems that hold up to IFTA reviews and produce financial statements you can actually use.