If you’ve ever used QuickBooks for trucking accounting, you know that it’s missing some important features. QuickBooks helps a lot of businesses manage their accounting, but it’s not designed for trucking companies.
For carriers, accuracy and efficiency in the invoicing process is important for ensuring timely payments and steady cash flow. If QuickBooks is slowing you down due to lack of functionality, it’s time to look at some QuickBooks alternatives that are specific to the transportation industry.
Why QuickBooks Doesn’t Work Well for Trucking Companies
QuickBooks customers include businesses of all sizes across many industries. Here’s why you won’t see many trucking companies in the QuickBooks customer portfolio:
Integration Challenges
QuickBooks can be difficult to integrate with a transportation management system (TMS). Depending on your TMS, integration might not be possible at all.
With all of your customer and contract data in a TMS, using QuickBooks to manage invoicing is a cumbersome process. If you can’t integrate the two platforms, manual data entry becomes a larger part of accounts receivable operations. Errors and rebills increase, and accounting departments struggle to keep track of invoices.
Lack of Customization
QuickBooks invoice templates are customizable, but they don’t account for everything you might need include in a freight invoice, like:
- Surcharges
- Freight weights
- Discounts
- Load details
- Vehicle information
- Stakeholder contacts
- Driver information
You could use the “Notes” field to add details to a QuickBooks invoice, but that’s another manual process that’s prone to error.
Missing Features
The trucking accounting process can be complex, especially if you have intermodal contracts, transport dangerous goods, or you’re an interstate carrier with multiple freight lanes.
Accounting features you might need (that QuickBooks doesn’t have) include:
- Digital freight rate auditing
- IFTA calculations and reporting
- Integrated invoice factoring
- Trucking-specific compliance features
QuickBooks Enterprise has some premium features, but to accept payments or access records in the cloud, you have to pay for two add-ons.
It’s Not for Transportation
QuickBooks doesn’t market its product as accounting software for trucking companies. It doesn’t even include trucking or transportation in its list of enterprise industry types:
Because it’s not built for transportation, QuickBooks doesn’t accommodate the way carriers work. Carriers have drivers in the field, office personnel, people who work remotely, customers in multiple locations, and stakeholders that need to know what’s happening in the moment. QuickBooks doesn’t cut it.
The Best Alternative to QuickBooks
PCS TMS for Carriers is the total package, with integrated trucking accounting features that speed up the invoicing process and ensure accuracy. (At PCS, we like to say we’re the “QuickBooks for trucking,” but our software does so much more than accounting).
What you get with PCS TMS:
- PCS Mobile — Allows drivers to capture images of proof of delivery, bill of lading, and other documents for instant invoice processing.
- Integrated Accounting and Dispatch — Connects financial operations with dispatching to ensure the seamless transfer of data between each department.
- GAAP-Compliant Records Management — Keeps you audit-ready at all times.
- Collections Management — Organizes and tracks all invoices by status, days outstanding, and other details.
- Configurable Invoices — Lets you choose what fields to include with a single click and import customer and stakeholder information.
- Deep Reporting Capabilities — Helps accounting teams monitor IFTA, forecast revenue and expenses, and identify costly bottlenecks.
Bullet lists can only tell you so much. This short video shows you how PCS TMS for Carriers improves accounting and invoicing and helps you get paid faster.
The Only Trucking Accounting Software You Need
PCS TMS for Carriers brings all of your technology under one roof, thanks to seamless integration capabilities. Manage your business — and your finances — in less time, and focus on growing your fleet. Ask us how we can help you.
