Trucking Accounting Software: Carrier Books for Dispatchers (Video + Steps)

1. See the big picture first (0:00)

How do you keep each carrier's books apart, with every receipt, every entry and one packet for the accountant? LaneTally keeps your loads, chat, fleet, freight invoices, driver pay and the books in one place. After this video you can pick a carrier, read the packet card for your accountant and the month's money in and out, review the receipts your drivers send, add and edit an entry, use the Bookkeeper card, and know what the carrier owner shares. The free demo needs no sign-up and no card and uses fake data.

2. Find Carrier books, the picker and the information line (0:48)

Carrier books is in the left menu, under Carrier money, after Driver pay. Under the title it says each carrier's books are kept apart from yours and from each other, and you pick a carrier. Your own dispatch business has its own books, under My business, then My books: that is a different page.

The gray line says Information only: the figures come from what you entered, and it is not tax, legal or financial advice, so check with your accountant. Press I understand and it shrinks to one short line. Show full text brings the whole sentence back.

Under it is one button for each carrier. The carrier picker at the top left chooses the same carrier. Books are one carrier at a time, and the dark button is the one you are in. Some carriers share their books with you, and some keep them private.

3. For my accountant: the four numbers (1:57)

The first card, For my accountant, makes your year in one packet from the records: the Schedule C lines, the people you paid, IFTA and every expense. Nothing is sent to anyone: you download it and share it yourself. Year chooses which year the packet is for. Under it are four numbers for that year.

• Money in, so far this year.
• Expenses counted.
• Net profit, with the line Estimate under it.
• Contractors, with the line At or above the IRS amount under it.

Below are three buttons: Year packet PDF, Everything for my accountant and Check my records first. The small line says it again: information only, not an official tax form, and not tax, legal or financial advice. Your accountant prepares and files the real forms.

The blue line under the card says the carrier gave you view and edit access, and that they can take it back at any time. That is the rule: you see a carrier's books only when its owner shares them.

4. The month numbers (3:16)

The month card shows the current month so far. The left arrow goes back one month, and the right arrow comes back. On the current month the right arrow is gray, because there is no later month. Under the arrows are three numbers for the month, all following the month you picked, by the date of each entry.

• Money in.
• Money out, lowered by money taken back from drivers' pay.
• Left over, before taxes.

5. Receipts from drivers: review and approve (4:03)

Drivers send a photo of a receipt from their phone. The tag says how many are waiting for you, and the newest is on top. A waiting row has a Review button, and an approved row has Open.

1. Click Review. The receipt opens with the driver's photo (in the demo, a gray example box), then who sent it, for which carrier and load, and when.
2. What it is for is what the driver chose, for example Fuel. Amount is what the driver typed: check it against the photo. If the driver did not fill it in, read it from the photo. Gallons and State where bought are only for fuel and they feed IFTA.
3. Category is where it goes in the books. How was it paid is with the company card, or with the driver's own money, which you pay back on their pay.
4. A blue note appears when the receipt matches a bank line: approving settles that line too, so the expense is not counted twice.
5. Press Approve and add to the books. A message says it was added and matched, Money out goes up, and the row says Approved.

A small tag says that reading the photo with AI is Ready on launch day: that is not working yet. If a receipt should not go in the books, press Do not approve. It asks first and asks why, and the driver sees your reason. The X closes the receipt without changing anything. A receipt that waits for you also shows on Home in the live list at the top, and in the bell, where each receipt photo is a message with an Open button that goes straight to the receipt.

6. Entries: every line of the books (6:21)

Under Entries, the list is newest first, and every change keeps who made it and when. Two buttons pick what it shows: the month picked above, or All months. The columns are date, what it was, category, amount and a last column for the buttons. The list shows a few entries at first, and Show all opens more rows, 100 at a time. Show fewer goes back to the short list.

• The small line under a category is the Schedule C line the entry counts on, for example Line 11, Contract labor. Your accountant makes the final call.
• Money that goes out has a minus sign. Money that comes in is green, like a freight payment in the Income category.
• A row with a receipt photo has a Receipt button. It opens the photo the driver sent, with a note that it was added to the books.

7. Add an entry (7:34)

To add a line yourself, press Add an entry.

• At the top, a gray box for typing what happened and letting AI fill the form is turned off, and its tag says Ready on launch day.
• Receipt photo or scan is optional. It is saved with the entry, so you and your tax preparer can open it later. Take a photo, or choose a photo or PDF. Reading it with AI is also ready on launch day, not working yet.
• Date is today by default. Money is money in or money out.
• What it was is a short text. Category starts empty, and the list follows Money: with money out, Income is not in it.
• Amount. Truck is optional: pick the truck for a repair, a truck payment or its insurance, and Cost per mile uses it.

Press Add entry. A message says Saved. The new entry is the first row with its Schedule C line under the category, and Money out for the month goes up.

8. Edit an entry and see its changes (8:55)

Press Edit to open an entry again: it is the same form with the entry filled in. Change the amount and press Save changes. Open the entry once more and, at the bottom, under Changes, a line says who changed the amount, when, and from what to what. Delete entry is at the bottom too. It asks first and says this cannot be undone.

9. The Bookkeeper card (bank statement lines) (9:35)

Last on the page is the Bookkeeper card. Bank statement lines show here, and you approve each one before anything posts. The big box is where a bank statement goes: a PDF, a CSV file or a photo. Reading a statement for you is marked Ready on launch day, and so is the live link to the bank. Neither is working yet, so the lines below the box are examples.

Each line shows the text from the bank, a note, a percent and a suggested category, the amount, and an Approve button. Green means a high percent, yellow is lower, and red means it could not tell. For a purchase like a computer it says You decide: expense or asset, and your accountant decides that kind of purchase. When you press Approve on a line that is already in the books, the message says it was matched with the bank line, so nothing was added twice, and the line leaves the list.

10. Check my records first, before the packet (10:35)

Press Check my records first on the accountant card. A popup opens: Check my records, for this carrier and its company type. Year picks the year. A gray tag says Draft: not reviewed yet. A blue note says cash basis: money counts when it is received or paid. LaneTally is not a tax preparer, and the tax preparer makes the final call.

1. Before you send it is a list of things to check. A red Fix tag means something is missing, like bank lines or driver receipts still waiting for approval, or a contractor paid at or above the IRS amount with W-9 details missing. A yellow Check tag means look at it: expenses of $75 or more without a receipt, months with no bank statement, truck loan payments (only the interest is an expense), dispatch fees at or above the IRS amount (ask for a W-9), meals, and a note to run it again after December 31 when the year is not over. A blue Note tag is only information, like a big equipment purchase that may be depreciated.
2. AI review has a tag that says Ready on launch day: not working yet.
3. Summary for the year, line by line: Line 7 gross income, Line 28 total expenses and Line 31 the net profit estimate. Under it is the yearly pay per contractor, the same count as on the card. It says: this is not a 1099 or any other tax form.
4. Confirm and download: look at the list and the summary, tick the box and press Confirm review. The PDF then says who reviewed it and when, and the tag at the top changes to Reviewed by with the name.

The two download buttons in the popup do the same as the two on the card. The X closes the popup.

11. The year packet PDF and the zip (13:26)

Press Year packet PDF. The message says Year packet ready. Information only: check it with a tax professional. Every page of the PDF says: information only, not an official tax form, do not file this page. Press Everything for my accountant for the zip. The message says Zip ready. Nothing was sent to anyone. The zip holds a read-first note, the same PDF, spreadsheets for the Schedule C lines, income by month and every expense, and the receipts. You send it to your accountant yourself.

12. A carrier that keeps its books private (14:01)

Press a carrier that does not share its books. The page changes: a yellow line says the carrier keeps these books private, and that you see only the loads, your dispatch fees and the payments between you. The carrier can turn on sharing at any time. Nothing else shows: no packet card, no numbers, no entries, no Bookkeeper. The Carrier page shows the same: in the company details card a tag says Books private, and for a carrier that shares it says Shared full books with you. Its books button goes back to Carrier books. To see a private carrier's books, the owner has to share them.

13. What the carrier owner sees: My books (14:53)

The carrier owner has this page too, and in their menu it is called My books. The title says Books and the company name, with Your own books, private to you. You can share them with your dispatcher. The same Information only line and the same For my accountant card are here, with the same four numbers and three buttons.

Under the card is one switch: Let my dispatcher do my books and pay. When it is on, the dispatcher sees and can do the books and the payroll. Only the owner can use this switch. When it is off, the books and payroll stay private, and the dispatcher sees only the loads, their dispatch fees and the payments between them. It is the same switch as on the Driver pay page, because it shares both together.

Below, the owner sees the month numbers, the receipts their drivers send, the entries with Add an entry and Edit, and the Bookkeeper card. The dispatcher decides if the owner may add and edit entries: on the Carrier page it is the switch Add and edit entries in their own books. When it is off, the owner can only look, and a line replaces the Bookkeeper card.

14. Carrier books on the phone (16:24)

On a phone, Carrier books is under More, in the Carrier money part of the list. The title and the Information only line are the same. The carrier buttons wrap onto two rows, or tap the carrier name at the top to pick another carrier. The For my accountant card comes first with the year, the four numbers in two rows of two, and the three buttons one under the other. Check my records first opens full width, with the same Fix, Check and Note tags. The three month numbers sit side by side in one row. Each waiting receipt has a Review button and opens full width. Under Entries each row becomes a card with the date, what it was, the category with its Schedule C line, the amount and the Edit button, and Add an entry opens full width with the fields one under the other. At the bottom is the Bookkeeper card, with the same Ready on launch day tags.

15. Wrap-up and the free demo (18:11)

That is the whole Carrier books menu. LaneTally is dispatch and accounting software, now in beta. It gives you information only: it is not tax, legal or financial advice, and the packet is not an official tax form, so check with your accountant. You can open the same screens yourself in the free demo: no sign-up, no card, fake data.