The Competitive Edge | Knowing Your Expenses

| November 11, 2015 | expense tracking, expenses, fixed expenses, tax deductions, The Competitive Edge, trucker, trucking management, TruckLogics Features, variable expenses | No Comments
Not many industries in our country involve the level of competition that exists in trucking. Every day new owner-operators and small fleets are entering the industry and that will never change. The only way to keep your business moving forward is to stay ahead of the competition. Right now is the perfect time to gain a competitive edge before the new year starts and TruckLogics has everything you need. We’re going to start with expenses and getting to know your business inside and out. It’s time to develop a personal relationship with your expenses and what they do for your taxes.

Knowing Your Expenses

How well do you know your expenses? Some are variable, some are fixed, and most of them are tax-deductible. When you want to increase profit, expenses are the first thing you need to analyze, specifically your variable expenses. Variable expenses directly relate to the operation of your truck. These expenses include, tires, fuel, tolls, scale fees, groceries, etc.

Fixed expenses are those that do not change whether you’re on the road, or your truck is parked in the driveway. Random thought – why do you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway? Is it just a mystery? Oh well, back to the blog. Fixed expenses include your payments, renewal fees, HVUT, NY HUT, insurance, etc. These expenses aren’t easily reduced. You have to pay them to operate, and if you’re not operating then you’re not turning a profit to pay for the expenses. It’s a crazy cycle, but knowing your expenses is going to provide you the ability to quickly increase your profits.

Tracking Your Expenses

Putting a receipt in a box to be looked at later is not a great way to track your expenses. If you lose a receipt, that’s one less deduction your get to claim on your taxes. Expenses translate into tax deductions and truckers can deduct practically everything. TruckLogics makes expense tracking easy. There are a couple of ways to do it depending on how you run your business. If you’re on the road, you can record expenses for a dispatch and capture an image of the receipt with your phone for backup documentation. Or, you can enter the expenses on your computer and scan a copy of the receipt. Either way, you do it, the information will be saved with the dispatch keeping everything neat and organized.

Decrease Expenses, Increase Profit

Decreasing your expenses is a quick way to increase profit. It’s a simple formula that works. Analyzing your 2015 expenses is going to help you increase profit for 2016. Start off by breaking down your expenses for each month of 2015. Look at each month closely and see where you spent the most money. Determine what can be cut back and create a budget for the first three months of 2016. The goal is to spend less than the year before, but leave some room for emergencies. TruckLogics has everything you need to analyze your expenses and generate a Profit & Loss report for each month. Our P&L report breaks down all your expense categories and figures so you can quickly pinpoint the expenses that can be cut.

Knowing your expenses and how they work as tax deductions is a competitive edge you can gain right now. Figuring out a budget for your monthly expenses is going to help keep you turning a greater profit than the year before. TruckLogics has every feature you need to keep your business moving forward into the future. Contact the TruckLogics Crew today and join the revolution of trucking management via phone: 704-234-6946 or email: [email protected].

For more on expense management with TruckLogics, check out these blogs:

Business Management Breakdown: Zen and the Art of Expense Tracking

Figuring Cost Per Mile

TruckLogics Mobile App

Join the Revolution. Test Drive TruckLogics Today!

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