Freight & Logistics
Freight moves fast but payments don't. We track costs per truck, manage receivables from brokers, and keep your fleet finances organized so you know what every load actually earns.
The Industry
Freight and logistics businesses move a lot of money. Trucks burn fuel every day, tolls pile up on every run, insurance premiums hit monthly, and maintenance never stops. But the payment for hauling that load might not arrive for 30 or 45 days unless you factor the invoice. In the Bronx alone, thousands of trucks move through the Hunts Point distribution hub daily. The activity is constant. The cash flow rarely keeps up.
This industry covers a wide range of operations. A two-truck owner-operator running local deliveries has different accounting needs than a freight brokerage coordinating loads across the Northeast or a warehouse managing inventory for multiple clients. But the financial pressure points overlap. High transaction volume, tight margins, delayed payments, and heavy equipment costs create a bookkeeping environment where small errors compound quickly and a missed detail can mean the difference between a profitable quarter and a losing one.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Trucking companies, freight brokers, courier services, last-mile delivery operators, and warehousing businesses. Whether you are running a single box truck out of the Bronx or managing a fleet across the five boroughs and Westchester, the financial tracking requirements are serious.
What Makes It Difficult
What Makes It Difficult
Every truck generates dozens of transactions per week. Fuel purchases, toll charges, maintenance invoices, insurance payments, and driver payroll all need to be recorded accurately. Add factoring companies, broker payments on different timelines, and 1099 contractors into the mix and you have a bookkeeping workload that outgrows spreadsheets fast.
What We Handle
We track costs at the truck level. Fuel, maintenance, insurance, and financing are broken out by vehicle so you can see what each unit actually costs to operate. For freight brokers, we track revenue and carrier payments per load so you know your margin on every transaction. This is the foundation of knowing whether your operation is profitable. Without it, you are guessing.
On the payment side, we manage accounts receivable to keep broker and customer payments from falling through the cracks. Factoring company statements get reconciled properly so fees and reserves are recorded separately from the actual load revenue. Payroll handles both W-2 drivers and 1099 owner-operators. Fleet vehicles are depreciated on schedule. Our founder Poly manages the corporate accounting function at Mediterranean Shipping Company, one of the largest shipping and logistics companies in the world, so the industry terminology and financial patterns that come with freight operations are already familiar to us.
Cost Per Truck and Per Load
Cost Per Truck and Per Load
Expenses categorized by vehicle and by job. You see what each truck costs to run and what each load actually earns after all related costs. This data tells you which units are profitable and which ones are dragging the operation down. It also gives you the numbers you need to evaluate new routes or new contracts before committing.
Factoring and Receivables
Factoring and Receivables
Factoring statements broken into gross revenue, fees, and reserve holdbacks so your books reflect the real picture. Broker receivables aged and tracked consistently. You always know what money is outstanding, what has been collected, and what the factoring arrangement is truly costing you on an annual basis.
Common Problems
The most dangerous pattern in trucking is looking at the bank account and thinking things are fine. Revenue looks high because freight pays well per load. But fuel costs, tolls, truck payments, insurance, and repairs eat through that revenue faster than most owners realize. If you are not tracking costs per mile or per load, you might be hauling freight at a loss on certain routes without knowing it. The bank balance masks the problem until something breaks.
Factoring adds another layer of confusion. The deposit hitting your bank is not the full amount the broker owed. The factoring company took its fee and held back a reserve. If you record just the net deposit as revenue, your books understate income and hide the true cost of financing. Over a year, those factoring fees can add up to a significant number that nobody tracked because the deposits looked close enough to the expected amount.
1099 Compliance Gaps
1099 Compliance Gaps
Owner-operators and independent drivers need 1099s at year end. If you did not collect W-9s before the first payment went out, January becomes a scramble. Late or missing 1099s create penalties and strain relationships with the contractors you depend on to keep freight moving.
Unplanned Maintenance Hitting Cash Flow
Unplanned Maintenance Hitting Cash Flow
A blown transmission or a DOT-failed brake inspection does not wait for a convenient time. Without setting aside money for maintenance reserves, these costs hit as emergencies that force owners into debt or delayed repairs. Delayed repairs lead to downtime, and downtime means no revenue from that truck while the bills keep coming.
What Changes
You stop accepting loads that lose money. When you know the actual cost per mile for each truck, you can evaluate a load offer against your real floor rate. Dispatching becomes a financial decision, not just a matter of keeping the wheels turning. Routes and lanes get evaluated on net profit after fuel, tolls, and driver costs. You negotiate with brokers and shippers from a position of knowledge because you have the numbers to back up your rates.
The administrative burden drops. Payroll is handled correctly every period. 1099s are prepared on time with W-9s collected throughout the year instead of all at once in January. Factoring statements are reconciled. Fleet depreciation is tracked. Cash flow forecasting accounts for the delay between hauling and payment so you are not caught short on a payroll week. You spend less time buried in paperwork and more time running the operation.
Rate Decisions Backed by Data
Rate Decisions Backed by Data
With documented cost data per truck and per route, you know your break-even rate on every lane you run. That information changes how you evaluate load boards and broker offers. You stop chasing volume for the sake of volume and start building a book of freight that actually makes money.
Fleet and Facility Growth
Fleet and Facility Growth
Adding a truck or expanding warehouse capacity becomes a decision backed by real financial data. You can model the cost, project the revenue needed to cover it, and present clean financials to a lender when financing is required. Growth is planned, not just hoped for.
Your NYC Small Business Bookkeeper
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
Tell us about your business and what you need help with. We'll ask a few questions, walk you through how we work, and give you an exact quote.
