As the end of the year approaches I stock up on printer paper and ink as I know I will be running a lot of reports to be filed away with my taxes.  January 1st will find me down in my office printing and looking at the statistics of our business for the year of 2015.   Pulling together numbers and finalizing the year’s work and income.  It is fascinating to see the results for a years worth of work, how much did we make, how much did we earn per mile, how much did it cost us per mile to run, and one of my favorites is how much weight did we carry for the year.  Oh how I like sharing that weight number with my flat bed friends.
 
On the first of each month throughout the year I have a list of what all I have to reconcile, print, file away, and get a copy of our logs to electronically file on my computers hard drive.   At the end of the year all of the reports are placed in a clear box labeled with the tax year so I can find a document easily if needed.  I have shelves dedicated to tax boxes in our basement.
 
Each time we go home I take in my traveling file cabinet inside and file away our receipts in file folders.  All fuel receipt together, maintenance together and so on...  At the end of the year I will have each months receipts stapled together, in the labeled file folder, which will then be placed in the end of the years tax box. 
 
We use our pickup for most of the business errands and I keep a small notebook in the pickup to record the date, where we went, and then the mileage.  I take the pages for the year out of the notebook and record the miles the pickup was used for business.  These pages will also go in the file box.
 
I get as much done as I can before we leave after the first of the year and then we plan on being back in February as I will then have all of our 1099's and other bank documents.  These are copied and everything I need is gathered together and sent off to our accountant by the middle of February. 
 
I will label new file folders for 2016 using a labeler that our daughters got me for Christmas several years ago.  In the computer I start new spreadsheets for loads, fuel, and to record our days away from home. 
 
While I enjoy ending the year and learning all of those figures I also enjoy starting my new spreadsheets like a clean slate.  It is exciting to wonder what the New Year will bring and I look forward to filling the columns of the spreadsheets once again. 

Comments (3)

Linda Caffee

Bob and Linda started their driver careers after their children left home for college in 2000. Bob started as a driver for a large motor carrier with Linda as a rider. They decided to enter the Expedite industry as team drivers in 2005 and purchased their first Freightliner. Both, Bob and Linda have had their Class A licenses since the early 80's starting out driving in the oil field and hauling grain as fill in drivers where Bob worked as a diesel mechanic. Linda worked at the local country courthouse in data processing.

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It is a lot easier to get paperwork done on time and filed away. Something I started doing a few years ago is scanning all of my business receipts and that is somewhat of a pain and takes awhile. On the 1st of the month or the first weekend of the month I scan all the business receipts, reconcile my accounts, and save our logs to the hard drive. I have a to do list for the first of the month and I am like a cat on a hot tin roof if the 1st falls on a Monday and I have to wait very long to get this done.

December 31, 2015 5:47:21 AM

Linda, you got it right. At the end of 12 months, 12 files or spread sheets make it so much easier. Even as a company driver I do my paperwork. twice a month and then a few hours and we are done for the year. Being prepared sure make planning the next move, a lot easier.

December 29, 2015 10:11:23 AM

Numbers tell a story. Use the information to write yourself a letter. Translate the numbers into a narrative. It forces you to analyze the numbers.

December 28, 2015 6:18:25 AM