Freight, trucking & delivery

Books and taxes for box truck businesses.

Weekly route settlements, fuel across a few box trucks, liftgate and box repairs, and the parking tickets city routes bring. Your own bookkeeper keeps it sorted truck by truck, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.

Book a call What we handle

From $197 a month
An accountant on every transaction
Cancel whenever

NovemberExample month

$7,600

what you made

November came in at $7,600 across your three routes. Truck 2's liftgate motor went out, so I logged the repair against that truck instead of a general maintenance line.

Amazon Relay settlementRoute settlements
Regional carrier settlementRoute settlements
Liftgate motor repairBox and liftgate repair
Fuel, city routesFuel
Parking citationCity fees and tickets

Money in$34,500

Money out$26,900

Set aside for taxes$2,100

An example month. Yours will have your numbers.

Why your books are different

Box truck books go wrong around routes, not loads.

A generalist sees a settlement deposit and a truck payment. Your business runs fixed routes for a contracted carrier, box trucks that take a beating on city streets, and driving conditions that rack up tickets a highway hauler never sees. When the books do not separate route from route and truck from truck, you cannot tell which one is worth keeping.

1
A route settlement nets out more than pay

A weekly settlement from a contracted carrier can deduct fuel advances, a scorecard penalty, or a vehicle lease payment before you ever see the number. Booked as one lump deposit, you lose track of what each piece actually cost.

What we doBreaks a settlement into its real pieces, gross route pay, fuel advance, and any deductions, so each shows up where it belongs.
2
The box and the liftgate get lost inside repairs

A liftgate motor or a damaged box panel from a tight loading dock is a real recurring cost on city routes, but lumped into general truck repairs it never shows you which truck is actually the expensive one to keep running.

What we doKeeps box and liftgate repair costs tied to the specific truck, so a problem truck shows up before it becomes a pattern.
3
Parking tickets and city fees hide in miscellaneous

Tight city routes mean parking tickets and municipal fees that a highway carrier never deals with, and buried in a catch-all expense line, you never see how much city driving is really costing you.

What we doKeeps city fees and tickets in their own category, so the real cost of running dense routes is visible.
4
A new box truck lands as one huge expense

Adding a truck to run another route is a major purchase, and filed as a plain expense it makes that month look like a loss instead of an investment in more routes.

What we doFlags a truck purchase the day it posts, logs it as equipment, and gets the accountant's call on how it gets written off.

Your categories

The categories Gus keeps for a box truck business.

Set up once for how routes pay you and what running them costs. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.

Money in

Route settlementsWeekly payouts from the carrier or program you run routes for.
Scorecard bonusesAny bonus paid for on-time and damage-free performance.
Direct delivery contractsAny client you deliver for outside the main route program.
Fuel surcharge payAny surcharge passed through on top of the base route rate.

Money out

FuelFuel for city and regional routes, tracked apart from repairs.
Box and liftgate repairDamage and mechanical repairs tied to each truck.
Truck payment and insuranceLoan, lease, and cargo or liability coverage.
Driver wagesPay for anyone driving a route that is not the owner.
City fees and ticketsParking citations and municipal fees from dense routes.
Vehicle tracking and dispatch appRoute and delivery tracking software subscriptions.

What we watch for you

Cost per route
Fuel, repairs, and wages against what each route settles for. It shows which routes are worth keeping.
Repair cost per truck
Box and liftgate repairs by truck, so an aging unit shows up before it strands a route.
Ticket and fee total
What city driving is actually costing beyond fuel and time.
The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so filing season is a number already known.

Ask Gus

Things box truck owners ask Gus.

Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.

My settlement this week is way less than I expected. Can you tell me why?

Yes. I broke it down, a fuel advance and a scorecard deduction both came out before the deposit hit. Your gross route pay was actually right where it should be.

Truck 2 keeps needing liftgate repairs. Is it worth keeping?

I track repairs by truck, and truck 2 has cost more in repairs than the other two combined this quarter. That is worth a real conversation with the accountant.

I got two parking tickets this month on tight city blocks. Do those count as a real cost?

Yes, I keep those in their own line so you can see what dense routes actually cost beyond fuel and time.

The tax side

The tax side of running box trucks.

Most of what trips up a box truck business is treating a settlement as one number and missing what each truck really costs to keep on the road.

What your return has to get right

Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.

Writing off a box truckA box truck bought for the business can often be written off in full the year it is bought, since the lower $32,000 heavy SUV cap does not apply to a truck used for hauling. Bonus depreciation is 100 percent for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
1099s for drivers on other trucksA driver running one of your trucks who is not on payroll and is paid $2,000 or more in 2026 gets a 1099-NEC by January 31, if they are properly classified as a contractor at all.
Worker classification for route driversA driver who runs your truck, follows your schedule, and drives your route usually counts as an employee, not a contractor, no matter what the pay arrangement is called.
The pass-through deductionMost box truck owners can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income. It comes out right when settlements and repairs are tracked cleanly by truck all year.

Deductions box truck businesses miss

Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.

Fuel for city and regional routes
Box and liftgate repairs
Truck loan interest
Cargo and liability insurance
Parking citations tied to business routes
Route and dispatch tracking software
Uniforms and safety gear
Hand trucks and moving equipment
Phone mount and route navigation tools
Yard or parking space rent

General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.

All year, not just April

A box truck year, kept every month.

Routes run every week of the year, and the holiday delivery surge changes what those routes look like. Your team stays on both, truck by truck, not just at filing time. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.

January
Plan the year
Last year's return gets started, the 1099 list for any contract drivers is finalized, and you get a monthly set-aside so April is already handled.
April
Filed. Done.
Your return is filed and signed. No surprise bill, because the set-aside has been building since January.
July
Halfway check
Where you stand, what you will owe, and whether adding a route this year changed the number.
October
Before the holiday route surge
Delivery volume climbs hard before the holidays. Gus looks at whether another truck is worth adding before December.

What you get

Starts at$197a month

What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.

Book a call

Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for box truck businesses. You never categorize a thing.
An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.

Straight answers

Questions box truck owners ask first.

Can the books tell me which of my routes is actually profitable?

Yes. Settlements, fuel, and repairs are tracked by truck and route, so you can see which one is carrying its weight and which one is barely breaking even.

My settlement statement has a bunch of deductions on it. Do you sort those out?

Yes. Fuel advances, scorecard penalties, and any lease deductions get broken out from your gross route pay, so you see the real numbers, not just a net deposit.

I have one driver besides myself running a second truck. How does that get handled?

Their pay gets tracked in its own line, and Gus flags whether the setup looks like an employee or a contractor so the accountant can confirm it is classified right.

Do parking tickets actually count as a business expense?

Usually, a ticket tied to a business delivery is a real cost of doing business in tight city routes. Gus keeps them visible, and the accountant confirms what is deductible on your return.

I run under a carrier's branding, not my own. Does that change the bookkeeping?

Not really. Gus works from your settlement statements and bank activity either way, whatever name is on the truck.

My records for the last two quarters are just settlement PDFs I never organized. Is that workable?

Yes. Send what you have. Gus sorts it out by truck and route, and most owners know exactly where they stand within a week or two.

Is a real accountant checking my books?

Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.

What does it cost, and can I cancel?

It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.

We keep books for the business next door too.

What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for

Book a call

Pick a time. That's the whole signup.

Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.

$197 a month to start
An accountant on every transaction
Cancel whenever

Books and taxes for box truck businesses.

Box truck books go wrong around routes, not loads.

A route settlement nets out more than pay

The box and the liftgate get lost inside repairs

Parking tickets and city fees hide in miscellaneous

A new box truck lands as one huge expense