Freight, trucking & delivery
Books and taxes for freight brokers.
Shipper payments, what you pay each carrier, quick pay fees you front to get a carrier moving, and the bond that keeps your authority active. Your own bookkeeper keeps your margin visible, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one number a month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
August brought in $22,800 in margin. A carrier asked for quick pay on two loads, so I logged the discount as its own fee, not a smaller margin.
- Shipper ACH paymentFreight billed to shippers
- Carrier payment, TurvoCarrier payments
- Quick pay discountQuick pay fees
- Truckstop.com posting feeLoad board and TMS fees
- Surety bond renewalBond and licensing
Why your books are different
A brokerage's books go wrong in one big place, and a few small ones.
A generalist sees deposits and payments to carriers and calls it revenue and cost of goods. Your business earns the spread between what a shipper pays and what a carrier is paid, and it fronts money to carriers before the shipper ever settles up. When the books do not separate those, your real margin disappears.
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1
The whole freight bill looks like your revenue
A shipper pays $3,200 for a load, of which $2,650 goes straight to the carrier. Booking the full $3,200 as income makes the business look far bigger than it is and buries what you actually kept.
What we doKeeps carrier payments and your margin in separate lines, so the books show what the brokerage actually earned on every load. -
2
Quick pay discounts hide inside carrier payments
Paying a carrier early to keep them loyal usually costs a discount off the invoice. Buried inside a plain carrier payment, that discount never shows up as the real cost of speed that it is.
What we doBooks the discount as its own quick pay fee, so you can see what fast payment is actually costing you across your carrier base. -
3
Uncollected freight bills sit unflagged
A shipper who pays 60 or 90 days out can leave a brokerage fronting carrier payments for weeks before it sees the money back, and a bank statement alone never shows what is still owed.
What we doNotes what has been paid to carriers against what has actually been collected, so you and the accountant can see where cash is stretched thin. -
4
The surety bond and licensing costs get lumped with software
Your broker authority bond and state registrations are what keep you legally able to operate, but lumped in with load board and dispatch software subscriptions, nobody notices when a renewal is coming due.
What we doKeeps bond and licensing costs in their own line, so a renewal never catches you off guard.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a freight brokerage.
Set up once for how shippers pay you and how you pay carriers. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Freight billed to shippersThe full amount a shipper pays for a load you arranged.
- Fuel surcharge billedThe surcharge passed through on top of the base rate.
- Detention billed to shippersWait time charges passed through from the carrier's invoice.
- Dedicated lane retainersStanding monthly fees from a shipper for guaranteed lane coverage.
Money out
- Carrier paymentsWhat you pay the carrier that actually hauled the load.
- Quick pay feesThe discount taken to pay a carrier faster than terms require.
- Load board and TMS feesDAT, Truckstop.com, or dispatch and tracking software subscriptions.
- Bond and licensingYour broker authority bond and state registration fees.
- Errors and cargo claimsPayouts on a claim not covered by a carrier's own insurance.
- Sales and dispatch wagesPay for anyone booking loads or working carriers on your behalf.
What we watch for you
- Margin per load
What you keep after paying the carrier. It is the number that tells you a lane is worth booking again.
- Quick pay cost
What paying carriers early actually costs across a month. Worth knowing before offering it to everyone.
- Days to collect
How long shippers take to pay against how fast carriers get paid. A widening gap strains cash.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so filing season is a number already known.
Ask Gus
Things freight brokers 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.
That is the full freight bill hitting your account before you pay the carrier. I split it into carrier payments and your margin, so you see what you actually kept.
I logged the discount as its own fee, so you can see the real cost per load and decide if it is worth offering again.
That is above my pay grade to call, but I flagged how much you have fronted to carriers against what is still uncollected so the accountant can walk through it with you.
The tax side
The tax side of running a brokerage.
Most of what trips up a brokerage is treating the gross freight bill as income instead of the margin, and losing track of a bond renewal or a 1099 for a contracted dispatcher.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Margin, not gross freight, is the real incomeOnly the spread you keep after paying the carrier is business income for tax purposes, not the full amount a shipper paid. Clean books that separate the two make return preparation far more accurate.
- 1099s for contracted sales and dispatch helpAnyone helping book or dispatch loads who is not on payroll and is paid $2,000 or more in 2026 gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
- Worker classification for dispatchersA dispatcher who works your hours, uses your systems, and books only your loads usually counts as an employee, not a contractor.
- The pass-through deductionMost brokerage owners can take up to 20 percent of business profit off their taxable income. It comes out right when margin, not gross freight, is what the books track.
Deductions freight brokers miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Load board subscriptions
- Dispatch and tracking software
- Surety bond premium
- State broker licensing fees
- Errors and omissions insurance
- Sales and dispatch wages
- Phone and office internet
- Carrier onboarding and verification fees
- Business use of a home office
- Travel to visit shippers or carriers
- Continuing education for brokerage staff
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 brokerage year, kept every month.
Freight moves on shippers' schedules, and your bond and taxes move on their own. Your team stays on both, 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 contracted help is finalized, and you get a monthly set-aside built from real margin, not gross freight.
- 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 summer freight volume changed the margin picture.
- October
Before the fall freight surge
Retail shippers ramp up before the holidays. Gus looks at whether your bond and licensing are current and what still needs doing before December.
What you get
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 freight brokers. 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 freight brokers ask first.
Do you book my margin as income or the whole freight bill?
Your margin. Gus keeps carrier payments in their own line and books only the spread you keep as revenue, so your numbers reflect what the brokerage actually earned.
I use Turvo for loads and payments. Do I need to change anything?
No. Keep working the way you do. Gus works from your bank and card statements, and when a deposit or payment is unclear he asks you once and remembers the answer.
How does quick pay to a carrier get handled?
The discount you give up to pay a carrier fast is booked as its own fee, separate from the carrier payment itself, so you can see what speed is costing you.
I use a mix of W-2 staff and contracted dispatchers. Is that a problem?
No. Wages and contractor payments are kept in separate lines, and Gus flags anyone paid enough to need a 1099, so nothing gets missed at filing time.
What happens if a shipper never pays and I already paid the carrier?
Gus flags the gap between what has been paid out and what has actually been collected so you and the accountant can decide how to handle it. He does not chase the payment for you.
My books have been a mess since I started the brokerage. Can this fix that?
Yes. Send the statements you have. Gus sorts carrier payments from margin from day one forward, and most owners know 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.
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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