Built by a trucker. Made for owner-operators.
Trucking bookkeeping, at $15 a month.
Trip-level miles by state, IFTA quarterly report, cost-per-mile by truck, the full monthly PDF package your tax pro expects. Plus everything the general ledger gives you — period close, bank reconciliation, AR and AP aging — without the spreadsheets.
No card required · $15/mo after trial · 30-day money-back
IFTA, computed not collected
Log each trip's state-by-state miles and gallons. PlainBooks rolls them into the quarterly IFTA report — ready to file by April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31. No fuel-receipt envelope.
Cost per mile, by truck
All your expenses divided by your real miles. PlainBooks pulls truck payments, insurance, fuel, repairs, regulatory fees — and gives you the number that actually decides whether a load is worth it.
Monthly PDF for your tax pro
Period close → one PDF with Trial Balance, P&L, Balance Sheet, GL detail, AR/AP aging, IFTA, and cost-per-mile. Drop it in an email. Done.
Where the books get messy
You delivered three loads this week, four last week. The broker pays net-30 — sometimes net-45. The fuel-card statement from Comdata has 84 line items on it. IFTA quarter is closing soon and you have fuel receipts from 11 states. Your insurance auto-debit hit the 1st, the truck payment hit the 15th, the 2290 is due August 31, and your tax pro wants a P&L by Friday.
This is what trucking bookkeeping looks like at the end of every quarter. Not impossible. Just enough to eat a Sunday — and then you do it again next quarter.
What PlainBooks does
PlainBooks gives you the books — chart of accounts already configured for owner-operator trucking, the journal where every bill, payment, and trip writes a balanced entry, and a period close that locks each month with proper closing entries to Retained Earnings.
Trip logging is built in. Enter the run, the state-by-state miles, the gallons by state. PlainBooks writes the underlying journal entries automatically and feeds two trucking reports most bookkeeping software can't give you:
- IFTA quarterly fuel tax — state miles and gallons rolled up, ready to file
- Cost per mile — all your expenses divided by your real miles, by truck
Bills get an accrual entry when you log them and a payment entry when you pay them, so AR and AP aging are always right. The 2290, IRP plates, drug consortium, ELD subscription, DOT physical — all on the same Bills calendar.
When the month closes
Close the period and PlainBooks generates the closing entries. The monthly PDF package — Trial Balance, P&L, Balance Sheet, AR aging, AP aging, GL detail, IFTA quarterly, cost-per-mile — comes out in one file. Your tax pro drops it straight into a return.
If you find something a week later, reopen the period with an audit-preserving reversal entry, fix what needs fixing, re-close. The audit log shows every change.
No spreadsheets. No fuel-card reconciliation marathon at quarter-end.
Bills you can't afford to forget
PlainBooks puts each one on the same calendar as your real bank balance, so you see the collision before it happens.
- Truck and trailer paymentMonthly$1,500–$2,500 truck · $400–$800 trailer
- Commercial insuranceMonthly, often the 1st$1,200–$1,800/month
- IFTA quarterly fuel taxApr 30 · Jul 31 · Oct 31 · Jan 31Varies by state mileage
- 2290 Heavy Vehicle Use TaxAnnually, due Aug 31$550 (must pay before tag renewal)
- Quarterly estimated taxesApr 15 · Jun 15 · Sep 15 · Jan 15Federal self-employment + state
See your factoring spend on the P&L
3% on a $2,400 load is $72. If you factor every load — and most owner-operators do, at least sometimes — that's $200–$400 a month going to factoring fees. $2,400–$4,800 a year. PlainBooks puts it on the P&L line called Factoring Fees so the number shows up where you can decide what to do with it.
What PlainBooks doesn't do
Honest about scope. If you need any of these, you need different software.
- File your IFTA return for you — it computes the state-by-state numbers; the filing happens at the state portal
- Run payroll for a co-driver or dispatcher — bookkeepers post the payroll JE from your payroll provider (Gusto, ADP, Patriot, etc.)
- Tell you what rate to take. That’s between you and the load board.
- Replace ELD/dispatching tools like KeepTruckin, Samsara, or Motive — different category of product
Ready to see your cash position?
$15/month or $150/year (two months free). 14-day free trial. No card required.
Start your free trialCommon questions
- Does PlainBooks work for trucking / owner-operator?
- Yes. PlainBooks is general-ledger bookkeeping software — workspaces, chart of accounts, journal entries, period close, bank reconciliation, the full report set (Trial Balance, P&L, Balance Sheet, GL detail, AR aging, AP aging, 1099 summary). The trucking / owner-operator-specific copy on this page describes the accounts and bills that matter most in this vertical.
- What does it cost?
- $15/month or $150/year when signups open. One price, all features, no tiers. Signups aren't open yet — leave your email on the home page and we'll send one note when launch happens.
- Do I need to connect a bank account?
- No. PlainBooks does not ingest bank feeds. You post journal entries directly (and for trucking workspaces, trips and state-mileage entries write the underlying entries automatically). If you want bank-fed cash visibility, that's a different category of tool.
- What about cash-flow forecasting?
- On the roadmap, not in the current build. PlainBooks today shows what your books say — current balances, what's open in AR and AP, what's posted, what's pending close. We don't promise features that aren't built.