Excel is a top choice for managing schedules, expenses, inventory, etc. Truck business owners can create a powerful trucking expense calculator in Excel for accurate financial management.
Trucking business is tricky to manage without proper tools at your disposal.
This is a quick guide where we will discuss the top 3 trucking expenses spreadsheet templates using Excel. Additionally, we will learn the steps to create a trucking expense calculator from scratch. So, make sure to read the article till the end.
Why do you need a Trucking Expense Calculator?
A powerful trucking expense calculator helps trucking business operators/owners monitor and track financials. Such businesses include two main expenses: Fixed expenses and Variable expenses. An example of fixed expenses is vehicle costs, and an example of variable costs is Fuel costs.
These expenses are hard to manage if you don’t use proper tools like the Trucking Expense Calculator, which allows users to make accurate business decisions while avoiding errors and saving money.
Overall, a trucking expense calculator is a crucial tool for the growth of your trucking business.
Plenty of third-party websites offer this tool for free and a fee. A few of them are super helpful, and the remaining ones give you a partial idea of the trucking expenses.
Why are Trucking Expenses Calculators created using Excel a must-try?
Excel is a powerful spreadsheet application offering impressive tools and functions to create comprehensive templates. An Expense Calculator created using Excel includes all the aspects of a trucking business.
Below are a few of the benefits of creating a Trucking Expense Calculator in Excel:
- User-friendly Interface – Excel’s intuitive interface makes it easy for users to input data, perform calculations, and generate reports. It is accessible through both desktop and mobile devices. All essential tools and functions required to customize the template are accessible directly from the main menu.
- Extensive Customization – Users can create their own trucking expenses template and customize it as per their unique business needs. Excel allows them to add business names and logos easily. They can play around with the text, cell background colors, and more.
- Advanced Reporting – You can create advanced reports using Excel. It boasts 400+ functions and state-of-the-art tools for advanced statistical and mathematical analysis.
- Integration Capabilities – An Excel Trucking Expenses template can be integrated with other software systems, allowing seamless data import/export.
There are many benefits of using Excel to create a template or calculator to keep track of expenses.
If you are stuck or have difficulties using the template, refer to source documents or drop your questions on popular Excel forums. Adding features is also easy with online tutorials and dedicated blogs.
There will hardly be a time when you need help and won’t find the solution online.
Top 3 Trucking Expenses Spreadsheet Templates of 2024
There are not many options available online when it comes to trucking expense spreadsheet templates.
We have compiled a list of the top ones in the following section. The first two templates are free to download. At the same time, the third one is paid. It costs only $29.99 and saves a lot of your valuable time.
All of the templates discussed below are well-organized and beautifully designed. They include the fixed and variable expenses associated with the trucking business.
1. Trucking Expenses Calculator Template by SoftwareAccountant
Click Here To Use This Template!
You can download and customize this template for free without any limitations. It was created by SoftwareAccountants experts to track your trucking business expenses easily.
The template includes two spreadsheets:
- Trucking Expense Calculator – This sheet allows business owners to examine the Monthly Expenses, Operating Costs, and Profits. Excel has many built-in formulas to calculate most expense factors, including Fixed Expense Per Mile, Variable Expense Per Mile, Operating Cost Per Month, and more automatically. You can add your logo to the header to make this template more personal.
- Trucking Expenses – This worksheet includes two tables: Fixed Expenses and Variable Expenses. You will find that each table contains various factors that would affect the balance sheet of your trucking business. Make sure to add the details in each table as per your preference. At the end of the table, the weekly, monthly, and yearly expenses are calculated automatically based on your input.
This template is pretty straightforward and mainly focuses on small trucking business owners. You can customize and add more fields to meet your requirements.
Make sure to play with the formatting to make it more personal.
Also, you will find an editable table in the “Trucking Expense Calculator” spreadsheet named “Miles Driven and Income”. Ensure to enter the data in this table, as most formulas depend upon that information.
2. Trucking Expenses Spreadsheet Template by Spreadsheetpoint
Click Here To Use This Template!
This is another free-to-download template in the list. It has different monthly worksheets.
It allows you to keep track of fixed and variable trucking expenses for over a month. The table for Fixed Expenses is divided into weekly, monthly, est. yearly expenses.
This Excel template uses formulas throughout the worksheet to calculate expenses and profits weekly and monthly.
It helps you keep track of details like fuel, licenses, driver pay, truck payments, vehicle maintenance, emergency funds, tolls, and much more.
How to use this template
The template can seem confusing to beginners. However, we suggest downloading and exploring it until you figure out various tables and their purpose.
It should take around an hour to understand this template. But it is totally worth it!
This template includes the worksheets for February and March 2024. You can copy one of them and use it for any other month of the year.
Also, don’t get confused by this template’s “#DIV/0!” error. It is due to incomplete data. You can delete all the sample data from the worksheet except the formulas and replace it with the actual data from your company.
If you delete any formula from the worksheet, use the keyboard shortcut “CTRL + Z” on Windows and “CMD + Z” on Mac to undo the changes you made.
You can even add the company name and logo to make it easy to share with others.
3. Trucking Accounting Spreadsheet
Click Here To Use This Template!
This is a paid template by Etsy for just $29.99. It can be used by small and medium-sized trucking businesses to manage finances every month.
Considering the benefits offered by this template, its price point is worth it. Owners can keep track of the Fixed and Variable Expenses, along with details like Loaded and Empty Miles per week, month, or day.
This template uses many formulas to calculate various expenses. So, avoid editing the cells that hold formulas.
Do not mess up with any formulas within the sheet. If you do, press “CTRL + Z” to undo the changes.
How to use this template
The template is divided into months, allowing you to keep track of ongoing and fixed expenses monthly.
Simply input your monthly expenses, and the template will automatically calculate and display your weekly and daily expenses using built-in Excel formulas.
At the end of each monthly sheet, there’s a table for entering Targeted Income, Gross Income, and Net Income. Using this income data and your expenses, the template will calculate your profit for the month. This helps you understand your financial performance more clearly.
A “Summary” sheet also collects and presents data from all the monthly sheets in one table. This automated summary helps business owners make informed decisions without requiring manual updates.
Remember not to edit the Summary sheet directly.
Using this template will save you time and money, contributing to the success of your trucking business. Be sure to customize the header with your business name before sharing this useful trucking expense calculator with your team.
Things to include in the Trucking Expenses Spreadsheet for efficient financial management
The knowledge of the various trucking expenses is crucial for the business’s success. Trucking expenses are divided into two types,
- Fixed Expenses
- Variable Expenses
Let us discuss them in detail.
Fixed Expenses
As the name suggests, these expenses remain the same regardless of whether your trucking business is running or idle.
These expenses do not depend upon the miles driven and any objectives met by your team.
Depending on the type, they can be weekly, monthly, or yearly expenses.
Below are a few examples of Fixed Expenses,
- Truck payments
- Truck wash
- Accounting services
- Payroll fee
- Fuel card charge
- Yard parking
- License and permit fees
- Fed Highway Tax
Variable Expenses
Variable expenses depend upon the miles driven by your truck. These expenses keep changing from time to time depending on certain factors like fuel costs, maintenance, etc.
It includes ongoing payments such as fuel costs, tolls, etc.
You can directly connect these expenses with the amount of work your trucks do over the week, month, or year.
Here are a few examples of Variable expenses,
- Driver pay
- Fuel tax
- Fuel cost
- Tire cost
- Maintenance/Repairs
- Tolls
- Truck lease
Not only these, but there can be many other types of expenses you need to consider while running a trucking business. However, most can be categorized into the two categories mentioned above.
Remember to account for loaded and empty miles while calculating the expenses and profits from your trucking business.
Guide to creating a Trucking Expense Spreadsheet Template using Excel
If you are not satisfied with the above ready-made trucking expense templates, you can create a new one from scratch by using the built-in features of Excel.
The steps are simple and will help you create a trucking expense calculator that meets the requirements of your business.
Now, let’s begin.
STEP #1 – Create The Header
Start by creating a new blank workbook, as shown in the image below.
Next, create a header to include your company information. It is a crucial part of any template. It helps others quickly identify your brand after sharing the trucking expenses calculator.
- Select the first row
- Increase the height as shown below,
- Select the cell “A1“
- Type “SoftwareAccountant Trucking Expense Calculator“
(Make sure to replace the keyword “SoftwareAccountant” with your company name) - Increase the font size to 23
- Make the font bold
- Adjust the vertical alignment to the center
- Select the entire row again
- Change the cell background color to green (Hex Code – #34a853)
- Change the font color to white
This is how our header looks after following the above steps,
Step #2 – Design Income Table
The income table holds the inputs related to income. It is a crucial part of our trucking expenses calculator.
Here are the steps,
- Select the cells “A3” and “B3”
- Hover to the “Home” tab in the main menu
- Click on the “Merge and Center” dropdown in the “Alignment” group as shown below,
- Type “Miles Driven & Income” in the merged cells
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Make the font bold
- Change the cell background color to green (Hex Code – #34a853)
- Change the font color to white
- Select the cell “A4“
- Type “Weekly Driven Miles“
- Now, select the cell “A5” and type “Income“
- Follow the above three steps and complete the table as shown below,
- Select the cells from the A4 to A9
- Change the cell background color to light green (Hex Code – #d9ead3)
- Select the second column of the table (from the cell B4 to B9) as shown below,
- Change the cell background color to light gray (Hex Code – #f3f3f3)
- Select all cells of the table
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Go to the “Home” menu and click on the “Borders” icon
- Next, select the appropriate borders
- Change the border color to light gray by referring to the following image
- Make sure to adjust the width of the columns and height of the rows
You might have noticed that the first five fields refer to the cost, and the sixth is the percentage.
Let’s change the formatting of the cells so that whenever you enter any values, it will automatically include the “$” and “%” symbols.
- Select the cells from B4 to B8
- Hover to the main menu and click on the “Home” tab
- Find the “Number Format” box in the toolbar that will usually say “General”
- Click on the dropdown and select “Currency”
Similarly, we will use the “Percent (%)” format for the Fuel Discount.
- Select the cell “B9“
- Click on the “General” dropdown tab
- Choose “Percentage”
Voila! Our income table is ready.
STEP #3 – Design Total Expense and Monthly Expense Tables
In this step, we will create two similar tables following the same process discussed in STEP #3 above.
Make sure to change the column width and row height to make the tables attractive by avoiding font overlap.
Adjust the border type and color as well.
Finally, you must change the cell number formatting to the “Currency” so that whenever you type something, Excel will automatically detect it as a currency and put the “$” symbol before it.
STEP #4 – Design Fixed Expense Table
In this step, we will create a table to record our fixed expenses associated with the trucking business.
Let’s begin,
- Select the cell D3 to G3
- Click on the “Merge & Center” icon in the “Home” tab as shown below
- Type “Fixed Expenses“
- Change the cell background color to green (Hex Code – #34a853)
- Change the font color to white
- Make the font bold
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Now, select all the cells from D4 to G4
- Change the cell background color to light green (Hex Code – #d9ead3)
- Select “E4” and type “Weekly“
- Similarly, select the cells “F4” and “G4” and type “Monthly” and “Yearly,” respectively. Refer to the following image
- Next, click on the cell “D5“
- Type “Truck Payment“
- Select the cell “D6” and type “Cargo“
- Repeat the above three steps and complete the table as shown below,
- Select the whole table
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Hover to the “Home” tab and click on the “Borders” icon in the “Font” group
- Select the option “All borders“
- Adjust the column width of the table
- Now, change the cell background color to light gray (Hex Code – #f3f3f3)
- Click on the cell just below the row where our table ends
- In the cell D19, type “Total”
- Now, select all the cells as shown in the following image,
- Change the cell background color to green (Hex Code – #34a853)
- Change the font color to white
- Make the font bold
- Adjust the font alignment to the middle
Next, we need to add each component of the Fixed Expenses to find the weekly, monthly, and yearly total.
We will use the SUM function in Excel for this purpose.
Let’s begin,
- Select the cell next to the “Total” as shown below
- Type “SUM”
- Select the first option from the popup by pressing the “Tab” key
- Enter the cell reference as “E5:E18“. If you have added fixed expenses of your own to the table, then the cell reference may change. Make sure to include all the cells in that column, as shown below,
- Complete the bracket using the “)”
- Press the “Enter” button on your keyboard
Our final formula would be as follows,
=SUM(E5:E18)To use the SUM function for the rest of the cells, hover to the lower-rightmost corner of the cell “E19” until you see the “+” icon. Next, click on it and drag it for the rest of the cells.
Here’s what our Fixed expenses table looks like,
Remember to change the cell formatting to “Currency” so that all the numbers will be displayed with the dollar sign in the beginning.
The steps to change the number formatting are as follows,
- Select all the cells of the table as shown below,
- Go to the main menu and click on the “Format” tab
- Select the “Number” dropdown in the “Home” tab
- Now, choose “Currency” from the dropdown menu as shown below
After following the steps above, you will notice that the dollar symbol appears in the total section of the table.
STEP # 5- Design Variable Expenses Table
Designing the Variable Expenses Table is similar to the one discussed above for the Fixed Expenses Table.
You need to prepare a table as follows,
It uses the same logic and Excel functions. So, if you clearly understand the process of creating the Fixed Expenses table, this one is also easy for you.
STEP #6 – Adjust the Formatting
You can make your template clearer, more understandable, and more aesthetic by playing around with the formatting and adjusting the row heights and column widths.
Let us disable the gridlines to take the aesthetics further and make our Trucking Expense Calculator more attractive.
It is pretty simple and will definitely help.
- Hover to the main menu
- Click on the “View” tab
- In the “Show” group, untick the checkbox of the “Gridlines” as shown below,
So, the final template will look like,
Click on the following link to download the Trucking Expense Template we prepared after following the above steps.
To Summarize: Trucking Expenses Spreadsheet Template
If you are struggling with the trucking business finances, then the templates discussed in this article will be the right decision. All of them are customizable as per your preference.
Let us know in the comment section if you are having any issues or are stuck with a particular error while using the template discussed in this article; we will answer your questions as soon as possible.
Also, explore our blog for more tips and tricks on how to use Excel to manage expenses. And Excel is a really powerful spreadsheet program with lots of potential. So, what are you waiting for?
Download SoftwareAccountant’s Trucking Expenses Excel template for FREE and save time and money.