Google Sheets is the perfect tool to manage expenses. Truck business owners can create a powerful tucking expense calculator in Google Sheets for accurate financial management.
Trucking business is hard to manage without proper tools at your disposal.
Then, if you are just starting, it can be a daunting task to keep track of expenses over time.
Let us discuss the top 3 trucking expenses spreadsheet templates using Google Sheets in this article. We will also discuss the steps to create a trucking expense calculator from scratch in Google Sheets. So, make sure to read the article till the end.
Table of Contents
- Why do you need a trucking expenses calculator?
- Why are Trucking Expenses Calculators created in Google Sheets must-try?
- Top 3 Trucking Expenses Google Sheets Templates in 2024
- Things to include in Trucking Expense Template for efficient financial management
- Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Trucking Expenses Template in Google Sheets
- Final Words
Now, without any further ado, let’s begin.
Why do you need a Trucking Expenses Calculator?
A powerful trucking expense calculator helps business owners effectively monitor and track financials.
Trucking businesses include many factors, from fixed expenses, such as vehicle costs, to variable expenses, such as Fuel costs. All of them are hard to manage if you don’t use proper tools like the Trucking Expense Calculator.
It allows you to make accurate business decisions and, at the same time, avoid errors and save money.
Overall, a trucking expense calculator is a crucial tool for the growth of your trucking business.
There are plenty of third-party websites offering this tool for free as well as paid. We found that a few of them are super useful, and the remaining ones give you a partial idea of the trucking expenses.
Why are Trucking Expenses Calculators created using Google Sheets a must-try?
Google Sheets is a popular spreadsheet program. It offers powerful tools and functions to create comprehensive templates.
An Expense Calculator created using Google Sheets includes all the aspects of a trucking business.
Here are a few of the benefits of using Google Sheets for creating a Trucking Expense Calculator:
- Accessibility – Google Sheets is an online spreadsheet program. It is accessible from both desktop and mobile devices. As long as the users have an internet connection, they can access it anywhere in the world.
- Budget-friendly – The spreadsheet program is totally free to use. All you need is a free Google Account. Adding more features to your Trucking Expenses Calculator is free as well, with built-in tools and functions by Google Sheets.
- Real-time Collaboration – A Google Sheet can be shared with unlimited users. You can assign various roles to each user. Depending upon their roles, users can either view, edit, or comment. The owners can overlook all the changes with a built-in feature called “Version history” in Google Sheets.
- Ease-of-use – Google Sheets is a well-designed program with an easy-to-use and intuitive user interface. Beginners will hardly take several hours to learn this spreadsheet program.
- Extensive Customization – A template created using Google Sheets can be customized to user preference without any limitations. You can change the formatting and add your business logo. Additionally, in case of adding more features, you can make use of built-in tools and functions.
These are only a few of the benefits of using a Google Sheet to create a template or calculator to keep track of expenses.
In case you are stuck somewhere or have any difficulties using the template, refer to official documentation or third-party articles and tutorials. There will hardly be a time when you need help and won’t find the solution online.
Top 3 Trucking Expenses Spreadsheet Templates of 2023
The two templates discussed in the following section are free to download.
Whereas, for the template available on Etsy, you need to pay $29.99. In my opinion, this is a very small fee compared to the money you will save in the long run.
All of the templates discussed below are well-designed, considering the fixed and variable expenses associated with the trucking business.
1. Trucking Expenses Calculator Template – SoftwareAccountant
Click Here to Use this Template!
It is the best free-to-download spreadsheet template by SoftwareAccountant to keep track of your trucking business expenses.
The template includes two spreadsheets:
- Trucking Expense Calculator – It is a simple dashboard where business owners can have a look at the Monthly Expenses, Operating Costs, and Profits. It uses formulas to automatically calculate most of the factors, including Fixed Expense Per Mile, Variable Expense Per Mile, Operating Cost Per Month, and more. Make sure to add your logo in the header to make this template more personal.
- Trucking Expenses – This spreadsheet 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 things in each table as per your preference. At the end of the table, the spreadsheet automatically calculates your weekly, monthly, and yearly expenses based on the inputs provided by you.
This template is pretty straightforward and focuses on small trucking business owners.
You can customize and add the information as per your requirements.
Make sure to play with the formatting to make it more personal. You can easily share this calculator with your colleagues using the “Share” button at the upper-rightmost corner of the screen.
Also, you will find an editable table in the “Trucking Expense Calculator” spreadsheet named “Miles Driven and Income”. Make sure to enter the data in this table, as most of the formulas depend upon that information.
2. Trucking Accounting Spreadsheet
Click Here to Use this Template!
This is a powerful template available on Etsy for just $29.99.
Small and medium-sized trucking business owners can use it to manage finances on a monthly basis. Considering the benefits offered by this template, its price point is totally worth it.
Along with Fixed and Variable Expenses, users can keep track of Loaded and Empty Miles per week, month, or day.
It includes formulas throughout the spreadsheets. So, avoid editing the cells that hold formulas.
How to use this template
The template is divided into the months. You can keep track of all the ongoing and fixed expenses on a monthly basis. All you need to do is input your monthly expenses, and the template will automatically display weekly and daily expenses using built-in Google Sheets formulas.
At the end of each monthly spreadsheet, you will find a table where you can input Targeted Income, Gross Income, and Net Income. With this income data and your expenses, the template will calculate your profit for the month.
It includes a spreadsheet named “Summary”, where the data from the monthly spreadsheets is collected and presented in a tabular form. This spreadsheet is supposed to help business owners make informed decisions.
Note that the Summary spreadsheet is fully automated, and you should not edit it as all the data is automatically populated without your input.
Overall, with this spreadsheet template, you will surely save time and money, which will contribute to the success of your trucking business. Make sure to edit the header and add your business name before sharing this awesome trucking expense calculator with your colleagues.
3. Trucking Expenses Spreadsheet Template – Spreadsheetpoint
Click Here to Use this Template!
Another free-to-download Trucking Expenses template on this list.
The template is divided into the monthly spreadsheets.
It allows you to keep track of Fixed and Variable Trucking expenses over a month. The table for Fixed Expenses is divided into weekly, monthly, est. yearly expenses.
It uses formulas throughout the spreadsheet to calculate expenses and profits on a weekly and monthly basis.
You can keep track of things like fuel, driver pay, truck payments, licenses, vehicle maintenance, emergency funds, tolls, and much more.
How to use this template
The template may feel confusing to the Google Sheets 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!
As a starting point, the template includes the spreadsheets for February and March 2023. You can duplicate one of them and use it for any other month of the year.
Also, don’t get confused by the “#DIV/0!” error you see in this template. It is due to incomplete data. You can delete all the sample data from the spreadsheet except the formulas and replace it with the actual data from your company.
If you delete any formula from the spreadsheet, use the keyboard shortcut “CTRL + Z” on Windows and “CMD + Z” on Mac to undo the changes made by you.
You can edit the header of this template to include your company name and logo.
What are the things to include in the Trucking Expenses Spreadsheet for efficient financial management?
Trucking expenses need to be divided into two types,
- Fixed Expenses
- Variable Expenses
Let us discuss them in detail.
Fixed Expenses
As from the name itself, these expenses remain safe 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.
They can be weekly, monthly, or yearly expenses, depending upon their type.
Here are a few examples of Fixed Expenses,
- Truck payments
- Truck wash
- Yard parking
- Accounting services
- Payroll fee
- Fuel card charge
- Fed Highway Tax
- License and permit fees
- Variable Expenses
Variable Expenses
Variable expenses depend upon the miles driven by your truck. Simply put, these are fluctuating expenses that vary from time to time.
It includes ongoing payments such as fuel costs, tolls, etc.
You can directly connect these expenses with the amount of work done by your trucks over the week, month, or year.
Here are a few examples of Variable expenses,
- Driver pay
- Fuel tax
- Fuel cost
- Tolls
- Tire cost
- Maintenance/Repairs
- Truck lease
Note that there can be many types of expenses you need to consider while running a trucking business. However, most of them can be categorized into the above two categories.
Make sure 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 Google Sheets
In this section, we will learn to use Google Sheets to create a trucking expense calculator.
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 – Open A New Google Sheet
You need to start with a blank Google Sheet. Click here to create a new Google Sheet.
You can copy and paste the following URL into the address bar of your browser.
STEP #2 – Create The Header
We will create a header to display the company name and logo. It will help reflect your brand to the people with whom this calculator will be shared.
- 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
- Change the font type to “Poppins”
- Select the entire row again
- Change the cell background color to green (Hex Code – #34a853)
- Change the font color to white
Here’s how our header looks after following the above steps,
Step #3 – Design Income Table
This table is going to be a part of our trucking expense calculator.
Here are the steps,
- Select the cells “A3” and “B3”
- Hover to the toolbar section that sits below the main menu
- Click on the “Merge cells” icon
- Type “Miles Driven & Income“
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Change the font type to “Poppins”
- 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 type to “Poppins”
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Go to the toolbar section and click on the Borders icon
- Change the border color to light gray by referring to the following image
- Adjust the width of the columns and height of the rows
Now, as you might have noticed, the first five rows are about cost and the sixth is about the percentage. Refer to the following image.
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
- Go to the main menu and click on the “Format” tab
- Choose the “Number” option from the popup
- Now, click on the “Currency rounded” option
- Similarly, for the Fuel Discount, let us use the “Percent (%)” format
- Select the cell “B9“
- Click on the “Format” tab
- Select the “Number” option from the popup
- Next, choose “Percent“
That’s it. Our Income table is all ready.
STEP #4 – Design Total Expense and Monthly Expense Tables
In this step, we will create two similar tables by 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.
Also, the font type should be “Poppins“, or you can even use “Lexend“.
Adjust the border type and color as well.
Finally, you must change the cell number formatting to the “Currency rounded” so that whenever you type something, the Google Sheets will automatically detect it as a currency and put the “$” symbol before it.
STEP #5 – 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
- Go to the toolbar section
- Click on the “Merge cells” icon
- 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
- Select the font type “Poppins”
- 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 all the cells of the table
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Select the font type “Poppins”
- Hover to the toolbar section and click on the “Borders” icon
- Select the first option, “All borders“
- Adjust the column width of the table
- Select the cells of the table as shown below
- Change the cell background color to light gray (Hex Code – #f3f3f3
- Click on the cell just below the row where our table ends, as shown below
- 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
- Choose the font type as “Poppins”
- Select the cell next to the “Total” as shown below
- Type “=sum”
- Select the first option from the popup by pressing the “Tab” key
- Provide the cell reference as “E5:E18. In your case, 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,
- Use the similar SUM function for the rest of the two cells
Here’s how our table for Fixed Expenses looks,
Now, we need to change the cell formatting to “Currency rounded” so that all the numbers will be displayed with the dollar sign in the beginning.
The steps to change the number formatting are,
- Select all the cells of the table as shown below,
- Go to the main menu and click on the “Format” tab
- Select the “Number” from the popup
- Now, choose “Currency rounded“
After following the steps above, you will notice that the dollar symbol appears in the total section of the table.
STEP #6 – Design Variable Expenses Table
The process of 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 Google Sheets functions. So, if you clearly understood the process of creating the Fixed Expenses table, then this one is also an easy task for you.
STEP #7 – Adjust the Formatting
Now, play around with the formatting of the table by adjusting the row heights and column widths.
STEP #8 – Disable the Gridlines
As a final step, to make our Trucking Expense Spreadsheet more attractive.
It is pretty simple and will definitely improve the aesthetics of your spreadsheet.
- Hover to the main menu
- Click on the “View” tab
- Select the “Show” option from the popup
- Now, click on the “Gridlines“
Here are the results,
You can download the Trucking Expense Template prepared by us after following the above steps.
Final Words
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.
Make sure to explore our blog for more tips and tricks to use a Google Sheet to manage expenses.
Google Sheets is a really powerful program with lots of potential. So, what are you waiting for?
Download SoftwareAccountant’s Trucking Expenses Google Sheets template for FREE and start saving time and money.