A month-end close checklist for trucking companies

Why close the month at all

A carrier’s books move every day: loads deliver, fuel cards settle, drivers get paid, customers pay late. If nobody draws a line at the end of the month, the reports are never quite finished. The income statement you looked at last week changes when someone posts a missed bill, and the GST/HST return you filed no longer matches the books.

A month-end close is a short routine that makes the month complete and then freezes it. Done every month, it takes a few hours. Left until year end, the same work takes weeks and the questions are twelve months old.

It also matters for tax. For self-employment income, the CRA requires income to be reported in the period it is earned, whenever it is received, and expenses in the period they are incurred, whether or not they are paid then. That is the accrual method. A monthly close is how you keep the books on that basis without a scramble at year end.

Step 1: Revenue and receivables

1. Invoice every delivered load. Go through the loads that delivered in the month and make sure each one has an invoice dated in the month, with the proof of delivery attached. A load delivered on the 31st belongs to this month even if the paperwork arrives on the 2nd. See how to invoice a trucking load.
2. Bill the extras. Detention, lumper and other accessorials that were approved but not yet billed.
3. Record every customer payment. Match each deposit to the invoices it pays, including short-pays, and record factoring advances and fees if you factor.
4. Review the receivables aging. Look at everything past due, decide who to call, and note any invoice that is unlikely to be paid so your accountant can decide whether to write it off. See getting paid faster on freight receivables.
5. Issue credit notes for agreed rate corrections instead of editing old invoices.

Step 2: Costs, settlements and payroll

1. Record every bill dated in the month: repairs, tires, insurance, permits, rent, software, and the fuel card invoices. Bills that arrive in the first days of next month but relate to this month belong to this month.
2. Run driver and owner-operator settlements for every pay period that ended in the month, so the driver pay for loads you invoiced is recorded in the same month. See driver settlement statements.
3. Finish payroll and source deductions. Make sure every pay run in the month is recorded with its CPP, EI and income tax. For a regular remitter, the CRA expects those source deductions by the 15th day of the following month.
4. Bring in the fuel data. Import or sync every fuel card transaction for the month and check that each one is assigned to a truck. IFTA returns are quarterly and due on the last day of the month after the quarter ends, so a clean month now means a quick return later. See the IFTA quarterly return guide.
5. Review the payables aging and decide which bills to pay before the next cut-off.

Step 3: Bank and credit card reconciliation

Reconcile each bank account and each credit card to its statement for the month: the operating account, the payroll account, any US dollar account, and every company card. Reconciling means the balance in your books, adjusted for items in transit, equals the balance on the statement.

1. Download the statement from online banking.
2. Match each line to a payment, deposit or transfer already in the books.
3. Record what is missing: bank fees, interest, loan payments, card charges nobody entered.
4. List the items in transit: cheques written but not cashed, deposits made on the last day.
5. Investigate any difference that is left. Do not post a plug to make it balance.

If you bill in US dollars, revalue at a consistent published rate, such as the Bank of Canada daily rate, and record the exchange gain or loss on payments received. Bank of Canada rates are published once each business day.

Step 4: Accruals and adjustments

Some costs and revenue belong to the month but have no document yet. Record them as accruals so the month is complete, and reverse them next month when the real bill or invoice arrives. Common ones for carriers:

• Unbilled revenue: a load delivered on the last day whose invoice cannot go out until the paperwork arrives.
• Driver pay earned but not yet settled, when a pay period straddles month end.
• Repairs done but not yet billed by the shop.
• Prepaid costs, such as an annual insurance premium or plates, spread over the months they cover rather than expensed when paid.
• Depreciation on trucks and trailers, if your accountant posts it monthly.

Keep a short list of the accruals you post every month so the close is the same each time. If you are registered for GST/HST, check which tax period each invoice and bill falls in before you file. Monthly and quarterly filers have until one month after the end of the reporting period. See GST/HST for trucking companies.

Step 5: Review, then lock the period

Before you call the month done, read the reports the way an outsider would:

• Trial balance: every account should have a balance you can explain. Clearing accounts and suspense accounts should be at or near zero.
• Income statement: compare revenue, fuel, driver pay, repairs and insurance with last month and the same month last year. A sudden jump usually means a missed or doubled entry.
• Balance sheet: receivables, payables and bank balances should agree with the aging reports and the reconciliations.
• Per-truck results: a truck with revenue and no fuel, or fuel and no revenue, points to an assignment error.

Then lock the period. A lock date means nothing dated on or before it can be changed without someone deliberately reopening it. That protects the numbers on your GST/HST return, your IFTA return and the statements you sent to your bank or accountant. If something from a closed month turns up later, record it in the current month with a note.

Keep the month’s records: statements, reconciliations, the accrual list and the supporting documents. The CRA generally expects business records to be kept six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.

What changes at year end

The last close of the fiscal year has the same steps plus a few more:

• Payroll slips. T4 slips must reach employees by the last day of February after the calendar year, and the T4 information return is filed with the CRA by the date set in its guide. Owner-operators and other contractors may need slips too; ask your accountant.
• Capital assets. List the trucks and trailers bought and sold in the year, with their invoices, so your accountant can work out capital cost allowance.
• Year-end adjustments. Your accountant may post adjusting journals after reviewing the year. Enter them before you lock the final month.
• Returns. A corporation files its T2 return within six months of the end of its tax year. Annual GST/HST filers generally have three months after the fiscal year end.
• Start the new year clean: open balances agree with the closed year, and the old year stays locked.

US carriers follow the same monthly order. Their payroll and sales tax steps depend on their own federal and local rules, and US W-2 and 1099-NEC forms replace the Canadian slips.

How TruckerPro Finance handles it

In TruckerPro Finance, most of the close happens in the same place the work does. Invoices are built from the loads and emailed as PDFs, payments are recorded one at a time or in bulk, credit notes reverse what needs reversing, and the receivables aging is refreshed daily. Driver settlements are built from delivered loads. Those are on every plan.

Essentials adds bills, recurring bills and the payables aging, AI scanning of vendor invoices into draft bills that a person reviews, owner-operator statements with fuel chargebacks, fuel card feeds and imports, and IFTA quarterly reports with official rates. Plus adds bank and credit card accounts with CSV, OFX, QFX and QBO statement import, matching rules and reconciliation reports, CAD and USD at Bank of Canada rates with the exchange gain or loss, and the GST/HST return worksheet. TruckerPro does not connect to your bank: you import the statement files.

Advanced adds the general ledger with a chart of accounts and journals, so accruals can be posted as manual journals and later reversed with a reversing entry on the date you choose. It produces the trial balance, balance sheet and income statement once your books are set up, and runs Canadian payroll with PD7A remittances. Period close sets a "books closed through" date: payments, adjustments and voids dated on or before it are refused unless the user has override permission, and only such a user can move the date back to reopen a closed period.

If you keep your ledger in other accounting software, Plus syncs with QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage Business Cloud Accounting or Wave instead. Compare the plans.