In the trucking industry, managing vendors and expenses is just as important as booking loads. An area that can get messy (and fast) is accounts payable. Between fuel vendors, utilities, tax entities, repair shops, drivers, carriers, and more, it’s easy for your vendor list to spiral out of control. Read on to learn some Q7 trucking software accounts payable tips on cleaner set up and transaction management.

1. Get the Name Right the First Time

The most straightforward way to keep your trucking software accounts payable clean is to understand and utilize naming conventions correctly. Ideally, you are setting vendors up with a consistent and correct pattern from the get go. This avoids problems down the road. Setting up your vendors and establishing a consistent naming convention is more important than you think.

If you have ever had a 1099 come back with a TIN mismatch or had a check print where the name didn’t look right, odds are the vendor wasn’t set up properly to begin with. The best naming conventions for vendors who receive a 1099 are as follows:

• Individuals: Last Name, First Name
• Companies: Full company name, no abbreviations or punctuation unless it’s part of the legal name

Q7 gives you a few tools to make this simple while also allowing the same vendor profile to be used effectively by various users in various parts of the system.

NAME

This is the formal name for the vendor. The name appears on accounts payable transactions, the pay settlement, and/or the Operating Check unless there is a Remit To alternative. This name always appears on the 1099, regardless of the other fields you fill out. If your vendor receives a 1099, use the value they filled out on Line 1 of the W-9 here.

If you are working on setting up owner operator drivers or trucks that are leased on under another entity, this name only plays a role as a searching mechanism. That is because the transaction and 1099 will ultimately flow to the company.

SORT NAME

Look at this field like an internal search. It shows on several trucking accounts payable reports, but its main function is searching. In other words, how do you and your team refer to the vendor? Do you have a nickname that is easier to remember than the formal name? When you are searching for the vendor in a lookup to run a report, what is the name or term that comes to mind? While it may simply be a repeat of the Name, the Sort Name field gives you the flexibility to have some range.

CARE OF

Use this field if you have an additional name that needs to print on checks (i.e., “C/O”). If the vendor receives a 1099, use the value they filled out on Line 2 of their W-9. You may also use this field to enter “DBA” (which is commonly entered on Line 2 of the W-9 for the 1099 form). For all other vendors, you may use this field for informational purposes.

REMIT TO

Is payment remitted to someone else? Trucking companies and brokerages who hire carriers often need to remit payment on loads or pay settlements to factoring companies. If the 1099 earnings belong to the vendor, driver, or carrier, but the payment needs to go to someone else, use the Remit To feature.

Think of setting up a new vendor as your foundation. The cleaner you are about this process, the smoother things will be at year-end or when you are cutting a check. When 1099 reporting season arrives, you will be ready to print or upload without any issues.

2. Choose the Correct Type of Vendor

When you are setting up a new vendor in Q7, the little Type drop down may seem like a small detail. However, this one selection plays a major role in how the vendor can be used throughout the system.

Setting the right Type tells Q7 how you want it to treat the vendor’s transactions.

• Driver: Use if the vendor is an owner operator driver under your umbrella or under the umbrella of a third-party. This Type allows you to assign the profile to loads and produce a pay settlement in addition to using all of the other trucking software accounts payable features.
• Carrier: Use if the vendor is an outside carrier. In addition, you can use this Type for Q7’s parent/subaccount feature. You track the individual drivers or trucks under the umbrella of a third-party entity or carrier in dispatch, and the aggregated pay settlement and check flows to the entity.
• Expense: Used for your utilities, fuel card provider, ELD provider, etc. These are vendors that you pay that are not required to be visible in dispatch.
• Salesperson: Use to pay agents or salespeople. This Type allows you to assign the vendor to loads. Optionally produce a pay settlement along with their commission payment.
• Inventory: Use if you purchase inventory from the vendor.

If you choose the wrong type, then at best, it leads to some confusion. At worst, it can create messy reports and inaccurate postings.

In addition to the usage of each vendor Type, user security can also be formatted around them. For example, you might have a user who should be allowed to process pay settlements and payments for driver and carrier Types. However, you don’t want them to be able to see or create regular expense vendor transactions.

SPECIAL NOTE

All vendors have a full suite of accounts payable functionality. Run the AP aged account or Vendor Purchase Analysis report by Type to breakdown your reporting into easily digestible chunks. Or, feel free to run these types of reports for all vendors, regardless of their Type.

3. Avoid Vendor Duplicates

A trap that we see trucking companies fall into is jumping the gun and creating a new vendor profile when one already exists. You need to enter a bill and see three choices for the same vendor in the list under slightly different names? Let’s stay away from that.

Duplicate vendor profiles can lead to missed payments, overpayments, or just plain confusion. Even more importantly, they can make your 1099 reporting a disaster.

Avoiding duplicates is easy with a few practical tips to keep in mind:

• Search first: Q7’s new generation search technology makes looking up your trucking software accounts payable vendors and transactions a breeze. Before creating a new vendor, just do a couple of quick searches first. Make sure to show inactive vendors to ensure you are looking at the full picture.
• Consistency in naming conventions: Q7 is pretty amazing, but it isn’t a mind reader (yet!). Staying consistent with how you are naming your vendors is key to knowing when you need a new profile.

How to avoid duplicate vendors in Q7 comes down to consistency and a quick search habit. It takes an extra 5 seconds, but it can save you hours of cleanup later.

4. Enter Trucking AP Bills Like a Pro

We understand that trucking companies are busy. It’s too easy to try and move quickly to get the job done, and then find later that it was entered incorrectly. If you want cleaner reports and more visibility in both dispatch and accounts payable, it’s best to take the extra second or two.

REGULAR AP VENDORS (TRUCK PAYMENTS, UTILITIES, RENT, ETC.):

1. Enter the Vendor Invoice by hand or use a recurring template.
   • If the bill is a repair and you are tracking maintenance in Q7, use an Item code so your reports are properly updated.
2. Use trucking specific or traditional accounts payable reporting tools to determine when the invoice needs to be paid.
3. Enter a check or ACH payment using batch mode or individual mode.

FUEL CARD PROVIDERS:

1. Import your fuel card transaction details daily or so they match a statement. All fuel details are automatically posted to your IFTA report.
2. Batch together daily transactions or pay the statement using a direct draft, online payment, check, etc.

OUTSIDE CARRIERS:

1. Authorize pay in the load record.
2. When the carrier’s invoice arrives, generate a carrier accounts payable invoice right from the load. Track the balance due on accounts payable reports.
3. Enter a check or ACH payment using batch mode or individual mode.

OWNER OPERATOR DRIVERS:

1. Authorize the pay per load using automatic calculations.
2. Batch together authorized pay on a pay settlement. In Q7 Trucking Software, the pay settlement is also a transaction. Create an accounts payable invoice (especially for drivers who tend to go negative), or send the details straight to a payment.
3. Create an ACH payment or print a paper check, and email the pay settlement.

5. Know Where to Look – Reports & History

Once your vendors are set up and running smoothly, the real power comes from being able to quickly find the info you need. Whether you are checking to see if a bill was paid or what your cost per mile is through the lens of a driver or carrier, Q7’s robust reporting tools make it easy.

These are a few of our favorites. All of these Q7 Trucking Software accounts payable reports can be ran for a vendor Type, a class subset, or for an individual vendor.

• Vendor Purchase Analysis: This is your one stop shop for all of your trucking business expenses. Review payment history, amounts, and general ledger account distributions all in one place.
• Accounts Payable Aging: Use to determine what bills are due.
• Check Register: Search by check number, date, or vendor to confirm payments went out as expected. Use quick access links to jump to the bill or even the load for deeper research.
• Driver/Carrier Transactions: This detail report lets you dive into how much you’ve paid or deducted for one or more particular items. View quantities, rates, amounts, and their transactions all in one place. We love this report for its robust troubleshooting and auditing capabilities.
• Driver/Carrier Profit Analysis: View your profitability based on one or more drivers or carriers.
• Vendor Setup list: Straightforward way to get to the bills and payments history. Use quick access links to jump to the transactions themselves.

We take reporting and ease of use seriously. When you need to look up an old record or payment, we don’t want you hunting and digging.

Managing accounts payable in trucking software doesn’t have to be a mess. With a smart set up and a few practical habits, you can keep your records clean. As a result, management is happy and year-end reporting is a breeze. Need help putting these tips into action? Reach out to our support desk – we’re always happy to help!