Helpful hint for tracking vehicle gas expenses for you moving to more than one truck

[Mark Saiger]

If you are a small company and moving to more than one truck that you can deduct expenses such as fuel, here is what we do it to make it quicker for entering into our QuickBooks.

We end the last number at the pump to correlate to a number with or van or other vehicles.

Here is and example for our 2008 GMC & Butler



We also have another 2008 Dodge, so when we got it, I just decided to code the last number to "4" (example at pump $28.14)

You can assign what ever number you want that best fits, and it just makes it a lot quicker for us to enter. We have a cheat sheet just hanging on our computer screen for my wife.

You of course will need a receipt to also put in your file, but after we first started running 2 vans, it just was easier and faster for us this way.

I also have a 2011 Jeep and 2011 GMC & Butler. The jeep got the ending number at the pump of "1" and the GMC got assigned the ending number "3"

We also just reused the number "2" for another vehicle we picked up that was previously assigned to another vehicle we had sold a couple years back.

Anyway, just something that has helped us and as you move forward in your accumulation of business vehicles, hopefully something you can use.

And yes...it does take a little practice sometimes to hit the number at the pump, but we have become really skilled at it.

Mark Saiger

 

[rwcarpet]

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If you are a small company and moving to more than one truck that you can deduct expenses such as fuel, here is what we do it to make it quicker for entering into our QuickBooks.

We end the last number at the pump to correlate to a number with or van or other vehicles.

Here is and example for our 2008 GMC & Butler



We also have another 2008 Dodge, so when we got it, I just decided to code the last number to "4" (example at pump $28.14)

You can assign what ever number you want that best fits, and it just makes it a lot quicker for us to enter. We have a cheat sheet just hanging on our computer screen for my wife.

You of course will need a receipt to also put in your file, but after we first started running 2 vans, it just was easier and faster for us this way.

I also have a 2011 Jeep and 2011 GMC & Butler. The jeep got the ending number at the pump of "1" and the GMC got assigned the ending number "3"

We also just reused the number "2" for another vehicle we picked up that was previously assigned to another vehicle we had sold a couple years back.

Anyway, just something that has helped us and as you move forward in your accumulation of business vehicles, hopefully something you can use.

And yes...it does take a little practice sometimes to hit the number at the pump, but we have become really skilled at it.

Mark Saiger

I was just going to say you gotta be real quick to hit the right number on some of these newer gas pumps. I'm still at one truck, but might have a second real soon.

Do you run van powered equipment, Mark? Since I have a slide in, I mark down the hours on the machine x 2.5 (gph) x PPG = machine fuel. The rest of that fill up goes to vehicle expense. Takes me about 2 hours at tax time to separate the 2.

 

[knoxclean]

Mark I know you have a lot of family and close friends working for you and maybe this works with them but for the average tech to do this... not going to happen

 

[Mark Saiger]

I was just going to say you gotta be real quick to hit the right number on some of these newer gas pumps. I'm still at one truck, but might have a second real soon.

Do you run van powered equipment, Mark? Since I have a slide in, I mark down the hours on the machine x 2.5 (gph) x PPG = machine fuel. The rest of that fill up goes to vehicle expense. Takes me about 2 hours at tax time to separate the 2.

I run direct drive Butlers and we keep track of miles and hours each year. We get a small tax credit back for the gas not used on the road which is 2 gallons per hour for us.

The Butlers do have an hour meter as l'm sure many truckmounts do. Makes it eaey if you track with even just a simple list hanging on the wall or in our case I keep it on my computer as well.

Mark

 

[Mark Saiger]

Mark I know you have a lot of family and close friends working for you and maybe this works with them but for the average tech to do this... not going to happen

Fortunately, we have not had any problems doing this.

If I might ask, how do you track your different vehicles?

We used to write down on the receipt which vehicle the fuel went to, but we found people never had a pen, never took the time and just found they were more willing to do this.

I am just curious and willing to learn if there is something we can incorporate better.

Thanks!

Mark

 

[Out of Character - 0]

http://www.rcpfuel.com/cardlock-fueling/fuel-card-controls.html

 

[knoxclean]

we track it by writing the van on the receipt. if the tech forgets the girls in the office catch it

 

[Hoody]

I used something like this... and then the tech would paperclip the gas receipt, with this and all work orders and checks and turn them in at the end of the day. Made it easy for the office to separate machine fuel, and van mileage / fuel, and it also allowed us to audit routes to see if techs were using the van for personal use. They even recorded how far the went to eat lunch of applicable in their log. The only thing to maybe add to the form is "Truck Number" at the top, but the techs were each assigned a specific truck and were responsible for it, and the machine so we knew the number by the techs' names.

PS. I have the form below in a word document, free to anyone that would like to use it. Just email me stevenhoodlebrink at gmail dot com.
PSS.(Sorry Marty) - If you do email me for it, don't turn around and try to sell it - found my water damage form on a site where a guy was charging for it.


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[knoxclean]

We also use Wright Express cards. Each employee has their own pin code and they have to enter the milage at the pump to use it. I can ten online reports at anytime. No charge for the cards.