Use TruckingOffice to Automate Your Quarterly IFTA Reports

What This Does

TruckingOffice is a trucking-specific TMS (transportation management system) that calculates your IFTA mileage automatically as you enter dispatches. At the end of each quarter, it generates a ready-to-file IFTA report with state miles and fuel breakdowns — eliminating the manual math that takes most owner-operators 2-4 hours per quarter.

Before You Start

• You have a TruckingOffice account (or free trial at truckingoffice.com)
• You have your truck's MC number and DOT number handy
• You have your fuel card statements or receipts available for fuel entry
• Time needed: 20-30 minutes initial setup; 3-5 minutes per load entry; 15 minutes at quarter-end
• Cost: ~$35/month (free 30-day trial available)

Steps

1. Set Up Your Truck Profile

After creating your account, go to Setup → Trucks and enter your truck details: year, make, license plate, VIN, and the states where it's registered. This tells TruckingOffice where to apply IFTA calculations.

What you should see: A truck profile page with fields for all your equipment details.

2. Enter Each Load as a Dispatch

For every load you haul, go to Dispatches → New Dispatch. Enter:

• Origin and destination (city, state)
• Pickup and delivery dates
• Miles (TruckingOffice uses PC*MILER to calculate route miles automatically)
• Rate and broker information

What you should see: TruckingOffice auto-fills the state-by-state mileage breakdown using the PC*MILER routing engine. You don't need to calculate state miles manually — the software does it.

3. Log Your Fuel Purchases

Go to Expenses → Fuel. Enter each fuel purchase with the amount, gallons, state, and vendor. If you use a fuel card (Comdata, EFS, FleetOne), ask your fuel card provider if they have a TruckingOffice integration or CSV export — this can eliminate manual fuel entry.

What you should see: A fuel log that captures gallons purchased in each state.

Troubleshooting: If entering fuel purchases manually is tedious, batch-enter them weekly rather than daily — set a recurring 15-minute "fuel entry" habit each Sunday.

4. Run Your Quarterly IFTA Report

At the end of the quarter (March 31, June 30, September 30, December 31), go to Reports → IFTA. Select the quarter and click Generate.

What you should see: A completed IFTA report showing:

• Total miles per state
• Total fuel purchased per state
• Calculated tax owed or credit due per state
• Ready-to-enter numbers for your state's IFTA filing portal

5. File Your IFTA Return

Take the numbers from the TruckingOffice IFTA report and enter them into your base state's IFTA online filing portal (typically your state's DMV or tax authority website). Pay any balance owed or receive your credit.

Real Example

Scenario: Q1 — you ran 38 loads, driving through 14 different states with 47,000 total miles.

Without TruckingOffice: Hours of spreadsheet work tracking miles per state, reconciling fuel receipts, calculating miles-per-gallon by state.

With TruckingOffice: Click Reports → IFTA → Q1 2025 → Generate. Review a 14-state breakdown. Enter the numbers into your state's IFTA portal. Done in 20 minutes.

Tips

• Enter dispatches the same day you complete delivery — takes 3 minutes and keeps your data current
• Connect QuickBooks to TruckingOffice via their integration to push invoices directly into your accounting system
• Run a monthly IFTA preview report to catch any missing fuel purchases before quarter-end
• TruckingOffice customer support is known to be responsive — don't hesitate to call if you're stuck

Tool interfaces change — if the IFTA report option has moved, look for it under Reports or Compliance in the main navigation.