P&L template for a trucking business
A free, self-calculating profit & loss spreadsheet set up for a trucking business: type your statement lines on one tab and the monthly P&L builds itself, with guidance for the categories this trade actually uses.
- Free Excel file preloaded for a trucking business; works in Google Sheets and Numbers too.
- Type transactions once; twelve monthly P&L columns calculate themselves.
- Category guidance for this trade: fuel, maintenance & repairs, insurance, and more.
- Transfers, card payments, and owner draws get an excluded section so they never inflate or deflate profit.
- Prefer not to type? RapidPnL builds the same P&L from your statement PDFs in minutes, reconciled to the penny, for $49.
Excel format (.xlsx), about 25 KB, free, no email required.
Download the templateWhat income looks like for a trucking business
Carrier settlements, factoring advances and rebates, or direct broker payments arrive as regular deposits with the carrier's or factor's name attached. Factored operators see the factor's name far more than any broker's, and the factoring fee shows as the spread between invoiced and received. The P&L reflects cash actually received, honestly labeled, with the monthly columns showing whether revenue per month is holding as rates move. Fuel-surcharge and detention payments arrive inside settlements and need no separate handling on a cash-basis view.
In the template, every deposit gets entered as a positive amount and categorized as Sales & Services Revenue (or Other Income when it genuinely is not sales). The monthly columns then show your revenue pattern at a glance, which is the first thing a lender reads.
The expense categories that matter
The dominant line: truck stops, fuel cards (Comdata, EFS), DEF. Watching it monthly against settlements is per-mile economics in rough form.
Preventive service, tires, and the breakdowns that can eat a month's profit. This is the line that argues for a reserve.
Liability, cargo, physical damage, bobtail. The big monthly debits that authorities and brokers require proof of.
IFTA, the 2290 heavy-vehicle tax, tolls, ELD subscription. The compliance stack, small lines that must all be present.
Interest is expense; principal is excluded as debt repayment so profit is not understated.
The part most templates get wrong
Transfers between your own accounts, credit card payments made from checking, owner draws, and loan principal are cash movements, not income or expenses. A homemade P&L that counts them reports the wrong profit, and it is the first thing an experienced reviewer notices. This template gives those categories a dedicated excluded section below the P&L: the cash stays tracked, the profit stays honest.
The honest test of any hand-built P&L is reconciliation: for each account and month, the beginning balance plus every line you entered must equal the printed ending balance. The Start-here tab walks through the check. If typing and checking a year of statements is more weekend than you want to spend, the trucking business P&L guide shows what the finished product looks like, and RapidPnL builds it from your statement PDFs in minutes.
Upload the PDFs and get a management-use profit & loss in minutes, with every statement reconciled to the penny. $49 for 3 months, then $9 each additional month. Full refund if we can't reconcile.
The free statement is read, categorized, and reconciled on screen before you pay anything. One per person; no card required.
Common questions
Fuel, Maintenance & repairs, Insurance, Permits, tolls & ELD do most of the work on this trade's P&L. The template's Start-here tab explains each one, and the dropdown carries the full chart of accounts so nothing gets forced into the wrong bucket.
Record what actually lands on the bank statement. Carrier settlements, factoring advances and rebates, or direct broker payments arrive as regular deposits with the carrier's or factor's name attached. Enter each deposit as a positive amount under Sales & Services Revenue; processor fees that appear as separate debits get their own expense line.
Same engine and formulas, tuned for a trucking business: the Start-here tab lists the categories that matter for this trade and why, and the Transactions tab opens with example entries that look like this business's real statement lines.
Other industries
- Cleaning business →
- Contracting business →
- Restaurant →
- Food truck →
- E-commerce business →
- Landscaping business →
- Salon →
- Consulting practice →
- Handyman business →
- Photography business →
- Auto repair shop →
Written by a licensed CPA. This guide is general information, not tax, legal, accounting, or financial advice, and does not create a professional relationship. Lender requirements and bank websites change; confirm specifics with your lender and financial institution. RapidPnL reports are cash-basis summaries generated from customer-provided data for management use only, not audited or CPA-reviewed. © 2026 RapidPnL LLC.