Trucking Accounting Software for Owner-Operators Compared: Price, IFTA and Settlements

What accounting software do owner-operators and small trucking companies use?

Owner-operators and small trucking companies use one of three kinds of software: a general ledger such as QuickBooks Online or Wave, a trucking bookkeeping tool such as Rigbooks or TruckingOffice, or a transportation management system (TMS) with accounting modules such as Tailwind. On the vendors’ own pricing pages, read October 5, 2026, entry prices run from $0 for Wave’s Starter plan and $19 a month for Rigbooks to a $38 list price for QuickBooks Online Simple Start.

The law does not pick for you. The IRS says “you may choose any recordkeeping system suited to your business that clearly shows your income and expenses.” What separates the three kinds is the trucking work around the ledger: fuel tax miles and driver settlements.

catuh chose these five by one rule: the vendor addresses trucking on its own site and publishes enough there to fill a row without a login or a sales call. catuh sells no accounting software and has not tested them, so this is not a ranking: every cell is what the vendor states.

How do the five options compare on published facts?

Four of the five have a public pricing page: Wave at $0 and $19 a month, Rigbooks from $19 to $149, TruckingOffice from $25 to $130, and QuickBooks Online at list prices from $38 to $340. Tailwind’s product page shows no price; the US subscription checkout it links to showed a $1,500 setup fee and $250 per base user on October 5, 2026.

Cells describe each vendor’s public pricing and feature pages on October 5, 2026. “None listed” means those pages do not name the feature; ask the vendor before treating it as absent.

Three details matter more than the monthly figure, as the vendors’ pages stated them on October 5, 2026. Rigbooks prices by truck: the first three plans include 1 truck and Small Fleet includes 5, and each additional truck costs $19, $24 or $29 a month depending on the plan; its trial is “free for 30-days.” TruckingOffice prices by truck tier and version: Basic is its full-truckload product, Pro adds LTL, and the trial is free for 30 days. QuickBooks shows each list price beside half that amount for the first three months, so budget the list price.

Tailwind is the outlier. As of October 5, 2026, its old domain redirected to a CargoWise page that calls it a “cloud-based TMS for trucking companies, freight brokerages, and hybrid companies,” and its checkout lists a “3 Month Trial” but does not say what period the per-user price covers, so ask Tailwind before budgeting. Its “QuickBooks Online Sync” also “requires QuickBooks Online Plus or higher,” which QuickBooks lists at $140.

Which option fits which owner-operator?

By published terms: Wave Starter for one truck that only needs invoices and basic books, Rigbooks or TruckingOffice for a carrier that files IFTA every quarter, and TruckingOffice Pro or Tailwind for a small fleet that pays drivers by settlement. That is what each vendor’s pages support, not a tested result.

• One truck, invoices and basic books only. For example, a driver leased to a carrier that reports IFTA. Wave Starter costs $0 and creates invoices and bookkeeping records without a limit; Wave lists automatic categorizing of bank transactions under Pro, at $19. QuickBooks Simple Start, at a $38 list price, lists invoicing, expense categorization and profit and loss reports.
• Own authority, IFTA every quarter. Rigbooks and TruckingOffice are the two whose pages describe miles and fuel by jurisdiction. Rigbooks includes IFTA from $19 a month, but customer invoicing starts at the $49 Independent O/O plan. TruckingOffice Basic is $25 a month for 1-2 trucks, with a premium routing and mileage add-on listed at extra cost. With a second truck, Rigbooks Independent O/O comes to $78 a month by our arithmetic ($49 plus $29 for the added truck). Neither says it files the return.
• Two to five trucks, drivers paid by settlement. TruckingOffice lists settlement tools under Pro, at $35 a month for 1-2 trucks and $75 for 3-7, and says they “make it as easy to settle up with owner operators as it is with employees.” Tailwind lists driver and carrier settlements, with the setup fee above. Rigbooks Small Fleet covers 5 trucks for $149 and is its only plan with “Driver Records,” but 1099 settlements go through its sales team.

Does QuickBooks work for a trucking company?

Yes for the books, with a gap: QuickBooks Online is a general ledger, and its pricing, mileage and trucking payroll pages name no IFTA feature and no miles by jurisdiction. Its mileage feature answers a different question. QuickBooks describes it as a tool to “categorize individual trips as business or personal” for the mileage deduction, while a fuel tax return needs miles and gallons split by state or province.

So a carrier on QuickBooks keeps IFTA miles in an ELD plan with IFTA reporting, a trucking bookkeeping tool or a spreadsheet. Paying drivers is a separate purchase: QuickBooks sells trucking payroll as its own product, which will “automatically generate W-2s and prepare contractor 1099s in one place.” A 1099 is a year-end tax form, not a per-trip settlement.

What does trucking-specific software add to a general ledger?

It adds three records a ledger does not keep on its own: miles and fuel by jurisdiction for IFTA, cost per mile by truck, and the driver or owner-operator settlement. The first has a deadline: the Texas Comptroller, for example, states that IFTA returns “are due quarterly, on the last day of the month following the end of the calendar quarter.”

The second decides whether a load pays. Rigbooks argues on its pricing page that a trucking business “tracks operating expenses on a per mile basis,” and TruckingOffice describes expenses assigned to truck, driver and trip, plus per-mile statistics. The third is where the five differ most: read the settlement column first if you pay drivers or lease on owner-operators.

Which records does the software still need from you?

Accounting software works from source documents: the invoice with its backup, the settlement with its deductions, and the trip record with times, miles and fuel.

For settlements with leased owner-operators the content is regulated. Under 49 CFR 376.12(f), the lease must specify payment “within 15 days after submission of the necessary delivery documents,” so a missing proof of delivery delays the settlement. Paragraph (h) requires it to “clearly specify all items that may be initially paid for by the authorized carrier, but ultimately deducted from the lessor’s compensation.”

catuh is not accounting software and publishes none of these documents. What the regulation leaves standing is the content each source document has to carry:

• The invoice separates line haul from accessorials and ties each accessorial to the document that backs it, such as the signed delivery receipt or a lumper receipt.
• The settlement shows every deduction line by line, because 376.12(h) requires the lease to specify them and the carrier has to be able to show them.
• The trip record logs arrival and departure per stop, odometer out and in, and fuel purchased, which is the source for IFTA miles and gallons.

None of these posts to a ledger or totals miles by state on its own, so they feed whichever product you choose, not replace it.

How do you choose accounting software for one to five trucks?

Start from the returns and settlements you must produce, then price the plan that covers them for your truck count.

1. List what you file and pay. Income tax books, a quarterly IFTA return if you run interstate under your own license, and settlements if anyone drives for you.
2. Decide who keeps IFTA miles. If your ELD plan or your carrier already reports them, a general ledger may be enough.
3. Price by truck, not by plan name. Rigbooks adds a per-truck charge and TruckingOffice changes price at 3 and at 8 trucks; QuickBooks and Wave do not price by truck.
4. Check the settlement line. Confirm the plan you are pricing produces the settlement you owe.
5. Check the integration condition. A TMS that syncs to QuickBooks may require a higher QuickBooks plan, as Tailwind’s does.
6. Test the exit. Rigbooks says “you can export your data at anytime.” Ask every vendor the same.

When does this comparison not apply?

It does not apply to a fleet that needs multi-entity books or dispatch for dozens of trucks, and it covers five products out of many. A product absent from the table was not evaluated, which says nothing about its quality. Prices can change without notice, and Tailwind’s figures come from its checkout, not a pricing page.