Common questions
Do I have to be good with computers, what if it reads something wrong, does it move money, what does it cost.
The questions people ask before they sign up, and in the first week after. The guides above go deeper on each; this is the short answer.
Before you start
Do I have to be good with computers?
No. Big buttons, plain words, and nothing to configure. If the folder-and-pencil system is faster, we’ve done it wrong.
Who is LoadTally for?
Owner-operators leased to a carrier: one truck or a few, the carrier’s settlement every week, and one or a few drivers to pay — or just you driving your own truck. It is not built for invoicing brokers or factoring on your own authority.
Do I have to install anything?
No. It runs in the browser on any phone or computer. On a phone, “Add to Home Screen” gives it an icon and lets notifications through — see the driver’s guide.
I drive my own truck and have no drivers. Is it for me?
Yes. When you are the only driver, it runs for one: driver pay leaves the menu, a load is done once you’ve checked the carrier’s sheet, and your receipts go on the load or into your expenses. What it keeps doing is checking the settlement, matching the fuel, grading the loads and working out your taxes.
How long does it take to set up?
The welcome asks your company name, your trucks, your drivers, what you pay a mile and who you haul for — then you are on your first week. Everything else waits in Setup until you want it; a load asks for anything it is missing.
Can I run for more than one carrier?
Yes. Add each one under Setup › Carriers. With one carrier the forms never ask; with two, loads and sheets get a carrier picker.
Getting the paperwork in
Do I have to type every load in?
No. Snap the dispatch sheet and the boxes fill themselves, or email it to your company’s paperwork address and it files itself. Typing is the third way, not the first.
What paperwork can it read?
Load sheets and rate confirmations, the carrier’s settlement sheets, fuel slips and road receipts — tolls, scales, washes — and shop invoices. A photo, a screenshot of a text, or the PDF all work; a thick PDF is read a page at a time.
What if it reads something wrong?
It never guesses: a blurry page gives back what it can and leaves the rest blank. A page it can’t place waits for you with one tap to file it, and whatever you type over what it read always wins.
How does emailing the paperwork work?
Your company gets its own private address. Forward the carrier’s email, or share a photo from a text to Mail, and within a minute or two you get a reply saying what each page was and where it went. Only addresses your company knows can send to it.
Can the carrier’s settlement forward itself?
Yes. Set up a rule once in Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or iCloud and every Friday settlement lands on its own. The guide walks through each one.
Does it work with my carrier’s settlement format?
It reads the page the way you do, not a template, so it isn’t tied to one carrier’s layout. It takes the order number, the miles, the gross, your share, the fuel surcharge and every deduction off the sheet.
Loads, settlements and grades
What if the carrier’s settlement doesn’t match my load?
The load says so, with both numbers. You mark it fine, or save a note about what’s off; it stays on the “needs a look” list until it’s sorted. Nothing is hidden and nothing is changed for you.
Will it catch a short settlement?
It lines every load on the sheet up against the one you ran and checks that the loads add up to the net pay printed at the bottom. A share below your terms, fuel taken off twice, or fuel over what the slip says shows as “Looks short” — in dollars.
How does it check the fuel the carrier took off?
Each fuel and DEF line on the settlement is paired with the slip the driver turned in, by the transaction number in the memo. A line with no slip, a different amount, or the same purchase taken off twice is called out.
What is the grade on a load?
Every load with a rate con or a settlement gets a letter grade, A to F, with the reasons: the rate a mile against a floor, the fuel surcharge against that week’s diesel, and every term that’s missing or thin — detention, TONU, layover, reefer fuel, lumpers, pay days, fines. The figures it judges by are common ones to start, and yours to change.
Where does the diesel price come from?
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly on-highway diesel average, for your region when it has one, brought in every day. A load is judged against the week it shipped.
How are the miles figured?
Calculated miles from the map, pickup to drop, never the odometer — and the empty legs to the pickup and home to the yard. Type your own and yours wins. A run you make every week can be a lane, so its miles are set once and never drift.
Paying drivers
Can my drivers use it?
Yes. Drivers snap their own paperwork and see their own loads and pay from their phone — never anyone else’s, never your numbers.
Can I pay a driver by the hour, or a flat amount per load?
Yes. Each driver is paid one of three ways — by the mile, by the hour, or flat per load — and live loads, stop-offs and detention go on top whichever way. A run that always pays the same can carry its own price.
Can I pay the empty miles?
Yes. One tick on the load pays the empty leg to the pickup and the leg home at the driver’s rate, and Setup holds the default. Link loads into a trip and the miles between them come out right.
How do advances and bonuses work?
They go on the driver’s pay run as their own lines: an advance comes off, a bonus or a paid-back receipt goes on, each with what it was for. Every line shows on the driver’s statement.
Does it pay my drivers?
No. You pay through your bank the way you always have. It tells you what each driver is owed, line by line, keeps the statement, and you mark the run paid.
What happens when a driver leaves?
Mark them as not driving. Every load and pay run stays on the books, they drop off the pickers, and the bill drops by one.
Taxes and the books
Does it move money or do my taxes?
No and no. You keep paying through your bank. It keeps the numbers straight all year and hands clean pages to whoever does your taxes.
Does it help with the 1099s?
Yes. The year-end report totals what each driver was paid for the year, ready for the 1099-NEC. It doesn’t file them; you or your accountant do.
Does it tell me what to put aside for taxes?
Yes. It works out an estimate from the year’s profit — self-employment tax and your bracket — after the per diem for your nights away, counted from your loads. Three weeks before each quarterly due date the home page says how much. It is an estimate, and it files nothing.
Can my accountant get in?
Two ways: give them an accountant login, which shows only the reports, or send them a link to one report — it opens without a sign-in and holds the figures as they stood that day.
What reports does it keep?
Profit and loss by truck, expenses by pile, fuel, what a mile costs you and the rate a mile has to bring in, driver pay and the year-end totals. Each prints, saves as a PDF or a spreadsheet, or goes out as a link.
Does it file IFTA?
No. For an owner-operator leased on, the carrier usually files it. LoadTally keeps the fuel and the miles, but it doesn’t file anything.
Trucks and upkeep
Does it remind me when service is due?
Yes. Log a service with the odometer and it says when the next one is due, by date and by miles. The DOT inspection, plates, the IFTA decal and the 2290 are renewals on the truck, and your phone gets a notice when one comes due.
Do rented trucks work?
Yes. A truck can be marked a rental, and the rent shows in the profit and loss whether the carrier took it off the settlement or you paid it yourself.
Where do the truck bills go?
Type what the shop charged on the service and it lands in expenses on its own, so a bill is never typed twice. Fuel on the carrier’s card never goes there — it is already off the settlement.
Price and your account
What does it cost?
$20 a month for each driver you pay. Trucks don’t count, and neither do you or your accountant. The first 30 days are free — a card on file, nothing charged until they end — and you can cancel any time.
Who counts as a driver on the bill?
Anyone marked as driving, plus anyone who ran a load or was paid in the last thirty days. A driver who leaves drops off; one who joins goes on, prorated.
Is there a referral deal?
Yes: give a month, get a month. Send another owner your link from the app; they get $20 off their first bill, and when they pay it, you get $20 off your next one. Every time, no limit.
Who can see my numbers?
Owners see everything. A driver sees only their own loads and pay. An accountant sees only the reports. Nobody outside your company sees any of it.
Can more than one person run the office?
Yes. Add another owner under Setup › People and they see everything you do. Each person has their own login, and a passkey on each phone or computer means no password to type.
What if I cancel?
Your plan runs to the end of what you paid for. After that your records stay yours, read-only, for as long as you want to look at them.
About us
Who is behind this?
A small family trucking company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that had exactly this paperwork problem. The story.
Something else?
Email support@loadtally.app and say what you were trying to do. Screenshots help. A person who does this work answers, not a bot.