Since nearly all taxi drivers, but certainly not all, have little accounting or bookkeeping knowledge the lower the amount of expertise required the more suitable such an accounts package will be. Data entry basically includes just 3 records, as an excel spreadsheet for taxi receipts; another for taxi expenses and also a further worksheet in which assets like a vehicle could be recorded.
Taxi receipts are entered on some excel worksheets within the taxi income work book preset with each day of the financial year. Weekly and monthly totals are added and transferred through the linking system from the taxi bookkeeping sheets to the taxi financial accounts sheet.
Taxi expenses are listed on a series of twelve monthly spreadsheets which have preset columns with appropriate headings for taxi drivers to record office and rental costs, fuel bills, other vehicle costs and licence fees. The full total of each expense is entered on each row and a single letter used to then analyse the taxi expense to the column required. Much like the taxi income sheet the columns are then automatically added which includes a check up on data entry accuracy before being transferred to the taxi driver accounts sheet.
Uber and bank spreadsheets are not provided as not necessary by taxi drivers as taxi drivers need not produce a balance sheet.
Besides entering purchases on the taxi expense sheet the only other entries required from the taxi driver to produce a set of taxi driver accounts is to also enter vehicle and any other assets purchased on the fixed asset spreadsheet. The fixed asset spreadsheet having recently been preset with both depreciation rates and the capital allowances that taxi drivers can claim. The taxi accounts software is then complete.
The financial accounts file contains formulae to produce a monthly profit and loss account that includes the taxi capital allowances from the fixed asset schedule.
A distinctive feature is that both mileages covered and vehicle running costs could be entered. The tax rules in the united kingdom declare that drivers cannot claim both mileage allowances and vehicle running costs. It has to be one or the other and only by the end of the financial year when it becomes clear that is the most tax efficient.
This taxi accounts package compares both the mileage cost and the vehicle running cost and automatically selects probably the most expensive. This ensures the best costs are selected in to the calculation of the net taxable profits and highest cost equals lowest goverment tax bill.
Also in the taxi accounts file can be an excel spreadsheet made with exactly the same layout, colour codes and box numbers as the inland revenue self assessment tax return. The taxi self assessment tax return is completed automatically by the cabsmart taxi accounts software. No entries are needed leaving the taxi driver and then click print to create the self assessment tax return.
Finally having calculated the net taxable profit for the year the accounting package also offers a tax calculator that calculates the amount of tax and national insurance to be paid.
The taxi driver accounts package has been tested often and the annual receipts and expenses for a complete year take approximately 2-3 3 hours to enter, and also have been completed in less than 2 hours. The end product is really a full group of taxi driver accounts like the self assessment tax return.
Both couriers and van drivers have similar businesses to taxi drivers in that they move items in one place to another in a similar way where taxi drivers move people from one location to another. And because of the similarity in business activity then this taxi accounting package would be equally suitable for couriers and van drivers.