Q7 Trucking Business Software Review: Features and Pricing for 2022

Q7, by Frontline Software Technology, is a trucking management solution that integrates fleet management and dispatch operations with accounting functions like accounts payable (A/P), accounts receivable (A/R), and banking. Q7 is available as a cloud-based or an on-premises solution. You’ll need to contact the provider directly to request pricing information. There’s no free trial, but you can request a free demo before buying the product.

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What We Recommend Q7 For

Q7 is ideal for small to mid-sized trucking companies that need a full double-entry bookkeeping solution with specialized features for managing a fleet of trucks. Q7 can be used by most of the businesses in the transport industry. Its robust freight quotation system makes it a good choice for freight brokers who are tired of running quotes on multiple carrier sites just to compare rates. Q7 is our choice for the best standalone bookkeeping software with trucking-specific features.

• Trucking companies that need a full-fledged bookkeeping solution: Q7 combines fleet management and accounting in one place. Among all the trucking accounting software we reviewed, Q7 is the only full-fledged double-entry accounting solution that has specialized trucking features, making it our best overall pick for best trucking accounting software.
• Trucking companies that want an all-in-one solution: Q7 handles all trucking logistics (such as dispatch, fleet management, and accounting and mobile logistics) in one place so that you don’t have to log in and out of different modules.
• Desktop users: The software can be deployed with a site license to be used on your desktop computer so that you don’t have to worry about internet reliability or security issues.

Q7 Is Not Right For

• Small freight brokers: While Q7 does have the features needed for freight brokers, it also has many unnecessary features which add to the cost. A much less expensive option for freight brokers is Tailwind TMS.
• Owner-operators: Owner-operators don’t need all the features of Q7 and can use QuickBooks Online to bill customers, pay vendors, and track expenses. For trucking features, Quickbooks can be integrated with TruckingOffice.
• Small trucking companies needing affordable detailed load tracking: Rigbooks offers detailed tracking of cost per mile and profit per mile for as low as $19 per month.

If you think general bookkeeping software might meet your trucking company’s needs, check out our review of the best small business accounting software.

Q7 Pros and Cons

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Q7 Pricing

Frontline Software Technology doesn’t provide the Q7 pricing information on its website, so you’ll need to contact them directly to request a customized quote. There’s no free trial available, so you’re all in when you sign up. However, you can request a free demo to gauge if it’s right for you before buying the product.

Q7 Features

Q7 combines accounting and fleet management features to help you streamline the different aspects of your trucking business. Here’s a list of some of Q7’s accounting and trucking management features.

Accounting

Accounting is built into all transactions, which promotes accuracy and transparency. For example, invoices are automatically created when a booking is made. When over-the-road costs are entered in the fleet management module, they’re recorded in Accounting automatically. Anytime you enter driver deductions for individual purchases, they’ll show up when processing pay settlements.

Q7 includes the following important accounting features:

• A/P: The A/P function allows you to create purchase orders, pay bills, and project cash flow. You can also track unpaid vendor invoices and handle recurring expenses such as loan payments.
• A/R: The A/R function tracks customer invoices, payments, and account adjustments. Invoicing is tied to dispatch to ensure that loads are only invoiced when complete. Invoices can be customized with your company logo and can be exported as a PDF or spreadsheet for upload to other systems. You also can create freight settlements, which are ideal for high load volumes.

• Banking: Q7 lets you write and void checks, create deposits, transfer funds, and reconcile bank accounts. The banking program displays all check and deposit transactions in an organized grid so that you can view the details of each transaction easily at any time.
• General Ledger: Q7 comes with a complete general ledger that you can customize to fit your business. The general ledger generates reports on balance sheets, trial balance, and corporate income statements with year-to-date comparisons and department reports.

• Inventory Management: You can track part activity, such as cost, usage, on-hand levels, and suppliers. The system automatically adjusts shop inventory as repair orders and purchases are processed.
• Financial Scoreboard: The Financial Scoreboard offers a bird’s-eye view of all accounting, and you can customize the look and content of any report or create a new one from scratch. Profitability reports specific to the trucking industry are included, and you can use a live reporting tool to catch any accounting mistakes.

Payroll

Q7 comes with a detailed employee profile that lets you track your employees’ name and contact details, applicable taxes and deductions, and other employee information. You can create a custom profile for each employee and manage company driver line haul methods and rates with ease.

The system supports all forms of taxable wages, nontaxable reimbursements, deductions, and every type of pay method: hourly, salary, by mile, percent of revenue, and flat pay. You can even create automatic triggers for load-specific types of pay like detention and extra stop pay. Tax-exempt deductions are supported fully as well as an automatic calculation of employer contributions. The Settlement program doesn’t just pay settlements for drivers and carriers, but it also serves as a batch payroll processing center. You can use the optional direct deposit feature or customizable payroll checks to pay your employees.

Essential payroll reporting is readily available, and all payroll reports are built-in and fully customizable. The Payroll Journal is used for a summary of one or more pay periods, while the Payroll Tax Audit and 941 Summary is used for tax liability reporting. You can also view your unemployment tax liabilities and employer contributions. At the end of the year, printing complete W-2s for your employees is easy.

Order Management

Using a single-entry system, Q7 lets you enter orders manually easily or through load tenders using the optional Electronic Data Interchange (EDI component). Charges can be billed by piece or volume, weight, or by the mile traveled by the trucker. The system calculates customer charges automatically, including fuel surcharges. You can create and send quotations and convert them into live orders once approved.

Dispatch Management

Q7 Trucking Dispatch Software is the control center for planning and dispatch activities. It’s fully customizable and supports truckload, brokerage, and less-than-truckload (LTL) dispatch, which are described below:

• Truckload dispatch: Q7 maintains and displays the current position of tractors, trailers, carriers, and drivers. You can post check calls manually or via GPS systems, and view approaching or expired safety dates.
• Brokerage dispatch: The user-friendly dispatch console displays the status of load progress and provides access to both customer and carrier contact information. You can send carrier confirmations that detail load specifics, including pickup times, delivery times, and directions.
• LTL dispatch: Advance load planning features allow you to match loads to trucks quickly, preassign loads, and manage driver schedules. You can also drop manifested loads to a shop or warehouse, consolidate docked loads for outbound resources, and reassign individual load stops to other resources.

Document Management

With Q7 Document Management, you can scan, import, and save any type of documents, such as proof of delivery or delivery receipts. You also have the option to assign your own references and other user-defined data to each of the documents. When you pair this feature with the Q7 Email interface, you can attach all documents for the load against the invoice and send them to your customers in one PDF. This feature is available for an additional fee.

Fleet Maintenance

The Fleet Maintenance feature allows you to track services and equipment in Q7 so that you can avoid costly emergency repairs. By first creating a customizable list of equipment services, you can create groups of service or maintenance for efficiency. You can then build default schedules for each type of service.

Over-the-road (or long haul) costs and in-house service sales are tracked in accounting. Services are added to equipment profiles for specific tracking. You can schedule service based on a period of time or based on the number of miles driven between services. Q7 also allows you to set a customized advance warning so that you’ll know when a piece of equipment is due for routine servicing.

Fuel and Mileage

Q7 fuel and mileage tools are thorough and easy to use. You can combine mileage and fuel purchase data for complete fuel tax reports. You can create driver deductions for individual purchases on the spot, which appear automatically when processing pay settlements. Fees, repairs, cash advances, and other purchases can also be included in the entry.

Tax miles can be entered by hand or calculated using the optional Mileage interface which tallies miles per load. Q7 also interfaces with leading trucking mileage programs like Rand McNally and ProMiles. All fuel purchase, state mileage, and IFTA tax reports are included, and they’re completely customizable.

Management Reporting

The Q7 management reporting feature provides complete control over your operation. The reports calculate detailed data, such as generated revenue and profit based on drivers and equipment. You can also evaluate profit per mile, carrier cost, fuel, and repairs. View your general ledger accounts and use the Real-Time Reports dashboard for live custom reporting. Any custom report can be created by connecting directly to your underlying data.

Mobile Logistics

Q7 interfaces with leading electronic logging devices (ELDs) from providers such as Samsara, Omnitracs, and SkyBitz. ELDs are intended to be a substitute for driver logbooks. Q7’s integrated communications console allows you to send communication to and from the mobile device.

Pay Settlement

The Pay Settlement software lets you funnel information from other areas of Q7 to create detailed pay settlements and reports for drivers and carriers. It supports all driver pay and deduction methods, whether that’s percentage of revenue, hourly or flat rate, tonnage, mileage, or pieces. You can also include weekly deductions and reimbursements such as health insurance or per diem and payroll tax details. Provide your drivers with settlement sheets that summarize pay, deductions, and reimbursements.

Safety Console

The Safety Console allows you to ensure proper safety compliance for your fleet. You can manage key safety dates to avoid costly violations and keep track of safety-related expiration dates for all types of resources like licenses and registration, inspection, and maintenance.

Safety flags are visible to dispatchers at all times, and you can set a color code that’s based on how far away an expiration date is. The System Health Monitor alerts you with a count of drivers or equipment with expiring safety dates. When safety alerts appear, you have the option to run the report as a formal safety notice or give the report to the driver or carrier.

Q7 Customer Support & Ease of Use

Q7 includes training and support in the software price, and you can contact them via the online support form. There’s also a knowledge base of articles that tackle various topics and provide tips and tricks for using the software, so you can be sure that you’ll be able to get answers to any questions you might have. It’s recommended that you complete at least four to six hours of training to become familiar with the different software features and how they connect to each other.

Q7 is custom-built, unified software that has the same appearance and functionality throughout. The software can also be customized to meet your company’s specific requirements.

Q7 Alternatives

Bottom Line

Q7 is a fully integrated trucking business platform that has everything a trucking company could need. From dispatch operations to fleet management tools, day-to-day operations become easier to manage with this software.

Q7 also has a full suite of accounting tools, including payroll, general ledger, A/R, and A/P. You can opt for a site license or cloud-based setup, and the price includes both training and technical support. If you have a fleet of trucks and you can devote your time to learning the software, then Q7 is right for you.