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Advances
Advances are a reality of life for most Company Drivers & Owner/Operators, so the program will also help you keep track of your advances and be sure that you are not over charged when repaying the. Click the Advances tab and you'll see the familiar message - click ADD TRIP ADVANCE to get the popup -
FILL OUT THE FORM COMPLETELY - The Pro Number is important for tracking purposes so be sure you ALWAYS ENTER THE PRO NUMBER for the trip you are on when you get the advance. If you get more than one advance for the same amount the program will use the Date, Amount & Pro Number to help sort out what advances to mark as settled.
PAYMENT ACCOUNT: This is the account that you are depositing the money into. For our example we are using the CASH account.
CHARGE TO ACCOUNT: This is set by the program for Advances to Driver Advance. This is an INCOME ACCOUNT - your advance is INCOME to you. In essence the company has paid you in advance for your next payroll. So this is your money. The company may call it a 'Fuel Advance' or whatever they want, but in reality it is your money once it's in your pocket. It is your responsibility to keep track of any REIMBURSED EXPENSES that you spend money on and to turn in receipts for those expenses. The way this works it
PAY - ADVANCES + REIMBUSED EXPENSES = TAKE HOME PAY
Reimbursed Expenses are now INCOME, but ADVANCES are. It's up to you to keep those two things separated and report them correctly at tax time.
A SUGGESTION TO MAKE YOU MORE PROFITABLE - Most companies charge for giving advances. This is especially true if you use a company fuel card to get your advances as the card companies typically charge the company for cash advances. The charges can vary from a dollar to as much as $10 for an advance. For our example let's use $3.50. Companies may or may not also have a maximum on advances per day or per week. If you have a weekly limit and you are going to need advances take a weeks worth at once. The fees are not based on how much you get, but how often. The real goal here is to get ahead to the point where you will not need to take advances at all. So how do you do this when your living paycheck to paycheck. We suggest that you take 10% of every advance and put it in an envelope. Now don't spend it, but let it accumulate until it reaches the point of having a weeks expenses in it. Now the next week instead of taking any advances use the money in the envelope. Since you did not take any advances that week your paycheck for the week will not have any deductions for your draws BUT you need to take that money out of your check when you deposit it and put it back in the envelope. Now you have your expenses for the next week. If you don't spend it all - it's much easier to live on a budget if what's in the envelope is all you have. You'll be surprised at how often you pass on those nickel and dime items that eat up your pocket changed when you have decided to not replenish the pocket money with costly draws. It's really not hard to accomplish this if you decide you really want to do it and the incentive to make you decide you can and to stick to it? If you get 2 draws a week on average and pay $3.50 for each draw you are losing $364 a year in advance fees, and if you get more than two a week that number goes up.
