Freight accounting where the file and the books agree
Forwarding money is two-sided, multi-currency, and per-file. Generic accounting flattens that; freight accounting is built from it. Keep your QuickBooks, or run the built-in GL — either way the operations and the books stop drifting.
The short answer: Freight accounting software must model the dual-sided charge line (your sell and your buy on one row, each in its own currency), produce per-file profit, run receivables and payables end to end, settle overseas agents who are customer and vendor at once, and sync with QuickBooks Online both ways. Linbis does all of it — with an accounting mode setting (built-in GL, QuickBooks-only, or both) so nobody has to abandon their books to fix their operations.
The dual-sided charge line — the whole trick in one row
Most systems keep what you charge the customer and what the carrier charges you in separate documents, then ask you to reconcile. In Linbis they live on one line: income currency, rate, tax, and bill-to on one side; expense currency, rate, and vendor on the other; per-line profit in the middle. Bill the customer in dollars while costing the carrier in euros, on the same row — and per-file P&L becomes arithmetic, not archaeology.
Receivables and payables, end to end
AR runs from charges to cash: invoice from the file’s lines, post, age, credit-memo, collect. Customers can pay online — hosted payment page, payment links, escalating reminders, automatic cash application. AP runs the mirror: vendor bills, approval, aging, credit memos, payment runs.
Vendor bills increasingly file themselves: a carrier invoice arrives by email, the AI reads it, correlates it to the shipment, checks it line by line against what you expected to pay, and lands it as a draft payable with any variance flagged. Draft — always. Finance approves.
Watch: import charges, line by line
Duties and import charges estimated per line and turned into a customer-ready quote.
Video transcript
Duties and import charges, estimated line by line — and turned into a customer-ready quote you can stand behind.
The agent statement — one document, both directions
Your overseas agent is your customer and your vendor at once, which breaks naive accounting integrations. Linbis treats the relationship as first-class: a per-shipment statement nets what the agent owes you against what you owe them — debit, credit, and balance due in one document built to be sent to the other side and defended.
QuickBooks, kept — or replaced, or both
The two-way QuickBooks Online sync goes far past pushing invoices: customers, vendors, invoices, bills, payments, credit memos, journal entries, accounts, and tax codes — including the dual-role counterparty case that trips most integrations. An accounting-mode setting makes the migration question painless: run the built-in freight GL, keep QuickBooks only, or run both during the transition. Day one is fast either way — a freight-specific chart of accounts installs itself in one click.
Frequently asked questions
What is freight forwarding accounting software?
Accounting built around the freight file: dual-sided multi-currency charge lines, per-file profit, AR and AP end to end, agent settlement, and integration with general accounting (QuickBooks Online, two-way) — so the operational record and the books are the same truth.
Do I have to leave QuickBooks?
No. An accounting-mode setting supports built-in GL, QuickBooks-only, or both. The QBO sync is two-way across 16 entity types, including the overseas-agent customer-and-vendor case.
Can I see profit per shipment?
Yes — per file and across the book, computed from charge lines that carry sell and buy together. Per-container and per-leg allocation exists for the operators who price that deep.
Can customers pay online?
Yes — hosted payment page and payment links with escalating reminders and automatic cash application when the money lands.
Does AI touch the money?
It reads and drafts — vendor bills arrive as drafts with variances flagged; nothing posts without a human. Money mutations run under strict controls, and invoiced lines are protected from silent edits at the database level.
Books that match the freight
One charge line, both sides, every currency — and QuickBooks kept in sync instead of in conflict.
Start Free TrialThe screens and clips on this page are the real Linbis product recorded on a demonstration company; workflows shown are production features.