Seattle Town-Car Bookkeeping: Reservations, Trip Logs and Payouts

Use three linked records for every booking

A Seattle town-car operator can have a reservation in one system, a driver dispatch in another and a card settlement two days later. Connect those records with one trip number. Keep the person who books, the passenger and the business paying the bill distinguishable; a corporate travel coordinator may not be the passenger or cardholder.

Start the reservation record with the agreed service, date, planned pickup and destination, fare terms, vehicle assignment and customer changes. Add the actual dispatch and completion details afterward. Mark cancelled, completed and unpaid bookings separately so an abandoned reservation does not silently become an invoice or disappear from the explanation of a refund.

Identify the carrier and vehicle licensing category in the business setup. DOL’s transportation guidance distinguishes limousine, for-hire and charter arrangements according to the service and vehicle. This workflow focuses on prearranged town-car and chauffeur work; check which licensing records apply to the actual operation.

DOL lists passenger manifests, dispatch logs, service contracts and customer payment records among limousine business records. Linking these files makes them usable together. A bookkeeping export should refer to the trip number without unnecessarily copying passenger itineraries into every financial report.

• Washington DOL: Limousine business, vehicle and chauffeur records
• Washington DOL: Licensing distinctions for wine-tour transportation

Save actual endpoints, not just “airport transfer”

Record the actual pickup and drop-off addresses and preserve changes made during the trip. “Seattle airport” is too broad for a later location review. Keep a multi-stop itinerary and a cancelled leg visible rather than replacing the original booking with an unexplained final total.

Washington distinguishes motor and urban transportation. The statutory urban definition considers city boundaries and nearby cities; it is not simply a test of whether the ride was shorter than five driving miles. Keep locations specific enough for the reviewer to evaluate the actual service.

DOR provides a lookup based on origin and destination addresses and says businesses performing both activities need records that segregate the income. Save the lookup result and review date with any classification decision. This guide does not classify a particular Seattle–SEA, Bellevue or Tacoma trip.

• Washington RCW 82.16.010: Transportation definitions
• Washington DOR: Motor and urban transportation lookup
• Washington DOR: Segregation of transportation activities

Keep fare components and collection status visible

Use separate fields for the fare, waiting time, additional stops, airport charges, refunds, voluntary tips and compulsory service charges. Record the description actually shown to the customer. Calling every additional amount a gratuity makes it harder to explain what was charged and who is entitled to the money.

Preserve authorizations, captured payments, unpaid invoices and chargebacks as different events. An authorization is not proof of a completed settlement. If an affiliate supplies the vehicle or driver, retain its agreement and bill beside the customer charge rather than automatically recording only the operator’s apparent margin.

Keep transportation activity apart from a vehicle rental without an operator or another distinct service. The current motor-carrier rule treats different activities separately; a shared vehicle or brand name does not make every receipt follow the same tax treatment.

• Washington WAC 458-20-180: Motor carriers, current rule

Work from the trip charges to the bank deposit

Consider a fictional completed booking charged at US$500 for transportation, US$50 for waiting time and a US$50 voluntary tip: US$600 collected. The operator then approves a US$50 fare refund, and the processor withholds US$18. Assuming all activity settles together, the bank receives US$532: US$600 minus US$50 minus US$18.

Retain the three original charge components, refund approval, processor fee and settlement reference. Do not label US$532 as the fare or as profit. The example excludes separately calculated taxes, affiliate payments and other adjustments; it illustrates cash movement and does not decide whether the tip is employee pay or how any component is taxed.

For a payout covering several reservations, make the same bridge across the complete transaction list. Match unsettled collections to a pending-payout schedule. The IRS explains that Form 1099-K gross payment information is not reduced for processor fees and refunds, so comparing it only with bank deposits can leave an apparent discrepancy.

• IRS: What to do with Form 1099-K

Give airport permissions and vehicle documents their own file

SEA Airport work creates an additional document trail. The Port of Seattle says operators starting there need a current operating agreement and commercial guarantee on file, with information and permits kept current. Keep the applicable airport packet, permit and related charges linked to the vehicle and reporting period.

DOL separately lists vehicle inspections, registration, insurance and maintenance records, plus chauffeur records. Maintain a restricted personnel file and a vehicle folder rather than treating an insurance payment in the bank feed as proof that every required document is current.

For vehicle-cost review, retain fuel, repairs, insurance, tolls, purchase or lease agreements and records explaining business use. Identify the vehicle consistently across the expense and trip records. Ask the preparer which expense method applies; a trip log is not an instruction to claim a particular mileage deduction.

• Port of Seattle: Pre-arranged limousines at SEA Airport
• Washington DOL: Limousine business, vehicle and chauffeur records
• IRS Publication 463: Travel, gift and car expenses

Finish the month with an exceptions list

Review completed trips missing invoices, card payments without trip numbers, refunds still awaiting settlement and corporate invoices awaiting payment. Investigate a cancelled ride with a remaining charge. Save the booking and processor exports before changing platforms, and assign one person to resolve unmatched items.

Give the tax reviewer the service types, location records, customer-charge detail, affiliate arrangements and unresolved questions. Include city and state account information separately where relevant. The result should explain how a passenger movement became a collection, not merely reproduce the bank balance.

• IRS: Recordkeeping