Vehicle running costs: the ledger and the Costs tab

Every cost a vehicle runs up — fuel, servicing, compliance, hire, insurance, tolls, fines — lands in one ledger on its record, and the Costs tab on the Fleet page shows the whole fleet. Amounts are kept net, with VAT alongside. The Costs tab adds up in the currency most of your costs are in, and lists anything held in another currency separately rather than adding it in.

Running costs are a feature of the Fleet module. If you can't see the Costs, Review and Invoices tabs, switch Running costs on under Global settings › Modules.

Who can do what

• The Costs, Review and Fuel cards tabs, and the Running costs on a vehicle, need Manage vehicles.
• The Invoices tab is a view of Bills, and needs Manage bills & expenses. See Garage and hire invoices.
• A driver logging a fuel fill from the phone needs no permission. See Logging a fuel fill from your phone.

Running costs on a vehicle

Open a vehicle; Running costs is on its Overview tab. Each entry shows its category and description, then the date, the litres and odometer reading for fuel, + VAT where there is some, and awaiting review while a driver's fill is still with you. A flag icon means a plausibility check tripped; hover it to see which one (the flags are explained in Fuel-card statements and the cost review queue). Edit and Delete sit on each row, except on a cost that came from a bill, which names its bill instead (see below). View all costs opens the Costs tab on this vehicle, and Export CSV appears once there's something to export.

Above the list are the Recurring schedules (see Recurring costs and tank size) and the twelve-month split, "Last 12 months · Fuel £… · Maintenance £… (net)". Until the first entry, it says "No running costs recorded."

Adding a cost by hand

Add cost opens Add running cost:

• Category: Fuel, Maintenance, Compliance, Hire, Insurance, Tolls, Fines or Other.
• Net amount and VAT. The ledger keeps net; VAT sits beside it so the review queue and exports can show gross.
• Date: up to ten years back, and no more than a day ahead.
• Description: "e.g. Brake pads, Shell Purfleet, March hire".
• For Fuel only: Litres, Odometer (mi) and Fuel card ("The card reference as the statement prints it, so the fill lands on the right card."). A fuel entry with a reading adds it to the vehicle's odometer readings.

A cost added here is confirmed straight away, because it came from the office. Fills logged by drivers arrive as awaiting review instead.

Costs that come from bills

A garage invoice or hire bill is recorded once, in Bills. When a bill line is allocated to a vehicle, it appears in the vehicle's running costs as a confirmed entry once the bill is approved, part paid or paid. Disputing or voiding the bill takes it back out.

The entry takes the bill's date, so a June repair entered in October counts in June; the Costs tab lists it under Recently added whatever its date. Fleet doesn't offer Edit or Delete on it: it names its bill, and people with Manage bills & expenses can open the bill from the vehicle or the Costs tab to change it. See Garage and hire invoices.

The odometer

The vehicle's latest reading is in the Odometer block of its facts pane, for example "41,830 mi", or "No reading recorded." Update odometer asks for the Reading (miles), with "Last recorded 41,830 mi" (or "First reading for this vehicle") as a hint. Most readings arrive on their own, from spot checks and fuel fills.

Odometers read in miles or kilometres, as the workspace owner sets Road distance in Settings › Workspace defaults. Workspaces in the UK and the US start on miles, everywhere else on kilometres. Changing it changes only how readings are shown; every reading is kept as it was. A fuel statement column or inspection form field that names its unit, such as Odometer (km) or Miles, is read in that unit.

Two checks run on every reading. A reading below the previous one, or a jump of more than 600 miles a day since the last, is flagged. Flags never block: the reading is saved, marked, and left out of later comparisons so one slip can't spread through the series. If the flag is right, fix or delete the entry that brought the reading. Rejecting a driver's fill removes its reading automatically.

The Costs tab

Costs on the Fleet page shows what the fleet cost over any period, and every cost behind the figures. It opens on the Last 12 months, by month, and remembers what you chose last.

• Period: This week, Last 7 days, This month, Last month, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, This quarter, Last quarter, This year, Last year, Last 12 months, or Custom range… for dates of your own.
• Day, Week, Month, Quarter or Year: how the chart groups the period. Only the ones that read well over it are offered, such as days for a month and months for a year.
• Vehicle, Category and Include narrow everything on the page to one vehicle or one category, or include driver fills still awaiting review. Without that, the figures are confirmed money only.
• Import fuel card, and the download button, which exports the costs on the page as a CSV (up to 10,000 rows). Importing a statement isn't included on the Free plan; see Fuel-card statements and the cost review queue.

The figures along the top are Net spend, with the change on the same length of time just before, VAT, the cost Per mile (or per km), the spend Per vehicle across the fleet, and how many costs are Awaiting review or Flagged; choose either of those two to open the review queue.

Each bar of the chart is split by category, in the same colours as the legend. Point at a bar to see its total, each category in it, how many costs and the VAT, and choose it to see that month by day, or that year by month. Table shows the same figures as rows. By category shows each category's share; choose one to see only its costs.

Recently added lists what was entered over the last 14 days, a bill or a statement at a time, whatever date it carries. A cost counts on the day it was incurred, so a garage bill for June entered in October counts in June. When a recent cost falls outside the period, the tab says so, with a button to show its month.

By vehicle lists every vehicle with costs in the period: its split by category, VAT, net spend, distance, cost per mile and share of the spend, and how many vehicles had none. Choose a vehicle to see only its costs, or the arrow beside it to open its record.

Costs lists each cost in the period with its date, vehicle, category, description, who it came from, and net, VAT and gross. Search it by registration, supplier or description, and sort it by date, by when it was added, or largest first. A cost from a bill opens the bill for people with Manage bills & expenses; any other cost opens its vehicle.

Notices appear when something needs looking at: hired vehicles without a hire cost schedule, vehicles fuelled recently with no odometer reading in 30 days, vehicles with inspection cycles but no compliance spend in twelve months, and costs held in another currency.

Cost per mile (or per km) needs two unflagged odometer readings per vehicle inside the period. Until then it shows no readings.

The Dashboard can also carry fleet cost cards for people who manage vehicles.

Tip: get odometer readings flowing before you worry about the money. Ask drivers for the reading on every spot check and fuel fill. Cost per mile then appears on its own, and the plausibility flags start catching mistyped entries for you.