Determining the Total Cost for a Vehicle

The Total Cost of a fleet vehicle is comprised of three categories of expenses:

• Service Costs
  • Preventative maintenance
  • Repairs
• Fuel Costs
• Other Expenses
  • Acquisition, loan, and lease payments
  • Depreciation
  • Licensing, registration, and administrative fees
  • Insurance and legal costs

Along with the vehicle's residual/resale value, these costs are factored in to the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculation - an essential metric for fleet managers to determine the useful life of a vehicle.

Expense Entries Permissions

Account Owners and Administrators can manage Expense Types and Expense Settings.

Regular Users with permission by Role can Create, View, Edit, and/or Delete

Expense Types

In order to provide better summary reporting, you can assign an Expense Type to each expense you record. Fleetio includes many common pre-defined expense types, and you can add, edit, or delete types from your Account Settings.

1. Go to your Account Menu and select Settings.
   
2. Select Expense Types from the Vehicles section of the sidebar to load all of the existing Expense Types and the number of entries for each.
   Pre-defined Types include Annual Inspection Fees, Depreciation, Tools, Fines, Insurance, Legal/Court Costs, Lease Payment, Loan Payment, Miscellaneous, Moving Violations, Safety Technology, Telematics Device, Tolls, Vehicle Disposal Costs, and Vehicle Registration and Taxes.
3. Click the + Add Expense Type button (a) to add new or the More Actions Button (b) to Edit or Delete.
   
   

   NOTE: An Expense Type can only be deleted if there are no corresponding entries. If necessary, delete or re-assign the expense type on any existing entries, then delete the type.

    

Add Expenses

To add a new Expense entry, first select or search for a vehicle. 

1. From the Vehicle Details Page, click the Expense History tab.
   
2. Click the + Add button and select Expense Entry.
3. Enter the details for the new entry and click Save Expense Entry when you're finished.
   
   • Expense Types are added in your Account Settings. Learn more in the Expense Types article.
   • If the expense is recurring, you can select the Recurring option to set up a start and end date, as well as the frequency of the expense.
     

     NOTE: If the end date is listed as the same day of the recurring expense, an entry will not be created for that date. If you would like to include that date in the series, make the end date one day later.

      
   • The Custom Fields section will only be available if you have added custom fields to your account. Custom Fields can be set as required on any individual Custom Field in Account Settings.
     

     NOTE: Photos, documents, custom fields, and comments are only available for manually recorded expense entries. These are not available for recurring or auto-generated expense entries, such as loan/lease payments.

      

Edit Recurring Expenses

If an expense is set as a recurring entry, you can edit the vendor, add or remove notes, and change the expense type, amount, and recurring information, such as start date, end date, and frequency. When you save your changes, you'll be prompted to select whether you want to update just the one entry, or apply the changes to all future entries.

Recurring expenses can't be changed to a single expense. Either delete the expense and create a new one or set a new end date.

Delete Recurring Expenses

You can delete a single expense in a recurring series without affecting the other expenses in the series. You can also delete the entire series in bulk.

Future-Dated Expense Entries

You may wish to add or view future-dated expense entries. Fleetio will enable you to record these entries in advance, but the costs will not be included in cost metrics such as the Dashboard widgets or the Vehicle Overview graphics.

Future-dated expense entries are included in tabs found in Expense History and for an individual vehicle in the Vehicle Details menu.

By default, future-dated expense entries are excluded from reports, but you can add them using filters.

In Reports, click Vehicles under Report Types and select the Expense Summary report.

Click Filters, apply your Time Frame (a), and check the box to Include Future Expenses (b).

Expense Settings

Auto-Generate Loan/Lease Expenses

Expense entries for loans and leases can be added manually or be automatically generated.

The option to auto-generate expense entries is configured in your Account Settings. If the setting is ON at the account level, expenses will be automatically generated for ALL vehicles. If the setting is OFF at the account level, it can be selectively enabled on a per-vehicle basis for each new loan or lease.

From Account Settings, select Expense Settings from the Vehicles section of the menu.

When switched ON, Fleetio will automatically generate current and future expense entries with "Loan or Lease Payment" as the Expense Type. Payments are automatically generated for ALL vehicles.

View Expense Data

Expense entries may be viewed from the Dashboard, the Expense History list, the Vehicle Overview, or in the Reports section.

In the Expense History and Vehicle Overview, Expenses are separated as Past or Future.

Dashboard

The Dashboard includes an Other Costs widget, which subtotals Expense Entries, and these values are also factored into the Total Cost and Cost Per Meter widgets:

Expense History List

Select Expense History from the Vehicles section of the navigation menu to load a list of all of the Expense Entries in Fleetio. From this list, you can import or add new entries, watch an expense entry or export the list if you want to print the list or view entries in a spreadsheet.

The list is divided between "Past" and "Future" tabs. Use the quick filter options to narrow down your results, or select Filters to open advanced filters.

Entries that are locked and can't be selected are associated with another record. Select the link in the Source column to edit or delete the source.

If you would like to Watch an Expense Entry, click the expense to open the Expense Overview. Click the Watch button or the + button to add additional watchers.

Pinned Fields

Fleetio allows you to pin fields you commonly use to the top of the Details card. Once pinned, these fields will be added to the Pinned Fields subsection. To pin a new field, hover over the field and click the Pin Icon. To unpin a field, click the Pin Icon again.

Reorder your pinned fields by clicking and dragging the reorder icon on the left side.

Vehicle Overview

A list of all Expense Entries is found in the Vehicle Overview > Expense History tab, where you can filter Past or Future entries (a).

Edit or Delete manually entered expenses via the More Actions menu at the end of each row (b).

Expense Reports

The primary two reports are the Expense Summary and Expenses by Vehicle, found in the Reports > Vehicles section.

The Expense Summary report includes Expense Type or Vehicle Group, number of Transactions, Vehicles, and Total Cost. Choose to group this report by Expense Type or Vehicle Group.

Filter to narrow results by Type, Vehicle, or other criteria for detailed cost analysis.

The Expenses by Vehicle includes all expenses grouped by vehicle. Get a quick glance at your KPI and use the Columns selector to customize the report.

Expense Entries are also included in the Operating Cost Summary, Total Cost Trend, and Cost/Meter Trend Reports.

For example, a column in the Operating Cost Summary subtotals all Expense Entries in the Other Costs column, as shown here: