Interpreting the cost KPIs
The Fleet Cost Cockpit surfaces a small set of key figures. This article explains what each one means, how it is calculated, and how to read it without drawing the wrong conclusion.
The grand total (TCO)
The headline figure is the grand total: the sum of every collected cost across all sources for the selected period and dimension. It is your Total-Cost-of-Ownership number for that window. Because it is a plain sum of committed costs, it moves only when real records are added — an approved Beleg, a paid installment, a recorded refuelling — so it is directly reconcilable against the underlying modules.
Category totals
Below the grand total, costs are split by category and ordered largest first. The categories are fuel, maintenance, damage, fines, insurance, leasing, and one entry per receipt type (shown as belege:<type>). Reading the top two or three categories tells you immediately where your fleet spend concentrates.
Tip: A category total that looks surprisingly low often means the source isn't being captured — for instance no leasing category usually means leasing contracts haven't been recorded, not that the fleet is unfinanced.
Bucket totals
Each bucket (a vehicle, cost center, pool or driver) has its own total and category split, sorted so the most expensive bucket is first. This is the KPI you use to find outliers: the top bucket is where the money goes.
Budget vs actual
For cost centers, vehicles, or the fleet as a whole, the cockpit can compare actual spend against an annual budget drawn from the fleet budget table. Each row reports:
| Figure | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Budget | The planned amount for the year, from the fleet budget. |
| Actual | Real costs collected for that item in the year. |
| Variance | Budget minus actual. Positive means under budget; negative means over. |
| Utilization % | Actual ÷ budget × 100, rounded to one decimal. Blank when no budget is set. |
Note: Budgets exist for cost-center, vehicle and fleet scopes. Pools and drivers are not budgeted, so under those dimensions the budget shows as zero and utilisation is blank. A blank utilisation means "no budget on file", not "no spend".
The (unassigned) bucket
Any cost that can't be attributed to the selected dimension is grouped under (unassigned). Treat a large (unassigned) figure as a data-quality signal — for example fines with no department, or vehicles with no cost center — rather than a real cost centre. It still counts toward the grand total.
Reading the KPIs safely
- Always check the period before comparing totals — the default is year to date, so a mid-year total is not a full-year figure.
- Over-budget utilisation early in the year may be normal if annual costs (like insurance) are paid up front.
- Pair absolute totals with cost per kilometre to avoid penalising high-mileage vehicles.
Who can view the KPIs
All cockpit KPIs require the fleetcost:view permission. Editing the budgets that drive budget-vs-actual requires the separate fleetcost:budget:manage permission. Both are typically held by the FleetManager role.
Related
- What the Fleet Cost Cockpit shows
- Analyzing costs by cost center
- How costs are aggregated across sources
- Reading the cost trend over time
