FCPlus Expenses module manual

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• FCPlus Vehicles module

FCPlus Expenses module

The expenses module was designed to help you get a complete overview of all your expenses in one place. With a focus on fuel consumption, you can easily track your fuel usage by keeping records of your expense receipt. This way, you can monitor your vehicle's fuel efficiency over time and make informed decisions about managing your expenses best.

Expenses module the main view

The Expenses module screen consists of two sections:

1. The Expenses list is on the left-hand side. It displays the list of expenses. 2. The Settings panel on the right-hand side.

How to create a new expenses item? 

You can add a new expenses item manually by following the steps below:

1. In the Expenses module, click on the Add new button in the upper left corner of the module view.
2. Fill out the fields in the right-hand panel:

Vehicle: Choose the car from the drop-down list. Time: Add the time when payment was made. Vendor: Add the name of the vendor. Invoice nr: Add the invoice number. Notes: In case of other important information, you can add it to the notes field.  Commodity/ Service type and quantity: In this field, you can add a service type and amount. Dose, if the service or commodity purchased can be measured in units (such as fuel in liters and tires by number).When adding fuel, selection of type “*Fuel” is essential, because then it counts to further fuel-related reports. Payment: In the payment field, you can add information about service costs with or w/o VAT. Payment method: It allows you to add a payment method and select private expenses if needed.

3. Click on the arrow next to the Save button and click on Save as a new button that appears.

What is private expense?

A private expense is an expense that an employee will pay themselves, and the expense item can be excluded in the company’s accounts. Yet, the expense item is still essential to obtain a complete picture. For example, Fleet Complete software allows fuel receipts to be entered which have been paid for by the employee and for which the employee expects no reimbursement from the company. Yet, the ticket itself is essential for calculating fuel consumption.

How to delete expense item?

If you wish to delete expenses from the list, please follow the steps below:

1. Select an expense entry you need to delete.
2. Click on the Delete button at the top of the panel.
3. Press the Yes button on the popup window.

How to make changes in expense item?

If you need to make changes to the expenses you created before, please follow the next steps:

1. Select an expense entry you need to change.
2. Make changes on the settings panel.
3. Click on the Save button.

How to manage expense types?

The administrator user of your organisation can manage the expense types. To add an expense type, please follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Settings module and choose the Categories tab.  2. Open the Expense types tab from the menu. 3. Click on the Add new button. 4. Add expense type in the appeared text box. 5. Click on the Save button.

P.S. To allow fuel consumption calculation, the expense type ‘fuel’ cannot be modified or deleted and will always remain fixed.

How to add payment types?

If you need to add Expense payment types, please follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Settings module and choose the Categories tab.  2. Open the Expense payment types tab from the menu. 3. Click on the Add new button. 4. Type expense type in the appeared text box. 5. Click on the Save button.

Expenses import

The expenses import option allows you to import your expenses listed in some other software (for example, Excel). It is possible to extract it from the 3rd part software to *.csv-file and easily import this file to FCPlus to prevent inserting the data repeatedly.

NB! The file must be in CSV format and UTF-8 encoding. You can find more information about the CSV format here. (Add a link to FAQ instructions).

How to import simple expenses file?

You can download an example of Simple expenses .CSV from here (click the "Download" button to save and open it). 

As an exception, the column headers (first row of the .csv-file) are not important to import. The column order is important and has to be presented exactly as follows:

Date and time – in YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss format. Fuel card number – the fuel card number with which payment was made. Sum with VAT – value with tax; the percentage may vary depending on the country.  Product type - expense type (predefined under Settings). When the type is marked as FUEL (or fuel), it will be considered fuel entry. If there are more than one fuel type in the respective CSV column, you need to select “*ALL” or pick the ones that are relevant. For instance, there might be 95, 98, Diesel, Diesel Pro, and AdBlue - here you don’t need AdBlue to be considered as Fuel type, thus you would need to exclude it, and not pick “*ALL”. Receipt nr – the payment receipt number.

Please follow the next steps to make a Simple expense import:

1. Open the Expenses module. 2. Click on the Import button at the top of the module, and a new window will appear.

3. Click the Browse button and select a file to import in CSV format.
4. Select "Simple expense import" from the drop-down list.

5. Click on the Import to expenses button.
6. Results window will open. Here you can see whether the import succeeded and why not.

How to import fuel expenses file?

Download an example of Fuel expenses file (click the "Download" button to save and open it). 

As an exception, the column headers (first row of the .csv-file) are not important to import. The column order is important and has to be presented exactly as follows:

• Date and time – in YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss format.
• Fuel card number – the fuel card with which payment was made.
• Sum with VAT – the value with tax. The percentage may vary depending on the country.
• Amount – the amount of fuel the car was filled with.
• Receipt nr – the payment receipt number.

Using the import option, you can import a file with fuel expenses to the Expenses module. Please follow the next steps to make a fuel import:

1. Open the Expenses module. 2. Click 1. on the Import button at the top of the module, and a new window will appear. 3. Click the Browse button and select a file to import in CSV format. 4. Select "Simple fuel import" from drop the down list.

5. Click on the Import to expenses button. 6. The Results window will open. Here you can see whether the Import succeeded (and why not).

How to add custom import file?

You can use a custom import file that is actually for your company goals, and if desired, the import format is not on our list.

You must make a CSV format file to import your expenses file and upload it to the Expenses module. Please follow the steps below to add a customized file:

1. Go to the Expenses module. 2. Click on the Import button at the top of the module, and a new window will appear. 3. Click the Browse button and select a file to import in CSV format. 4. In Choose import format drop-down list, select "New custom format". 5. Advanced window will open. Here you can comply with the column headers with the values (Date format, Time format, Timezone, VAT amount (%), etc.). 

6. Click the Save button to save the New custom format in the Advanced window. 7. Choose a column settings from the drop-down list for each added column. 8. Click on the Import to expenses button to import the file. 9. The results window will open. Here you can see whether the import succeeded (and why not).

When the type is marked as FUEL (or fuel), it will be considered fuel entry. If there are more than one fuel type in the respective CSV column, you need to select “*ALL” or pick the ones that are relevant. For instance, there might be 95, 98, Diesel, Diesel Pro, and AdBlue - here you don’t need AdBlue to be considered as Fuel type, thus you would need to exclude it, and not pick “*ALL”.

NB! If you feel something went wrong during the import (you are not happy with the result and would like to make some adjustments), we recommend you to:

1. Go to the expenses main view.
2. Choose the dates of the import.
3. Load expenses.
4. Delete the entries. 
5. Start the import process over again.

Expenses period report

If the expense module has been used consistently, the administrator can use the Reports module to generate a structured report for a selected period combining all expenses. The resulting costs per kilometer are given as a total sum and broken down by type.

Please follow the steps below to generate the Expenses period report:

1. Open the Reports module. 2. Choose the Expenses period report from the drop-down list. 3. Select the period. 4. Select one or more vehicles. 5. Click on the Create report button at the bottom.

You can save the report in XLSX and PDF format by clicking the buttons on the bottom right corner.

Calculation of fuel consumption

To be able to keep accounts of fuel consumption and expenses:

• Enter all fuel purchases using the Expenses module.
• Determine at least once (ideally more frequently) how much fuel is left in the tank at a particular time.

This latter figure can be estimated with sufficient accuracy by the driver noting the fuel gauge reading at the end of a trip. Entering a figure in liters in the Journal module leads to the field Fuel after appearing in the Expenses module when it is opened.

After the expenses have been entered in this manner and the fuel remaining in the tank is noted, the report can be generated based on the data collected. This provides a record of average fuel consumption for each vehicle and a note of the variation from the estimated fuel consumption figures input under vehicle settings.

Fuelings with fuel sensor or canbus fuel level

If you want to insert fuelings into the Expenses module by comparing data on the vendor and fuel sensor, please follow the steps below:

1. Click on “Compare with fuelings”.
2. Choose the desired time range.
3. Click on Search to load the fuelings by the sensor in a given time range.
4. Filter the data of chosen vehicle (by default, all vehicles displayed.)
5. To insert the actual fuelings, double-click on the fuelings row.
6. Fill in the actual fuel amount.
7. Click on the Save button.

NB! If the sensor has not detected the fueling, adding the cost this way is impossible. In that case, you have to use a manual insert of expenses. It is wise to move the “Compare with fuelings” window to the left side of the main window so that you can fill in both sides at the same time.

Viewing results:

• No matter which variant to use, the results are always visible in Expenses module (only the inserted data).
• “Fuel report with expenses“ - both inserted and fuel sensor data plus their comparison.
• NB! “Compare with fuelings” view in Expenses module is mainly meant to simplify the data inserting, not so much for further data analysis.