AVIOFILE keeps together the aircraft's costs, the flight rates and how much each member owes or is owed. The Hourly cost tells you instead what an hour of flying costs, starting from your own data.
Before you start
- The GROUP section of the aircraft is mainly for co-owner groups: costs are split between the members according to their shares.
- Seeing costs, rates and balances needs read permission on costs. Recording costs, recording other people's payments and changing rates and rules needs write permission on costs.
- The Hourly cost of an aircraft needs read permission on that aircraft's costs. Editing it needs write permission. Apply as rate and the fleet view also need a plan that includes the costs feature.
Where everything is
What concerns an aircraft is in the aircraft, what concerns the organization is in the organization settings, what concerns you is in your Menu.
- In the aircraft: open the aircraft and, in the Overview, you find the GROUP section (for a school or single-owner aircraft it is called COSTS AND OWNERSHIP). The entries appear according to your permissions: Shifts (the Shift plan opens from there), Costs, Statement (Payments open from there) and Co-owners & access. Shifts and Statement exist only on co-owned aircraft; if you have no permission on costs or on managing the aircraft you do not see the section.
- In the Menu: under ACTIVITY, Co-ownership balance (if you also have flight credit it is called Credit and balances: the wallets of schools and clubs and, for groups, the BALANCE of the year: All settled, The group owes you or You owe the group; with several aircraft the total and a row per aircraft, each opens its Statement); also under ACTIVITY, My shifts.
- On the organization page (Menu > ORGANIZATIONS, your organization): under MANAGEMENT, Costs (needs read permission on the organization's costs, or permission to record expenses). Your Personal organization has Costs too.
Costs opens a page with three tabs: Expenses, Hourly cost and Rates. Hourly cost appears if you can read that aircraft's costs; Rates, only if you can edit them. With a single tab you do not see the selector.
From Costs in the organization settings the Expenses tab shows the costs of the whole organization and Hourly cost compares the fleet; there is no Rates tab.
Record a cost
- Open the aircraft, tap Costs in the GROUP section and stay on the Expenses tab.
- Tap + (or Add a cost if the list is empty).
- Write the AMOUNT. Use the minus sign for a refund or a credit note.
- Under DETAILS choose the Category (for example Fuel, Insurance, Hangar, Maintenance) and the Date; if you like, add Description (optional) and Vendor (optional).
- Tap Add cost.
To fix a cost tap it in the list and use Save changes; with Delete cost it disappears from lists and statements (it stays in the system history).
The Expenses tab shows the list of costs. At the top choose the period (30 days, This year, Last year, All time). Tap Summary to open, above the list, the totals grouped by Category, Month or (for the whole organization) aircraft. At the bottom of the summary, HOURLY COST AND SHARES leads to the Hourly cost tab and to the Statement, where you find what a flight hour costs and each member's share.
Who pays: rates and rules
In the Rates tab of Costs you decide how flights are charged and how costs are shared. The tab only appears for people with write permission on costs: everyone else reads the rates in the aircraft's Technical sheet & prices, RATES section.
- Under Who pays a flight choose Pilot in command or Student, else pilot in command.
- Under HOURLY RATES tap Add. Give it a name (for example "Members"), the amount per hour, and choose Applies to (Everyone, Owners, Non-owners or Specific users), Hours read from (for example Hobbs or Tach), Fuel included (Yes (wet) or No (dry)) and the validity dates. Then tap Save rate.
- Under TECHNICAL FLIGHTS choose Who pays them by default for the new technical flights of the aircraft: in a group or a club Split among the members or The pilot, in a school The organization or The pilot. If the members pay, How it is split chooses between By share and In equal parts. Each flight can still be changed (see Log a flight).
- Under HOW COSTS ARE SHARED tap a category and choose whether it is Fixed or Variable and how it is divided: By ownership share, Equal parts, By hours flown, Paid by the pilot or Not shared.
- Tap Save.
Without rates flights are not charged: the default rules apply.
Statements
Statement shows, for the aircraft and for the period chosen at the top (This year, Last year or 12 months), the TOTALS (hours flown, flight charges, costs, payments) and a card for each MEMBER marked is owed, owes or settled. Tap a member to see Share of costs, Flight charges, Paid out of pocket and the payments. Under GROUP FUND you see what came in and out of the common fund. Tap How this is calculated for the assumptions used.
If a flight has no rate or no pilot, a warning appears: the flight counts as usage but is not charged. Check the rates. Without read permission on costs you only see your own row.
Record a payment
When a member pays the group fund or another member:
- Open Statement, tap Payments and then +.
- Write the AMOUNT.
- Under Paid to choose Group fund or a member, then the Date and, if you like, a Note (optional).
- Tap Record payment.
The payment is in your name and counts in the statement. To delete it, tap it in the list.
The hourly cost calculator
Open the aircraft, tap Costs in the GROUP (or COSTS AND OWNERSHIP) section of the Overview and then the Hourly cost tab.
- At the top you see the Cost per flight hour at a given number of hours a year, marked Estimate. Move the Hours flown per year slider to see how it changes; Reset goes back to the starting value. The mark on the slider shows the hours Flown in the last 12 months.
- WHERE THE COST COMES FROM splits the total into FIXED COSTS, PER YEAR, COSTS PER FLIGHT HOUR and MAINTENANCE RESERVES, PER YEAR. HOW IT CHANGES WITH THE HOURS shows the curve and WHERE YOU STAND NOW the next big expenses.
- If some data needs checking, thing to check appears, for example few flights logged.
- For co-owners, CO-OWNERS shows the Suggested hourly rate and the Full cost per hour. COMPARED WITH YOUR RATES compares the cost with the rates you already have.
To fix the figures tap the edit icon at the top right (write permission needed). Items marked "From costs" or "From flights" are calculated from your data: tap one to enter the value yourself. In the edit screen you set:
- HOURS A YEAR: My flights or I set them.
- FIXED COSTS: insurance, hangar, annual inspection and more, with Add a fixed cost.
- FINANCING AND DEPRECIATION: only the interest on the loan counts.
- PER FLIGHT HOUR: fuel and oil use and prices, fees.
- MAINTENANCE RESERVES: the cost of each job and how much you already set aside; Leave out of the calculation removes an item. Add a reserve for expenses outside maintenance, such as a repaint.
- RENTAL: the margin for non-members.
Tap Save to apply. To use the result as a rate tap Apply as rate, choose Full cost or Hourly part only, and confirm with Apply: the rate is created or updated in that aircraft's rules. With several aircraft, choose All aircraft in Shifts & costs, tap Costs and then the Hourly cost tab: it compares them all.
Frequently asked questions
Why don't I see the balance?
The balance appears when a shared aircraft has a cost policy and you are a co-owner.
Can I change rates and rules?
Only with write permission on costs. Everyone else can only read them.
See also: Co-ownership, Booking the aircraft, Maintenance.