Record what a vehicle costs you

Introduction

Every euro you spend on a vehicle — a repair, a set of tyres, a road-tax bill — can be written down against that vehicle, so you can see later what each one really costs. You do this on the screen headed Cost overview. At the top, one line shows your costs excluding value-added tax (VAT) for this month, this year (both include future-dated costs) and last year. Below it is one table of cost lines, with New, Supplier invoice with several lines and Generation errors above it and a pencil and a bin icon at the end of each row.

Every cost is entered excluding VAT; the app works out the VAT. If your company uses Exact Online (your accounting package), a cost with a supplier is also sent to Exact as a purchase entry. Three smaller screens hold the lists the cost lines pick from: Cost categories, their subcategories, and Suppliers.

You come here when:

• the garage's invoice for last week's repair needs recording against the van;
• one supplier invoice covers several vehicles — four sets of winter tyres on one bill — and each vehicle should carry its own share;
• you are checking what has been booked against a vehicle this year;
• an old invoice is already in Exact and you only want it on record here.

Terms used on these screens

Every way a cost line is added

Use this page for costs you type in yourself.

How to use

Configuration

Set up your categories and suppliers first, so the drop-down lists have something in them. Both are reached from the Financials item in the main menu, under the Costs heading near the bottom of that screen.

Cost categories and subcategories

1. Click the Cost categories tile. The screen headed Cost category opens, with a small Navigation list on the left: Cost Category and Cost Subcategory.
2. Click New. A window opens with Name — for example Maintenance, Damage repair, Insurance or Road tax — and Exact GL account, the ledger account in Exact that costs in this category are posted to. Leave Exact GL account empty if you do not use Exact. Click Save.
3. Click Cost Subcategory in the Navigation list, then New. Pick the parent category in Cost type, type a Name such as Tyres, and click Save.
4. To change either kind, click the pencil icon at the end of its row. The bin icon removes it without asking first.

Always fill in Cost type on a subcategory. A subcategory without a category is never offered on a cost line, because every cost line only lists the subcategories of the category you picked.

A category that is used by costs or planned costs cannot be deleted: the app says This cost category is used by costs and cannot be deleted. (or …used by planned costs…). Deleting a subcategory or a supplier is allowed; the cost lines that named it keep their amount and lose only that name.

Suppliers

1. Click the Suppliers tile. The screen headed Supplier overview lists every supplier with their contact details.

2. Click New Supplier. Fill in:

   Field	What goes in it
   Name	The supplier's name as it appears in the drop-down lists — the only field you really need
   Chamber of commerce	Their Chamber of Commerce (KvK) registration number
   VAT number	Their VAT number
   Contact name, Contact email, Contact phone	Who you deal with there

   None of these is checked or required. A read-only Financial accounting id appears at the top only when it already holds a value: it is the supplier's number in Exact. You cannot type in it. When the app sends a cost for a supplier without that number, it creates the supplier in Exact and fills it in.

3. Click Save. The pencil icon on the row reopens a supplier; the bin icon deletes it straight away.

The address boxes on the right of the supplier screen (Postal code, Street, City and so on) are not kept with the supplier — reopen it and they are empty. Keep the supplier's address in your bookkeeping instead.

Exact. Costs reach Exact only when your company's Exact connection is active and three things are set up there: a Purchase journal, the purchase VAT codes, and an Exact GL account on each cost category. How to set these is in Send invoices to your accounting package. Without Exact, everything on this page works the same; nothing is sent anywhere.

Before you start: every screen on this page needs a company administrator account. The tiles show for everyone, but an ordinary employee account cannot open them. You see only your own company's costs, categories and suppliers.

Using the Cost overview

From the main menu, click Financials, go down to the Costs heading, and click the Cost overview tile. The newest costs are at the top.

1. Find a cost. Type a registration number in the box under Object to see one vehicle's costs; Date filters between two dates. Click a heading to sort by it.

2. Record one cost. Click New. A window headed Edit Cost opens:

Then click one of the buttons at the bottom (Cancel stores nothing):

3. Enter a supplier invoice and split it. Click Supplier invoice with several lines. A screen with that heading opens.

1. Fill in Invoice amount excl. VAT, Invoice date, Supplier and Supplier invoice number.
2. Click New above the table. In the window headed Invoice line, fill in one share of the invoice: Amount excl. VAT, VAT %, Description, Date (starts at the invoice date), Cost category, Cost sub category and Asset. Click Save.
3. Repeat for every vehicle or part of the invoice. The pencil icon changes a line, the bin icon removes it.
4. Click Save at the bottom of the screen.

Nothing is stored until that last Save; Cancel or Back throws the whole invoice away. On Save, every line needs a category, and the lines must add up to Invoice amount excl. VAT to the cent (the messages are under Q&A). Each line then becomes a cost with the supplier and invoice number from the top; with an invoice number, they go to Exact together as one purchase entry.

4. Correct or remove a cost. The pencil icon opens a line to change it; the bin icon asks Delete this cost?; Delete cost removes it for good. Some lines are locked; see below.

Key details

A worked example

Garage Van den Berg sends invoice 2026-118 for €1,250.00 excluding VAT: a clutch on van 12-ABC-3 (€820.00) and tyres on car 45-XY-67 (€430.00), at 21% VAT. Enter 1250.00 at the top and one line per vehicle. The lines show €172.20 and €90.30 VAT and total €1,250.00, so Save creates two cost lines and sends one purchase entry of €1,512.50 to Exact. Typing the tyres as €43.00, or the total including VAT at the top, makes the app refuse.

Where a cost line came from

A Maintenance line follows its service appointment: the appointment's cost (taken as excluding VAT), its end date and its title, in category Maintenance. Change or remove the cost on the appointment and the line follows; once the appointment is carried out, the line stays.

Once a cost is in Exact

A cost that reached Exact, or was saved with Save, already in Exact, shows Posted in In Exact. It is locked: it cannot be changed or deleted. Costs without a supplier and depreciation lines are never sent.

What to do next: if a cost comes back every month or every year, set it up once as a planned cost instead of typing it again — see Set up costs that repeat by themselves.

Q&A

Why can I no longer change or delete a cost? It has been sent to Exact: In Exact reads Posted, and the bin icon says This cost is posted to Exact and cannot be deleted. Correct it in Exact with a credit entry. Do that, and enter the correct cost here as a new line if you need it. A Maintenance line says This cost belongs to a maintenance. Change or delete the maintenance instead.; a Depreciation line says Depreciation costs follow from the vehicle financials and cannot be deleted.

I entered an old invoice and it now shows up in Exact twice. How do I avoid that? Costs that your bookkeeper already entered in Exact must be saved with Save, already in Exact, not Save. A cost that has already been sent cannot be taken back from this screen; ask your bookkeeper to remove the duplicate in Exact.

Why does In Exact stay empty after I saved a cost with a supplier? The send failed, or the connection is not active. Failed sends are listed on the Exact dashboard's Logs tab with the reason, such as No Exact purchase journal or Cost category not linked to an Exact GL account, and are tried again every half hour. See Send invoices to your accounting package.

I deleted a cost by mistake. Can I get it back? No. Once you click Delete cost, there is no undo. Enter it again with New.

Why does Save refuse my supplier invoice? The app checks the lines in this order and stops at the first problem:

Why does Save say "Choose a cost category" or "Enter the amount excluding VAT"? A cost needs a Cost type and an amount that is not 0. A credit from a supplier can be entered as a negative amount.

Why is the Cost sub category box empty? It lists only the subcategories of the category you picked. Pick the category first. If it is still empty, that category has no subcategories yet — add them under Cost categories → Cost Subcategory. Changing the category on an Invoice line empties the subcategory, so pick it again.

Why does the Asset box on an invoice line show different numbers? On Invoice line, Asset lists vehicles by their internal fleet number, not their registration number. New on Cost overview lists them by registration number. The Object column shows the registration number either way.

Why does a cost from a service appointment appear on the Cost overview? A service appointment with a cost keeps one Maintenance line here, so all of a vehicle's costs are in one list. Change the amount on the appointment, not on the line: the line follows the appointment, and the next change to the appointment overwrites what you typed on the line.

Why can't I delete a vehicle? A vehicle or object with cost lines or planned costs cannot be deleted, on the Vehicles tab and on the Other tab alike: This vehicle has registered or planned costs and cannot be deleted; its cost history would be lost. Take it out of the fleet instead; see Take vehicles out of the fleet.

Why can't I delete a cost category? Costs or planned costs still use it. Move those lines to another category first, or keep the category.

Why can't I open the Cost overview, Suppliers or Cost categories tile? They need a company administrator account. Ask your administrator.

Related pages

• Set up costs that repeat by themselves — for costs that repeat, and the Generation errors list.
• Record a vehicle's purchase price and depreciation — where the Depreciation lines come from.
• Book a vehicle in for a service — the cost on a service appointment.
• Send invoices to your accounting package — the Exact connection and its log.