FP&A · Budget control
Actual vs budget
Monthly budget control for Northwind Shipping (fictional), an 8-vessel fleet of tankers, bulk carriers and offshore supply vessels. Actuals are closed through Sep 2026. All names and figures are synthetic; the structure mirrors a real budget-control model I ran in shipping.
Key figures · Feb 2026
Net hire revenue
USD 3.12M
+0.02M vs budget
EBITDA
USD 0.82M
+0.03M vs budget
EBITDA margin
26.2%
Budget 25.6%
Net result
USD 0.09M
0.00M vs budget
Fleet utilization
96.4%
Budget 96.4% · 8 off-hire days
TCE per on-hire day
USD 14,464
Budget 14,375
Running cost per vessel-day
USD 3,483
Budget 3,507
G&A as % of revenue
6.4%
Budget 6.4%
EBITDA bridge · From budget to actual
Commentary · Generated automatically from the variances
- ▸Feb 2026: EBITDA beat budget by USD 0.03M (3.3%), at USD 0.82M against USD 0.79M.
- ▸Charter rates added USD 0.03M. Tanker rates ran above plan (MT Aster +5% TCE), partly offset by weaker dry bulk and offshore contracts.
- ▸Off-hire days took away USD 0.01M. Main drivers: MT Boreas (+1 day) and MT Delphine (+1 day).
- ▸Running cost added USD 0.01M. Largest overruns: certificates & surveys (USD 0.00M) and repairs & maintenance (USD 0.00M).
- ▸Fleet utilization was 96.4% vs 96.4% budgeted; running cost per vessel-day USD 3,483 vs 3,507.
- ▸Full-year outlook: EBITDA USD 9.33M, below the USD 10.24M budget by USD 0.91M, assuming current rate levels, the wage increase and higher lubricant prices persist through December.
Rule-based: the engine ranks the EBITDA bridge drivers, finds the vessels and cost lines behind each one and writes the sentences. The analyst reviews and edits instead of starting from a blank page.
Synthetic data for a fictional company, for illustration only.