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 · May 2026
Net hire revenue
USD 3.41M
−0.04M vs budget
EBITDA
USD 0.82M
−0.11M vs budget
EBITDA margin
24.0%
Budget 26.8%
Net result
USD 0.09M
−0.09M vs budget
Fleet utilization
92.7%
Budget 96.8% · 18 off-hire days
TCE per on-hire day
USD 14,822
Budget 14,375
Running cost per vessel-day
USD 3,586
Budget 3,528
G&A as % of revenue
6.0%
Budget 5.8%
EBITDA bridge · From budget to actual
Commentary · Generated automatically from the variances
- ▸May 2026: EBITDA missed budget by USD 0.11M (-11.7%), at USD 0.82M against USD 0.93M.
- ▸Off-hire days took away USD 0.10M. Main drivers: OSV Gaia (+12 days) and OSV Helix (+1 day).
- ▸Charter rates added USD 0.05M. Tanker rates ran above plan (MT Aster +6% TCE), partly offset by weaker dry bulk and offshore contracts.
- ▸Crew took away USD 0.05M. Reflects the 4% wage agreement effective from April.
- ▸Fleet utilization was 92.7% vs 96.8% budgeted; running cost per vessel-day USD 3,586 vs 3,528.
- ▸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.