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 · YTD May 2026
Net hire revenue
USD 16.14M
−0.36M vs budget
EBITDA
USD 3.59M
−0.58M vs budget
EBITDA margin
22.3%
Budget 25.3%
Net result
USD 0.07M
−0.51M vs budget
Fleet utilization
93.0%
Budget 95.1% · 85 off-hire days
TCE per on-hire day
USD 14,372
Budget 14,356
Running cost per vessel-day
USD 3,617
Budget 3,514
G&A as % of revenue
6.3%
Budget 6.1%
EBITDA bridge · From budget to actual
Commentary · Generated automatically from the variances
- ▸YTD May 2026: EBITDA missed budget by USD 0.58M (-13.8%), at USD 3.59M against USD 4.17M.
- ▸Off-hire days took away USD 0.38M. Main drivers: OSV Gaia (+13 days) and MT Boreas (+9 days).
- ▸Running cost took away USD 0.12M. Largest overruns: repairs & maintenance (USD 0.05M) and lubricants (USD 0.05M).
- ▸Crew took away USD 0.08M. Reflects the 4% wage agreement effective from April.
- ▸Fleet utilization was 93.0% vs 95.1% budgeted; running cost per vessel-day USD 3,617 vs 3,514.
- ▸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.