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 · Aug 2026
Net hire revenue
USD 3.53M
+0.08M vs budget
EBITDA
USD 0.92M
0.00M vs budget
EBITDA margin
26.2%
Budget 26.7%
Net result
USD 0.17M
−0.01M vs budget
Fleet utilization
98.0%
Budget 96.8% · 5 off-hire days
TCE per on-hire day
USD 14,537
Budget 14,375
Running cost per vessel-day
USD 3,645
Budget 3,549
G&A as % of revenue
5.8%
Budget 5.8%
EBITDA bridge · From budget to actual
Commentary · Generated automatically from the variances
- ▸Aug 2026: EBITDA beat budget by USD 0.00M (0.4%), at USD 0.92M against USD 0.92M.
- ▸Off-hire days added USD 0.05M.
- ▸Crew took away USD 0.05M. Reflects the 4% wage agreement effective from April.
- ▸Charter rates added USD 0.03M. Tanker rates ran above plan (MT Boreas +7% TCE), partly offset by weaker dry bulk and offshore contracts.
- ▸Fleet utilization was 98.0% vs 96.8% budgeted; running cost per vessel-day USD 3,645 vs 3,549.
- ▸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.