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 · Sep 2026
Net hire revenue
USD 3.08M
−0.02M vs budget
EBITDA
USD 0.56M
−0.08M vs budget
EBITDA margin
18.2%
Budget 20.7%
Net result
USD −0.14M
−0.10M vs budget
Fleet utilization
88.3%
Budget 89.6% · 28 off-hire days
TCE per on-hire day
USD 14,545
Budget 14,444
Running cost per vessel-day
USD 3,610
Budget 3,556
G&A as % of revenue
6.7%
Budget 6.4%
EBITDA bridge · From budget to actual
Commentary · Generated automatically from the variances
- ▸Sep 2026: EBITDA missed budget by USD 0.08M (-13.0%), at USD 0.56M against USD 0.64M.
- ▸Off-hire days took away USD 0.05M. Main drivers: MT Aster (+1 day) and MT Calypso (+1 day).
- ▸Crew took away USD 0.04M. Reflects the 4% wage agreement effective from April.
- ▸Charter rates added USD 0.02M. Tanker rates ran above plan (MT Aster +7% TCE), partly offset by weaker dry bulk and offshore contracts.
- ▸Fleet utilization was 88.3% vs 89.6% budgeted; running cost per vessel-day USD 3,610 vs 3,556.
- ▸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.