Vehicle Balance/Financial Tracking - Product Requirements Document
Version: 2.0 | Status: Business Review | Date: 2026-01-15
Change Log:
| Version | Date | Author | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 2026-01-09 | Product Team | Initial draft with technical focus |
| 2.0 | 2026-01-15 | Product Team | Business-focused conversion with measurable outcomes |
1. Executive Summary
1.1 Purpose
Enable rental companies to track income and expenses at the vehicle level, providing complete visibility into each vehicle’s profitability and return on investment (ROI).
1.2 Problem Statement
Rental companies cannot identify which vehicles generate profit versus drain resources. Without vehicle-level financial tracking:
- Underperforming vehicles remain in the fleet, consuming resources
- Hidden costs (repairs, fuel, maintenance) accumulate without visibility
- Purchase and disposal decisions lack data-driven justification
- Fleet composition cannot be optimized for profitability
- Cross-subsidization between profitable and unprofitable vehicles goes undetected
1.3 Business Value
| Value Area | Measurable Outcome | Baseline | Target | Timeframe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost Visibility | Percentage of vehicle expenses tracked in system | <20% tracked | 95%+ tracked | 6 months |
| Decision Speed | Time to evaluate vehicle ROI for buy/sell decisions | 2-3 days manual analysis | <5 minutes | 3 months |
| Underperformer Detection | Vehicles identified as unprofitable per quarter | Unknown | 100% visibility | 6 months |
| Cost Control | Reduction in untracked/surprise expenses | ~30% expenses untracked | <5% untracked | 6 months |
| Budget Accuracy | Variance between forecast and actual vehicle costs | ±25% variance | ±10% variance | 12 months |
| Fleet ROI | Improvement in overall fleet profitability | Baseline during first 6 months | +5-10% margin improvement | 18 months |
1.4 Target Users
| Role | Primary Use | Business Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Admin | Full financial management, reporting, corrections | Comprehensive fleet economics visibility |
| Operator | Record daily operational expenses (fuel, minor repairs) | Accurate cost capture at point of occurrence |
| Financial Manager | Profitability analysis, ROI calculations, budgeting | Data-driven fleet investment decisions |
| Partner | Monitor performance of owned vehicles | Transparent revenue sharing and cost tracking |
1.5 Scope
In Scope:
- Manual profit and expense entry creation per vehicle
- Automatic profit tracking from completed rental orders
- Categorized expense tracking (fuel, repairs, insurance, purchase, lease)
- File attachments for receipts and invoices
- Vehicle-level financial statistics and ROI analysis
- Date range filtering and all-time financial views
- Bulk import of historical financial records
- Integration with vehicle purchase/lease tracking
- Kilometer-based cost analysis
Out of Scope:
- External accounting system integration (QuickBooks, Xero)
- Automated depreciation calculation
- Tax reporting and compliance
- Multi-currency conversion
- Automated expense capture from fuel cards
- Predictive expense analytics
2. Success Metrics
| Metric | Definition | Baseline Source | Target | Measurement Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expense Capture Rate | % of known vehicle expenses recorded in system | Manual audit of 10 vehicles | >95% | Monthly audit comparison |
| Time to ROI Analysis | Minutes to generate vehicle profitability report | Time study with current process | <5 min | User analytics, task completion |
| User Adoption | % of fleet managers actively using balance features weekly | None (new feature) | >80% in 90 days | Weekly active user tracking |
| Data Entry Accuracy | % of entries requiring correction within 30 days | None (new feature) | <5% corrections | Audit trail of edits/deletes |
| Report Generation Time | Seconds to load vehicle financial statistics | Performance benchmark | <2 seconds | API response time monitoring |
| Bulk Import Success | % of bulk uploads completing without errors | None (new feature) | >90% | Import success/failure logs |
| Attachment Compliance | % of expense entries with supporting documentation | None (new feature) | >75% | Entries with files vs. total |
| Decision Impact | Vehicles bought/sold/retained based on system data | User survey | >50% data-driven | Quarterly user survey |
3. User Stories
3.1 Admin Stories
P0 - Critical
- As an Admin, I want to record all vehicle expenses with categorization and documentation so I have complete financial visibility into each vehicle’s costs
- As an Admin, I want to view total profit, expenses, and balance for any date range so I can assess vehicle financial performance
- As an Admin, I want automatic tracking of rental income from completed orders so I don’t need to manually enter revenue
P1 - High
- As an Admin, I want to bulk import historical financial records so I can migrate existing data into the system
- As an Admin, I want to edit or delete incorrect entries so I can maintain accurate financial records
P2 - Medium
- As an Admin, I want to filter entries by expense category so I can analyze specific cost types
3.2 Operator Stories
P0 - Critical
- As an Operator, I want to quickly record fuel and minor repair costs with receipt photos so expenses are captured at point of occurrence
P1 - High
- As an Operator, I want to view recent entries for a vehicle so I can verify my data entry is complete
3.3 Financial Manager Stories
P0 - Critical
- As a Financial Manager, I want to see vehicle profitability with period-over-period comparison so I can identify trends
- As a Financial Manager, I want all-time ROI per vehicle so I can make buy/sell decisions
P1 - High
- As a Financial Manager, I want cost-per-kilometer analysis so I can compare vehicle efficiency
3.4 Partner Stories
P1 - High
- As a Partner, I want to view financial performance of my vehicles so I understand my investment returns
4. Functional Requirements
4.1 Balance Entry Management
Entry Creation
- Users must be able to create balance entries with: type (profit/expense), date, amount, category, description, and optional receipt attachments
- System must support expense categories: Fuel, Repairs, Insurance, Vehicle Purchase, Lease Payments, Other
- System must support profit categories: Rental Income, Vehicle Sale, Other
- System must validate all entries belong to vehicles within the user’s tenant
Entry Modification
- Authorized users must be able to edit entry details and attachments
- System must maintain audit trail of all modifications
- Deletion must require confirmation and be logged
4.2 Automatic Revenue Tracking
- System must automatically include completed rental orders in profit calculations
- Revenue must be calculated using order total price (configurable to use net income)
- System must track kilometers driven per rental from odometer readings
- System must include completed maintenance reminders in expense calculations
4.3 Bulk Import
- System must accept bulk upload of balance entries via CSV/Excel
- System must validate all entries before processing
- System must provide clear error messages for invalid entries
- System must process large imports in batches to ensure reliability
- Import completion must include success/failure summary
4.4 Financial Reporting
Statistics Calculation
- System must calculate total profit, total expenses, and net balance for any date range
- System must calculate percentage change compared to previous equal-length period
- System must provide all-time cumulative balance since vehicle acquisition
- System must track days in fleet and remaining lease kilometers
Paginated Views
- System must provide paginated, date-sorted lists of profits and expenses
- Lists must combine automatic entries (orders, reminders) with manual entries
- Users must be able to filter by date range and category
4.5 Access Control
- All data must be isolated by tenant
- Admins have full CRUD access to all balance entries
- Operators can create expense entries and view all data
- Partners can only view data for their own vehicles
- Financial Managers have read access to all financial data
5. Acceptance Criteria
5.1 Balance Entry Management
Given an Admin viewing a vehicle’s financial page
When they create an expense entry with amount, category, date, and attach a receipt
Then the entry appears in the expense list and the vehicle’s balance is updated within 2 seconds
Given a user has created an incorrect balance entry
When they edit the amount or date
Then the change is reflected immediately and the original values are logged in audit trail
5.2 Bulk Import
Given a user uploads a CSV with 200 balance entries
When 195 entries are valid and 5 have errors
Then the system displays specific errors for the 5 invalid entries before import
And the user can choose to import valid entries only
And 195 entries are created within 30 seconds
5.3 Financial Reporting
Given a vehicle with 2 years of financial history (1000+ entries)
When a Financial Manager views statistics for a 30-day period
Then total profit, expenses, balance, and percentage change display within 2 seconds
Given a completed rental order for a vehicle
When viewing the vehicle’s profit list
Then the order appears with correct amount, date, and kilometers driven
5.4 Performance
| Operation | Target Response Time |
|---|---|
| Statistics calculation (any date range) | <2 seconds |
| First page of profit/expense list | <1 second |
| Bulk import (100 entries) | <10 seconds |
| File attachment upload (10MB) | <5 seconds |
6. Business Rules
6.1 Financial Calculations
| Calculation | Formula |
|---|---|
| Net Balance | Total Profit − Total Expenses |
| Period Change % | ((Current − Previous) / Previous) × 100 |
| Kilometers Remaining | Lease KM Included − Sum of Rental KM Used |
| Cost per Kilometer | Total Expenses / Total Kilometers Driven |
6.2 Entry Validation
- All amounts must be positive numbers
- Dates cannot be in the future
- Dates cannot precede vehicle’s acquisition date
- Every entry must be associated with a valid vehicle in the user’s tenant
6.3 Revenue Recognition
- Rental income is recognized when order status is “completed” or “confirmed”
- Revenue date is the rental end date
- Maintenance expense is recognized when reminder is marked complete
7. Dependencies
7.1 Required Systems
| System | Dependency Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle Management | Prerequisite | Vehicles must exist before balance entries |
| Order System | Data Source | Automatic rental revenue tracking |
| Maintenance System | Data Source | Automatic maintenance expense tracking |
| File Storage | Integration | Receipt and invoice storage |
| Multi-Tenant Architecture | Infrastructure | Tenant data isolation |
7.2 Implementation Dependencies
- Database migration from legacy system (in progress)
- File storage provider configuration
8. Constraints and Limitations
- File attachments limited to 10MB per file
- Bulk import maximum 1,000 entries per upload
- Statistics calculation is per-vehicle only (no fleet aggregation in v1)
- Single currency per tenant
- No automatic expense capture from external sources
9. Future Considerations
Potential enhancements for evaluation based on user feedback:
- Fleet-wide financial dashboards and aggregation
- Accounting system integration (QuickBooks, Xero)
- Automated depreciation tracking
- Multi-currency support
- Predictive expense analytics
- Export to Excel/PDF reports
- Expense approval workflows
- Budget variance alerts
10. Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Balance | Net financial position (Total Profit − Total Expenses) |
| Balance Entry | Single financial record (profit or expense) for a vehicle |
| Expense Category | Classification of cost (Fuel, Repairs, Insurance, Purchase, Lease) |
| Profit Category | Classification of revenue (Rental Income, Sale, Other) |
| ROI | Return on Investment; vehicle profit relative to purchase cost |
| Virtual Entry | Revenue or expense derived from orders/reminders, not manually entered |