In this post we are going to share how to guide of Rabio with an example for an equipment cost management project.
Create a new project
Rabio can handle many projects. After logging in you are in the projects where all the available projects appear.
To add a new project click on Add New Project to bottom of the projects page.
In this example we are going give the name Equipment Cost & Fleet Management. After adding the project click on it and go the main menu of the project.
Go to STRUCTURE–>>Project and update basic characteristics of the project like:
– Thousand Separator ( . or , )
– Decimal Separator ( . or , )
– Decimal Digits for Numbers (in this case example 2)
– Decimal Digits for Quantities (in this case example 2)
– Stock Report (1 – Available, 0 NOT Available)
– Invoice Column (1 – Available, 0 NOT Available)
Organizing Rabio Managers
One of the fundamentals of Rabio structure are Managers. They are used to:
- organize and record financial activities like Budget, Expenses or Costs
- create calculated results from other managers
Managers form is located on the STRUCTURE menu and is accessible only to administrators.
This special form includes the rules for every manager that will be recorded.
The rules are used by the internal intelligent reporting system for the production of reports.
The internal reporting system, based on the rules, turns financial activities of managers to columns in reports.
How to use Managers
There two different kinds of managers for the system which are :
- Recorded Managers
- Calculated Managers
In the image below there is a typical configuration of managers as it appears on the 1st installation of the system. There are three managers available:
- Equipment Budget (recorded)
- Equipment Expenses (recorded)
- A-B (calculated difference of A. Budget and B. Expenses)
Every record defines the way a manager operates in Rabio. The fields of every record are :
- Manager ID : this is the unique ID of a manager
- Description: the basic description of a manager
- Budget: the field accepts only two values 1-Yes and 0-No.
- When the value is 1 the column is used for budget. The column can be recorded or can be calculated from 2 other columns.
- When the value is 0 the column is not used as a budget column.
- Expenses or Costs: the field accepts only two values 1-Yes and 0-No.
- When the value is 1 the column is used for recording expenses, costs or actual costs.
- When the value is 0 the column is not used as an expense column.
- Report Column Order: this field accepts only letters like A, B, C, D. It is unique for every manager.
- Report Title Description: This field is used by the reporting system as a header for columns.
- Calculation Column: the field accepts only two values 1-Yes and 0-No.
- When it is a recording column this value is set to 0.
- When it is a calculated column this value is set to 1.
- Calculation Column: the field accepts only three values which are M-Minus P-Plus E-Equal.
- When the value is set to M then the result of the calculated column is a difference between two columns
- When the value is set to P then the result of the calculated column is an addition between two columns
- When the value is set to E then the result of the calculated column is equal to another column The values on this field are functional only when the manager is calculated.
- Columns for Calculation: the field accepts the unique IDs of the managers that will be calculated.
- In case that the calculation of column is set to M-Minus, the result of the difference comes from the removal of the 2nd manager from the 1st. The numeric values are separated by commas like 1,2 or 3,4 or 5,4 etc.
- In case that the calculation of the column is set to P-Plus, the result of the addition comes from the summary of both managers. The numeric values are separated by commas like 1,2 or 3,4 or 5,4 etc.
- In case that the calculation of the column is set to E-Equal, the result is a copy of values from another manager. In this case only one numeric value is accepted. The values in this field are functional only when the manager is calculated.
- Percentage Column: the field accepts only two values 1-Yes and 0-No.
- When the value is 1 a new column is produced after the calculated column with the percentage result of the calculated column.
- When the value is 0 a percentage column is not created. The values in this field are functional only when the manager is calculated.
- Main Menu Order: this is a unique numeric value that is used for recording managers as the order of appearance in the main menu of the system. When it is a calculated column the value is set to 0
For our example we are going to use managers as installed.
In Rabio menu the available managers for insert and editing are A.Equipment Budget & B.Equipment Expenses
The 3rd column which is difference of A. Equipment Budget and B. Equipment Expenses C=A-B is not available for editing as it is calculated in reports.
Organizing a Cost Breakdown Structure
In this guide, we are going to see how a cost breakdown structure be adopted in Rabio and will help budget control to be efficient.
A plan is necessary to maintain and control data, which drives the physical development of a business model structure.
The Development of a Cost Breakdown Structure
The development of a cost breakdown structure that we are going to analyze is based on Cost Centers and Cost Categories.
Centers are typical business units that incur costs or expenses.
Categories are the financial procedures (measured or not) that repeat among the typical business units.
Centers
The use of cost centers in a cost breakdown structure needs to be examined in depth. The typical business units will need to be recorded, and a coding system needs to implement. The coding system needs to be flexible for adopting new cost centers and open in a group system that will be able to control at a higher level according to the nature of their business.
We are going to use a helpful example of a company that is using equipment like trucks, excavators, pickups. For this kind of business, equipment cost & fleet management is a top priority, and a well designed and developed cost breakdown structure can be there to help managers to make critical decisions.
The first thing to create is groups for cost centers that will be used for controlling at a higher level all identical centers. The result is some groups with coding as seen in the table below :
Centers Group | Description |
100 | Trucks |
200 | Excavators |
300 | Pickups |
Coding can be using numbers, letters or a combination of them. In this example, we are using numbers like 100, 200, 300, etc.
To add Centers Groups in Rabio menu go to STRUCTURE–>>Centers Groups
Next, each one of the trucks is recorded as a center, the same applies to excavators and pickups. All centers are grouped in a higher level where all other identical centers are grouped. The result is a list as seen in the table below :
Centers Group | Centers Group Description | Center | Center Description |
100 | Trucks | 101 | Truck 1 |
100 | Trucks | 102 | Truck 2 |
100 | Trucks | 103 | Truck 3 |
200 | Excavators | 201 | Excavator 1 |
200 | Excavators | 202 | Excavator 2 |
200 | Excavators | 203 | Excavator 3 |
300 | Pickups | 301 | Pickup 1 |
300 | Pickups | 302 | Pickup 2 |
300 | Pickups | 303 | Pickup 3 |
In our example coding of Centers is following the coding of groups. When we are using Centers Group 100 of Trucks the codes for each one Truck as a Center become 101,102,103 etc. For Centers Group 200 of Excavators, the codes for each one Excavator as a Center become 201,202,203, etc. The same applies to pickups and any other possible group.
In case that a new group of equipment has to be implemented like Buses or Semi Trucks then new Centers Groups will be added on the coding system like 400 – Buses and 500 – Semi Trucks. The additional Centers will follow this coding like 401 – Bus 1, 402 – Bus 2, etc.
This form of coding described in the example is not mandatory when organizing a cost breakdown structure. But when recording data like budget, expenses, forecast, earned value, etc, it is more useful and helpful to follow a structure like this.
To add Centers in Rabio menu go to STRUCTURE–>>Centers
Categories
Using categories for all the repeated financial procedures that can be measured (or not) is a solution that can produce easy financial results at all levels. A coding system has to be used for categories. The system has to be open to accept new entries, flexible for adopting new categories and open in a group system that will be able to group categories according to the nature of their procedure.
Using the helpful example of a company that is using equipment, we can determine various categories like fuel, spare parts, lubricants, equipment services, etc. The result is some groups with coding as seen in the table below:
Category Group | Description |
1000 | Fuel |
2000 | Spare Parts |
3000 | Lubricants |
4000 | Equipment Service |
5000 | Various Expenses |
To add Categories Groups in Rabio menu go to STRUCTURE–>>Categories Groups
Next, each one of the categories is recorded and grouped at a higher level where all other categories are grouped. The result is a list as seen in the table below :
Category Group | Category Group Description | Category | Category Description | Unit Measure |
1000 | Fuel | 1001 | Petrol | Liter |
1000 | Fuel | 1002 | Diesel | Liter |
1000 | Fuel | 1003 | CNG | Liter |
2000 | Spare Parts | 2001 | Tires | Piece |
2000 | Spare Parts | 2002 | Air Filter | Piece |
2000 | Spare Parts | 2003 | Shock Absorber | Piece |
3000 | Lubricants | 3001 | Engine Oil 10W40 | Liter |
3000 | Lubricants | 3002 | Engine Oil 20W40 | Liter |
3000 | Lubricants | 3003 | Grease | Kilogram |
4000 | Equipment Service | 4001 | Truck Service | – |
4000 | Equipment Service | 4002 | Excavator Service | – |
4000 | Equipment Service | 4003 | Pickups Service | – |
Same as our example Centers coding, categories are following the coding of groups. When we are using Category Group 1000 of Fuel the codes for each kind of fuel become 1001,1002,1003 etc. The same applies to other groups of categories.
In case that a new group of categories it will be added on the coding system like 5000, 6000, etc.
Similar to centers this form of coding for categories once again is useful and helpful when recording data for budget, expenses, etc.
To add Categories in Rabio menu go to STRUCTURE–>>Categories
Combining Centers & Categories
The next step of tracking financial activities using Centers & Categories is to combine them in records.
Following our example, the combination of Centers & Categories is taking place when they are allocated into Rabio managers for Budget & Expenses.
A.Equipment Budget
Budget is a financial plan for a defined period which in our example will be one year. Budget records will include the date, the quantity (if category is measured) and the budgeted amount. Continuing our example, sample records will be created when various equipment (centers) will be recorded using categories as seen in the table below :
Date | Center | Category | Unit Measure | Qty | Unit Cost | Budget |
01-Jan | 101-Truck 1 | 1002-Diesel | Liter | 5000 | 1.40 | 7000.00 |
01-Jan | 101-Truck 1 | 3001-Engine Oil 10W40 | Liter | 50 | 20.00 | 1000.00 |
01-Jan | 101-Truck 1 | 4001-Truck Service | 2000.00 | |||
01-Jan | 201-Excavator 1 | 1002-Diesel | Liter | 30000 | 1.40 | 42000.00 |
01-Jan | 201-Excavator 1 | 3002-Engine Oil 20W40 | Liter | 500 | 10.00 | 5000.00 |
01-Jan | 201-Excavator 1 | 4002-Excavator Service | 5000.00 | |||
01-Jan | 301-Pickup 1 | 1001 – Petrol | Liter | 1500 | 1.60 | 2400.00 |
01-Jan | 301-Pickup 1 | 3001-Engine Oil 10W40 | Liter | 15 | 20.00 | 300.00 |
01-Jan | 301-Pickup 1 | 4003-Pickups Service | 1000.00 |
All budgeted items are allocated at the beginning of the year to each center per categories. This way it is able to group and view in various produced reports budget summaries per center, per group of centers, per group of categories and many more.
To add Budget in Rabio menu go to FORMS–>>Equipment Budget
B.Equipment Expenses
As the financial period is starting to develop, the recording of expenses is the next step for the business system. Following the development of our example, expenses records will include the date, the quantity (if category is measured) and the recorded expense. Some sample records will be created when expenses of various equipment (centers) will be recorded using categories as seen in the table below :
Date | Center | Category | Unit Measure | Qty | Unit Cost | Expenses |
05-Jan | 101-Truck 1 | 1002-Diesel | Liter | 200 | 1.42 | 284.00 |
06-Jan | 101-Truck 1 | 3001-Engine Oil 10W40 | Liter | 5 | 18.00 | 90.00 |
10-Jan | 101-Truck 1 | 4001-Truck Service | 500.00 | |||
02-Feb | 201-Excavator 1 | 1002-Diesel | Liter | 500 | 1.36 | 680.00 |
02-Feb | 201-Excavator 1 | 3002-Engine Oil 20W40 | Liter | 20 | 11.00 | 220.00 |
03-Feb | 201-Excavator 1 | 4002-Excavator Service | 800.00 | |||
01-Mar | 301-Pickup 1 | 1001 – Petrol | Liter | 50 | 1.55 | 77.50 |
01-Mar | 301-Pickup 1 | 3001-Engine Oil 10W40 | Liter | 5 | 25.00 | 125.00 |
01-Mar | 301-Pickup 1 | 4003-Pickups Service | 375.00 | |||
02-Mar | … | … | … | … | … | … |
12-Mar | … | … | … | … | … | … |
To add Expenses in Rabio menu go to FORMS–>>Equipment Expenses
All expenses are allocated to each center and category. This way it is able to group and view in various produced reports like expenses summaries per center, per group of centers, per group of categories and many more.
C = A – B (Calculated Column)
The 3rd column that was declared in Rabio managers is calculated as the difference of A. Equipment Budget and B. Equipment Expenses. This column is virtual and it is not available on the menu for inserting or editing data.
It is calculated and it is shown in reports.
Reports & Views
Furthermore various reports and views are be produced by Rabio reporting system.
In the series of reports budget & expenses are compared per center, category, group of centers, group of categories and many more.
If you want to check out the reporting system you can view Rabio ‘s demo for equipment cost management which is available online.
Watch the Video Tutorial
Watch the Video Tutorial for Fleet Management which is available for this guide.
Online Demo
To view the demo please follow: https://demo.rabio.eu
Please use the credentials below to view the demo :
- Email: equipment@example.com
- Password: rabio
For security reasons, the demo user has restricted access and is not able to insert or update data in any form as it’s user role is set as viewer.
Open Source
Rabio is now open source and you can download it for free. Download Rabio here