💬 Feature requires activation. Contact your Qargo Account Manager if you do not see this option available.

Summary

What is this feature?

Expected vs Actual Costs allows a side-by-side comparison of what a trip was expected to cost (at the time of planning) versus what it actually cost once completed.

Why does it exist?

Before this feature, the original planned cost was overwritten when a trip was executed. There was no way to look back and see whether a trip cost more or less than expected, or to track planning accuracy over time.

How does it work?

Planned status: Qargo calculates costs based on your rate cards and charge configurations.
- Calculations are stored as the Expected amount — a snapshot of the cost while the trip is still in Planned status (or earlier).

In Transit or beyond:
- Expected amount is locked and any changes made after that point — for example, extra km driven, a manual override, or a purchase invoice received from a subcontractor — are reflected in the Actual amount only.

Prerequisites

Before the Expected vs Actual Costs columns are visible, the following must be in place:

Feature activation - this feature is controlled by a setting that is turned off by default.

Cost calculations configured - rate cards or internal cost calculations must already be set up in Qargo for expected costs to be calculated. See the Cost calculation trip article for guidance on how to set these up.

Terminology

Term	Meaning
Expected amount	The cost of a charge as calculated while the trip was in Planned status or earlier. Locked when the trip moves to In Transit.
Actual amount	The current charge amount — reflecting the final cost after operational data, manual adjustments, or purchase invoice matching. This is what gets sent to your accounting package.

Where to find expected costs

The expected and actual cost columns appear in three places on a trip, once the feature has been enabled:

Trip detail - P&L section: The clearest side-by-side view. Shows total expected costs versus total actual costs for the trip.
Order summary: Expected and actual cost columns are visible for each order linked to the trip.
Charge table: The individual cost lines on the trip each show an Expected amount column alongside the standard cost column.

Refreshing the expected amount

In some cases you may want to manually update the expected cost — for example, after correcting a planning error before a trip departs. You can do this using the same recalculate action already available on charges.

Open the trip detail page.
Navigate to the charge you want to update.
Click the recalculate icon (⟳) on that charge.
Select the option to update the expected amount.

This copies the current actual cost to the expected amount and can be done whether the trip is still planned or already in transit.

Reporting on expected vs actual costs

In-app filtering and sorting on cost variance is not available in this version. For deeper analysis, use dashboards, where both expected_charge_amount and expected_charge_amount_tenant_currency are available on the purchase invoice line items mart.

Use Cases

Checking planning accuracy after a trip A transport company wants to know whether their cost calculations reflect what trips actually cost. When a planner assigns a trip to a subcontractor, Qargo calculates an expected cost of €120 based on an estimated 100 km. After the trip, actual FMS data shows 110 km were driven, bringing the actual cost to €132. The variance of +€12 is now visible directly on the trip, helping the planner identify that this route regularly costs more than planned.

Verifying subcontractor invoices against estimates When a purchase invoice arrives from a subcontractor, the finance team can compare the invoiced amount against what was expected at the time of planning. This makes it easier to spot unexpected differences and follow up with the subcontractor if needed.

Post-trip reconciliation (nacalculatie) Operations managers who review trip profitability after the fact can now see, trip by trip, how expected margin compares to actual margin. This supports structured post-trip analysis and helps identify patterns - for example, routes or resource types where costs consistently deviate from the plan.

BI reporting on profitability trends Finance teams can pull both expected and actual cost data into BigQuery to build dashboards showing cost variance across time periods, routes, or subcontractors - giving a structured view of planning accuracy and operational cost control.

Limitations

Expected cost data is only available for trips planned after the feature was activated. Trips completed before activation will not have expected cost values.
Filtering or sorting trips by cost variance is not available in-app. Use BigQuery/BI dashboards for this type of analysis.
Expected and actual costs are internal data only - they are not visible to customers or subcontractors via any portal.
No automatic alerts are sent when actual costs exceed expected costs by a certain amount.
If a charge is deleted and re-added on a trip, or if the price list on an assigned resource is changed, the expected cost for that charge is reset.
Standalone charges added directly to invoices (not linked to a cost rate card) will not have an expected cost value.

Troubleshooting

Issue	What to check
Expected cost columns are not visible on the trip	The feature may not be enabled for the account. Contact Qargo support to have it activated.
The expected cost is empty for some charges	The charge may have been added after the trip moved past Planned status, or the charge was deleted and re-added. Only charges that existed while the trip was in Planned status will have an expected cost.
Expected cost equals actual cost even after the trip is completed	If no changes were made to costs after planning (same km, no manual adjustments, no purchase invoice with a different amount), expected and actual costs will be the same. This is normal.
Expected costs are available for some trips but not others	Only trips planned after the feature was enabled will have expected cost data. Earlier trips will show empty values for expected costs.
Cost variance data is not showing in the BI dashboard	Confirm with the data team that the BigQuery pipeline for expected/actual cost data has been set up. BI connectivity requires a separate setup step.