Travel$ense User's Guide (PDF, 139 MB) - NBAA

174TRAVEL$ENSECompanies should carefully consider chargeback levels in light of this sensitivityand management’s desire to proactively facilitate maximum employeeproductivity and efficiency. Chargeback costs can be set to guide aircraftutilization to preset company aircraft utilization targets, in effect settingutilization rates by varying the cost of travel.The Ecumenical Treatment of Capital AssetsBusiness aircraft are an ordinary travel option for thousands of companies. Insome companies, however, business aircraft are considered anything butordinary and are unusually or even oddly treated vis-à-vis other capital assets.Obviously, business aircraft should be treated ecumenically and in a similarfashion to a company’s other capital investments, including mainframecomputers, buildings or machine tools.Of course, costing data regarding business aircraft are critically important to aidin the preparation of budget requests and forecasts. This data also is useful toproviding systematic and timely review of expenditures versus budgetprojections. Travel$ense requires users to determine the costs per flight hour(“squat switch” to “squat switch”) or cost per statute mile. To determine timeenroute (“block time”) Travel$ense calculates the great circle distance betweenairports and then adds a user-defined value for each takeoff and landing toaccount for taxi time. This estimate, calculated for Tab 1 in the corporate tripdata block, can then be changed manually.Direct and Fixed Operating CostsDirect operating costs and fixed costs are the two types of costs that areassociated with aircraft operation.DIRECT OPERATING COSTSDirect operating costs are incurred while the aircraft is operating. These costsinclude the following:• Consumables (fuel and oil)• Maintenance• Inspections• Overhaul• Parts replacement• Aircraft replacementThese costs may be known and accounted for (receipts are available), or beestimated future expenses. Aircraft costs for charging purposes are either inCopyright © 1999, National Business Aviation Association, Inc.