Scope and Purpose

Why does this page exist?

As the project grows and gain new users, it is bound to run into issues where it won't fulfill every user's needs or wants. While we are fairly receptive towards feature requests, there are lines that need to be drawn regarding what is within the scope and purpose of the project and what isn't. This page will be linked in CONTRIBUTING.md and hopefully it will be read before someone else submits a new ticket that will ultimately be ignored or closed as unplanned.

What is the scope?

The scope of this project, as established since its inception, is to track vehicle ownership costs and fuel mileage. Generally, it seeks to be a replacement for the grease-stained notepads, shoebox full of receipts, and spreadsheets. It is never intended to, and will never be a replacement for enterprise software used for auto/mechanic shops.

• If you're someone who maintains your vehicle by yourself - yes it will probably work for you.
• If you're a business that maintains your own equipment(forklifts, trucks, etc) - most likely will fit your use-case.
• If you're a mechanic/repair shop trying to use LubeLogger to keep track of your clients' vehicles - this is probably not for you.

Can LubeLogger replace my spreadsheet?

Most likely, but understand that the goal isn't to replace spreadsheets of every possible shape and size. Spreadsheets created to track vehicle costs can vary wildly from people to people. It is unlikely that we will add modifications to the project so that it becomes a drop-in replacement for your specific spreadsheet, but if you think it's a feature that will be greatly beneficial for the user base, submit a feature request for it.

I want to use LubeLogger but it's missing tabs I want.

This request comes in a lot, and it's usually for Insurance/Car Wash/Parking/Loan Payments/Citations.

First, make sure that this isn't something that can already be achieved in the Taxes tab with tags. We're not going to add more tabs that are functionally identical to the Taxes tab just with a different label, because to do so would result in a near infinite amount of tabs that we have to support and maintain, which is unfeasible at any scale.

The Taxes tab is designed to be a catch-all for any vehicle expenses that are unrelated to the odometer reading at the time the expense is incurred. Example: you're going to be paying registration on your vehicle annually regardless of whether you drove 10 miles or 1000 miles.

You can utilize the tags, API, and Custom Widgets functionality to display costs breakdown based on tags in the dashboard if reporting is the end goal.

Pseudo code:

var insuranceDataArray = fetch(`/api/vehicle/taxrecords?vehicleId=${GetVehicleId().vehicleId}`)
var totalInsuranceCost = 0;
insuranceDataArray.filter(x => x.tags.includes('insurance')).map(x=>{totalInsuranceCost += parseInt(x.cost)});

What is out of scope?

LubeLogger is not

• Project Management Software(e.g.: Jira)
  • The Planner tab provides a simplified KanBan board designed to replace to-do lists and will never have support for blockers, sub-tasks, point estimation, etc.
• Budget Management(e.g: YNAB/Actual)
  • LubeLogger tracks expenses and is intentionally designed to not able to record revenues(see PR #843 if you wish to fork)
  • If you're generating revenue from your vehicles(renting it out, etc), you can record the maintenance expenses but not the revenue.
  • Unfortunately this also means that you can't record EV tax credits for your EVs to offset total ownership costs.
  • You can record car payments in the Taxes tab, but Loan Tracking/Amortization will never be supported.
• Inventory Management(e.g.: ERP)
  • The Supplies tab is designed to track parts and supplies you purchased for your vehicles, not to track supplies which you have purchased and then sold.
  • Do not use LubeLogger to track merchandise and Cost of Goods Sold(COGS), it does not support LIFO/FIFO, sales tax payable, etc, you need to invest in an actual ERP if that is your use case.