Allocations & Categories

Plant rates in Samurai are designed to give both Finance and the Plant department visibility into how equipment operating costs are structured and calculated.

Rather than treating all costs as a single value, Samurai breaks the plant rate into Categories and Allocations.

This structure provides:

Better cost visibility
More accurate cost modelling
Flexible reporting
Improved customer charging
Site-specific cost analysis

Overview

At a high level:

Allocations determine how a cost is calculated in Samurai
Categories determine how the Plant department wants that cost grouped and reported

A category is assigned to an allocation.

For example:

Category	Allocation
Tyres	TY - Tyres
GET	GT - GET / Liners
Major Components	PT - Maintenance Parts
U/C Parts and Components	PT - Maintenance Parts
Buckets & Bodies	PT - Maintenance Parts

Although several categories may use the same allocation, they can still be tracked and reported separately.

This allows the Plant department to analyse specific cost drivers independently.

What are Allocations?

Allocations are the core calculation groups within Samurai.

Each allocation controls:

How costs are calculated
Where the user configures the cost
How costs are stored
What inputs are required

Allocations are fixed system behaviours within Samurai.

For example:

Allocation	Purpose
DP - Depreciation	Calculates equipment depreciation
IN - Interest	Calculates finance and interest costs
IS - Insurance	Calculates insurance costs
PT - Maintenance Parts	Handles maintenance parts costs via Maintenance Tasks
LA - Maintenance Labour	Handles labour costs via Maintenance Tasks
TY - Tyres	Handles tyre costing and tyre life
GT - GET / Liners	Handles GET and wear component costing
FL - Oils & Fluids	Handles oils, lube and fluid consumption
OP - Operator	Handles operator labour costs
OH - Overheads	Handles overhead recovery

Each allocation has its own calculation logic.

For example:

Depreciation uses purchase price, residual value and life
Interest uses finance formulas and interest rates
Tyres use tyre life and replacement cost
Maintenance Parts use Maintenance Tasks and component life assumptions
Oils & Fluids use service intervals and consumption rates

Because the calculations differ significantly, allocations are fixed within the system and cannot be arbitrarily changed.

What are Categories?

Categories are used to further break down plant costs for operational analysis and reporting.

Categories are similar to financial cost elements, but they often provide more operational detail.

Multiple categories may map to the same allocation.

This gives the Plant department flexibility to separate costs that behave differently in real-world operation.

Example: Undercarriage Costs

Undercarriage components often wear differently depending on:

Haul distance
Underfoot conditions
Abrasive material
Track slip
Site type

For this reason, a business may choose to separate:

U/C Parts and Components
Major Components
Minor / PM Service Parts

Even though all of these may ultimately map to the PT - Maintenance Parts allocation.

This allows:

Better site comparisons
Customer-specific charging
Tracking of high wear conditions
More accurate forecasting

Example: Buckets & Bodies

Excavator buckets or truck bodies may also be separated into their own categories because:

Wear varies significantly by material type
Customer conditions differ
Some customers pay directly for ground engaging wear
Components may have shorter or highly variable life

Separating these costs improves transparency and reporting.

Relationship Between Categories and Allocations

The relationship works as follows:

The category determines how the Plant department wants the cost grouped
The allocation determines how Samurai calculates and manages the cost

This means:

Many categories can map to one allocation
One category belongs to one allocation

For example:

Category	Allocation
Major Components	PT - Maintenance Parts
Buckets & Bodies	PT - Maintenance Parts
GPS	PT - Maintenance Parts
U/C Parts and Components	PT - Maintenance Parts

All of these are managed through the Maintenance Task system because they use the PT allocation.

Allocations in the Plant Hire Rate Screen

In the Plant Hire Rate screen, the input sections shown down the left side of the page represent the Allocations.

Each allocation contains its own configuration logic and calculation method.

Within each allocation, costs can then be broken down further using Categories.

For example:

Maintenance Tasks are configured under the PT - Maintenance Parts allocation
Individual tasks can then be assigned to categories such as:
- GET
- U/C Parts and Components
- Buckets & Bodies
- Major Components

This allows detailed reporting while still using the correct calculation method.

Maintenance Tasks and Categories

When configuring Maintenance Tasks, the user selects a Plant Rate Category.

The selected category determines:

How the cost is reported
Which cost group the task belongs to
How the cost appears in rate breakdowns

The underlying allocation still controls the calculation behaviour.

For example:

A GET replacement task and an Undercarriage rebuild task may both use the PT allocation
However, they are reported separately because they belong to different categories

This provides operational visibility without requiring different calculation engines.

Summary

Plant Rate Allocations and Categories work together to provide both calculation control and operational reporting flexibility.

Allocations

Allocations define:

How costs are calculated
Where users configure costs
What system logic is used

Allocations are fixed within Samurai.