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From 5 Portals to 1: The Fleet Finance playbook for 2025

Fleet cost management in 2025 is broken.

Five portals open, spreadsheets everywhere, over 6 days lost each month

If you manage a fleet in Europe, you probably know this routine:

  • Five different portals open.
  • Spreadsheets everywhere.
  • Three days lost each month checking invoices.

Chris, our fleet manager persona, lives this daily. And he’s not alone. Rising fuel costs, scattered data, and unclear invoices make fleet finance harder than it should be.

The good news? With the right setup, you can collapse that chaos into one clear overview.

This playbook shows you how.

The Problem: Too many portals, too little time

Fleet managers juggle fuel receipts, toll statements, parking slips, and service invoices. Each lives in its own system.

Result:

  • Lost hours chasing receipts. In a 2025 survey of ~300 fleet professionals, 18% said they spend over 8 hours per week on manual data entry. More than half still juggle multiple platforms or spreadsheets despite having software in place (Fleetio, 2025).
  • Compliance risk if VAT reclaim data is missing or claims are rejected. EU businesses leave more than €20 billion in VAT refunds unclaimed every year (VATcube).
  • Stress when the CFO asks for a clean cost overview and you don’t have it yet.

Chris calls it: “five portals open, three days lost.”

The Impact: What it costs you

Fragmented data doesn’t just hurt your mood. It hurts the business.

  • Money: Errors slip through. Over 30% of purchase order vs. invoice mismatches are caused by manual entry or inconsistent processes.
  • Credibility: Without transparent numbers, finance and leadership start questioning your control.
  • Focus: Instead of planning efficient routes, you’re firefighting paperwork.

Fleet managers like Chris want predictable costs, fewer errors, and tools that prove control.

The Fix: One Invoice, one source of truth

Here’s where simplification pays off.

With TFC, you consolidate:

  • Fuel, tolls, parking, and services → one card, one invoice.
  • All spend data → one portal, real-time view.
  • VAT and compliance support → automated, no manual checks.

It’s not magic. It’s structure. And that’s what fleet managers value most.

The Playbook: How to take back control in 2025

  1. Consolidate Payments
    • Move fuel, tolls, and parking to a single provider.
    • Demand consolidated invoicing.
  2. Standardize Data
    • Track the same fields across the fleet: vehicle ID, driver, route, station, price per liter, VAT code, exceptions.
    • This avoids month-end guesswork.
  3. Integrate With Planning Tools
    • Connect fuel and cost data into your TMS or ERP.
    • Fleet managers like Chris crave reports they can hand straight to the CFO.
  4. Set Limits & Alerts
    • Use card controls to stop misfueling and out-of-policy spend.
    • Prevention beats three days of invoice audits.
  5. Automate Reporting
    • Build a recurring “fleet cost pack”: fuel efficiency, toll spend, VAT status.
    • Deliver it monthly — in 3 clicks, not 3 days.

The Win: In 3 clicks

Imagine closing the month with:

  • No chasing receipts.
  • No unclear costs.
  • No three-day audit marathons.

Just fact-based control and a clear overview.

Chris gets what he wanted all along: fewer portals, predictable costs, and time back to run the fleet instead of chasing it.

Conclusion

Fleet finance doesn’t have to be chaos. By consolidating systems, standardising data, and using one clear invoice, you shift from reactive to proactive.

At TFC, we’re built for exactly that: simplifying the hard parts so fleet managers can focus on the road ahead.