Skip to main content
What's new · v1.14.1 · Hotfix for Inbox

Track what your flying costs

Turn on expense tracking to record aircraft hire, instruction, landing fees and more, and link each cost to the flights it paid for.

All plansWeb appUpdated 26 Oct 2026

Logbook > Expenses keeps a private record of what your flying costs, next to the flights themselves. It's included in the Free plan. It's off until you turn it on, because not every pilot wants it.

Your expenses are private to you. They don't appear in anyone else's view of the workspace, and they never affect your logbook totals.

Turn it on​

  1. In the sidebar, under Logbook, choose Expenses.
  2. You'll see "Expense tracking is off". Press Enable expense tracking.

Pilot Lab sets up a starting list of common expense items for you.

Add an expense​

  1. On the Expenses page, press Add expense.
  2. Fill in the side panel:
    • Category: Aircraft hire, Instructor, Landing fees, Fuel, Maintenance, Training, Exams, Medical, Equipment, Documents, Subscriptions, Travel or Other.
    • Amount and Date.
    • Description, for example "ZK-EQT · 1.4 h dual".
    • Vendor, for example your aero club.
    • Status: Draft, Reserved, Paid or Void.
    • Linked flights: search for the flights this cost belongs to.

Amounts are in New Zealand dollars by default.

Add a cost from a flight​

You can also start from the flight. Once expense tracking is on, each entry has a Flight costs section. Press Add cost there and the new expense is already linked to that flight. The section shows the flight's total cost and its cost per hour, or "No costs linked to this flight yet."

Linking a cost to its flights is what lets Pilot Lab work out what each hour really cost you.

See where the money goes​

The Expenses page has two tabs.

Overview shows:

  • Spent YTD (with the year): spending so far this year
  • Last 30 days
  • Avg / month
  • Cost / logged hour
  • a Spend trend chart, and a Training cost card

Ledger lists every expense. Filter it by status (Paid, Reserved, Draft, Void), by whether it's linked to a flight, and by category.

Take your expenses with you​

Press Export CSV on the Expenses page to download your expenses as a spreadsheet file.

Good to know​

  • To remove an expense, open it and use Delete expense. Set it to Void instead if you'd like to keep a record that it was cancelled.
  • Expenses don't change any logbook figure. Your flight time totals come only from your entries.
  • You can't attach a receipt to an expense yet. Keep receipts in Documents if you need them.
  • Once expense tracking is on, there's no switch in the app to turn it off again.
Last updated on