#8 Price Per Unit vs Cost

[Kevin Lanni]

The data entry tab isn't very clear whether the "Cost"
field means the Price Per Unit (gallon/litre) or the
total amount spent. It works either way, but there
really should be a field for BOTH of these, since it's
always nice to see how much you're actually spending
each time on gas. My suggestion is keep the "Cost"
field but add another field called PPU (Price Per
Unit). This is very simply done, just have the user
enter PPU only and the COST field can be automatically
filed in with a simple equation: PPU * UnitAmount
(meaning gallons or litres). EG: User buys 15
gallons(Unit) of gasoline at $1.98/gallon(PPU) his COST
~= $29.70. So, (Unit * PPU = Cost). Also add a field
on the main tab for how much money we're spending each
month (add up all the cost fields). The cost results
would only be an approximation, since most gas stations
don't accurately display the gallon amount (1.508 gal
of gas might cost the same as 1.505 gallons). I think
if you add another digit to the PPU you enter it will
correct this, but you have to look at the gas station
price sign where it has a little nine-tenth symbol just
after the price. I'm not sure if it's always
nine-tenths, so each person would have to check if they
want a more accurate output. So if your PPU is 1.98 and
9 tenths you'd enter 1.989 for PPU.

[Nobody/Anonymous]

Logged In: NO

If anything, the PPU/total cost should work either way. Either
user enters PPU or total and the other value is calculated
automatically. I think that "total" is a more precise number, as
fuel prices usually include fractions of a unit. E.g. the
.98/gallon from the example above most likely really was
.989 at the gas station. The amount owed of .835 got
most likely rounded up to .84 and that's the number I'd be
most interested in as the amount I actually paid for the
transaction. It is easy to omit/forget that $5.009 in the unit
price or not to figure in rounding to full cents, which over time
will add up and lead to dollars off of actual money spent.
Keeping track of gas price variance over time is a fun thing to
do, but not as useful as the total of money spent on gas.

[Bruce Forsberg]

Logged In: YES
user_id=951

In version 4.2 I added an item on the first tab if cost if
fillup or per unit. On the graph tab I added the price per
unit paid. This is a partial implementation of this request.