Construction Equipment Cost Tracking Software That Supports Every Fleet Decision
Equipment cost tracking captures every cost a machine generates, including acquisition, fuel, parts, labor, rental, and depreciation, and turns it into a cost per hour for each asset. Fleet managers and CFOs use it to decide when to hold, rent, buy, or replace.
Equipment economics
Every cost, per asset. Every decision, on data.
Total Cost of Ownership for Every Asset
Clue shows total cost of ownership for construction equipment by asset. One view covers maintenance costs, fuel spend, rental rates, and depreciation.
TCO per asset: All cost categories aggregated per piece of equipment
Maintenance cost rollup: All WO labor and parts costs tracked against the asset
Fuel cost per asset: Fuel spend per engine hour per asset from telematics
Rental cost tracking: Rental fees tracked separately from owned asset costs
Lease vs. Buy Analysis With Real Fleet Data
Use fleet data to compare lease vs. buy for construction equipment. Clue shows utilization, maintenance, and cost data for owned and rented equipment.
Utilization factor: Include actual utilization in the cost-per-hour calculation
Fleet view export: Download the Fleet Financials fleet view as CSV or Excel for CFO and ownership review
Cost-Per-Hour Analysis by Equipment Type
Cost per hour helps teams compare equipment of the same type. For each asset, Clue divides ownership, maintenance, and fuel costs by engine hours from telematics.
Cost-per-hour by asset: True operating cost per engine hour per piece of equipment
Cost-per-hour by equipment type: Compare average cost efficiency across asset categories
Trending over time: Track how cost per hour changes as equipment ages
Product group comparison: Compare assets in one group by cost, revenue, age and Sweet Spot hours, with the group's average age
Depreciation and Asset Lifecycle Tracking
Clue ties engine hours, maintenance history, and condition to asset value. Fleet managers use that view to plan equipment replacement and capital spending.
Engine hours as depreciation signal: Real usage-based wear data per asset
Maintenance cost increase tracking: See when repair costs begin to outpace asset value
Repair cost history: See parts and labor costs from each asset's work orders
Replacement decision data: Export lifecycle cost data to support CapEx planning
Fleet Financials Dashboard for Finance and Leadership
Fleet economics belong in financial conversations. Clue delivers a Fleet Financials dashboard that summarizes costs across the fleet in a format CFOs, VPs, and owners can use directly. No data analyst required.
Fleet cost view: See maintenance, rental and fuel costs across the fleet
Profit view: See revenue, cost and profit by asset, fleet and project
Not Profitable card: Find assets whose costs exceed revenue
Rate Module: Set project charge rates by asset type, equipment class or single asset
Fleet view export: Download the fleet view as CSV or Excel for capital planning
Parts and Inventory Cost in the Economics View
Parts are often the largest variable maintenance cost. Clue includes parts spend in the equipment economics view so the full picture of what an asset costs includes both labor and materials.
Parts cost per asset: All parts consumed aggregated against the asset record
Parts cost trends: See if parts spend is increasing as equipment ages
Total maintenance cost: Labor plus parts equals true maintenance cost per asset
Built for every role
Solutions for every team.
Field, shop, and office teams use the same system. Equipment managers, fleet managers, operations leaders, CFOs, and executives see equipment details for their work.
Equipment Manager
“It's a single pane of glass where you see everything across your fleet, from the field to the phone to the computer.”
Abe Sharaf
Equipment Manager, Pulice Construction
Read Pulice’s story
Fleet Manager
“Imagine receiving 2,000 spreadsheets that needed to be approved individually in an email. There were entire teams dedicated to that. Now the system is fully automated, completely automated from beginning to end.”
Julio Lopez
Fleet Manager, Fort McKay Group
Read Fort McKay’s story
CFO
“You went from doing two services a day to six services a day. That right there is priceless to me.”
Darrin Sheriff
Director of Maintenance & Purchasing, Palmetto Corp
Read Palmetto’s story
VP of Operations
“The big thing with Clue is that we're able to bridge the gap between our field, our operators in our shop, and other departments. Everybody's bought into Clue now.”
Eric Sellman
COO, Brent Scarbrough & Co
Read Brent Scarbrough’s story
Executive
“We had 20 different logins between all our different softwares and web platforms. Now all that information pulls into one spot and we're able to see it in a single place.”
John Igel
CEO, George Igel Co.
Read Igel’s story
Operations Manager
“The operator's in control of his own destiny. That was a huge reason why not only did I buy into it, but I'm also investing into it for the future.”
Ben Benoit
Operations Manager, Onshore Companies
Read Onshore’s story
Through the cost picture
Why Construction Finance Teams Use Clue Equipment Economics
Work orders. Fuel. Telematics. Data from your fleet.
True TCO In-House
Clue calculates total cost of ownership from your fleet's maintenance, fuel, and rental data.
Lease vs. Buy From Real Data
Make the own-vs-rent decision with actual fleet utilization and cost data.
Cost Per Hour for Every Asset
Know which equipment is the most and least cost-efficient in your fleet.
Replacement Timing Sweet Spot
The Sweet Spot marks the engine hours with the lowest total cost per hour to guide replacement timing.
CFO-Ready Dashboards
Fleet economics formatted for financial leadership review, with no report building by hand.
CapEx Planning Support
Lifecycle cost data exports that support capital planning and equipment committee reviews.
Cost Data Stays With the Asset.
Equipment economics only works when the cost data is complete. Clue connects OEM telematics, GPS, fuel, ERP and accounting systems so maintenance, fuel, rental and parts spend all land against the same asset record.
From the people who use it every day
What contractors say
“It exposes dead cost or overhead that maybe we don’t know about because it gets lost in those three different systems.”
Moss Utilities
“The big thing with Clue is that we’re able to bridge the gap between our field, our operators in our shop, and other departments.”
Brent Scarbrough & Company
“There were entire teams dedicated to approving spreadsheets one by one.”
Fort McKay First Nation
“The biggest difference has been the user friendliness.”
William A. Hazel
“Clue’s real-time data capability has completely changed the way we manage our assets.”
Darrin Sheriff, Director of Maintenance and Purchasing
“It was probably taking the better part of a day to combine all the data from the telematics.”
Derek Wolfe, Equipment Manager, George Igel Co.
“Clue allows us to effectively control our operations: financially, effectively and safely.”
Joseph Yammine, Project Manager, Graham
“QR codes have been a game changer for us with regards to operator inspections.”
Ben Benoit, Operations Manager
“It’s a single pane of glass where you see everything across your fleet, from the field to the phone to the computer.”
Abe Sharaf, Corporate Equipment Engineer
“Our field guys were tired of having a new product, a new something to learn each time.”
Rob Judge, Sr. Procurement & Program Manager
“Our equipment is in far better shape since we started using Clue, for sure.”
Jake Farley, Equipment Manager, Silver Star Construction
Work Orders in Clue: Repair History, Parts, and Labor Costs
Parts Management in Clue: Requests, Delivery Tracking & Inventory
Template Manager in Clue: Inspection Templates, AI Import & Shared Categories
Preventive Maintenance in Clue: Build a PM Plan, Automate Work Orders
Asset Directory in Clue: Saved Views, Bulk Edits & Meters
Common questions
Construction equipment economics software FAQ.
What is equipment economics in construction fleet management?
Equipment economics measures the cost to own, run and maintain construction equipment. It covers total cost of ownership, cost per hour, lease vs. buy and replacement timing. Clue's construction equipment economics software shows cost, revenue and profit per asset in Fleet Financials. It charts owning, operating and total cost per hour against engine hours. The Sweet Spot marks the engine hours with the lowest total cost per hour.
How does Clue calculate total cost of ownership for equipment?
Clue aggregates all cost categories per asset: maintenance labor and parts (from work orders and parts requests), fuel consumption (from telematics), rental fees (for rented equipment), and any other operating costs recorded in the platform. This gives a true TCO figure per asset without manual spreadsheet calculations.
How does Clue support the lease vs. buy decision?
Clue provides actual utilization data (engine hours from telematics), maintenance costs, and rental expense tracking side by side. For any asset class, you can compare the cost-per-hour of a rented asset versus an owned asset of the same type based on actual fleet data, not industry estimates.
Can Clue help time equipment replacement decisions?
Yes. Fleet Financials charts each asset's owning, operating and total cost per hour against engine hours. The Sweet Spot marks the hours with the lowest total cost per hour. Clue keeps each asset's repair history with parts and labor costs. Teams use this data to compare the cost of keeping an asset with the cost of replacing it.
How does Clue integrate with existing ERP or financial systems?
Teams upload finance data from their ERP or spreadsheets. Clue standardizes it so equipment finance data sits in one place. With Vista, projects sync into Clue. Clue sends work order data to Vista after completion. Clue maps cost codes to Vista batch numbers.
Can Clue track the profitability of individual assets?
Yes. Fleet Financials shows revenue, cost, and profit for each asset, fleet, and project. The Rate Module sets the charge rates that drive revenue. A Fleet Financials card lists assets whose costs exceed revenue.
How does Clue help prevent overcharging or undercharging for equipment usage?
Clue's Rate Module sets charge rates by asset type, equipment class, or single asset for a project. Fleet Financials compares revenue from those rates with each asset's cost. Teams see which assets recover their cost.
How does Clue help CFOs and equipment managers collaborate effectively?
Clue provides clear reporting and financial insights that both teams can access, ensuring alignment. By breaking down costs and performance metrics, CFOs and equipment managers can make informed decisions together.
How do contractors identify hidden costs in the equipment fleet?
Hidden costs sit in idle fuel, repair labor and rentals that stay past their return date. Clue pulls fuel and usage data from telematics. Each work order holds parts and labor costs. Clue tracks rental fees per asset. Clue sends a reminder five days before a rental comes due. Crews send a return request when they finish with a rental.
Where does Clue get equipment cost data?
Clue gets equipment cost data from work orders, fuel data, telematics, charge rates, and finance uploads. Work orders hold parts and labor costs. Clue applies the latest unit cost to each part. The Fuel Report shows fuel rate, volume, and cost per asset. Telematics syncs engine hours and odometer readings. The Rate Module holds charge rates. Teams can upload finance data from their ERP or spreadsheets.
What reports does Clue offer for equipment costs?
Clue provides construction fleet cost analytics in financial, fuel, utilization, and custom reports. Fleet Financials shows revenue, cost, and profit per asset, fleet, and project. The Fuel Report shows rate, volume, and asset cost. The Asset Utilization Report shows engine hours, odometer, fuel rate, and daily use. The AI Report Builder turns plain-language requests into custom reports. Clue sends reports to any email on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule.
How does preventive maintenance cost show up in equipment economics?
Clue tracks preventive maintenance cost against each asset through its PM work orders. When a PM interval hits, Clue creates a work order. The work order tracks parts and labor costs against the asset. Clue carries each PM plan item's default cost code into every work order it creates.