About 10 minutes
Finance panel terms and definitions
A field-by-field reference for the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, loans and trend charts in the Finance panel.
How to use this reference
The Finance panel is organized into three tabs:
- Performance contains the Balance Sheet and Income Statement;
- Loan contains borrowing controls, the outstanding balance, scheduled monthly payment and loan list;
- Trends contains the historical charts.
Within Performance, the Balance Sheet shows what the government has and owes at the current point in time, while the Income Statement shows revenue and accounting expenses over a selected period.
The labels below describe the panel as it appears in game version 0.2.0. Amounts are rounded for display, so visible subtotals can occasionally differ by a small rounding amount. Most Balance Sheet and Income Statement labels also carry a small in-game help icon with a contextual explanation.
Balance Sheet
The Balance Sheet is a snapshot. It does not describe only the selected month or year.
| Panel term | Definition | Nature |
|---|---|---|
| Total Assets | Transport Fund Balance plus the current book value of all road, rail, aviation and waterway facilities. | Point in time |
| Transport Fund Balance | Cash currently available for construction, operations, debt payments and other cash costs. | Cash Point in time |
| Road Facilities | The current book value of road assets. Book value falls through depreciation, recovers when a link is overhauled, and can change when assets are upgraded, written off or removed. Because renewal is bought at current construction prices, a long-held asset’s book value can sit above what it originally cost. | Non-cash value |
| Rail Facilities | The current book value of railway infrastructure assets. | Non-cash value |
| Rail operating assets | The current book value of rolling stock bought for rail operating lines, held separately from track infrastructure. | Non-cash value |
| Aviation Facilities | The current book value of airport and aviation-related assets recorded by the accounting system. | Non-cash value |
| Waterway Facilities | The current book value of port, ferry and other waterway assets recorded by the accounting system. | Non-cash value |
| Total Liabilities | The remaining principal of all outstanding loans. Future interest is not included in this balance. | Point in time |
| Total Equity | The government’s accumulated stake in the network: Capital Investment plus Retained Earnings. | Point in time |
| Capital Investment | Public capital contributed to the transport system outside the income statement. | Non-cash value |
| Retained Earnings | Accumulated Net Income across all recorded periods. | Non-cash value |
| Liabilities + Equity | Total Liabilities plus Total Equity. It is printed explicitly so the balance can be checked: in legacy or pending states the two sides can differ temporarily. | Point in time |
| Overhaul due (next 12 mo) | Renewal cash the existing network will owe over the coming twelve months. It is a forecast, not a balance, and is listed here because overhaul never appears in the income statement — this is the only place the upcoming bill is visible before it lands. The row is hidden when nothing is due. | Cash |
The Road Facilities row is always present; the rail, rail operating, aviation and waterway rows appear only while their balance is above zero.
Revenue composition
The bar above the Income Statement divides reported revenue into two broad groups.
Total revenue other than Government Grants. It includes tolls, fares, taxes and Other Revenue.
Government Grants recorded for the selected period, including qualifying supplemental public support.
This split describes the statement’s accounting categories. “Earned” can include Other Revenue that is non-cash, so it should not be read as a pure cash-flow measure.
Income Statement
The Income Statement covers a period. In the default view, the panel compares the current year to date with the same period in the previous year.
Revenue terms
| Panel term | Definition | Nature |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Government Grants + all toll and fare revenue + Tax Revenue + Other Revenue for the selected period. | Mixed |
| Government Grants | The public support family. Three indented sub-rows show the recurring Regular Government Grant (based on the national economy and population-weighted transport service), Policy Contributions from active settlement policies, and one-time Milestone & Development Support. | Cash |
| Toll Revenue | Charges collected from billable road traffic, subject to the active toll rate, route use and capacity. | Cash |
| Rail Fare Revenue | Automatic fares earned by rail operating lines, shown with sub-rows for passenger and cargo operating lines. | Cash |
| Waterway Revenue | Passenger and cargo fares collected by active water routes, plus port cargo-handling fees. | Cash |
| Transport Tax Revenue | Combined transport allocation of service-linked population tax, road fuel tax, the air passenger public charge, airport and port asset taxes, and any other or legacy transport-tax entries. Road and rail book value does not generate a recurring return; airline fares stay private, so the flat per-journey passenger charge is the air system’s public revenue. | Cash |
| Population Tax Allocation | The transport share of service-linked population tax. The allocation is five percent after service and access adjustments. | Cash |
| Road Fuel Tax | A road-user levy based on routed, capacity-limited equivalent vehicle distance. Freight carries a larger road-use weight than passenger movement. | Cash |
| Road/Rail Asset Return | Zero for newly simulated months. The explicit row makes clear that public road and railway assets do not pay their owner a recurring percentage of book value. | Cash |
| Other / Legacy Transport Taxes | Transport-tax revenue not represented by the named components, including unsplit totals retained when older ledgers are viewed. | Cash |
| Other Revenue | Currently used mainly for a positive, non-cash revaluation created by a road or railway upgrade. It increases Net Income but does not add money to the Transport Fund Balance. | Non-cash |
Other Revenue in detail
When a road or railway is upgraded, two amounts can differ:
- Upgrade expenditure is the cash actually paid for the upgrade.
- Replacement cost is the amount at which the completed asset would be recorded if its new configuration were built directly.
If the replacement cost is higher than the upgrade expenditure, the difference is recorded as a positive asset revaluation:
For example, suppose an upgrade costs $75.65M in cash and the completed asset is recorded at a replacement cost of $80M. The difference is $4.35M, which appears in Other Revenue.
The non-cash gain is reported as revenue.
The gain is included in the period’s accounting result.
The higher Net Income accumulates in equity.
Only the $75.65M upgrade payment affects cash.
If the replacement cost is lower than the upgrade expenditure, the negative difference is recorded as a non-cash loss under Other Expenses, rather than as negative Other Revenue.
Expense terms
| Panel term | Definition | Nature |
|---|---|---|
| Expenses | Maintenance + Rail service operating costs + Depreciation + Loan Interest + the rail and air subsidies + Other Expenses for the selected period. Principal Repayment is shown separately and is not included in this total. | Mixed |
| Maintenance | Recurring cost of maintaining transport facilities, including water route operating costs and port congestion charges. | Cash |
| Rail service operating costs | The monthly cost of running active rail operating lines: line management, round trips, car distance, stops and cargo handling. | Cash |
| Depreciation | The accounting allocation of asset cost over its useful life, measured against what the asset would cost to build today rather than what was paid for it. It reduces facility book value and Net Income without directly reducing the transport fund that month. | Non-cash |
| Loan Interest | The interest portion of loan payments. It is both a cash cost and an expense. | Cash |
| Railway public service subsidy | Support paid to rail operating lines run under a public-service pricing stance. | Cash |
| Government air service subsidy | Support paid for approved essential air services. | Cash |
| Air route development grant | Support explicitly posted to develop an air route. The row stays at zero unless such assistance is granted—approving an ordinary commercial route neither charges nor pays it. | Cash |
| Other Expenses | Costs that belong to no other row: demolition costs, asset write-offs, negative upgrade revaluations, settlement founding fees and policy assignment costs. It can combine real cash payments with non-cash accounting losses. | Mixed |
| Net Income | Revenue minus all of the expense lines above. It is an accounting result, not the change in the transport fund. | Accounting result |
| Principal Repayment | The portion of loan payments that reduces the outstanding loan balance. It uses cash but is not an expense, because it reduces a liability. | Cash |
Other Expenses in detail
Other Expenses combines several kinds of cost that do not belong under Maintenance, Depreciation or Loan Interest. Three are accounting events tied to assets:
The cash paid to remove a road or railway. It reduces both the Transport Fund Balance and Net Income.
The remaining book value removed when an asset is demolished or replaced. It lowers Net Income and facility assets without a second cash payment.
When an upgrade costs more than the replacement cost recorded for the completed asset, the difference is recognized as a non-cash loss.
Two more are administrative cash costs charged the moment you confirm them: the settlement founding fee and the policy assignment cost. Both leave the fund immediately and are later transferred from the pending balance into the ledger—they are not charged twice.
For a demolition, the amount reported under Other Expenses is therefore:
Suppose removing a railway costs $2M and the railway still has a book value of $18M. The Income Statement records $20M in Other Expenses:
$2M cash demolition cost plus an $18M non-cash write-off.
Both components are accounting expenses.
The removed asset’s remaining book value leaves the Balance Sheet.
Only the demolition cost is paid in cash.
For an upgrade, the old asset’s remaining book value is written off when it is replaced. The new asset is then recorded at its replacement cost. The upgrade payment is a capital transaction rather than an ordinary expense; only a negative replacement-cost difference is added to Other Expenses as a revaluation loss.
This formula applies only when upgrade expenditure is higher. When replacement cost is higher instead, the positive difference appears under Other Revenue.
Why cash and Net Income differ
The two values answer different questions:
Includes depreciation and other non-cash entries.
Includes principal repayment and capital transactions, but excludes non-cash entries.
Examples:
- Depreciation lowers Net Income but does not directly use cash that month.
- Principal Repayment uses cash but does not lower Net Income.
- A positive asset revaluation can raise Other Revenue without adding cash.
- Construction uses cash while creating an asset; it is not treated as an ordinary monthly expense in full.
Loan tab
| Panel term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Take Loan | Opens the borrowing dialog for a new loan. |
| Outstanding Balance | The remaining principal across all active loans. |
| Monthly Payment | The combined scheduled monthly payment across all active loans. |
| Loan List | Shows each loan’s original amount, agreed interest rate, remaining balance and monthly payment. An empty list displays zero values explicitly. |
| Interest Rate | The current rate offered for a new loan at the nation’s present development level. Existing loans retain the rate agreed when they were taken. |
| Borrowing Limit | The maximum additional principal currently available after considering the economy, eligible asset backing and existing loan balances. The displayed limit is rounded down to a whole million, so it never exceeds the underlying credit calculation. |
| Loan Amount | The principal to be added to the transport fund if the loan is confirmed. |
| Maximum Available | Sets Loan Amount directly to the displayed Borrowing Limit. |
| Repayment Term | The number of years over which the loan will be repaid. |
| Total Interest | The projected interest paid over the full term if the loan follows its schedule. |
| Total Payment | Principal plus projected interest over the full repayment term. |
Reporting periods and comparisons
| Panel term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Year To Date | Totals from the beginning of the current year through the latest recorded month. |
| Year n−1 | The comparison column, labelled with the previous year’s number (for example “Year 4”). In year-to-date view it covers the equivalent period one year earlier; when a full year is selected from the year dropdown, it shows the prior full year. In year 1 no comparison column is shown. |
| Year n | The year dropdown options; selecting one shows that complete year’s statement. |
| “-” | No comparable recorded value is available for that field and period. It is not the same as a recorded value of zero. |
Trend charts
The Trends tab visualizes recorded history; it does not forecast future results.
Revenue, expenses and Net Income over time.
Total Assets, Total Liabilities and the Transport Fund Balance over time.
National population recorded for each period.
Total national GDP recorded for each period.
GDP per person recorded for each period.
Year-over-year GDP change, available in the annual view.
Monthly uses individual recorded months. Annual groups results by year. The range buttons—Year To Date, 6M, 1Y, 5Y, All, or a custom number of months—limit how much recorded history appears in the chart; they do not change the Income Statement’s accounting definitions.
A scope selector switches the Population, GDP and GDP/Cap charts between National, Province and Settlement views. The Income and Balance charts are national only.