Add support for negative costs and/or history file entry revenue#144

I think that allowing the costs in history files to be subtracted as well as added would make it easier to track the value of work done on a car more easily, alongside the actual amount paid for that work. I feel like it could be used in at least two situations.

Firstly, for keeping track of part exchange or trade-in purchases. For example, if I trade in a car worth £5,000 to buy a car listed at £20,000, I could note the full price in one cost, then subtract the trade-in price in another, giving the history file the total of £15,000 that was actually spent on the car.

Secondly, for keeping track of maintenance or repairs that are fully or partly paid for through insurance or a warranty. For example, if a car is in a crash that causes £1,000 of damage, which insurance covers all of, the cost of repairs could be noted in one cost, and the amount covered by insurance can be subtracted in another.

Hi @Nick Parke ,

This is interesing and something which I had not considered. Completely understand what the functionality is that you need and I also think it makes the history of vehicles more interesting. It’d be cool to see this kind of information when looking over the history of a car!

I’ll have a think about how best to support this. Whilst your suggestion could indeed be the right answer, allowing for negative costs inside of entries… I want to think through if there is a more structured way for us to add clearer / more interesting ways to include this kind of information.

The direction on im thinking is along the lines of… why shouldn’t a car generate revenue, rather than only costs… and if there is a way to support that, would it overlap with your suggestions. In these particular cases your suggestion probably makes more sense, but lets say you lease your car for a film, or someone rents your vehicle for a wedding…. we currently dont have a way to record that kind of information at all!

Thanks for the good suggestion. I’ll update this after we’ve discussed internally and we’ve come up with a plan.

Best,

Jeremy