How to actually run the paperwork
Formats you can copy, checks that catch real money, and the reasoning behind each one. Written for people who run a forecourt, not for people who sell software to them.
Setting up
Before the outlet is running, or before you spend on it. How a dealership is actually awarded and what the process really turns on, and what forecourt automation removes — which is less than the brochure suggests.
Moving off the register, without losing a month
You do not migrate history. You migrate four opening balances and set up the outlet once. What to carry over, what to leave behind, and when to cut over.
Setting upIs there a petrol pump app for your phone?
Searching for a petrol pump app returns four different things. What each one is, and what installing to a home screen does not give you at the dispenser.
Setting upThe licences a fuel outlet holds, and who issues each
Every licence and approval a fuel outlet typically holds, who issues each one, and what triggers a renewal. Written by authority, because that is what varies.
Setting upHow a petrol pump dealership actually gets awarded
How fuel dealerships are awarded in India: the advertisement and application route, land requirements, licences, and the investment actually involved.
Setting upWhat automation actually removes
What forecourt automation actually is, which problems it removes, which it does not touch, and why an automated outlet still needs somebody reconciling stock.
Daily operations
The formats themselves — what goes in a daily sheet, a stock register, a tanker log, and how a shift hands over. Every one of these is a comparison between two records made separately, because that is the only kind of check that catches anything. Copy them as they are; the reasoning behind each column is on the page.
Answering a quality challenge, properly
The density check and the filter paper test, what each one can and cannot show, and how to answer a customer who asks for one without losing the forecourt.
Daily operationsThe daily sales report format that actually reconciles
A daily sales report format for Indian petrol pumps: nozzle readings, litres by fuel, rate and value, collections by payment type, and the reconciliation.
Daily operationsA stock register that tells you when to worry
A tank-wise stock register format for fuel outlets: opening stock, deliveries, dispensed litres, book stock, dip and variance, and how to read the variance.
Daily operationsThe tanker checklist, in the order it has to happen
What to check before, during and after a fuel tanker delivery: seals, density and temperature, dip before and after, and the shortage claim window.
Daily operationsStructure the shift so the question has an answer
How to structure shifts and roles at a fuel outlet so a cash difference is answerable the same night: who does what, and what a handover must include.
Daily operationsThe drifting nozzle, and how to find it
How to check a dispenser with a five-litre measure, what testing litres do to your stock and cash figures, and how to spot a drifting nozzle.
Daily operationsWhat the grades actually are
What separates regular petrol from the branded premium grades, what octane and cetane measure, and what an extra grade means for your tanks and records.
Money
Where the money actually goes, and where it quietly does not arrive. Stock loss priced properly, credit that is a sale today and a receivable later, the four levers that move profit at an outlet whose margin is fixed per litre, and how to tell theft from physics.
Where the money in a litre actually comes from
Commission is a fixed amount per litre, not a share of the price. That one fact explains why a price rise does not help you and why volume is everything.
MoneyGST at a fuel outlet, and the part that surprises people
Petrol and diesel sit outside GST while your shop and lubricants sit inside it. What that split does to your input credit, and the records it needs.
MoneyWhere the missing litres actually go
Where fuel actually goes: evaporation, calibration drift, temperature at delivery, decantation losses and leaks — and which of them you can do anything about.
MoneyHow to tell theft from physics
The six ways fuel and cash actually go missing at a fuel outlet, what each looks like in your daily numbers, and the checks that separate theft from loss.
MoneyCredit is a sale today and a receivable tomorrow
How to run fuel credit accounts without losing track: recording a credit sale correctly, ageing receivables, and why credit looks like missing cash.
MoneyFour levers, and only two of them are about selling more fuel
What actually moves the number at a fuel outlet: throughput per hour, non-fuel margin, credit terms and stock loss, with the arithmetic behind each.
MoneyFree petrol pump software, honestly
What free petrol pump software really costs, why cracked and abandoned downloads are worse than a spreadsheet, and the free setup that does work.
MoneyWhat to ask before you buy pump software
The questions worth asking any fuel outlet software vendor: what it refuses, who can edit the past, where the data lives, and what happens if you stop paying.
MoneyEverything a pump spends, including what never leaves the drawer
Every recurring cost a fuel outlet carries: staff, site, statutory, financial, and the two that never appear as a payment at all. Grouped so none is missed.
MoneyThe month-end handover, in five files
The handover between a fuel outlet's daily records and its books: what to give your accountant each month, in what form, and what they ask for twice.
Reconciliation
What to do when two records disagree. Cash against litres, book stock against the dip, UPI against what actually settled — and, at month-end, the review that is an hour if the days already tie out and an evening if they do not.
How to reconcile a pump's cash, every single day
A daily cash reconciliation for fuel outlets: expected revenue from litres against cash, UPI, card, fleet and credit, and the two adjustments most forget.
ReconciliationThe month-end checklist, when the days already tie out
A month-end checklist for fuel outlets: stock reconciliation per tank, receivables ageing, expense review, settlement, and the reports your CA needs.
ReconciliationThe payment that succeeded and then did not
Why a UPI payment can show success at the pump and fail later, how to catch it, and how to reconcile digital collections against settlements each week.
ReconciliationWhat an audit asks for, and why it asks for it
What an inspection or an internal audit asks for at a fuel outlet: stock and meter records, delivery documents, calibration, collections and receivables.
Every guide here describes work PumpDesk already does.
The formats, the checks and the reconciliations — run automatically from the entries your staff make. 14 days free, no card.