The mistake that starts everything
A transport operator fills up on Tuesday. The fuel genuinely leaves the tank, the meter genuinely counts it, and no money arrives until the account is settled at month-end.
Recorded in the free credit ledger rather than a diary, it ages itself and totals by customer. Recorded as a note in a diary, that is a hole in Tuesday's cash which somebody has to remember the reason for. It will be found again at month-end as an unexplained shortfall, by which point Tuesday is three weeks ago and the shift that handled it has worked twenty more.
Recorded properly, it is revenue on Tuesday and a receivable until it is paid — and Tuesday still balances. That is the whole distinction, and everything else in this guide follows from it.
Credit belongs on the collections side
For the daily reconciliation, a credit sale counts as collected. The fuel left the tank and the sale is real, so leaving it out makes an outlet with commercial customers appear short by the value of its credit business every single day — and a shortfall that appears every day is a shortfall everyone stops reading.
Recording it at the pump, not from memory
The most common failure is not fraud, it is a credit sale written up at the end of the day from recollection. Volumes get rounded, one gets forgotten, and the customer disputes a figure nobody can substantiate.
- Record the sale against the specific account at the time of the fill, with litres, rate and value — credit is one of the five payment types, not a second notebook.
- There is a free credit ledger template that ages the balances into buckets by itself.
- Capture the vehicle where you have more than one under an account. A dispute about a single fill is unresolvable without it.
- Treat it as a payment type in the shift's collections, so the shift closes balanced.
- Post it to the customer's ledger the same day, so the outstanding position is always current.
Age the receivables, monthly
An outstanding balance without an age is just a number. The age is what turns it into a decision.
| Age | Reading | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Current | Working as intended | Nothing |
| 30 days | Normal for monthly settlement | Confirm the settlement date |
| 60 days | One cycle missed | Ask, before the next fill |
| 90 days | Two cycles missed | Stop further credit pending settlement |
| 90+ days | This is a decision, not a balance | Decide. Not deciding is a decision. |
What each bucket means in practice.
Limits are a kindness, not a hostility
A credit limit set at the start of a relationship is an administrative fact. The same limit introduced after a customer is already at three months outstanding is an accusation, and it usually ends the relationship.
Setting one per account from the beginning also protects the outlet from its own growth: a good customer whose volumes double is exactly the account most likely to quietly become the largest exposure on the book.
- Set a limit per account when you open it, based on a month of expected volume rather than on optimism.
- Review it when volumes change, in either direction.
- Make the limit visible to whoever is authorising fills. A limit only the owner knows is not a control.
- Agree the settlement date in writing at the start. Most disputes are about timing, not amount.
Reconciling the ledger against the sheets
Once a month, total the credit sales recorded in your daily sheets and compare against what was added to customer ledgers over the same period. They must agree.
A gap means one of two things, and both are worth finding. Either a credit sale was recorded as cash somewhere — in which case the drawer was over on that day and nobody asked why — or a settlement was banked without being posted against the account, which means a customer is being chased for money they have already paid.
Fleet cards are credit with someone else's paperwork
A fleet card moves the credit risk to the issuer, which is a real benefit, but it does not remove the reconciliation. The transaction is authorised at the pump and settles against a statement that arrives on the issuer's schedule, not yours.
So a fleet card is still a collection that has not arrived, and it still has to be reconciled against a statement rather than against your drawer. The difference from an ordinary credit account is who you chase when it does not appear.
Frequently asked questions
Should credit sales count towards the day's revenue?
Yes. Revenue is recognised when the fuel leaves the tank, not when the money arrives. Leaving credit out understates the day's sales and creates a cash shortfall that is really an accounting choice.
How do I handle a customer who disputes a fill?
With the record you made at the time — account, vehicle, litres, rate, value, and the shift it happened on. A dispute against a figure written up at the end of the day from memory is one you will usually lose, and correctly so.
What is a reasonable credit limit for a transport customer?
Around a month of their expected volume is the common starting point, on the reasoning that it caps your exposure at one settlement cycle. What matters more than the number is that it exists from the start and is visible to whoever authorises fills.
Can I charge interest on overdue accounts?
That is a commercial and legal question for your own agreements rather than something to decide from a web page. What is worth doing regardless is agreeing the settlement date in writing when the account opens — most disputes are about timing, not amount.