Running a Petrol Pump or LPG Agency: Stock, Credit and Cash

• 01Stock variance is noted per shift but never trended. A steady small gap looks the same as a one-off, and nobody compares tank, product, shift or day.
• 02Credit customers such as transporters, institutions and regular vehicles run up dues tracked by memory and goodwill. The cash tied up in dues and in the next supply payment is not shown in one place.
• 03Cash and digital settlements are reconciled at month end rather than daily, so a shortage is noticed after the people on that shift have changed.
• 04The shop, air and water and the service bay are treated as side activities. Nobody knows sales per day, which items sit, or whether attendants are asked to sell anything.
• 05Gas agency deliveries are planned from the delivery staff's memory. Deliveries per route-day, cost per delivery, empties returned and the gap between booking and delivery are not counted.

• Stock gap trend

  Expected closing less measured closing, by tank and shift, plotted day by day. Read the pattern, not a single day.

• Credit outstanding in days

  Total credit dues divided by average credit sales per day, with the amount older than 45 days shown separately.

• Shop and bay sales per day

  Shop plus service bay sales for the month divided by days open.

• Deliveries per route-day

  For a gas agency, cylinders delivered on a route divided by days the route ran, with km and cost per delivery beside it.

Each gap is expected closing less measured closing. The sheet shows the pattern across days and shifts. What is acceptable, and what to do about a repeated gap, is for your supplier agreement and the authority.

• 01Writing each shift's stock gap in the book and never plotting the stock gap trend, so a repeating pattern passes as a series of one-offs.
• 02Extending credit to long-standing customers without ageing it, which lets credit outstanding in days climb quietly.
• 03Counting the shop only as an extra, with no record of shop and bay sales per day to show what the space is worth.

• 01A daily stock sheet per tank and product: opening, receipts, metered sales, expected closing, measured closing and the gap, kept as a running trend.
• 02A credit register with limit, ageing and last payment for each customer.
• 03A daily cash and settlement reconciliation by shift, signed at handover.
• 04A working capital sheet: receivables, supplier payment due and cash in hand, reviewed weekly.
• 05A shop and service bay sheet with sales per day, top and stuck items and attach to a fill.
• 06For gas agencies, a route plan with deliveries per route-day, delivery staff log and a booking-to-delivery record.
• 07An attendant and delivery staff roster with handover format.

1. Take the last month's stock gaps from the book and enter them by tank, product and shift in one table. Note any shift that repeats.
2. Hypothetical example: credit customers owe ₹6,00,000 and credit sales average ₹40,000 a day. The book is 15 days of credit sales. If ₹1,50,000 of it is older than 45 days, a quarter of the book is old and needs a call this week.
3. Start a daily page that lists cash handed over against settlements and meter totals for each shift, signed by both people at handover.
4. For a gas agency, write down tomorrow's routes and count deliveries per route and the km each route covers.

1. First call: you describe the business and the numbers you already track.
2. Your first sheet: the one described under What you get, built from your own books.
3. The rhythm: a regular review of stock gap trend, credit outstanding in days, shop and bay sales per day, deliveries per route-day.
4. What you hold at the end: a written sheet and a named owner for each number.

• Financial Health Audit

  A management-level review of margin by product, the cash cycle, receivables and costs, ending in indicators you track monthly. Not a statutory audit.

• Business Audit

  Financial Health Audit is part of Business Audit. See the full service if the problem is wider than one piece.

• Cash is always tight, even when sales look good

  Full order book but an empty account? See how collections, stock, credit terms and timing gaps drain cash, and how a 13-week forecast eases the squeeze.

• I cannot see how my business is really performing

  If you steer by bank balance and gut feel, you are driving blind. See how a few trusted numbers, a monthly report and a review meeting fix that.

• How this differs from Fleet operators

  A fleet operator is often your largest credit customer and watches fuel per km; a pump or agency owner watches the credit the fleet takes and how long the cash stays outside.

• How this differs from Auto repair shops

  A repair shop prices labour and parts on a job card; a pump's service bay is a smaller add-on whose sales per day sit beside a much larger fuel and credit book.