Case Study – Vandam Filling Station Using Petrol Pump Software for Profit

Your daily petrol pump transactions can be transported quickly to the excel by using a petrol pump software. Now, keep a record of meter reading, credit cad sales, cash payments and cash receipts easily and accurately in petrol pump excel sheet.

Oil consumption in India has expanded at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 3.3 per cent during FY2008–16F to reach 4.0 MBPD by 2016.

With the rising oil demand, India is likely to outpace even China’s demand growth. The demand is estimated to grow at about 7 percent in India as compared to 3 percent in China.

However, opportunities come with its own set of challenges. Take for instance, petrol pump owners. They have to navigate through the changing regulatory environment while managing risks and optimizing performance.

Major pain areas for petrol pump owners are the higher cost of operation and shrinking margins, making it hard to sustain in the competitive landscape. Operating expenses of a petrol pump include the cost of electricity, maintenance and labour cost.

While fixed costs are relatively straightforward, the variable cost of petrol pump management is remarkably complex. We are all aware that fuel is a volatile product, and the slightest increase in ambient temperatures causes petrol/ diesel to evaporate. Also, evaporation takes place because of the higher temperature at which tankers are filled at the refinery.

A petrol pump in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh was facing similar challenges in keeping the business profitable with minimised operating expenses.

The Client

Vandam Filling Station is a petrol pump in Achalg, Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. The owner of this filling station is Chandra Shekhar Azad, who feels immense pride in being an Indian Oil Dealer.

The Business Problem

Staffs at this filling station were finding it hard to keep accurate records of the fuel. It’s hot during most part of the year in Uttar Pradesh with temperature ranging from 35 to 50 degrees. Consequently, petrol/diesel stored in their tanker evaporates and leads to fuel loss. Other challenges that they were facing in terms of fuel storage were:

• When fuel was stored in an underground tank, further evaporation occurred during the summer season
• They were not able to track leakage from storage tanks and suction lines
• Inaccuracy in fuel dispenser measurements
• Lack of meters to track fuel theft by tanker drivers
• Further, they were facing challenges in maintaining the balance sheet, receivable/payable and stock report.

The Solution

After considering all challenges and requirements of the filling station, we shortlisted some of the leading petrol pump software in the market. After going through online demonstrations of different petrol pump software, they decided to go for the free 10-day trial of Cogxim petrol pump software – Petro Genius. During the free trial, the owner of Vandam Filling Stations was quite convinced by these features of Petro Genius for:

• Maintaining the meter reading, and making testing & handling/evaporation loss entries
• Maintaining credit sales report in the following manner: party, date, memo and item wise (detailed and summary)
• Error-free tracking of tanker movement
• Accurately maintaining fuel stock at multiple locations
• Generating day-wise, value-wise and month-wise reports
• Maintaining profit and loss report
• For tracking and maintaining date-wise flexible fuel rates at a central platform.

Key Learnings

Making the final selection of petrol pump software was easy for the owner of Vandam Filling Station, as he got free trial. Similarly, you should also ask for free trial before making the final software selection. Also during the trial, don’t forget to look for these essential features:

• Features for managing accounts accurately with modules for ledger report, cash/ bank book, bank reconciliation, receivable/ payables, profit & loss, etc.
• Analytical reporting for month wise sales/ purchase, party-wise analysis, bill by bill outstanding, item wise credit sales, tank wise stock, and fast, slow and unmoved items
• Graphical reports for month-wise sales, and purchase & party-wise lifting
• General features for meter reading, lube sales, loss testing, vehicle-wise billing, lube sales and party-wise billing.