Credit is how a station wins the fleet operator down the road. It is also how a station lends money at zero interest to people it cannot easily chase. The difference is not the customer. It is the routine.
01 Who gets credit, and on what terms
Transporters, contractors, local businesses and institutions buy on credit because their drivers cannot carry cash. Before the first litre, agree three things in writing: a credit limit in rupees, a payment term in days, and who at the customer's end is authorised to sign. A limit without a term is an open loan; a term without a limit is an unbounded one.
02 The slip at the nozzle
Every credit sale needs a slip with the date, vehicle number, product, litres, price and value, signed by the driver and countersigned by the attendant. The slip is the sale. Without it, the fuel appears at shift close as a shortage against the attendant, and the customer can dispute the amount later.
Post the slips into the shift's closing count as a credit total, so the reconciliation shows sales value minus cash minus card minus credit, and the variance is a real variance.
03 Weekly ageing
Every Monday, list each customer's outstanding balance by age: current, over 30 days, over 60, over 90. The list tells you who to call, in what order, and which accounts to hold supply on. Small balances that have quietly passed 60 days are the ones that become write-offs; the ageing report is what makes them visible while they are still collectable.
04 Statements and receipts
Send each credit customer a monthly statement listing every slip, every receipt, and the closing balance. Most disputes end when the customer sees their own drivers' signatures. When money arrives, allocate the receipt against specific invoices or slips rather than against the account as a whole; that is how you know which month's fuel is still unpaid.
05 Vehicle-wise consumption
Track litres per vehicle, not just per customer. A truck that suddenly takes 20% more fuel per fill, or fills twice in a day, is either doing more work or being used to fuel something else. Both the operator and you want to know, and the customer who receives that report from you rarely moves their account elsewhere.
06 How OCTYN does it
In OCTYN, credit customers have a limit and a term; a sale beyond the limit is flagged at the nozzle. Credit entered at shift close posts to the customer's account and lands in the reconciliation as credit, not shortage. Ageing is a report, statements are generated per customer as PDFs, receipts are allocated against slips, and consumption is tracked per vehicle. Overdue credit shows up as an alert on the owner dashboard.
See it with your own credit book: request a demo.