Fuel volume is set by the market. The counter's margin is set by you. Engine oil, coolant, additives, tyres, accessories and the cold drink: small tickets, real margins, and the part of the station most likely to lose stock without anyone noticing.
01 A catalogue before a sale
Every item the counter sells needs a catalogue entry: name, pack size, the printed MRP, your selling price, and the GST rate that applies. Selling from memory means selling at the wrong price, and it means no way to know what the shelf should hold.
02 Billing that includes GST
Counter customers pay the price on the pack, and the law caps it there: under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, the printed MRP is the maximum price inclusive of all taxes, and nothing may be sold above it. Bill GST-inclusive, so the price they see is the price they pay, and let the system work out the tax component behind the scenes for your returns. A bill that adds tax at the end confuses the customer and slows the queue.
03 Buy by batch, know your margin
The same oil bought in March and June rarely costs the same. Record each purchase as a batch with its own cost, and value the stock on hand by those batches. Then margin per item is a fact, not an average, and a supplier's price creep shows up the week it happens rather than at year-end.
04 Stock-takes that catch shrinkage
- Fast movers weekly. The five or ten items that make most of the counter's sales. A quick count against the book stock takes ten minutes and catches most leakage early.
- Everything monthly. A full count, item by item, with the difference from the book stock recorded and explained: sold unbilled, damaged, expired, or missing.
- Record the difference, do not just correct it. A stock adjustment with no reason is a place to hide things.
05 Reordering and supplier dues
Reorder from sales velocity, not from a glance at the shelf: an item selling four a week with two in stock needs an order today. Keep supplier invoices and payments in a payables ledger, so that what you owe the lubricant distributor is as visible as what you owe the oil company.
06 How Octyn does it
Octyn's counter POS bills GST-inclusive from the catalogue, stock is tracked by batch with the cost of each batch, stock-takes post adjustments with reasons, and non-fuel supplier dues sit in a payables ledger next to the OMC account. Purchase suggestions are generated from what actually sold, so the reorder list writes itself.
See it with your own catalogue: request a demo.