A dry tank is rarely a supply problem. It is a ledger problem. The oil company knew your balance to the rupee; the station found out at the depot gate. This guide is the discipline that keeps the two numbers the same.
01 What the balance is
Most dealers pay the oil marketing company before the fuel moves: money goes to the OMC by NEFT or RTGS, and each indent is released against it. Some dealers have credit terms instead, and owe the OMC after delivery. Either way there is one running figure that decides whether the next load leaves the depot, and it lives on the OMC's books, not yours.
Your copy of that figure is the OMC account ledger. It has an opening balance, a line for every top-up you send, a line for every indent or invoice that draws it down, and a running balance after each. If your copy and theirs agree, supply is a matter of planning. If they drift, supply becomes a matter of luck.
02 What moves it
- Top-ups. Every transfer, with its date, amount and bank reference. NEFT has run around the clock since December 2019 (Reserve Bank of India), and RTGS since 14 December 2020, so a delay usually sits with the OMC's posting, not the bank: a payment made at 5 pm on a Friday may still not be credited by the OMC until Monday, so the ledger should carry both the sent date and the date the OMC confirmed it.
- Indents and invoices. An indent draws the balance down at the estimated value; the invoice replaces the estimate with the real one, including taxes. Post the invoice, not the indent, as the final figure.
- Adjustments. Credit notes, rate-difference settlements after a price revision, and the occasional correction. Each needs the OMC document number beside it, or it will be argued about later.
03 The threshold rule
Decide the smallest balance you are prepared to see. A practical rule: the invoice value of your typical next load, plus one day's transfer delay, plus a buffer for a price revision landing in between. When the running balance falls below that line, a top-up is due today, not when the next indent is placed.
Write the threshold down per station, and recheck it whenever the load size or the price changes. A threshold set in a low-price month is too small in a high-price one.
04 Reconciling with the OMC statement
Once a month, tick your ledger against the OMC's statement line by line. Differences come from three places: a top-up they have not yet credited, an invoice you have not yet posted, and a rate-difference adjustment one side booked and the other did not. Resolve each with a document, then carry the agreed balance forward as the new opening figure.
05 How Octyn does it
Octyn keeps the OMC account ledger per station: every top-up is logged, every indent draws the balance down and every confirmed invoice replaces the estimate with the invoiced value, read straight off the invoice by the AI extraction. The running balance sits on the owner dashboard next to today's sales, and an alert, "OMC balance below threshold", reaches you before the account runs dry rather than after.
See it with your own indent history: request a demo.