The Forecourt page

At a fuel station the litres leave through the pumps, so Kila keeps the station’s records where the pumps are: on Forecourt. It is the first item of the Forecourt section of Kila’s menu, with the forecourt device, the attendants and their cash-ups, deliveries, wet stock, fleet accounts and the forecourt’s reports under it.

1. Dip. The tanks are dipped and compared with the books, on the Tank dips tab.
2. Take the nozzles. Each attendant’s shift takes its nozzles with the opening meter readings: the last closing readings, unless the meter shows something else.
3. Sell. Fuel sells only on a shift that holds a nozzle of it. The litres rung up are counted against the litres the meters pumped.
4. Receive. A tanker is dipped into its tank before and after, on the Deliveries tab.
5. Cash up. The closing readings give the litres each nozzle pumped. Fuel pumped but not rung up becomes a meter sale, and the cash is counted against what the meters expect.

The tabs

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• Shifts and meters. Every shift open now, with each nozzle’s Opening, Closing, Test litres, Litres and Value, and for each fuel the Litres by meter, Litres on till and what is Not rung up. A fuel whose nozzles are still out says (readings open). Supervisors can Record closing readings here. Below, Recent shifts gives “Litres by meter against the till, and the count against what the meters expect.”
• Tank dips. Dip the tanks and review a loss or gain: Dip the tanks.
• Wet stock. Each tank against its own book, day by day: the previous dip, plus deliveries, less the meter sales, against the dip, with the month’s cumulative variance.
• Deliveries. Record a tanker against its tank and follow its claim: Record a fuel delivery.
• Pump prices. The prices now, the next change, EPRA’s maximum prices and every change made: Change pump prices.
• Tanks and pumps. The owner’s set-up of each branch’s tanks, pumps and nozzles: Set up tanks, pumps and nozzles. Only someone who manages the branches or the settings sees this tab.
• Settings. How the forecourt works: attendants and cash-ups, fleet sales, deliveries and wet stock, pump prices and EPRA, the car wash price list and forecourt devices. Only someone who manages the settings changes them; others see “Only someone who manages the settings changes these.”

The buttons at the top open the forecourt device, the Attendants and their cash-ups, and the Fleet accounts.

Readings, the till and the count

Each nozzle’s litres for a shift are its closing reading less its opening reading, less any test litres put back in the tank. Kila adds them up by fuel and compares them with the litres rung up on the shift:

• Not rung up is the fuel the meters say was pumped and nobody rang up. At the cash-up it becomes a meter sale, so the stock, the books and the cash all follow the meters.
• Until the closing readings are in, a fuel shows (readings open) and its litres by meter are 0, so what was rung up shows as a minus. That evens out at the cash-up.

Good to know

The opening reading is the nozzle’s last closing reading. When an attendant takes a nozzle, Kila asks them to “type the meter only if it shows something else.”

Forecourt devices

Settings also chooses a tank gauge and a pump controller, which would read the tanks and the meters for you.

Not available yet

Kila’s screen says so plainly: “Only the test adapters work today: they make readings from Kila’s own records so the screens can be tried.” Veeder-Root TLS, Franklin Fueling TS-550, Gilbarco and DOMS are listed as not connected yet. Dip by hand and read the meters by hand.

Related

• Fuel station: how Kila runs a fuel station, and who does what.
• Cash up an attendant: the readings, the meter sale and the count.
• Selling fuel: the rules behind the forecourt.