Fuel and fleet

Where the diesel went, and whether that is the right amount.

For pump attendants, fleet controllers, transport managers and anyone who has to explain a fuel bill.

Printable: Fuel and fleet user guide (PDF) — the same guide laid out for a desk, a cab or a workshop wall.

What this module is for

Fuel is usually the second largest cost in an operation and the easiest to lose. This module tracks it twice — once at the tank and once at the vehicle — and then compares the two, because a loss that shows up in only one of them tells you where to look.

The question it exists to answer is not "how much did we buy". Any ledger does that. It is how much should this vehicle have used, and did it.

The two halves

• The tank side — deliveries in, issues out, dips, transfers. Answers: does the fuel in the ground match the fuel we think is there?
• The vehicle side — fills against meter readings. Answers: is this truck drinking what a truck like it should drink?

Tank loss and vehicle loss are never added together

They are different findings with different causes — a leaking tank and a thirsty engine are not one problem of combined size, and summing them would hide both. The Reconciliation screen shows them side by side and keeps them apart.

What it does not do

• It does not price your fuel purchases or post them to a ledger. It values what it holds at cost so you can see the money, but it is not an accounts system.
• It does not service the vehicles. That is the maintenance module, and the two share the same vehicle records.

Setting it up

Fifteen minutes of setup, in this order. Get the tanks in before the vehicles, because a vehicle is told which tank it normally draws from.

1. Add your tanks

Open Fuel & fleet → Tanks and use Add a tank. Give it a name people already use, the product it holds, and its capacity.

Tick on a trailer for a bowser or any mobile tank. A mobile tank behaves the same way but is expected to move, so it is shown separately rather than treated as a missing static tank.

2. Set the opening level

Use Record a dip to enter what is actually in each tank today. This is the starting point every later figure is measured from, so it is worth dipping properly rather than estimating.

3. Add your vehicles

Open Vehicles and use Add a vehicle. Choose the Fleet and the Vehicle in it, then give it a fleet number, a registration, its meter, its tank capacity and — the important one — its expected rate of consumption.

A vehicle is a machine already in Trackapt — a Tracked Item in a Tracker Group marked as Equipment — and the Fleet picker offers only those groups. The Equipment tick is set when a group is created and cannot be changed afterwards, so if the picker is empty, create a Tracker Group for the fleet and tick Equipment as you do.

TIP

Expected consumption is what every variance is measured against, but it does not have to be right on day one. Put in the manufacturer's figure or your best guess, run for a month, then correct it from what the Consumption screen actually shows. A wrong expectation produces noisy variances, not wrong litres.

The screens, one at a time

Fuel & fleet

Sidebar: Fuel & fleet

The overview. Tank levels across the top — level, actual against expected, how far over, and what that is worth at cost. Below it, drinking more than expected: the vehicles whose consumption is out of line, worst first.

Dispense

Fuel & fleet → Dispense

The screen somebody stands at all shift. It does one thing: book a fill. Vehicle, meter reading, litres.

Everything booked in the current session stays listed underneath, so an attendant can see what they have already put through and catch a double-entry immediately.

Tanks

Fuel & fleet → Tanks

The tank side in full. Four actions:

Action	When to use it
Book a delivery	Fuel arrived from a supplier.
Record a dip	You physically measured the tank. This is what the module reconciles against.
Transfer between tanks	Fuel moved from one of your tanks to another. Recorded as a pair so neither tank shows a phantom gain or loss.
Add a tank	A new tank or bowser.

Vehicles

Fuel & fleet → Vehicles

The fleet register: fleet number, vehicle, registration, meter, tank capacity and expected rate. Search by fleet number, registration or name.

Consumption

Fuel & fleet → Consumption

What each vehicle is actually drinking. Distance covered, litres issued, the rate per 100, what was expected, and the variance.

The screen also lists what it could not measure, and why. That list matters as much as the figures — see Why a fill could not be measured.

Reconciliation

Fuel & fleet → Reconciliation

The two halves brought together. Tank loss on one side, vehicle loss on the other, each with expected against actual, the excess, and what it costs. Where a variance has been explained, the reason sits beside it.

Everyday tasks

Booking a fill

1. Open Dispense.
2. Choose the vehicle.
3. Enter the meter reading off the dash — not an estimate.
4. Enter the litres.
5. Say whether the tank was filled to full. This one tick is what makes the fill measurable.
6. Save. The fill appears in the session list underneath.

Consumption is measured full-to-full

The litres between one full tank and the next full tank is the only quantity that tells you what was burned, because it is the only time the starting level is known. A top-up is recorded and counted against the tank, but it cannot produce a consumption figure on its own — the module pairs it with the next full fill instead of guessing.

A wrong meter reading is worse than a missing one

A missing reading makes the fill unmeasurable and it says so; a reading typed with an extra digit produces a distance of thousands of kilometres and a consumption figure that looks impossibly good. If you are not sure of the meter, leave it out.

Recording a dip

1. Open Tanks and choose Record a dip on the tank.
2. Enter what you measured, and when.
3. Save. The tank's actual level updates and the difference against expected appears on Reconciliation.

TIP

Dip on a routine — same day, same time, ideally before the first issue of the day. Reconciliation compares movement between dips, so regular dips turn a vague monthly discrepancy into a dated one you can investigate.

Explaining a variance

Not every variance is theft. A hired-in truck, a generator run off the bowser, a spillage, a meter change — all produce a real difference. On Reconciliation, record the reason against the variance.

An explained variance stays in the figures; it does not disappear. What it gains is an explanation attached to it, so the month's total can be read without somebody having to remember what happened.

How the figures are worked out

Consumption

For each vehicle, fills are put in meter order — not the order they were typed in. Each full-to-full pair gives a distance and a litre figure, and those give the rate.

INFO

Ordering by meter rather than by time is what makes a late-entered fill harmless. An attendant who books yesterday's fill this morning does not corrupt the sequence; the fill slots into the position its meter reading puts it in.

Why a fill could not be measured

The Consumption screen lists these explicitly rather than dropping them quietly, because a figure calculated from half the fills is more misleading than one that admits what it left out.

Reason	What happened, and what to do
No meter reading	Nobody captured the meter. The fill counts against the tank but cannot produce a rate.
No full-to-full pair	Only top-ups since the last full fill. Fill to full once and the next pair measures.
Meter went backwards	A later fill has a lower reading than an earlier one. Usually a typing error or a replaced instrument. Correct the reading.
No distance	Two fills at the same reading. The vehicle took fuel without moving — often correct for a standby unit, but it cannot produce a rate per 100.

A vehicle that never appears on the measurable list is telling you something about your capture discipline, not about the vehicle.

Tank loss

Expected level is the last dip plus everything received and transferred in, less everything issued, returned, written off or transferred out. Actual level is the next dip. The difference is the loss, and it is valued at cost.

Vehicle loss

Litres actually issued to a vehicle, against the litres its expected consumption says the distance should have taken. The excess is the vehicle loss.

When something looks wrong

What you see	Why, and what to do
A vehicle shows no consumption	It has had no full-to-full pair in the window. Check the not measurable list for the reason.
Consumption looks impossibly good	Almost always a meter reading with an extra digit, which inflates the distance. Check the readings behind the pair.
The tank is short every month by a similar amount	A consistent shortfall is a calibration or capture problem rather than a loss. Check the pump's meter against a measured container.
A dip disagrees wildly with expected	Check for an unbooked delivery or a transfer recorded on only one side. Transfers booked as a plain issue leave the receiving tank short.
A vehicle is missing	You are not whitelisted on the Tracker Group holding its fleet. Ask the group owner or the account holder.
The Fleet picker is empty, or a fleet is not offered	Only Tracker Groups marked as Equipment hold vehicles, and the tick is set at creation. Create a Tracker Group for the fleet with Equipment ticked; an existing group cannot be changed.
Tank and vehicle losses do not add up to the total	They are not meant to. They are separate measurements of different things and are never summed.

Reference

Fuel movements

Every change in a tank's level is one of these:

Movement	Meaning
Receipt	Fuel in from a supplier.
Issue	Fuel out to a vehicle or equipment.
Return	Fuel back into the tank.
Transfer out / in	Between two of your own tanks. Always recorded as a pair.
Adjustment	A correction to a recorded figure.
Write-off	Fuel gone and known to be gone — a spill, contamination.

Where a movement came from

Each movement records whether it came from a pump, was entered by a user, or arrived by import. Useful when a figure is disputed: a hand-entered issue and an automatic pump read carry different weight.

Taking the data with you

Every screen offers reading-mode preview, Excel, PDF, print and share from its header. Exports carry the filters you have applied, so set the date range and the vehicle first, then export. The fleet register exports every vehicle under your search — all of its pages, not only the one on screen — up to 5,000; past that the screen says so, and the export's subtitle says which part it holds. See Taking data away.