The pump authorises before it knows the amount
The hold and the settled sale are two events on one card. Every fuel dispute starts with somebody treating them as one.
Industries · Fuel and convenience
Payments for fuel sites, where the pump and the register have to agree
Fuel authorises before anyone knows the amount and settles after the nozzle is hung up, the inside store follows entirely different rules, and the two have to reconcile against a tank reading every single day.
The day, end to end
What a forecourt asks of the system
Six places a fuel site either reconciles cleanly or spends the morning on it.
The forecourt controller is its own system
Whatever you put at the counter has to speak to the controller you already own, or the forecourt goes dark on cutover day.
One basket, two different worlds
A cup of coffee and a fill on pump six is one customer and two completely different sales.
Tank readings against pump volume, daily
A small daily gap shows up long before it shows up as a leak, a drifting meter or a pattern of drive-offs.
Age checks belong at the scan
A clerk doing date arithmetic at a busy counter is the weakest control in the building.
Fleet cards run their own path
A site that takes them is running a second payment path beside the ordinary one, and it reconciles separately.
Buying guide
Before you sign anything for a fuel site
Seven questions worth asking any provider, us included.
Which forecourt controllers does it integrate with?
Name yours and ask for a site already running it.
How are pump holds shown before they settle?
Ask what a customer sees the day after a fill.
Does one basket handle fuel and inside merchandise cleanly?
Ring both together and read the receipt.
Does it reconcile pump volume against tank readings?
Ask for the daily wet stock report.
Is age verification enforced by the system at the scan?
Try to sell a restricted item without answering the prompt.
Which fleet networks are supported, and with which prompts?
Ask about the ones your drivers actually carry.
What is the export when you leave?
Item file, shift history and fuel records. Ask up front.
Questions
Fuel site questions we get asked most
Why does a fuel sale look like two transactions on a card statement?
Because it is two events. The dispenser authorises a holding amount before anybody knows how much fuel will be pumped, and the real sale settles after the nozzle is hung up. The hold falls off on the card issuer schedule rather than yours, which is why the clearest answer at the counter is a description of the sequence, not a promise about timing.
Does the register control the dispensers directly?
No. The dispensers answer to a site controller on the forecourt, and the point of sale talks to that controller. It matters enormously when you change anything at the counter, because compatibility with the controller you already own decides whether the swap is an afternoon or a weekend with the pumps down.
What does reconciling wet stock actually involve?
Comparing what the automatic tank gauge reports as remaining against what the dispensers report as sold, every day, and looking at the gap rather than the total. Small consistent gaps are how meter drift, a slow leak or a repeated drive-off first become visible, and none of them are visible in a monthly number.
Why should age checks be a system prompt rather than a judgement call?
Because the clerk is reading a date quickly with a queue behind them, and that is precisely where the control fails. A scan that halts the sale, reads the date and refuses on its own takes the calculation out of the moment it is most likely to go wrong. It also leaves a record that the check happened, which is what stands up afterwards.
What changes about the counter when a site takes fleet cards?
The prompts. Fleet programmes ask for odometer readings, driver identifiers or vehicle numbers, frequently route on networks of their own, and settle on their own schedule. A site that accepts them is running a second payment path alongside the ordinary one, with its own reconciliation at the end of the day.
Free tools
Two tools for the forecourt and the store
Both are open access and neither needs pump data.
Check what fits your business
The questionnaire asks a site the boarding questions — fuel at the pump and the store inside it, EMV liability handled at both, and unattended authorisation at the dispenser. The pump and the counter are two different acceptance environments and boarding treats them that way.
Statement audit
The statement audit reads an existing statement and separates the forecourt volume from the store volume. Sites running both through one account usually find one of them carrying the other's assumptions.
Talk to someone who has reconciled a forecourt
Tell us about your site
Four fields. A person reads it, looks at what you are running now, and comes back with what they would actually change.
The promise
We will implement whatever is right for you — including keeping what you have. If your forecourt is fine and the only gap is that the pumps and the inside store meet in a spreadsheet, that is a daily report, not a rebuild of the site.
Payco · Industries · Fuel and convenience · Gas station
Last updated: 2026-08-17