In many markets fuel prices are set or capped by a regulator and can change with little notice. For a group with several stations, a price change is a coordination problem: the new price must take effect at the right time, on every pump, and sales on either side of the change must be valued at the right price.
When this runs on phone calls and spreadsheets, three things go wrong. Stations change at different times, someone types the wrong number, and nobody can say afterwards exactly when the change happened.
Treat a price change as a request
In Petronyx a price change starts as a change request rather than an edit. The request records which stations and fuel grades it covers, the new prices, and who asked for it. People can comment on it, and it moves through clear states.
- Draft and submit
A manager prepares the new prices and submits them for review.
- Approve
Someone with approval rights checks the numbers. The person who drafted a change is not the only person who sees it.
- Schedule
The change is set to take effect at a specific time, for example at midnight or at the start of the next shift.
- Activate
At the scheduled time the new price applies, and the deployment to each station is tracked.
- Roll back if needed
If a price was wrong, roll back the change instead of typing over it, so the history stays honest.
Verify what the pumps are charging
Setting a price in software is not the same as the pump charging it. Petronyx records price verifications, and when a station's price does not match the approved price it shows up as a mismatch to resolve. That closes the loop between the office and the forecourt.
What changes for the stock sheet
Price is part of the stock sheet because the expected sales amount is calculated from meter sales and price. When prices change on a schedule, the money side of the sheet is valued at the price that was actually in force.
A checklist for the next change
- Decide who drafts price changes and who approves them, and set roles to match.
- Schedule changes for a shift boundary where you can, so one shift is not valued at two prices.
- Ask each station to confirm the pump price after activation, and resolve mismatches the same day.
- Never edit a live price directly when a request will do. The trail is the point.