Forecourt EPOS in Ireland: The real cost of running fuel and shop on two systems
Most forecourts don’t lose money at the pump. They lose it in the forty minutes after close of business.
The pumps are quiet, the last customers have left and the shop is winding down. But there are still figures to check, fuel sales to reconcile with shop sales and perhaps a discrepancy that needs investigating.
It might only be €40. Eventually, it turns out to be a delivery entered incorrectly on Tuesday.
The €40 wasn’t the real problem. The time spent finding it was.
For many forecourt operators, fuel and shop sales are managed through separate systems. The fuel operation has its own controller and reporting, while the shop runs through an EPOS system. Both systems may work perfectly well on their own, but when the information needs to come together, things can become more complicated.
And that’s where the hidden cost of running two systems starts to appear.
A forecourt is more than a fuel business
The modern forecourt has changed considerably. Fuel is still at the heart of the business, but the shop is an increasingly important part of the customer experience and the overall revenue of the site.
Customers aren’t just stopping for fuel. They might pick up groceries, grab a coffee, buy breakfast or lunch, collect a few essentials or use another service while they’re there. Many forecourts also offer car washes, EV charging and other services.
That means there’s a lot more to manage than pump sales.
There are shop products and deliveries, stock levels and margins, promotions and waste, payments and fuel cards. There may also be security systems and other specialist equipment operating alongside the EPOS.
The challenge isn’t necessarily having all this technology, it’s getting the information from it to work together.
The hidden cost of separate systems
When two systems aren’t connected, someone has to bridge the gap between them.
That might mean checking fuel reports against shop sales at the end of the day, manually investigating discrepancies or pulling information from different places when you want to understand how the business has performed.
Individually, these tasks don’t seem particularly significant, but they’re repeated every day.
For a large organisation, that might simply be another administrative task. For an independent forecourt, it is often the owner or manager doing the work. Time spent reconciling figures is time that could otherwise be spent managing the shop, supporting staff, reviewing performance or planning the business.
The cost doesn’t appear on an invoice, it’s in the hours you don’t get back.
When €40 takes an hour to find
Reconciliation will always be part of retail. Mistakes happen, deliveries get entered incorrectly and transactions occasionally need to be checked. The question is how easy it is to find the source of a problem.
Suppose your figures are €40 out at the end of the day.
Was it a shop transaction? A fuel sale? A payment? A stock adjustment? A delivery?
If your fuel and shop information sits in separate systems, you may have to check each one before you can work out what happened.
With an integrated EPOS solution, more of that information can be brought together. You still have to investigate mistakes, but you have a clearer starting point and less manual work involved in finding the answer.
That’s a small change that can make a noticeable difference over time.
Drive-offs are another example
Drive-offs show why integration isn’t simply about making reporting more convenient.
When a vehicle leaves without paying for fuel, you may need to connect several pieces of information: which pump was used, when the transaction happened, how much fuel was dispensed and what was captured on the site’s security cameras.
If those systems operate separately, staff may need to match the information manually.
An integrated solution can make that process much simpler.
Retail Solutions’ forecourt EPOS solutions can integrate with fuel equipment and security systems, including pump watch and vehicle registration recognition. Bringing these systems together means staff can access related information without having to piece everything together themselves.
It’s not about technology for technology’s sake. It’s about making an everyday task easier when something does go wrong.
The shop needs attention too
While fuel is obviously central to a forecourt, the shop creates its own set of challenges.
Stock is a good example.
A busy convenience shop may have thousands of products, all with different sales patterns. Fresh food adds another consideration because ordering too much can create waste, while ordering too little means missed sales.
Good EPOS reporting can help you understand what is actually happening.
Which products are selling? When are they selling? Which categories are generating the best margins? Are promotions working? Where is stock moving more slowly than expected?
That information becomes even more useful when you’re looking at the whole business rather than treating the shop and fuel operation as completely separate.
You might discover that your busiest fuel period is also when coffee and breakfast sales peak. Or perhaps certain products sell particularly well at specific times of day.
Those insights can help with ordering, staffing and promotions.
The system isn’t making those decisions for you. It’s giving you better information to make them.
One view of the whole forecourt
This is where an integrated forecourt EPOS system can really earn its place.
The aim isn’t necessarily to replace every piece of technology on the site. Forecourts have specialist requirements, and there are good reasons for using dedicated systems for fuel management, payments, security and other services.
The important thing is that those systems can communicate.
Depending on the site, that could include fuel pumps and controllers, wet stock management, payment systems, car wash equipment, security cameras, accounting software and loyalty systems.
When the different parts of the operation can share information, the retailer gets a much clearer picture of what’s happening across the site.
Instead of asking how the fuel business performed and then separately checking the shop, you can start looking at the forecourt as one operation.
That makes reporting more useful and day to day management easier.
Don’t overlook the hardware
Of course, integration isn’t just about software.
The hardware supporting a forecourt needs to be reliable and suitable for a busy retail environment. EPOS terminals, scanners, printers, cash drawers and payment equipment all have to work alongside the wider fuel and forecourt technology.
That’s why choosing hardware for a forecourt shouldn’t be about selecting a till in isolation.
The hardware, software and integrations need to work together as part of the same environment.
It is also worth thinking about what you might need in the future. A system that can integrate with additional equipment and services gives you more flexibility as your business develops.
And when something goes wrong?
There is another practical consideration when you have several separate systems: support.
Imagine it’s 6am and the shop EPOS isn’t communicating properly with the fuel system.
Who do you call?
The fuel supplier? The EPOS provider? The payment company?
If the issue sits between two systems, it can take time just to work out where the problem lies and who needs to fix it.
Working with a supplier that understands the wider forecourt environment can make this considerably easier. Problems can happen with any technology, but having a clear route to support means you aren’t left trying to work out which supplier to contact while the business is trying to trade.
The real cost isn’t two systems
Running fuel and shop operations on separate systems isn’t automatically a problem. The question is whether those systems work together effectively.
If they don’t, the cost can show up in places that are easy to overlook: the extra time spent reconciling figures, investigating discrepancies, checking different reports and manually connecting information.
Over a day, these may seem like small jobs.
Over a year, they can add up to a considerable amount of time.
An integrated forecourt EPOS system isn’t about having fewer systems for the sake of it. It’s about reducing the gaps between them, so that information can move more easily and the retailer has a clearer view of the whole business.
What figures would you like to see on one screen?
For one forecourt owner, it might be fuel sales. For another, it could be shop margin, stock, drive-offs or the performance of their food-to-go operation.
Whatever the answer, having that information readily available can make managing the business considerably easier.
Because the real cost of running two systems isn’t necessarily what you pay for them, it’s the time you spend making them work separately.
Retail Solutions provides EPOS solutions designed for the modern Irish forecourt, connecting fuel, shop retail and other systems to give operators greater visibility and control.
Find out more about our forecourt EPOS solutions or talk to our team about your current setup.
📞 093 23900
Who are we?
We are a market-leading EPOS provider with over 25 years of business experience. Our leading sectors are coffee shops, off licences, forecourts, convenience stores, supermarkets and pharmacies.
We’re dedicated to providing your store with the most up to date and reliable point of sale hardware, along with software management tools to help you manage your business effectively.
Our self-checkout partners are NCR, who are global leaders in self-checkout technology.
About the author:
Susan McGuire is originally from London, United Kingdom, and has now lived in Galway, Ireland, for 19 years. She has been with Retail Solutions for 10 of those, and during that time has enjoyed various roles within the areas of Maintenance, Finance, & Marketing. You can follow her on LinkedIn!
