What is the most essential back-office data for running a convenience store?

As the owner/operators of over 20 convenience stores, Petrosoft knows that accurate and accessible data is required to make informed business decisions. Back-office software helps to manage this data. Petrosoft’s flagship back-office software, CStoreOffice, captures your store data to automatically generate over hundreds of reports. With these reports, convenience store and gas station owners can leverage their data to optimize sales, maintain regulatory compliance, and gain operational insight.

Sales Reports

Sales reports offer detailed data on how inventory is selling. For example, if Pepsi products sell particularly well at a store, stocking more inventory is an opportunity for more revenue. On the other hand, if an item doesn’t sell well, it can be an indication to not purchase it as frequently. These reports help you understand appropriate inventory quantities and when to order to avoid overages and insufficiencies. Sales reports also give insight into whether items don’t sell or sell out quickly, which may indicate that they are priced too high or too low. With a back-office system that connects a centralized price book to the store’s point-of-sale (POS) terminals, item prices can be adjusted to increase sales – and the bottom line.

Fuel Reports

Fuel retailers need additional reports because they are mandated to report fuel tank data to the Environmental Protection Agency. Though these readings can be taken by hand, many retailers use their back-office software to reduce human error and inconsistencies. Statistical Inventory Reconciliation (SIR) reports are designed to take daily tank gauge readings from underground fuel storage tanks and compile the data into a report that may alert to the presence of a fuel leak. Not only is tracking this data mandated by law and important for the protection of the environment, it is also a way for store owners to ensure their valuable fuel inventory isn’t being lost.

Inventory Reports

Inventory reports are very similar to sales reports in the sense that they can give store owners insight into the best selling and overstocked inventory. Similarly, to a sales report, inventory reports are a way to discover what items in the store present the best opportunities for increasing store revenue. Inventory reports are also key for loss prevention, as they can help tell a story about inventory that may have been stolen. When inventory counts are conducted, a back-office system can alert store owners to any data discrepancies. For example, if the expected inventory of Lay’s plain potato chips is for the store to have 10 bags, but only 5 are counted during inventory, those 5 bags may be lost because of theft. Inventory reports can alert to this difference.