Diesel Yard
If your trucks are fuelled from your own tank instead of buying fuel on the road, Diesel Yard tracks that tank as real stock. You restock it with an ordinary vendor bill. Each time fuel goes into a vehicle you record a dispense, which:
- takes the litres out of the yard's stock
- records an approved fuel expense at cost, charged to the vehicle and, if you choose, a job or trip
- posts to the General Ledger, if Accounting is set up for it
Diesel Yard isn't sold separately. It's included automatically for every company that has Logistics or Filling Station. Your service provider can still switch it off or on for your company if needed.
Where to find it
| Menu layout | Where Diesel Yard lives |
|---|---|
| Top menu | Fleet → Fuel Dashboard, Fleet → Diesel Yard, Fleet → Fuel Reports |
| Side menu | Fleet → Diesel Yard |
| Business-unit menu | Fuel → Dashboard, Fuel → Diesel Yard, Fuel → Reports |
You can also pick Diesel Yard Dashboard as your landing page in My Preferences, or an admin can set it as a role's default dashboard.
Setting up
1. Create the yard
The first time you open Diesel Yard, click ⛽ Create Diesel Yard. This adds a store called "Diesel Yard" that holds your fuel stock. You don't need to pick an existing store.
2. Add your fuel as an item
Add your fuel (for example "Diesel") in the Item Catalog as a Product, with a Cost Price. A dispense is costed at that Cost Price, so keep it up to date when your fuel price changes.
3. (Optional) Limit which items count as fuel
By default, every active Product item can be picked as fuel. If your company uses item categories, a user with Settings access sees Filter by Category at the top of the Diesel Yard page:
- Filter by Category: pick the category your fuel items belong to. Items in that category are offered, and so are items with no category at all.
- Require Category: tick this to also hide items that have no category.
4. Restock the tank
There's no separate "receive fuel" screen. Record the supplier's bill in Purchase Invoices with your fuel item on the line. The litres are added to the tank when the bill is approved.
- More than one store: a Receiving Store field appears on the bill. Choose the Diesel Yard. If you leave it on "Default store", the fuel goes to your default store instead.
- The Diesel Yard is your only store: the fuel goes there automatically.
Tank
The Tank tab shows, for each fuel item:
- litres currently in the yard
- stock value (litres × the item's Cost Price)
- a Low Stock badge when the level reaches the item's reorder level (5 if none is set), or Out of Stock at zero or below
Dispensing fuel
Open the Dispense tab (needs the fuel.issue permission).
1. Start from a job number (optional). Type the job number in Job Number (Kibali):
- Trip lists every trip on that job that uses your own trucks, with active trips first. Outsourced trips aren't listed, because they aren't fuelled from your yard.
- Pick a trip, and the truck, driver, driver phone and route fill in for you. If the trip's route has an estimated fuel amount, Litres is filled in too.
- Or choose No specific trip — charge to the job only, then pick the vehicle yourself.
- If the job has no trips on your own trucks, a note says so. Pick the vehicle and the fuel is charged to the job.
2. Or start from a vehicle. Leave the job number blank and pick a Vehicle. Trip (optional) then lists that vehicle's active trips. Leave it empty to record a general fleet expense with no job.
3. Fill in the rest.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Fuel Item | The fuel item you're dispensing |
| Litres | Required, must be more than zero |
| Odometer Reading | Optional. Needed for consumption figures (see Consumption) |
| Dispensed By | Filled in with your name; change it if someone else filled the truck |
| Notes | Optional |
4. Check the expense preview. Before you save, a box shows exactly what will be recorded. For example, "TZS 640,000.00 Fuel expense (approved, at cost) — charged to Job TZL-101 / Trip TRP-TZL-101-1". If nothing links it to a job, it says so.
5. Click ⛽ Dispense Fuel. You'll see a confirmation and land on Issue History.
Dispense doesn't stop you issuing more litres than the Tank tab shows. The level can go below zero, and the tank then shows Out of Stock. Restock with a Purchase Invoice to bring it back.
Where the cost goes
Each dispense creates an Approved expense in the "Fuel" expense category, or whatever your company calls its fuel category. The amount is litres × the fuel item's Cost Price, in your base currency. Because it's an ordinary approved expense:
- it appears in Expenses
- it counts on the job's (and trip's) costs and profit, like any other approved expense
- it appears in the Job Ledger as a cost entry for that job. The Job Ledger is under the Accounting menu if you have Accounting, otherwise under Finance.
No separate approval step is needed, because the fuel has already left the tank.
Issue History
Issue History lists every dispense: date, vehicle, Job, trip, litres, cost and who dispensed it.
- Click any column heading to sort. Search by vehicle, job, trip or person.
- Click a job number to open that job (if you can view jobs).
- 🖨️ prints a Kibali (fuel issue slip) for that dispense.
- ↓ Export to Excel downloads the list you're looking at, with litres and cost totals.
Consumption
Consumption (needs fuel.reports.view) shows, per vehicle:
- Total Litres dispensed
- Distance (km): the difference between the vehicle's first and last odometer readings
- L / 100km
The rate needs at least two dispenses with an odometer reading. Fuel dispensed at or before the first reading isn't counted, because there's no distance to set it against. A vehicle without enough readings shows "—". Record the odometer on every dispense to get reliable figures.
Printing a Kibali from a job
On a job page, each trip has a ⛽ Kibali button. It prints a Kibali Cha Mafuta (fuel authorization slip) and records on the trip that a slip was issued, with the litres and who printed it. Printing it again shows a warning first.
The slip on its own doesn't move any fuel or record a cost. When the fuel is actually put into the truck, record it under Dispense as above.
Dashboards and reports
Diesel Yard Dashboard
A one-page view for whoever runs the yard:
- litres dispensed today, fuel cost today and number of dispenses today
- how many tanks are low or out
- tank levels and the five most recent dispenses
- a ⛽ Dispense Fuel button
Fuel Dashboard
Totals for your yard (and your filling station, if you have one):
- litres in the yard and their value
- litres issued and fuel cost this month
- a bar chart of litres dispensed over the last 7 days
- your top vehicles by litres this month
Fuel Reports
Pick a From / To date range (it starts at the first of this month), then one of these tabs:
| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| Diesel Issuances | Each dispense in the period with litres, unit cost and total cost, plus totals. 📤 Export downloads this tab |
| Vehicle Consumption | Per vehicle: number of fill-ups, total litres and total cost |
| Restocking | Purchase Invoices received into the Diesel Yard: date, bill number, vendor, status and total |
| Station Sales | Shown only if you also have Filling Station: completed till sales |
General Ledger posting
If Accounting is licensed, a dispense posts this journal straight away:
- Debit: your fuel expense account
- Credit: your fuel inventory account
Set these up in Posting Setup:
- Fuel Inventory Asset (Diesel Yard): the account credited when fuel leaves the yard. If it's empty, Inventory Asset (POS) is used instead.
- Expense category accounts: map your fuel category to the expense account to debit.
If neither inventory account is set, or the fuel category has no account, the expense is still recorded but nothing is posted to the ledger.
Permissions
| Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|
fuel.view | Open Diesel Yard, the Diesel Yard Dashboard and the Fuel Dashboard; see the tank and issue history |
fuel.issue | Dispense fuel to a vehicle, job or trip (shows the Dispense tab) |
fuel.reports.view | See the Consumption tab and Fuel Reports |
By default, Tenant Admin has all three. Operations Staff has view and issue. Accountant and Read-only user have view and reports.
Assign permissions in Settings → Users & Access → Roles & Permission Matrix. See the Permissions Reference.
Related
- Logistics: jobs, trips and the Job Ledger
- Purchase Invoices: how the yard is restocked
- Items & Product Catalog: where fuel items and their Cost Price are set
- Accounting → Posting Setup: GL accounts for fuel
- Filling Station: selling fuel to the public at a pump, rather than fuelling your own fleet
- Spare Parts: the same idea for a parts store