Fuel card vs tank reconciliation
Fuel card reconciliation compares the litres a card or invoice says were pumped against the litres your vehicle's tank actually gained. When the carded quantity exceeds the real tank gain, Trakora raises a refuel_shortfill alert — so a short-fill becomes a case you can act on, not a number you never notice.
Fuel reconciliation at a glance
- What it reconciles
- Carded / invoiced litres vs measured tank gain
- Alert rule
- refuel_shortfill
- Shipped screen
- /reconciliation — "Card vs Tank"
- Event emitted
- purchase.reconciled
- Signal source
- In-vehicle fuel-level telemetry
- Part of
- Fleet Fuel & Anti-Theft (requires Fleet)
- Alert channels
- SMS · WhatsApp · push
- Who it's for
- Fleet, transport, construction, mining operators
- Reconciliation accuracy
- —† depends on sensor calibration
- Per-vehicle price
- —† quoted per deployment
Paid for 100 litres, received 80
A short-fill is the quiet loss: the pump receipt and the card charge both read 100 litres, but only 80 ever reached the tank. Because the fuel card is the only record most fleets keep, nobody ever compares it to the fuel itself. Reconciliation is that comparison.
Carded litres beat tank gain
A purchase is logged against the vehicle — from a fuel card, a station invoice or a manual entry. Trakora measures the actual rise in tank level from the in-vehicle sensor for the same refuel and compares the two. When the carded quantity is materially higher than the measured gain, refuel_shortfill fires.
A named exception, not a spreadsheet
The refuel appears on the "Card vs Tank" screen with both figures side by side and the gap called out. It reaches SMS, WhatsApp and push, and the platform emits purchase.reconciled so the case is attached to the vehicle, the driver and the date — evidence you can raise in a disciplinary or with the station.
Query the station or the driver
With both numbers on record you take it back to the supplier as a short-delivery, or to the driver if the pattern repeats at one station on one route. The third beat is the one a card statement alone can never give you: the litres you paid for that never arrived.
"Card vs Tank" — example reconciliation, vehicle T 412 KCA
| Date | Station | Carded (L) | Tank gain (L) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 Aug | Dar — Ubungo | 60 | 59 | Matched |
| 05 Aug | Morogoro | 80 | 79 | Matched |
| 06 Aug | Mbeya road | 100 | 80 | Short-fill |
| 07 Aug | Dar — Ubungo | 55 | 55 | Matched |
Illustrative figures for layout only — not a customer record and not a benchmark. The 20-litre gap on 06 Aug is what a card statement alone hides.
Reconciliation sits inside theft detection
Card-vs-tank is one of four shipped behaviours in Fleet Fuel & Anti-Theft. Each is a real rule, named in the manifest.
Refuel reconciliation
Every carded refuel checked against the tank gain, so a short-fill surfaces as an exception the same day.
/ refuel_shortfillDrop while parked
A sharp tank-level fall while the vehicle is parked and not consuming — the classic overnight-siphoning signature.
/ fuel_drop_stationarySuspicion to confirmed case
Correlated drop events escalate from theft.suspected to theft.confirmed — evidence, not an accusation.
/ fuel_theft_suspectedConsumption analytics
Litres per 100 km per vehicle and route, so a reconciled loss can be read against real consumption, not a guess.
/ consumptionHonest limits
Reconciliation is a comparison, and a comparison is only as good as the two things it compares.
What this cannot do
- Reconciliation needs a fuel-level sensor installed on the vehicle. Without a tank-level signal there is nothing to compare the card against — this is not a card-only audit.
- Trakora is not a certified fiscal or metering device. It compares a measured tank rise to a recorded purchase; it does not replace a TRA-EFD receipt, a calibrated forecourt pump, or a weights-and-measures inspection.
- Sensor accuracy depends on calibration and tank geometry. A slosh on a slope or a poorly calibrated probe widens the tolerance — the reconciliation tolerance is a configured value, not a guaranteed litre.
- The sensor reports over GSM. In a dead zone the refuel event buffers and backfills on reconnection, so a reconciliation can arrive minutes after the pump, not at it.
- A short-fill flag is a prompt to investigate, not a verdict. The two numbers are the evidence; the disciplinary or supplier query is still yours to run.
What it costs
Fleet Fuel & Anti-Theft is an enterprise module, sold with Fleet and scoped to your vehicle count and sensor type. Per-vehicle pricing is —† quoted per deployment in TZS, with a TRA-EFD VAT invoice. Talk to sales for a figure against your fleet.
Figures shown as — are to be confirmed — no per-vehicle price, sensor price or reconciliation-accuracy percentage is published on this page because none is fixed in the product; each is scoped per deployment. No number here is invented.
Frequently asked questions
What is fuel card vs tank reconciliation?
It is the comparison of the litres a fuel card or invoice records against the litres your vehicle's tank actually gained on the same refuel. A gap is a short-fill.
Which alert does a short-fill raise?
The refuel_shortfill rule. It fires when carded litres materially exceed the measured tank gain, and reaches SMS, WhatsApp and push.
Do I need hardware on the vehicle?
Yes — a fuel-level sensor. Reconciliation compares a card to a measured tank gain, so there must be a tank-level signal to measure. This is not a card-statement-only audit.
How accurate is the tank measurement?
Accuracy depends on the sensor, its calibration and the tank. We do not publish an accuracy percentage because it is not a fixed product figure — it is scoped per deployment.
Is this the same as catching siphoning?
They are complementary. Reconciliation catches paying for litres you never received; the fuel_drop_stationary rule catches litres leaving a parked tank. The pillar page covers both.
Does reconciliation replace my fuel card?
No — it watches your fuel card. You keep the card and its records; Trakora adds the missing half of the picture, the fuel that actually reached the tank.
More on fuel theft detection
See your own card-vs-tank picture
Tell us your fleet size and how you fuel today, and we will scope reconciliation for your vehicles — in TZS, with a TRA-EFD VAT invoice and Swahili support.