PNC - Petrol, News and Convenience

We have extensive experience in the petroleum forecourt and convenience sector, working closely with some of the UK's largest back office and EPOS system suppliers to integrate their stock control/scanning software with Sage 50 Accounts software.

 

We have also been used by some of these suppliers as consultants to provide training on the use of their back office software and how to get the most from it. Some of these systems cost well in excess of £10,000 yet in practice they are simply being used as a scanning system with a nice touch screen till. Our expertise with these systems and the industry enables us to provide training and consultancy, giving you the knowledge to use the software to help improve the profitability of your business.

 

With convenience stores often selling in excess of 1,500 lines it is very difficult to ensure that all your products are achieving a profit, never mind reaching the profit margin that you want from them. With proper understanding and use the better back office systems can keep you on track, with at-a-glance reports directing you to areas of concern. It is the norm rather than the exception for us to find items being sold in stores at a loss. These systems are expensive, let us help you make them an asset to your business rather than a cost.

 

Using your systems effectively is the start of a profitable business. We also offer a regular management accounting and reporting service to our PNC clients, spending regular time on site with you to ensure we have the best possible understanding of your business and to enable us to structure our reporting around you. We can then use our industry knowledge and contacts to benchmark your performance and to provide ideas and thoughts on potential new offerings in your store.

 

Even if you don't use an electronic point of sale system we can still be of help to you, providing business consultancy or a management accounting service amonst others. See Our services to find out what we do.

 

 

 

Case Study 1

Our client has a convenience store in West Yorkshire (strong symbol branded) and was previously paying his accountant £220 per month for weekly payroll for 9 staff, quarterly VAT returns (actually done by the client's bookkeeper) and quarterly management accounts (never actually produced). After 2 years with his previous accountant he received an additional invoice for £3,000 to cover the year end accounts, tax returns and correspondence with HMRC. His average monthly fee was therefore £345 plus VAT.

 

Our service to him includes the weekly payroll, VAT returns, monthly management accounts, annual accounts, tax returns, all HMRC correspondence, ongoing telephone support as required plus half a day per month onsite visit from one of our accountants. Our fully inclusive fee is £255 plus VAT per month. Obviously the big service difference here is the monthly visit from your accountant. We don't just call in to say hello (although we have done that on occasion as well) but we actually look to improve the system and the day to day work done by the client.

 

The client uses Prism and Iridium as their EPOS solution but they were not getting anywhere near their money's worth from it. Their previous accountant had no idea how it worked and stayed well clear. Their Prism system was already linked to Sage when we took over but in a way that hindered the bookkeeper rather than helped her. Since taking over we have changed the Prism to Sage link to suit the bookkeeper's working practices and changed the way stock invoices are posted to Prism to improve the efficiency of the back office system. After allowing our initial system changes a few weeks to bed in we started to analyse the perfomance of the shop. Our initial findings suggested that the gross profit margin was around 4-5% below the level we would hope to achieve in that location/scenario. We ordered a stock take to clean out the system then we got to work on repairing the profitability.

 

We have now started to see improvements in the profitability with a 2% improvement in gross profit margin as a result of refinements in the stock control system. Ongoing steps include looking at improving turnover levels through cross selling, the use of price-marked goods and benchmarking against other successful retailers. As an added bonus to the improved profitability, the stock control refinements have resulted in less stock being carried which helps cash flow enormously, and keeps the bank happy!

 

 

Case Study 2

Our client owns a petrol filling station with a small convenience store in North Yorkshire. The forecourt is branded by a large oil company but the shop is not branded by any of the symbol groups.

 

Previously our client was charged £450 per quarter for a 1 day onsite management accounts visit plus £3,000 per annum for the annual accounts and tax return. The previous accountants were not familiar with the back office software so prepared the management accounts simply from the bookkeeping software (Sage). They were not familiar with the forecourt industry and thus did not offer any consultancy.

 

We took over in 2005 and got to work analysing the systems and profitability. We assisted the client when his fuel supply agreement was due for renewal using knowledge gained from other clients. The new fuel agreement helped us to increase profit by 2 pence per litre with no noticeable drop in volume. We also worked on improving the shop margin position.

 

Since taking over the net profits of the business have increased from an average of around £28k per annum to an average of just over £75k in the 3 years to the end of 2010.

 

On top of this our fees are substantially less, we visit the site every month for half a day and prepare management accounts plus the VAT returns. We also handle all HMRC correspondence and prepare the annual accounts and tax returns. In other words we handle all their accounting requirements. Our fees are £175 plus VAT per month and £600 plus VAT for the year end accounts, an annual saving of £2,100.