Free checklist
Gas station daily close checklist.
Twelve steps to close a gas station or c-store the right way, every shift, covering cash variance, lottery serial reconciliation, fuel totalizer reads, vendor invoice handoff, and the audit row that makes any next-day investigation possible.
0 of 12 complete
The checklist runs in your browser only. Nothing is saved to a server. Use your browser's print function to print a blank or partially-completed copy for the back office.
How this works.
Pull the POS X-report (or Z-report at end of business day).
X-report is the running shift total; Z-report closes the shift.
Count the till twice.
Coin and paper separately. Subtract the starting drawer.
Calculate expected cash.
starting + cash sales − cash drops − cash refunds. Reconcile against counted.
Note variance with reason code if over tolerance.
Over-tolerance variance requires a reason and an owner alert before the clerk leaves.
Scan or enter the lottery settlement.
Match scratchers sold to packs activated; flag missing serials.
Total credit-card slips against the batch.
Card-terminal batch should match POS card tender. Flag mismatches.
Read the pump totalizer.
POS gallons should match dispenser totalizer gallons. Flag wet-stock variance.
Confirm vendor invoices in the queue.
Any invoices received today should be in the OCR queue ready for owner review.
Print / save the daily report.
Hard copy in the back office plus the digital audit row.
Write notes about anything unusual.
Equipment issues, customer incidents, staff changes, delivery anomalies.
Hand off to the next shift / lock up.
Confirm the next shift's starting drawer and that the audit row is signed.
Set the next morning's deposit.
Safe contents prepared for the morning bank run, with the deposit slip pre-filled.
What the result tells you.
Run all twelve every shift. The discipline is sequential, skip step 3 and your variance attribution breaks; skip step 7 and your wet-stock loss compounds. With StationPro, eight of these twelve steps are automated; without StationPro, the checklist is what stands between you and a 60-minute close.
Use this when…
- Onboarding a new clerk or manager.
- Standardizing close across multiple stores.
- Diagnosing why your current close takes 30+ minutes.
- Preparing to switch to automated EOD software.
Related.
Features
Buyer guides
Gas station back office software, built for independent operators.
Cash reconciliation, lottery accountability, fuel margin tracking, vendor invoice OCR, daily close, and multi-store reporting in one place, without the ERP cost or training cycle.
Gas station daily close software, in five minutes.
Pre-populated tender, live cash variance, lottery and fuel reconciliation, tolerance bands that block over-variance submission, and owner alerts before the clerk leaves the building.
From the blog
Loss attribution beats theft prevention.
Why the goal isn't to stop shrinkage at an independent station, it's to know who, when, and how. A field guide to building an attribution system instead of a security one.
EOD in 5 minutes.
A teardown of the daily-close process at a typical independent gas station, what takes 45 minutes today, why it takes that long, and how the same close can be done in five minutes without cutting corners.
FAQs.
Can I print this checklist?
Yes. The page is print-friendly, use your browser's print function or save as PDF. The numbered structure prints cleanly on a single page suitable for laminating and hanging in the back office.
Should every clerk run all 12 steps?
Yes if the clerk is closing solo. In well-run operations, a manager reviews the clerk's submission for steps 4, 8, and 11, the variance, vendor invoice queue, and shift handoff. The other nine steps are clerk-owned.
How does this compare to running EOD in StationPro?
StationPro automates steps 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 (POS pull, expected cash, lottery settlement, card batch, pump totalizer, invoice queue, audit row, deposit prep). The clerk's actual decision work, steps 2, 4, 10, 12, is ~5 minutes. Without StationPro the same workflow runs 30–60 minutes.
See how StationPro automates gas station daily close checklist.
A 30-minute demo. We walk through the underlying workflow in your station's actual data.