How to keep a daily LPG cylinder stock register
By the DeskGas team · Updated
The stock register is the first record an inspector asks for and the first place a shortage shows up. This guide walks through what it should contain, how to close it each evening, and where most registers go wrong.
In short
- Keep one register per cylinder product, with filled, empty and defective columns.
- Closing is always opening + received − sold − returned ± adjustments. Never write a closing figure you did not calculate.
- Count physically on a fixed day every week, and write the reason for every adjustment.
What the guidelines ask for
The Marketing Discipline Guidelines 2022 that oil companies apply to LPG distributorships require a distributor to maintain a daily stock register for filled, empty and defective cylinders of all types (clause 1.3(ii)), and to display opening stock and retail selling prices (clause 1.3(i)). Unaccounted sale of filled cylinders is listed as an irregularity, and fines grow with each instance.
In practice that means the register must agree with the truck invoices, with the cash memos issued, and with what is physically in the godown.
The columns for each product
- Opening: filled, empty, defective (yesterday's closing, never re-counted on paper)
- Received from the oil company: filled cylinders on today's truck invoice
- Refills sold: total of every delivery man plus counter sales
- Empties returned to the oil company on the truck
- Defective: filled cylinders found defective, and defectives sent back
- Adjustments, each with a reason
- Closing: filled, empty, defective
A worked example
Example only. XYZ Gas Agency opens the day with 16 filled and 805 empty 14.2 kg cylinders. A truck brings 720 filled and takes back 720 empties. Delivery men sell 328 refills and bring back 328 empties.
Filled closing = 16 + 720 − 328 = 408. Empty closing = 805 + 328 − 720 = 413. If the evening count finds 406 filled, the register shows a shortage of 2 that must be explained the same day, not at month end.
Where registers usually go wrong
- The truck is entered on the day it arrived, but the invoice is dated the day before
- Counter sales from the godown are forgotten because they are not on a delivery sheet
- A defective cylinder is swapped for a customer and never written down
- A wrong total is copied forward as the next day's opening
- An adjustment is made to "match" the count without a reason
How DeskGas helps
DeskGas builds the register from the daily close: deliveries per man, truck invoices and adjustments. Closing is always calculated, a physical count shows the difference in red, and closed days lock so changes need the owner's approval.