Fuel delivery invoices: what to include and how to bill

At the top:

• An invoice number. Numbered in order, never reused, so both sides can refer to it.
• The date issued and the billing period. For example, deliveries from the 1st to the 31st.
• Your company and the customer. Names and addresses, and the bill-to the customer asked for.
• Any reference the customer requires. A purchase order, lease or AFE number.

Then one line per delivery, or per day and location:

• The date, and the location or pad
• The fuel type, since diesel, dyed diesel and DEF are often priced differently
• The gallons
• The price per gallon and the line amount
• The AFE number, if the customer codes fuel to AFEs

And at the bottom: the subtotal, any tax as its own line, the total, and your payment terms. If you charge a delivery or service fee, show it as a separate line too, so the price per gallon stays easy to check.

The invoice is only as good as the fuel log behind it. Before the invoices go out:

1. Check every shift. Look over each fueler's log before its gallons are billed, and fix wrong units, places and contractors first.
2. Total per contractor. Add up every fueler and truck that delivered to that customer in the billing period, with one spelling per contractor.
3. Split by fuel type. Each fuel gets its own price, so keep the gallons apart.
4. Hold back what's in dispute. Leave a questioned delivery off until it's settled, rather than bill it and credit it later.
5. Don't bill anything twice. Make sure no delivery is already on an earlier invoice, especially when billing periods overlap.

If your crews are still on paper, the free fuel delivery log template explains how to total a month of sheets per contractor, and the free fuel delivery ticket template gives each delivery a numbered, signed ticket to list behind the invoice.

• The gallons don't match the customer's count. Their supervisor kept a tally, and a fill is missing or doubled.
• The wrong AFE or reference. Their accounting team can't code it, so it waits.
• Another contractor’s fuel on the bill. A unit was logged to the wrong customer in the field.
• The wrong price. An old rate, or one fuel type priced as another.
• No detail behind the total. One big number with nothing to check it against.

Most of these start in the field. A clean log, checked before billing, prevents them.

Fuelers log each delivery on the phone, and the office reviews each shift or sends it back with a note. From there, invoicing is optional. It's off until you turn it on in Settings, so a company that invoices elsewhere never sees it.

When it's on:

• Prices. You keep a price per gallon for each contractor and fuel type, each with a start date. A delivery is priced at the rate in effect on its day.
• Invoices. Pick a contractor and dates, check the preview, and issue a numbered invoice PDF with your logo. Lines go by date, location and fuel type, with an AFE column if you want one.
• Only reviewed fuel, once. An invoice takes reviewed deliveries that aren't on an invoice already. A log sent back to the fueler stays off until it's fixed and reviewed.
• Tax, if you need it. One company rate, with a switch for contractors who are exempt.
• Corrections. An issued invoice is never edited. Void it with a reason and issue a new one.

Fuel Relay doesn't email invoices or take payments. Invoicing comes with the free office dashboard; you pay only for fueler seats (see pricing). For the whole product, see the oilfield fuel delivery software overview.