Rebates, loyalty and promotions
Scan data, loyalty and promotions each move money differently at a Passport store. A rebate arrives weeks later, a discount never reaches the register total, and a promotion costs you margin. This page explains how to record each so your books show what they really earn and cost.
Works with your POS, back-office & accounting stack
A scan data rebate arrives later as a deposit, and is usually recorded as a reduction of cost of goods or as other income, consistently and in its own account. A loyalty discount lowers what you collect at the sale. A promotion costs you margin on that item.
By the FuelCFO team. Where this page describes a vendor's product, the details come from the vendor's own public descriptions and can change, so confirm them with the vendor. Figures in diagrams are illustrative.
Gilbarco Veeder-Root makes fuel dispensers and the Passport point-of-sale platform, which it describes as connecting to back-office, loyalty, price sign, car wash and tank-monitoring systems. Gilbarco describes Passport as connecting to loyalty systems, so scan data and offers may run through Passport or a connected system. Confirm what yours does with Gilbarco or your installer. We are not affiliated with Gilbarco. This page is about what each program does to your numbers.
The sale happens at the register, but the money comes later from a manufacturer program, usually as a deposit with no sale attached. If nobody records it, it sits in the bank as an unexplained deposit and is later lumped into sales by mistake.
Many stores treat a rebate as a reduction of cost of goods, and some record it as other income. The right choice depends on the program and on how your accountant keeps your books. What matters is that it is consistent and in its own account.
A loyalty discount is applied at the sale, so the customer pays less than the shelf price. If the register total is posted without the discount, sales look higher than the money you took in.
A promotion sells the item for less than usual. The cost shows up as lower margin on that category, not as a separate bill, so check category margin afterwards to see whether the deal paid for itself.
Because Passport can connect to other systems, the same figure may appear in Passport and in a separate back office, so agree which one is official. Keep the rebate statements from the manufacturer, because the bank deposit alone cannot tell you what it was for.
For what to save, go to the program records. For the usual mistakes, see where it goes wrong. For how we run a month, see Gilbarco accounting, and for every guide see the Gilbarco hub.
Rebates, loyalty discounts and promotion costs each get a place in QuickBooks.
Every manufacturer deposit is tied to a rebate statement.
Loyalty discounts are compared with what the register collected.
Categories with heavy promotions are reviewed so margin is read fairly.
Rebate statements, loyalty reports and promotion lists.
Ask your manufacturer reps if you are not sure where to find them.
The same list every month.
Each manufacturer deposit is matched to a statement.
A deposit with no statement is held until it can be explained.
Nothing is guessed.
Rebates, discounts and promotion costs go to their own accounts.
The method is written down so it stays the same.
Year-on-year comparisons stay fair.
Promotion-heavy categories are checked against last month.
This shows whether a promotion paid for itself.
Noted for you.
Books and a list of any deposit we could not place.
You may know where it came from.
Short and specific.
Programs, statements and report names vary by manufacturer and plan. Ask Gilbarco, your installer or your back-office vendor and your manufacturer reps what yours are called.
A rebate lands in the bank and nobody knows what it is.
Revenue is inflated by money that was never rung up.
Sales are posted before the loyalty discount.
One month as income, the next as a cost reduction.
A category looks weak and nobody knows a promotion caused it.
Scan data was not submitted, so the rebate never came.
Rebates are a real part of your margin.
You want to see what it costs and what it earns.
Money arrives from manufacturers and you cannot place it.
Do not have the statements? Tell us which manufacturers you have agreements with and we will help you find them.
A 30-minute call and about 48 hours of review, free, to see whether rebates at your Gilbarco store are being missed or misplaced.
We write down where each item goes in QuickBooks and why, so it stays the same every month.
The first month is tied to the statements and the bank before we carry on.
Kept apart from tobacco and promotions so pump margin is read cleanly.
5 services →Category margin that includes rebates, discounts and promotion costs.
9 services →Tax on discounted sales calculated on the right amount.
4 services →Rebate programs tracked store by store across your Gilbarco sites.
3 services →FAQ
More guides on the same system, or send us a day or a month for a free review.
Monthly bookkeeping for stores that run Gilbarco: reconciliation, month-end close and totals posted into QuickBooks Online.
Read more →What the daily close shows, what to check each night, and how it ties to the bank.
Read more →Where rebates, loyalty discounts and promotion costs belong in QuickBooks.
Read more →Send us a day or a month and we'll show you where the three systems disagree.
Get started →See all Gilbarco guides →| Every gas station software guide →
FinTruction · Construction Clients
Real US-based contractors. Same team, same operational discipline that we now bring to gas stations. Construction is a different vertical - but the muscle (multi-stream books, cost reconciliation, niche specialization) is the same one stations need.
"They didn't just record transactions and call it a day. They built a custom chart of accounts around how a remodeling company actually runs, did a full catch-up on years of bookkeeping inside QuickBooks Online, and now stay on top of my monthly bookkeeping and payroll."
Oniel Campbell
"Sahil and his team have been handling the bookkeeping and job costing for my painting business. They've done a great job cleaning up my books, using integrations to give me accurate, timely job costing and solid weekly data. Reliable, and the team is very detailed."
Dalton Mayberry
"They rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up, with real job costing, WIP, and retainage."
Carl Moore
Owner, Hearth & Haus
"They set the accounts up properly first, then cleaned up everything I never entered."
Rolian
"When I came to them I had no financial structure in place at all. No job costing, no WIP tracking, books were behind, no real way to tell if any job was actually making money. They came in, did a full cleanup, and set up job costing and WIP tracking inside QuickBooks."
Clay PearsonBook a Free Books Review
Book a free books review. We'll look at your setup, show you what's missing, and tell you exactly how we'd fix it. No pressure, no obligation.
Prefer to skip the form?
Tell us where to send it - we'll email it straight over.
Ask FuelCFO
Gas station & c-store accounting questions, answered.