PDI and QuickBooks do different jobs
Owners often ask whether PDI can replace QuickBooks, or the other way round. They do different jobs. PDI runs the back office of the store, and QuickBooks keeps the books. This page explains the difference and how to keep the two in agreement.
Works with your POS, back-office & accounting stack
PDI and QuickBooks are not rivals. One tells you what happened in the store. The other records it as your financial books. Choosing between them is not the real question for most owners. The real question is how the numbers move from one to the other and who checks that they agree.
PDI is a back-office system used by gas stations and convenience stores. It collects what the register and pumps record and turns it into daily totals: sales by department and tender, fuel, lottery and expected deposits. It helps you run the store day to day.
QuickBooks Online is accounting software. It holds the ledger, reconciles your bank and card accounts, tracks bills and payroll, and produces the profit and loss statement and balance sheet that your lender, tax preparer and you rely on.
For most single stores and small chains, no. PDI reports on store activity, but it is not where your bank is reconciled or your financial statements are produced. Some larger operators use accounting modules from PDI or another vendor, so ask your PDI representative what yours includes.
No. QuickBooks does not run your register, total the day by department or tender, or track fuel and lottery the way a back office does. It needs those totals from somewhere.
To compare them line by line, see the comparison table. To see how the numbers travel, go to where the numbers move. If you want a team to keep the two in agreement, what we do covers it.
Follow one day of sales from the register to PDI to QuickBooks Online, see where the numbers go missing, and how to check that all three agree.
Read more →The usual causes when PDI and QuickBooks Online disagree, how to find the gap, and how we reconcile the two.
Read more →Monthly bookkeeping for stores that run PDI: daily reconciliation, month-end close and PDI totals posted into QuickBooks Online.
Read more →What PDI back office software does, which reports to pull each month, and how its totals reach QuickBooks Online.
Read more →How PDI fuel and store inventory reach QuickBooks Online, and how to explain a fuel variance.
Read more →What PDI shows for lottery, and how to record sales, payouts and commission correctly.
Read more →Send us a day or a month and we'll show you where the three systems disagree.
Get started →We work from your PDI reports and your QuickBooks Online file, with no change to either.
Each PDI total goes to one clear account, with lottery and sales tax kept out of income.
Deposits and settlements are matched to what PDI says to expect, and fees are recorded.
When the two disagree, we find which one is right and why.
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 PearsonPDI reports for the month, plus your bank and card statements.
PDI totals are checked against what is in QuickBooks, day by day.
Missing, doubled or misplaced entries are corrected.
Cash, card and fleet totals are matched to deposits and settlements.
You get the books and a short note on any differences and their causes.
Features depend on your plan and setup, so confirm current details with each vendor. This compares what each is generally used for.
PDI says one number and QuickBooks says another, and nobody knows which is right.
The same day is entered from PDI and again from a bank deposit.
Pass-through money inflates revenue in QuickBooks.
The processor's fee is never recorded, so the bank shows less than sales.
Deposits land after month-end and are booked in the wrong month.
PDI is managed by the store, QuickBooks by the bookkeeper, and the move between them by no one.
You are deciding whether you need both PDI and QuickBooks.
You use both and the numbers never agree.
You have PDI reports and want proper books.
If you are not sure how totals reach QuickBooks today, tell us and we will work it out.
A 30-minute call, then about 48 hours while we review your books. You get our findings and a plain explanation of how we would fix them.
We decide which PDI report feeds which account and document it.
The first month is reconciled, closed and reported, then it runs on a schedule.
Fuel inventory, daily POS reconciliation, jobber statements and fuel versus store margin.
5 services →Car wash, lottery and ATM, vendor and DSD invoices, prepared food, shrinkage and more.
9 services →Fuel excise and motor fuel tax, multi-category sales tax, BSA/AML-aware books and entity tax.
4 services →Multi-location consolidation, store acquisitions and disposals, and loan and financing packages.
3 services →FAQ
Book 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.
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Gas station & c-store accounting questions, answered.