UTTS reconciliation: why your fuel statement and your records don't match

Fuel is a fleet's largest and leakiest expense item. The leak is rarely a big theft; it is usually small, irregular records: a purchase written to the wrong vehicle, a fill-up never entered, a purchase a driver made for another vehicle. The most reliable way to catch these is to compare two independent records.

One of these two records is created at the fuel station: UTTS, Turkey's fuel-station vehicle recognition system. The other is the fuel history in your own fleet software. Reconciliation means putting the two side by side and seeing the differences.

It is normal for the two records to differ

The first time you compare a UTTS statement with your own records, don't expect a perfect match. Typical reasons for differences are:

• The driver bought fuel, but the record was not entered.
• The purchase was written to the wrong vehicle; the plate or card got mixed up.
• The same purchase was entered twice.
• The amount or liters were entered wrongly by hand.
• The fuel was bought for another purpose or for another vehicle.

Some of these reasons are innocent and some are not. The value of reconciliation is not in telling which is which, but in making the difference visible. A difference that is not visible cannot be investigated.

Uploading the statement

You upload the UTTS statement as a file and map the columns. This mapping is done once; the same template is used for the next statement. Dates and amounts are read correctly in the Turkish format: values like 1.250,50 or 12.08.2026 are not corrupted by the wrong decimal separator. This small detail matters a lot in real life, because mistakes such as recording 12.500 liters as 12.5 because of a wrong decimal separator make reconciliation meaningless.

Linking rows to vehicles

Each row in the statement is linked to a vehicle through the UTTS number on the vehicle. That is why the precondition for reconciliation is that every vehicle's UTTS number is defined in its record; a row for a vehicle with no number defined cannot be linked to a vehicle. Checking the vehicle list for missing numbers before starting reconciliation prevents false differences that you would have to sift out later.

Reading the differences

When matching is complete, two groups emerge. The first is matched rows: purchases that appear in the statement and also in the records, with matching amounts. These count as reconciled with the fuel history. The second is differences:

• Purchases in the statement but not in the records: a fill-up that was not entered or was written to the wrong vehicle.
• Purchases with a different amount: a record that was entered wrongly by hand or altered.

Every difference is a question. The answer to each is different every time: an explanation is requested from a driver, a record is corrected, or a supplier is contacted. What matters is that the question can be asked.

Combining reconciliation with price checks

UTTS checks the accuracy of quantity and vehicle. The accuracy of price is a separate matter. Price comparison compares every fuel purchase with the published retail price on the day of purchase and finds expensive fill-ups. The reference price comes from the daily retail sales price of EPDK (Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority): the nationwide price for diesel, gasoline and LPG is pulled every day. Fill-ups paid above the average are listed as deviations; you can compare what was paid at which station.

The two checks work together: UTTS answers 'did this purchase really happen and who does it belong to', and price comparison answers 'was it made at a fair price'.

Regular reconciliation acts as a deterrent

Reconciliation has one more indirect effect: when drivers know that every purchase will sooner or later be compared with a record, fuel discipline rises on its own. No punishment process is needed for this; the existence of the comparison is enough.

Practical recommendations

• Enter each vehicle's UTTS number in its record; reconciliation relies on it.
• Reconcile monthly; don't let the statement wait when it arrives.
• Start with the unmatched rows.
• Tie the difference to a process, not to a person: keep an explanation record for every difference.
• Track price deviation as a separate item from reconciliation.

Finding suspicious fill-ups: fuel anomalies

Reconciliation compares the record coming from outside with the record inside. Fuel anomalies, on the other hand, look only at your own records and automatically find unusual fill-ups. The two complement each other. Every anomaly is shown with its reasoning; so when the system says 'suspicious', it also tells you why. The rules are:

• Tank overflow: a fill-up is considered critical if it exceeds the vehicle's tank capacity by a five percent margin. Tank capacity is read from the technical specifications on the vehicle form.
• Second fill-up in a short time: it is flagged if a second fill-up is made to the same vehicle within six hours; it is critical if the total of the two fill-ups exceeds the tank.
• Excess consumption: if the L/100 km between two full fill-ups exceeds 1.35 times the vehicle's own usual consumption, it is a warning; if it exceeds 1.7 times, it is critical. The usual consumption is the median of the last year, and the rule works on vehicles with at least four full-tank measurements.
• Expensive purchase: if the unit price is five percent above the EPDK price on the purchase day it is a warning; if it is fifteen percent above, it is critical.

You mark each anomaly as normal or suspicious. An anomaly marked normal drops off the list to be reviewed, and suspicious ones are collected in a separate tab. Fill-ups marked as personal do not fall under any rule.

A vehicle is compared with its own history. So there is no injustice of judging an old vehicle and a new one by the same threshold.

Record quality for correct results

The accuracy of both reconciliation and the anomaly rules depends on input quality. Three habits make a difference. First, mark a purchase where you did not fill the tank completely as a partial fill-up: since consumption is calculated between two full fill-ups, this mark protects the average from being distorted. Second, enter the odometer correctly; a wrong mileage can make a vehicle look like it over-consumes. Third, define the vehicles' tank capacity; without capacity, the tank overflow rule cannot work.

If you have a fuel card integration

Fuel card integrations such as Opet and Petrol Ofisi turn transactions directly into fuel records; this greatly reduces manual entry errors. Even in such a fleet, the value of UTTS reconciliation continues: the card transaction and the vehicle recognition record are two separate sources and confirm each other. The integration provides speed of entry, and reconciliation provides trust.

A reconciliation rhythm

• Upload the statement when it arrives; don't leave it to month end.
• Look first at unmatched and differing rows; skip the matched ones.
• Tie every difference to a reason: missing entry, wrong vehicle, amount error or a purchase that needs explaining.
• Review the anomaly list weekly; close the normal ones so the list stays with real problems.
• Track price deviation as a separate, monthly item.

UTTS reconciliation is not an audit ritual but a record cleanup that makes fuel expense defensible. Once it can be verified which vehicle every liter went to, fuel expense stops being 'approximate'.