Fuel margin and store margin worked out for invented stations, then set against payroll, a second-location payment and a cooler payment. The calculator on this page computes loan payments only.
Fuel Profit Worksheet for a Gallup, NM Station Planning Its Payroll
A station has two profit lines. Fuel profit is the gallons sold times what is left per gallon after the cost of the fuel; store profit is in-store sales times the store margin. Planning payroll means adding the two and seeing what is left after wages.
| Line | Figure |
|---|---|
| Gallons sold | 55,000 |
| Margin per gallon | $0.32 |
| Fuel gross margin | $17,600 |
| In-store sales | $85,000 |
| In-store margin | 31% |
| In-store gross margin | $26,350 |
| Payroll | $21,500 |
| Left after payroll, before other costs | $22,450 |
The two lines are quoted differently, cents per gallon on one side and a percentage on the other, so convert both to dollars before comparing them. On the fuel side every cent of margin per gallon is worth $550 a month at 55,000 gallons; on the store side every point of margin is worth $850 at $85,000 of sales (our arithmetic on the invented figures).
In this invented month the store earns $8,750 more in gross margin than the fuel side. Gasoline stations (NAICS 4471) had 44 employer establishments in McKinley County, NM in 2023, and 8 of them had fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns).
Worked Example: Gas Margin at a McKinley County, NM Convenience Store Planning a Second Location
An owner looking at buying a second, smaller station store as a going business can run the same two lines for it, then set the combined margin next to the payment on a term loan. The purchase here is the business, its stock and its store equipment; land, the building and the fuel side are outside this site.
| Line | Figure |
|---|---|
| Fuel gross margin (30,000 gallons at $0.29) | $8,700 |
| In-store gross margin ($48,000 at 29%) | $13,920 |
| Combined gross margin | $22,620 |
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Amount | $151,200 |
| Rate (annual %) | 9.5% |
| Term (months) | 84 |
| Monthly payment, rounded | $2,471.21 |
| Total repaid (payment x months) | $207,581.64 |
| Total interest | $56,381.64 |
The payment takes 10.9% of the second store's combined gross margin in this example (our arithmetic), before its own payroll and other costs.
Worked Example: Fuel Margin Next to a Payment Estimate for New Store Coolers
New reach-in coolers for the first station are a store expense, so the useful test is how much store or fuel margin each month's payment uses up.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Amount | $25,450 |
| Rate (annual %) | 10% |
| Term (months) | 36 |
| Monthly payment, rounded | $821.20 |
| Total repaid (payment x months) | $29,563.20 |
| Total interest | $4,113.20 |
| Margin source | Needed each month |
|---|---|
| Gallons at $0.32 a gallon | 2,567 |
| In-store sales at 31% margin | $2,649.03 |
A thinner fuel margin changes the gallons line, not the payment: at $0.27 a gallon the same payment needs 3,042 gallons a month, 475 more than at $0.32. The store line does not move unless the store margin does.
Store equipment of this kind can go to equipment financing or working capital.
What the Calculator on This Page Does
It is a payment calculator with three entries: the amount, the rate (annual %) and the term in months. As the three entries are typed it fills in a monthly estimate, interest summed over the months, and the grand total paid back. It has no field for gallons or margins, so that arithmetic stays in the tables on this page, and nothing typed into it leaves the browser; it is not linked to the request form either.
Enter the amount and terms from the two worked examples to check them: both were picked so that the rounded monthly payment times the months matches the calculator's total exactly.
By Rainview Business Loans · Updated