Please click here for critical information about the SARS diesel refund scheme.

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This product was designed to provide control and logging of diesel issuing. It works by requiring a properly authorised driver and a properly identified vehicle before it will allow diesel to be pumped. In addition, it may be set to require a properly identified cost centre and a block or field/place where diesel was used.

It makes use of Dallas i-buttons to identify drivers, vehicles and cost centres. We generally use yellow tags for drivers, blue for vehicles, green for cost centres and orange for blocks/fields/places.

The heart of the system is an electronic control box, which is used to record data and open a valve or switch on a pump, allowing diesel to be issued. The control box contains a memory module with data on employees, vehicles and cost centres, and also used for recording of diesel transactions. The data is periodically transferred to your computer by means of a flash disk.

Once downloaded, you may decide to edit the data by adding extra fields such as field number, process or cost centre group/class. You may add or delete any records as well. This allows you to enter manual records, for example those generated by purchasing fuel from outside sources like filling stations or using a diesel cart or trailer.

Stock control of diesel is also possible, by recording diesel purchases and entering stock level adjustments when needed. The system may be configured to give low stock level warnings at a user-selected level.

The system provides a log book printout and a summary printout to use in completing the diesel rebate claim. Cost centres are set up to indicate whether the specific activity attracts a diesel rebate.

All data and reports can be exported to a comma-delimited file for further processing in your favourite spreadsheet program. All reports may also be saved into a PDF file for easy e-mailing.

The imperative for handwritten log books
At the time of writing (November 2015) it became apparent to us that SARS would no longer accept the diesel rebate reports produced by Africlock as sufficient substantiation for diesel rebate claims. There is a definite requirement during diesel audits, that handwritten log books be available. This requirement currently features in two regions – Eastern Cape (Port Elizabeth) and Western Cape (Bellville), so what we are seeing is probably national policy from SARS Head Office.
Accordingly, we have added some extra functionality to the software to cater for this. Obviously, handwritten logbooks carry an extra administrative burden and trouble. Please do not blame us for this: We do not make the rules, we simply try to help you comply with them. See the sample log sheet below.

Please click here for critical information about the SARS diesel refund scheme

SARS is under extreme pressure from the state to generate revenue, and to block any “leakages” of revenue. The diesel rebate business is only one of SARS’ initiatives, and we can surely expect things to get worse in a weakening economy.
In the end, you need to decide whether the additional administrate effort is worth it, given the amount of rebate you are able to claim. You therefore need to determine if the effort and irritation is worth more or less than your rebate claim, and decide accordingly.
The complete process around a successful rebate claim will, in future, consist of the following:

• Daily or weekly log sheets PER VEHICLE, completed BY HAND. We will provide a blank format that has already been field tested (see example below). This document, together with proof of purchase (invoices), then form the so-called source documentation for your rebate claim, with Africlock providing a relatively comfortable and structured mechanism for arriving at a final rebate claim in a format acceptable to SARS.
• The normal processing of diesel transactions out of storage tanks and diesel carts, that you are already doing using Africlock, will continue without change. This process will not be repeated here. Please read the “Notes on good practice” available from the main screen of the diesel software. We experience lots of problems to convince users to do this administrative work rigorously, and apart from the fact that it is difficult or impossible to sort out problems months or years later, you are actually tripping yourself up with mistakes made under pressure when an audit is due.
• Only if SARS requires this (and we expect this to vary from inspector to inspector, and from region to region) you may need to enter the log sheets into Africlock. From our point of view this should not be a requirement, but strictly according to law, SARS will probably be within their rights to demand it. The diesel rebate reports provided by the Africlock software have been designed to work correctly with OR without these trip records. When used WITHOUT trip records, Africlock will provide reports showing only tank refill transactions. When used WITH log sheets entered, the report will show the individual trips slotted in between the matching tank refill transactions.

We expect that SARS will look at the handwritten log sheets to determine whether a series of trips justify the tank refill undertaken after the trips – the diesel used during these trips must be justified in terms of distance or hours, and litres of diesel consumed. In addition, they will probably want to see that the refill transactions completed on log sheets accurately match what shows on the diesel rebate report.
We would suggest that you undertake these checks on a regular basis, comparing the Africlock electronic records with the log sheets, so that corrections and adjustments can be made timeously.