How to reconcile invoices with the Marathon Track system?
Marathon Track is Marathon Petroleum’s fleet fuel card management system. Reconciling those invoices means matching what Marathon says you spent against what actually hit your bank account and making sure it’s recorded correctly in your books.
Start by downloading your transaction detail from the Marathon Track portal. You’ll want the full itemized report showing each card transaction with the date, driver or card number, location, gallons, and dollar amount. Most logistics and transportation businesses pull this weekly or at month-end depending on how many trucks they’re running.
Compare the Marathon statement total to what posted on your bank or credit card statement. They should match exactly. When they don’t, the difference is usually timing. Transactions at the end of the billing cycle sometimes post to your bank a day or two later. Mark these as pending and verify they clear in the next period.
Check for card-level discrepancies if you have multiple cards assigned to different trucks or drivers. Make sure each one reconciles individually. This catches situations where a card was used incorrectly or charges appeared on the wrong vehicle. It also helps you spot unusual activity early.
Watch for tax rebates and credits. Depending on how your account is set up, you might receive quarterly IFTA fuel tax rebates that need to be recorded against fuel expense. These credits don’t show up in the transaction detail but appear on the invoice summary. Missing them throws off your fuel cost calculations.
Once verified, post the transactions to your accounting software. Categorize fuel as a cost of goods sold or operating expense depending on how your accountant prefers to handle it. If you’re tracking costs by truck or load, split the entry accordingly so you know what each vehicle is actually costing you.
For companies where fuel is one of the largest expense categories, getting this right matters for understanding your real margins. Proper reconciliation also prepares you for IFTA audits where you’ll need to prove fuel purchases match reported miles.
Many trucking companies in Northwest Ohio handle their own fuel card reconciliation until the fleet grows past five or six trucks. After that, the time spent on it often exceeds what you’d pay for small business bookkeeping services. A clean monthly reconciliation also catches fraud early and keeps your cost-per-mile calculations accurate.
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