There are two ways to run the convenience store back office on FastDragon, and they answer two different needs. FastDragon C-store is the full, deep back office for operators who own their sites, built to run a store down to the item and wired straight into the fuel side. TurboTurtle, our C-store Lite, closes the day in department totals and skips the rest. Below is what each one is built for, and how to choose.
What both do
Both close the day, tie sales and tenders together, and give you numbers you can trust the first time. Where they part ways is depth. FastDragon C-store goes all the way down to the item. TurboTurtle keeps it at the category level, fast and simple.
FastDragon C-store: the full back office
FastDragon C-store is the complete convenience store back office, built for fuel from the ground up. It is made for operators who own their sites and carry the margin risk themselves.
- A per-item pricebook. Every SKU priced, tracked, and reconciled on its own, with cost and margin on each line.
- Full merchandise inventory, shrink, and wet-stock reconciliation across every store, flagged while you can still act on it.
- Scan-data rebate recovery that often covers the subscription on its own.
- Built for fuel. It pulls your fuel data and reconciles the wet stock right alongside the inside sales, seamless with the rest of FastDragon.
- Levels of access. Owners, managers, and clerks each see exactly what they should, across one site or a chain.
- Multi-store reporting that ties straight back to your books, so you can run every location like your best one.
Put numbers on that scan-data line. Altria and RJ Reynolds both run scan-data incentive programs, and a common Altria rate is about $0.10 per pack. A store moving 500 packs a week collects roughly $200 a month before promotional money, and back-office vendors such as Success Systems report stores earning upwards of $500 a month per store across programs. That alone covers the $300 subscription. Rates drift with each manufacturer agreement, so confirm current figures with your rep.
If you own the store, or you run fuel, this is the one. It is the full picture, and it scales from a single site to a chain without changing systems.
TurboTurtle (C-store Lite): quick and category-level
TurboTurtle works in departments instead of SKUs. It trims the back office to the daily close and the handful of reports a small operation reads, so the work is quick and the numbers stay easy to follow.
- Category-level tracking. Departments and totals keep the close fast and the picture clear.
- The daily close, sales, and tenders in a clean screen anyone on the team can run from day one.
- The core operations a store needs to run, with the reports to keep an eye on it.
- Fast and low-cost. The daily back office in 30 minutes or less, at $1,000 per site to start and $60 per month per site.
It fits a commissioned agent running the inside of a jobber-owned site, a small store that wants department totals and nothing deeper, or a location where the fuel side is already handled and only the inside operation is left to track.
Side by side
| FastDragon C-store | TurboTurtle (C-store Lite) | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Site owners and fuel operators | Commissioned agents & small stores |
| Depth | Per-item pricebook, full inventory | Category-level, the core operations |
| Fuel | Built in, pulls & reconciles fuel | Department totals, fuel handled elsewhere |
| Access | Owner, manager, clerk roles | Simple, run by the store team |
| To start | $3,000 first store, $2,000 each more | $1,000 per site |
| Monthly | $300 first store, $200 each more | $60 per site |
How to choose
A simple way to decide:
- Own your stores, or run fuel? Go with FastDragon C-store. It goes down to the item and ties straight into the fuel side.
- Running a site on commission for a jobber? TurboTurtle is built for you.
- A small store off the gas site, or one where the fuel is already handled? TurboTurtle keeps the inside operation quick.
Both sit in the same FastDragon family, behind the same Dragonfire security. You only pay for the one that fits. For real numbers on both, see our fuel software price guide.
Frequently asked
Do I need a per-item pricebook to run a convenience store?
Not every store does. Department totals are enough to close the day and watch overall margin. Item-level pricing earns its keep when you sell tobacco, because scan-data programs require transaction-level detail, or when shrink keeps showing up and you need to know which SKUs are walking out.
Does c-store back office software replace the POS?
No. The register rings the sale; the back office turns those transactions into a daybook, inventory counts, and reports an owner can act on. Both FastDragon C-store and TurboTurtle work from the sales data your register already produces.
How do tobacco scan-data programs pay out?
Altria and RJ Reynolds pay retailers that submit item-level sales data, usually on a weekly cycle, and rates improve at higher volume tiers. Payments arrive as direct incentives plus reimbursement for in-store buydowns. Terms differ by manufacturer agreement, so check current rates with your rep before you budget around a number.
Can a jobber roll TurboTurtle out across its commissioned agent sites?
Yes, and that is the usual pattern. The jobber keeps fuel on its own FastDragon system while each agent location closes its own inside-sales day on TurboTurtle. The jobber then sees one consistent picture across the whole network instead of a different spreadsheet from every agent.
What happens to my data if I move up from TurboTurtle to FastDragon C-store?
Your history carries over. The two share one platform, so moving up adds item-level detail on top of the department records you already built. Stores usually make the jump when they sign tobacco scan-data agreements or add a location.