In this guide 6 sections
Settle five things before the season starts. Each machine needs one record that links its serial to every implement sold with it. Buyer finance, pre-delivery inspection, the spares counter and manufacturer warranty claims deserve the same care, so ask any vendor to run one real tractor through all five. Motorcycle dealerships can reuse most of it.
Start with the machine, not the invoice
A tractor leaves the yard with a front loader and a rotary tiller, sometimes a trailer, and each is billed on its own invoice. Two seasons on, nobody remembers the pairing. A warranty question then turns into a search through three invoice folders, a pile of delivery notes and whatever the salesman left in his phone messages.
Open one tractor with three linked implements. The screen should show the chassis serial, engine number, model year and hours at delivery, and each linked implement should carry its own serial and hitch category. PTO speed and couplers belong there too. Then search by engine number alone. The right machine should appear.
- Chassis serial, engine number and model year
- Hours on the meter at delivery and at every service
- Implements linked to the tractor, each with its own serial
- Hitch category, PTO speed and hydraulic coupler type
- Yard bay and status from inward receipt to sale
Put the buyer’s finance file on the sale
Most tractors are bought on a loan or a manufacturer programme, and the sale is not finished when the invoice prints. The lender wants more. It asks for the quotation, deposit receipt, invoice, delivery note, insurance cover note and signed handover form, in that order, before it releases the money.
Ask where those papers live. A shared folder plus a salesperson’s memory is no answer. The file will be incomplete the week the lender rings, and the buyer waits for the loan. The system should show which papers are in, which are pending and which lender holds the loan, so any colleague can answer that call.
Meter hours drive a used price. Record them with tyre condition beside the sale, so the net figure after the trade-in is never worked out on a calculator at the counter.
Make the pre-delivery inspection a signed record
A pre-delivery inspection is the last look. Fluid levels, tyre pressures, wheel nut torque, battery, lights, hydraulic couplers, the PTO shield and the rollover frame all get checked. Each check carries a tick and a name. No tick, no delivery.
The handover briefing matters as much. The farmer is shown the PTO engagement, the hydraulic levers and the grease points before he signs the briefing sheet and takes the keys. Attach photographs of the meter and the serial plate to that sign-off, since a warranty dispute a year later often turns on those two pictures.
Count the spares counter before the first field is sown
Demand for filters, V-belts, mower knives, guards and hydraulic hoses arrives inside a few weeks, and the first field worked empties the bin. Reordering then is too late. The next town’s stockist gets the sale.
Ask whether reorder levels can be raised for sowing and harvest, and whether last season’s sales for the same weeks sit beside the level. Then ask how a service truck is loaded. The job should list the likely seals, belts and filters, issue them from the counter and take unused parts back into stock when the fitter returns.
- Seasonal reorder levels set by part
- Last season’s sales for the same weeks
- Parts list attached to each field service job
- Unused parts returned to stock after the visit
- Counter sales and phone orders in one list
Warranty claims, and what motorcycle dealerships can reuse
A warranty claim needs the delivery date, the serial, the engine hours on the day the part failed and photographs of the failed part and the hour meter. Scattered facts send the claim back.
Motorcycle dealerships can reuse more than they expect. Frame and engine numbers, the delivery date, free service coupons, the delivery check and the claim file all work the same way, since the maker wants the same proof. They can leave out the implement link, the seasonal spares curve and the field service truck, which only a farm dealer needs.
One record design serves both.
Pre-season vendor question sheet
One printed page holds five blocks, one each for machine record, finance file, pre-delivery inspection, spares counter and warranty claims, in the order a demonstration follows. Under each block sit the vendor questions, with columns for the vendor’s answer, whether it was shown on screen with a real tractor, and the date. A last row names who signed off.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
When should a dealer start choosing software?
Start after harvest, when enquiries slow and staff have time to test every screen on a real machine and a real invoice. Go live weeks before sowing, never during it.
Can an implement be linked to more than one tractor over time?
Yes, and the record should keep that history. A baler may be sold with one tractor, taken back in a trade and sold again with another, so each link needs its own start and end date.
Do we need a separate system for the spares counter?
Not usually. A counter that shares the machine record can show which parts a given model consumes, and what the farm bought last season. Two copies of one serial drift apart.
Can a motorcycle showroom use the same software?
For most of it, yes. The machine record, finance file, delivery check and claim handling carry over unchanged, while implement links and field dispatch are simply left switched off.