Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for contract farming companies.
A checklist built from how contract farming companies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Grower registry and agreements
- Plot and crop records
- Input issue and advances
- Field officer visits
- Collection centre weighment
- Settlement and recovery
- Processor deliveries and reconciliation
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For the sourcing head
- For field officers
- For collection centre staff
- For store managers
- For finance
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Agreements, area and expected volume by crop and cluster
- Input issues and advance balances by grower
- Field officer visits done against plan
- Forecast against procured weight, by cluster and week
- Grade deductions and rejected quantity by centre
- Settlements released with advance recovery
- Processor intake against centre totals, by lot
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- Weighbridge indicator
- Bank payment file
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does it hold the agreement terms or only a scan?
- Can one grower have more than one crop?
- How are grade deductions applied?
- Can it show which growers may be side selling?
- Can it read from our weighbridge indicator?
- Do field officers need signal in the plots?
- Can finance see advances before harvest?
- Are last season’s agreements still there next year?
- How is the system priced?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Agreements are in cabinets, not linked
- Input advances are lost in a ledger
- Field officers keep their own notes
- Side selling goes unnoticed
- Settlement takes weeks to explain
Prefer to talk it through? See the contract farming companies page.