Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for crop farms.
A checklist built from how crop farms 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.
- Field register and crop plan
- Input store and application log
- Field operations and machine hours
- Harvest, weighbridge and moisture
- Bin stock and sales contracts
- Seasonal crews and wages
- Field margin report
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For farm managers
- For agronomists
- For machine operators
- For grain store clerks
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Spray and application history by field, with pre-harvest interval dates
- Yield per hectare by field, crop and variety
- Seed and chemical stock by lot with expiry dates
- Machine hours, diesel drawn and repair cost per machine and per field
- Bin stock by crop and grade against open contracts
- Contract tonnes delivered, outstanding and unpriced by buyer
- Field margin after seed, inputs, machine cost, labour and rent
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Weighbridge indicator
- Accounting export
- SMS and messaging
- Spreadsheet import
- Boundary and mapping files
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does it work for mixed arable rotations?
- Can spray records be shown to a buyer on request?
- How are bins and contracts matched?
- Does the farm need a weighbridge connection?
- Can the cab work without signal?
- How is machine cost split across fields?
- What will setup need from us?
- Who can take our field data out?
- How do we get a quotation?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Spray records live in three notebooks
- Yield is known by farm, not by field
- Grain in the bins does not match the contracts
- Machine hours are never charged to a crop
- Seasonal labour is paid from memory
Prefer to talk it through? See the crop farms page.