Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for dairy cooperatives.
A checklist built from how dairy cooperatives 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.
- Member register
- Shift milk entry
- Rate chart and pay cycle
- Feed and input sales
- Loans and deductions
- Union dispatch and reconciliation
- Bonus, dividend and committee papers
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For the society secretary
- For milk testers and chilling staff
- For the union office
- For board members
- For member farmers
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Milk received by society, shift and tanker
- Fat and solids averages by society and by member
- Member statements with rate used and deductions
- Society weight against plant weight by tanker
- Feed and input credit outstanding by member and age
- Loan instalments due and recovered
- Share capital, bonus and dividend by member
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS or other messaging for statements
- Bank payment file export
- Analyser file import
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can a member see how a payment was worked out?
- How does it handle a change to the rate chart?
- Can several village societies use one system?
- Can it read from our milk analyser?
- How are feed credit and loans recovered?
- Can we pay members by bank transfer?
- Does it help with year-end papers?
- Will it work with unreliable power and signal?
- Who owns the member records?
- What sets the cost?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- A member’s statement cannot be rebuilt
- Society and dairy weights differ
- Quality readings are copied twice
- Feed credit hides in a notebook
- Shares and dividends are rebuilt each year
Prefer to talk it through? See the dairy cooperatives page.