Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for home theatre and AV dealers.
A checklist built from how home theatre and AV dealers 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.
- Site survey and room design
- Quotation with multi-brand parts list
- Project stages and site checklist
- Installed equipment register
- Service calls and job cost
- Technician visits and materials used
- Handover pack and sign-off
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners and branch heads
- For sales and design engineers
- For project coordinators
- For installers and technicians
- For stores and accounts
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Enquiries and quotations by source, status and engineer
- Projects by stage, with rooms behind the install date
- Stock by serial number, allocated and unallocated
- Supplier orders open, received and overdue
- Warranty and maintenance contracts due for renewal
- Advances, milestone bills and outstanding balances by client
- Margin by project, with extra visits and materials added
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- Card and payment gateway
- Accounting export
- Spreadsheet import
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can it quote equipment from several brands in one document?
- Can one customer job have many rooms?
- Does it track serial numbers of installed equipment?
- How does it help with pre-wiring before the ceiling closes?
- Can installers use it on site, and does it work with no signal?
- Can we run maintenance contracts and charge for them?
- Will our accountant still use the current package?
- Can it handle several branches?
- Can our current projects and equipment records be loaded?
- What does it cost, and who owns the records?
- How long before the first room is run in it?
- What does a dealer bring from the showroom side?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- The pre-wiring window is missed
- Multi-brand quotations take a day
- Installed equipment cannot be found
- Project margin is unclear
Prefer to talk it through? See the home theatre and AV dealers page.