Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for plantation companies.
A checklist built from how plantation 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.
- Estate, division and block register
- Weighment and muster
- Piece-rate wages and advances
- Field operations calendar
- Agrochemical and fertiliser store
- Factory intake and processing lots
- Grading, contracts and dispatch
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For the estate manager
- For field officers and supervisors
- For weighing-shed clerks
- For the pay clerk and cashier
- For factory and dispatch staff
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Yield per block and per hectare across a season
- Kilos plucked or tapped by worker, gang and round
- Wages payable, advances open and deductions by family
- Agrochemical and fertiliser issued by block with spray dates
- Factory outturn by batch with the divisions that fed it
- Lots by grade, contract and sale status
- Buyer balances and dispatches against standing contracts
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- Messaging apps
- Weighing scale readings
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does it work for tea, coffee and rubber?
- Can weighment be entered in the field?
- How are piece-rate wages worked out?
- Can a lot be traced to the blocks it came from?
- Can one head office read several estates?
- Can weighing scales feed the system directly?
- Will our existing division and block lists carry over?
- Does it cover welfare registers for workers?
- Who owns the muster and lot records if we leave?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Yield cannot be read per block
- Piece-rate wages take days to settle
- Chemical and fertiliser use is not tied to a block
- Factory lots lose their field origin
- Sales contracts and dispatches drift apart
Prefer to talk it through? See the plantation companies page.