Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for tailoring shops.
A checklist built from how tailoring shops 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.
- Measurement records
- Order and delivery calendar
- Customer cloth and trims
- Cutting and stitching board
- Tailor piece-rate pay
- Alterations and delivery
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- At the counter
- For master cutters
- For tailors and finishers
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Orders due by day, with the garment count per tailor
- Garments late against the promised date, by stage
- Customer fabric received, cut and returned as leftover
- Pieces completed by each tailor and finisher, with the rate and advances
- Unpaid balances by customer, oldest delivery first
- Alterations opened, charged and closed by garment type
- Lining, buttons and zips below reorder level
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- Barcode label printer
- Payment gateway
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Is this for menswear tailoring, womenswear tailoring or both?
- Can a customer’s measurements be reused?
- What if the customer brings their own cloth?
- Can we promise delivery dates without overloading the tailors?
- How are tailors paid by the piece?
- Can alterations after delivery be handled?
- Can school uniform orders be managed?
- Can we move our order book across?
- Who owns the customer measurements and records?
- What does the quote depend on?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Measurements cannot be found
- Customer cloth is not counted in
- Dates are promised blind
- Piece-rate pay is added from tickets
- Alterations drift
Prefer to talk it through? See the tailoring shops page.