Qamer Javed
Running a heavy duty repair business means you fix cranes, dump trucks, bulldozers, excavators, and several other large machinery. At the same time, you also have to keep an eye on several other aspects of the venture. This includes managing inventory, monitoring employees’ performance, evaluating business growth, and getting payments right on time.
However, if you keep using manual methods such as paperwork, and registers, you will continue experiencing errors, and missed entries. Therefore, you need reliable, and efficient heavy duty shop software.
In the article below, we will let you know how you can pick the right system for your business. In addition, you will learn how it can help your repair business. Stay with us.
- Inventory Management is a Must
So, as we have discussed above, managing repair parts and accessories for all these equipment and machineries can be tough. The reason? You have a lot of stock to manage. These include parts of trucks, trailers, cranes, etc. And if you rely heavily on paperwork, you may lose several sales opportunities and loss of trust from customers due to shortage of inventory. Let us understand this with an example here.
Imagine a customer takes an appointment from you. Then, they visit your repair store to get their road roller or bulldozer fixed. You ask your repair technician to look at the machine, and they tell you about the issue. Then, you quote the price to the customer, and start working on it after trier approval.
But here’s the thing. When you are about to replace the malfunctioned/broken part, you realize that you don’t have that in your inventory. Now what? You ask the customer to wait for a few hours as you need to order that specific part. As the customer can’t wait for a few hours, there are high chances that they will ask you to reassemble the machine. Then, they will step out of your garage, or workshop and look for some other repair service provider.
Therefore, inventory management is one of the heavy-duty repair shop software features you can’t run without. Using this feature, you can efficiently manage your inventory. For instance, whenever a repair part or item gets low in the stock, the software will notify you. Along with that, you can also reorder inventory from your desired parts supplier or vendor. This way, you don’t need to worry about getting stocked out and can serve your customers on time.
- Employee Performance and Reporting
Your heavy-duty equipment repair technicians and employees are your assets. If you fail to manage them, and pay them fairly, they may leave your shop. Then, you again have to look for experienced techs who know how to quickly, and efficiently repair all these machinery. Therefore, the heavy duty shop software you pick should have employee management and reporting features.
On average, a heavy-duty equipment repair technician earns $62,740/year. That’s a decent amount of money even in this day and age when there is a lot of inflation everywhere. However, it may not be enough for some people as business owners in the US lose billions of dollars every year due to employee thefts.
But, when you use software having employee management and reporting features, you don’t need to worry about anything. It will let you know about the check-in, and check-out timings of your employees all the time. Along with that, you would know the number of repair jobs everyone completes, and the revenue you make. This way, none of your techs will try to steal or lie about their work hours. At the same time, you can easily calculate commissions, and process payroll, ensuring everyone gets paid fairly, and on time.
- Get Paid on Time
When you run a service-based business, it’s crucial to get paid right on time. As you have to manage expenses and pay your employees and vendors, you need to have hands on cash. And that’s only possible if you receive payments on time from your customers.
Therefore, your heavy duty shop software should have a payments feature. It would also be better if it offers integrations with top payment platforms such as Paypal, Square, Stripe, etc. Also, it should help your clients to pay you using their desired methods such as debit/credit cards, online, and digital wallets. This way, you will have rough money to manage expenses and clear dues to your suppliers.
Final Words
Managing a heavy duty repair business can be tough specifically if you rely solely on manual methods and processes. Therefore, it is a must that you look for reliable, and efficient software. It will help you streamline ongoing processes, and manage all the admin work. So that you can focus more on growing your business and save yourself from all the hassle. Till next time!
