Machinery, Fleet & Contracting
Machinery & Fleet: For Farmers
What Machinery & Fleet changes for the person actually doing the work.
For the person running the business, the test of any farm software is whether it removes work or adds it. Machinery is the second largest capital commitment on most farms and the least rigorously appraised. This module holds the asset register, true cost per hour and per hectare, maintenance and compliance, contractor engagement and the own-versus-hire decision that determines whether the fleet is an asset or a liability.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Farm manager
Fleet decisions
Needs true cost per hectare before signing a replacement order.
- Register every asset with cost and finance terms
- Record hours, area and fuel
- Maintain to schedule and evidence compliance
- Calculate true cost per hour and hectare
Agricultural contractor
Multi-client operations
Needs work orders, completion evidence and invoicing in one flow.
- Record hours, area and fuel
- Maintain to schedule and evidence compliance
- Calculate true cost per hour and hectare
- Compare against contractor rates
Machinery ring manager
Matching supply and demand
Needs availability and rates across members.
- Maintain to schedule and evidence compliance
- Calculate true cost per hour and hectare
- Compare against contractor rates
- Decide own, hire or contract
End to end
How Machinery & Fleet runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Register every asset with cost and finance terms
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Record hours, area and fuel
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Maintain to schedule and evidence compliance
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Calculate true cost per hour and hectare
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Compare against contractor rates
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Decide own, hire or contract
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Plan replacement at the optimal point
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Apply for equipment funding where eligible
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Machinery & Fleet does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Asset register with purchase, finance, warranty and disposal records
- True cost per hour and per hectare including depreciation, finance, repairs and fuel
- Replacement cycle modelling with optimal replacement point identification
Operate and monitor
- Own versus hire versus contractor comparison for every operation
- Maintenance schedule with service intervals and completion records
- Statutory compliance — road use, LOLER, PUWER and operator competence
Comply and evidence
- Contractor engagement with rates, work orders and completion verification
- Machinery ring and sharing arrangement management
- Fuel and red diesel usage recording with entitlement compliance
Analyse and improve
- Workshop parts inventory and repair history
- Utilisation reporting showing hours worked against hours available
- Grant eligibility checking against current equipment funding rounds
Find
Find contractors and dealers
Filter by type, nation, distance and accreditation. Results are ranked by relevance to your holding once your holding record exists, and alphabetically before that.
6 records shown from the platform’s own register
- Module Machinery, Fleet & Contracting Flagship
- Module Precision Agriculture, Guidance & Variable Rate Core
- Module Robotics & Field Automation Core
- Module Drones & Aerial Survey Core
- Module Satellite & Remote Sensing Core
- Module IoT Sensors & Rural Connectivity Core
Worked example
How a business like yours would use Machinery & Fleet
The problem: Needs true cost per hectare before signing a replacement order.
What they do
- Register every asset with cost and finance terms
- Record hours, area and fuel
- Maintain to schedule and evidence compliance
- Calculate true cost per hour and hectare
What changes
- Machinery cost per hectare
- Utilisation hours per machine
- Unplanned downtime
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Machinery cost per hectare
- 02Utilisation hours per machine
- 03Unplanned downtime
- 04Repairs cost per hour
- 05Contractor versus own cost differential
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.