Although warranty claim processing may be tedious, once it’s completed, it can add up to significant revenue when cash flow has begun to slow down. As the weather gets colder and phones aren’t ringing off the hook, pool and spa professionals need to harness that pile of warranty claims as a revenue opportunity. This is where having a pool and spa retail maintenance software comes to the rescue!

Most pool and spa businesses agree that their manual or semi-manual warranty tracking systems leave ‘money on the table’ when it comes to processing claims. However, for many companies using business software to automate the tracking of warranty claims, they’ve generated enough additional revenue to pay for the entire investment cost of pool and spa software packages!

By automating warranty claims tracking using pool and spa software, business owners invariably generate an additional revenue stream in the slower, winter months. The additional cash from warranty claims with manufacturers, both for parts and for labor, is a welcomed winter revenue stream.

While warranty service work is easily tracked with a user friendly pool and spa retail maintenance software, it is tough to track using hand-written “book for claims with manufacturers.” By automating the warranty tracking process, pool and spa software allows managers and owners to easily track all claims to see what is open and hasn’t been paid.

Automating the warranty claims tracking process allows users to stay on top of warranty claims and inventory by tracking:

• Special orders and backorders
• Returned goods orders
• Warehouse transfers
• Warranty claims
• Serial numbers

The additional cash from these claims can be easily missed in the heat of the season without an automated tracking system within your pool and spa software. Manually keeping track of claims results in lost warranty revenue both on parts and labor. Be sure to run a detailed report in the slower winter months, and plan to run weekly reports during the summer season. Savvy pool and spa business owners agree that running a weekly warranty report helps them find thousands of additional dollars of profit every year.

In order for specialty retailers to compete against big box retailers, it’s essential to have pool and spa business software that integrates with vendors and distributors. This is the wave of the future.

Staying on top of inventory this summer was especially challenging, as demand outpaced supply for many products. One of the emerging lessons for many pool and spa businesses was the need for and importance of having a pool and spa retail maintenance software that is fully integrated with vendors and distributors, like PoolCorp. Software is critical for a few reason (among many others):

• Software enables smaller shops to compete against big-box retailers
• In addition to running warranty claims and returned goods reports, software allows you to track backorders and inventory cost discrepancies, to better manage inventory
• Software eliminates duplicate purchase orders and input of inventory

Say goodbye to spreadsheets and countless hours of data entry! Having pool and spa software with inventory and pricing integration features help you streamline operations and gain a competitive advantage through real-time access to key pricing and purchase information. Being the first to get orders into vendors ensures you have the products your customers want, before your competitors. Additionally, integrating with vendors allows pool and spa businesses to automate essential tasks such as:

• Search real-time item availability at the vendor
• Update cost on existing inventory items & identify discontinued items
• Import new inventory items
• Submit purchase orders & identify backordered items
• Download AP invoices & reconcile line items to invoices

If your staff needs to flip through manufacturer catalogs and price lists to get to the products they want to sell—your company won’t survive in today’s fiercely competitive market. The right integrated pool and spa business software package will be set up to specifically help specialty retail stores figure out what products sell and save managers time, so they can focus on expanding their business and finding new business opportunities.

Pool and spa retail maintenance software is central to the success of any pool and spa business. The right business software can provide the tools and information needed to remain profitable and retain market share. Ask the tough question: What is the cost of doing nothing? What is it costing your business to operate with manual or semi-manual systems (like pen and paper) that are cumbersome and inefficient? The off-season is the ideal time to evaluate and implement a new software solution.

Manual or semi-manual systems also make it difficult to react quickly to market opportunities. This was especially evident when the pandemic led customers to stock-up on chemicals to minimize their visits to pool and spa stores this summer. Whether these opportunities come from changes in the marketplace (e.g. pandemic or competitor that goes out of business or an algae outbreak) or from slow-moving inventory — having easily accessible, up to the minute information is key to capitalizing on these opportunities. Having pool and spa software that is fully integrated with all your vendors and distributors is key to capitalizing on these opportunities. For example, having up to the minute inventory data allows you to quickly react to market changes or to be able to set up a sale to sell slow moving items.

It’s not uncommon to hear of pool and spa professionals that still use Excel spreadsheets and enter data by hand. However spreadsheets can be very time consuming and make things harder than they need to be. In addition to the fact that performing repetitive tasks and applying formulas, make unintentional errors commonplace. Just think of how a single transposed number can wreak havoc on such a spreadsheet, causing hours of extra work — hours you can’t afford during the busy summer months. The worst part of spreadsheets is that the information is not up to the minute, making it hard for managers to make smart business decisions like being able to reduce inventory or locate a part on a service truck to quickly sell to a customer.

Because you pay your employees by the hour, the real question becomes: What is the opportunity cost of having them spend time doing hand-written invoices or manual inventory tracking? Rather than having an employee spend 30 minutes of every hour with manual systems, they could spend 30 minutes helping customers, selling more products and building customer loyalty. Rather than paying them to do manual tasks, pay them to generate revenue! Time-consuming tasks during the busy summer season invariably lead to lost sales opportunities.

This winter, ditch the manual ‘warranty log’ for claims with manufacturers and implement a flawless system to track manufacturer warranty claims. Additionally, get an integrated pool and spa software program that allows users to easily search inventory by department, category, vendor or description or a combination of these. Now is the time to automate your warranty tracking, integrate with industry vendors, and sustain this summer’s growth well into 2021.