Accurate warranty tracking can save your commercial cleaning company time and money. Here’s how to make it happen.
Many of us look at the warranty when we buy things, whether related to business or not. How long is the warranty on those car tires we just purchased? Which oven has a longer warranty? And even though the warranty factors into our purchase decisions, there probably aren’t many of us that have a good warranty tracking system.
The outlook might be slightly better for the cleaning equipment we purchase for our commercial cleaning companies. Still, how often do we panic when something breaks, and we need a potentially expensive repair?
Suddenly, we’re rummaging through files and papers, looking at receipts to find the purchase date, and hoping we kept the warranty information somewhere. There is a way to make things simple, though. And given how much some cleaning equipment can cost, it makes sense to get your own warranty tracking system up and running.
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It’s more than a convenience
The first thing you might ask is why you should worry about warranty tracking. It’s relatively easy, in many cases, to look up warranties online. And you can usually find your purchase date in your business bank account statements. For that matter, if you purchase directly from a company, many will keep information, such as your purchase date.
Certainly, it’s convenient to track your warranties. Then you don’t need to rely on the records that someone else keeps. Nor do you need to match up your bank statements, purchase prices, and digital warranty statements. But the reasons for warranty tracking go well beyond convenience.
To begin with, a lot of your commercial cleaning equipment likely came through a distributor. And there’s no guarantee that any particular distributor will still be in business a few years down the road. Businesses shut down, or get bought and sold often, and records can easily get lost in the shuffle. Similarly, just because you work with a distributor now doesn’t mean you won’t switch later on.
Warranties can also change over time. So, the warranty you have today might be more extensive than a warranty that comes out next year. If that happens, you’ll want to have a record of what your warranty covers. Don’t leave room for confusion.
Lastly, equipment repairs can be expensive. With accurate warranty tracking, you can examine your cleaning equipment closely a month or so before any warranty expires. That should allow you to catch less obvious signs of damage or breakdown that might be covered before your warranty expires.
3 Ideas for cleaning equipment warranty tracking that work
Of course, it’s one thing to know you need to put a warranty tracking solution into place. It’s another to find one that works for you. Here are several ideas that can help.
1. Warranty Keeper: Warranty Keeper is a simple app that does what it’s designed to do. You can easily add items and receipts, as well as set alerts so you know when a warranty is about to expire. The default alert is for one month, but you can alter that to your desired time. One potential drawback is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to add multiple warranties for a single item. For example, if a warranty is split between labor and parts, you can only enter one of the expiration dates.
2. Expired: Expired is a free app (or upgrade to the Pro version for a nominal fee) for personal or business warranty tracking. This tracking app allows you to organize products into different categories, add images of items and receipts, and you can track complicated warranties such as extended warranties or those that have different expiration dates for parts, labor, etc.
3. Any.Warranty: Any.Warranty is a full-service warranty tracking app currently only available for iOS. This paid app features the ability to upload and edit photos, organize your warranties by categories, include comments, and, as expected, you can receive alerts when the warranty expiration date nears. One nice feature of this app is that it has built-in cloud backup to Dropbox. You can also send your warranty information through email, making this app particularly user-friendly.
These aren’t the only tracking apps available, but there is enough to try here that you can hopefully find something that works well for you without a big commitment. At the very least, if you try these out, you can hone in on what you need from a warranty tracking app.
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