A two group machine somewhere in town
Three years ago you put a two group espresso machine and a grinder into a new café as part of the wholesale deal. The café has since changed hands. Is the machine still yours? What serial number was it? When did an engineer last visit? Is the café still buying the volume of coffee the loan was based on?
The answers are spread across a signed agreement in a drawer, an engineer's invoices in the accounts, and the memory of whoever set the account up. Multiply by every café with your kit on the counter and it adds up to a lot of equipment you cannot quite see.
Loaned kit sits outside every system
Your stock system tracks coffee. Your accounts track money. Loaned equipment is neither stock you sell nor a simple asset in your office, so it falls between them. Service visits are booked by phone with an engineer and recorded on their invoice, not against the machine.
- Serial numbers and locations are not held in one place.
- Loan agreements, including minimum volumes, are paper documents.
- Service history sits on engineer invoices, not on the machine record.
- Water filter changes and routine maintenance are remembered, or not.
- Changes of café ownership are discovered late.
When you cannot see your equipment
A machine that is not serviced breaks down on a Saturday, and the café calls you in a panic because it is your machine. A café buying far less coffee than the loan assumed is costing you more than it earns, and nobody notices for months. Machines come back from closed cafés missing parts, or do not come back at all. And the value tied up in kit in other people's premises is hard to judge without a list.
The equipment register we build
- Each machine and grinder gets a record: make, model, serial number, purchase date and a photo, plus a QR label on the machine itself.
- Each record is linked to the café account where it sits, with the loan agreement attached and its key terms, such as minimum monthly volume, held as fields.
- Service visits, repairs and water filter changes are logged against the machine. Your engineer can scan the QR code and add a note and photo from their phone.
- Routine service and filter reminders are generated from dates you set, and sent to whoever books the engineer.
- The café's actual coffee volume, from your orders, is compared with the volume in the loan terms, and accounts well below it are flagged for review.
- When a café closes or changes owner, the register shows every item to collect and its condition at last visit.
| Question | Answer today | With the register |
|---|---|---|
| Where is this machine? | Ask around | Linked to a café account |
| When was it last serviced? | Search engineer invoices | Visit history on the record |
| Is the café buying enough coffee? | Rarely checked | Volume compared with loan terms |
| What do we collect if they close? | Find the agreement | Item list with photos |
Seeing your kit clearly
The register turns loaned equipment into something you manage rather than something you remember. Engineers arrive knowing the history. Filter changes happen on time. The review of each wholesale account includes its equipment and whether the volume still justifies it, which is a much easier conversation with numbers in front of both sides. What you decide to do about a low volume account remains your call.
Does this describe your wholesale kit?
- You could not list every loaned machine and where it is right now.
- Service history is found on engineer invoices.
- Loan agreements with minimum volumes are on paper.
- Some cafés with your equipment buy much less than expected.
- A machine has come back damaged or not at all.