Retail equipment tracking system for points of sale

Fridges, shelving units and branded stands are an asset the company buys with its own money but keeps outside its own premises: in someone else's points of sale, under the responsibility of different managers and distributors. Tracking was done in Excel — everyone with their own file and their own version of the truth.

What that led to:

• nobody could say where a particular unit actually stood or what condition it was in;
• moves were not recorded — equipment "disappeared" between managers and turned up only at stocktake;
• repairs lived a paper life: statements filed separately, invoices separately, the history in the head of whoever was responsible;
• there was no answer to "how much have we already put into this fridge";
• a stocktake meant driving out and reconciling by hand against lists, while the manager could not see territory coverage.

In other words, the company owned an asset it did not actually manage.

We built a system in which every unit has its own card with a history running from purchase to write-off — not a stock balance table, but a chronicle of the equipment's life.

• Full history of every unit
• Repairs and maintenance costs
• Moves and accountability
• QR codes and stocktaking from a phone
• Equipment map
• Manager visits
• Territory navigation and analytics

• Tracking left Excel: one database instead of a file per manager.
• The full life history of every unit: placement, moves, repairs, cost, documents — equipment does not go missing.
• Repair costs are visible per unit, per type and per period: "repair or replace" became a calculation rather than a hunch.
• Stocktaking is carried out from a phone by scanning a QR code.
• The manager sees territory coverage on a map and plans purchases against the facts.
• Field work by managers is confirmed with geolocation and photos, and reporting takes two clicks.

For the client this is not an accounting program but control over an asset that physically sits outside the company.