ERP for capital goods. Sell the machine, then earn on the AMC for a decade.
Sell the machine, then earn on the AMC (annual maintenance contract) for a decade, with every serial number, warranty and renewal on one record.
From early 2027How does Kinnow help a UK capital-goods company? The machine you ship becomes a record you service for years: its serial number, warranty, AMC and service tickets sit together, so every call knows what the customer is entitled to and every renewal is chased before it lapses. Nothing is filed, paid or posted without a person.
Your business in one paragraph
You sell a machine once and service it for a decade. The sale is a long quote, a large invoice and a delivery to site; the margin is in what follows: the AMC, the spares, the callouts. The risk is that the installed base lives in a spreadsheet, the warranty with the manufacturer lives in a file, and the engineer leaves without the part. Three things keep the owner awake.
Renewals missed in silence
An AMC that lapses is a customer who stopped being a customer without anyone deciding it.
Warranty cost absorbed
A breakdown fixed at your cost on a machine the manufacturer still covers is a claim nobody filed.
Repeat visits
An engineer sent without the right part, or to a customer who is out of cover, is a callout that earns nothing.
Bring your installed-base spreadsheet and see which renewals are due in the next 90 days.
How your month runs on Kinnow
This is the path from enquiry to AMC, then the servicing that earns money on it.
| # | Step | Who | Application | Where a person signs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The enquiry enters the sales pipeline; a quotation for the machine as configured is drafted | Sales engineer | Sell | Quotation approved before it goes out |
| 2 | Order won; the credit check can hold it; large orders go for approval | Sales director, credit controller | Sell | An order and a credit limit above values you set need approval |
| 3 | Long-lead parts and the machine are bought against the build plan | Procurement officer | Buy | A purchase order above a value you set needs approval |
| 4 | The landed cost of imported items (freight, customs, clearing) is added to stock value | Accounts executive | Buy, Account | A journal above a value you set needs approval |
| 5 | Machine dispatched; each serial number is added to the customer's installed base (the machines you have in the field) | Dispatch clerk | Stock & Ship, Serve | Warranty end date entered by a person |
| 6 | The AMC is created and tracked: draft, active, expiring, renewed or expired | Service manager | Serve, Pact | Contract terms confirmed by a person |
| 7 | A ticket opens with an SLA plan (the service promise you gave the customer); Kinnow works out what the customer is entitled to: warranty, AMC, chargeable or unknown | Service desk | Serve | A ticket cannot be raised without an SLA plan |
| 8 | Kinnow suggests an engineer and parts; the visit is then scheduled, under way, on site and completed | Service coordinator, engineer | Serve, Field | Coordinator accepts the suggestion |
| 9 | The visit completes with parts, labour and a billable flag; spares come off stock; a billable job goes onto the customer's account | Engineer, accounts | Serve, Account | Billing reviewed by accounts |
| 10 | The renewal conversation opens at 60, 30 and 7 days before the AMC ends; warranty claims and calibration due dates are chased | Sales manager, service manager | Serve, Maintain | Renewal terms signed by a person |
What the industry setup includes
The ready-made setup for capital goods (we call it an industry pack) has 6 safeguards, 4 lists of who signs off, in order, 9 reports, 11 starter questions for Ask Kinnow, 10 agents and 20 ready-made routines. For the United Kingdom it is completed with early-access customers, so the limits below are set with you, not preset.
| Safeguard | Effect | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Customer credit limit above a value you set | Needs approval | One order is one large invoice, not a stream of small ones |
| Sales order above a value you set | Needs approval | One unit can be a quarter's revenue, with a commissioning and warranty commitment |
| Purchase order above a value you set | Needs approval | Stock is a machine, not something you reorder every week |
| Journal above a value you set | Needs approval | Landed cost on imports is booked as a journal, not an invoice |
| Service ticket with no SLA plan | Blocked | No plan means no clock, so the promise can never be missed |
| Non-billable service work order | Warning | Service work that is never billed eats into margin without showing as a loss |
The ready-made routines include Enquiry to AMC, Buying long-lead parts, Site visit to sign-off and Customer return to credit.
What the UK country setup adds
A separate United Kingdom setup carries the VAT controls. Its sign-off steps cover VAT returns, VAT invoices, payroll runs, journals, write-offs and purchase orders.
| Control | What happens | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| VAT return | Sign-off by a named person before the return is filed | Kinnow prepares the working and a person files the return |
| Large VAT invoice | Read before it is raised; a credit note puts it right | A wrong invoice is corrected openly, on the record |
| Manual journal | A second person signs | Making Tax Digital (MTD) expects an unbroken digital trail |
| Write-off | Review, with the VAT bad-debt relief deadline shown | A write-off can carry a VAT consequence |
| Purchase order | Review where the construction reverse charge may apply | Such an invoice carries no VAT |
Processes, built in
The 20 good-practice processes for your industry come switched on, each printable as a step-by-step procedure.
Ask us to build one customer's machine, warranty and AMC record from your own papers.
Agents for Capital Goods
AMC Renewal
Prepares a renewal suggestion for each of your AMC (annual maintenance contract) customers, using the same renewal routine as lease renewals.
Contract Renewal Watch
Warns at 60, 30 and 7 days before an AMC ends and notes which warning has gone out, so the reminder does not repeat every morning.
Warranty recovery
Lists breakdowns fixed at your cost on machines a manufacturer still covers. It lists candidates and drafts nothing; a person reads the terms.
Job Dispatcher
Suggests the best engineer for a ticket from skills, area and current workload.
Technician Scheduler
Proposes a fair split of unassigned visits across the engineers available.
Parts Recommender
Suggests the spares a visit is likely to need, from the type of job and the machine being serviced.
SLA Alert
Flags tickets at risk of missing their response or fix time.
Quote Writer
Drafts a quotation or sales order from an enquiry written in everyday words, or from a customer's purchase order (PO) document.
Each agent is validated with each client before it works on their books, and every output waits for a person. A calibration watch in Maintain also separates instruments that are overdue from those due soon.
Tax and compliance calendar for a UK capital-goods company
Kinnow prepares; a person confirms and files. The UK has no rule requiring invoices to be cleared by the tax authority first; Making Tax Digital (MTD) expects digital records, which Kinnow keeps.
| Obligation | What Kinnow prepares | Who confirms |
|---|---|---|
| VAT return (VAT100, the nine-box return) | The groundwork for a nine-box document and a file, built from sales and purchase records, is completed before launch. Boxes 2, 8 and 9 apply to Northern Ireland only. A person files it through recognised software or HMRC; your adviser confirms each box before first use | Finance manager, adviser |
| VAT filing calendar | Follows your HMRC stagger group (the quarter pattern HMRC gave you), which you set up; Kinnow does not guess it. Monthly filers are supported. Due one calendar month and seven days after the period end | Finance manager |
| VAT on large machine invoices | Checks the VAT number (with its check digit), date, running number, customer name, VAT in sterling and tax point. Cross-border business supplies to a customer outside Great Britain are reverse charged | Accounts executive |
| Import cost of parts and machines | Landed-cost vouchers add freight, insurance, customs, clearing and loading to the stock value, shared out by value, quantity, weight or volume. Customs declarations are not handled | Accounts executive |
| Calibration certificates for instruments in your asset register | A list of what is due, from the latest certificate for each instrument; a reading outside tolerance is recorded as failed | Service manager |
| PAYE (tax taken from pay each month), National Insurance, pension and student loan | Worked out in the pay run on an annual basis, so a mid-year joiner can differ from HMRC's running total method. Rates are kept for each tax year | HR head, adviser |
| Companies House confirmation statement, annual accounts, corporation tax return and ICO fee | Tracked as dated reminders; your adviser confirms each date. Kinnow does not prepare the return or the accounts | Finance director, adviser |
See which of your machines are out of cover today, and what a VAT return looks like on your numbers.
What the owner can ask
Questions that come with the industry setup, typed into Ask Kinnow. Each answer names its source report and what it will cost before it runs.
- Which service contracts are up for renewal in the next 90 days? Which units come out of warranty this quarter? (AMC contract list)
- How many service calls are still open past their SLA? (Service ticket list)
- Which customers are over their credit limit? Which receivables are more than 90 days old? (Customer balances by age)
- Which orders are booked but not yet despatched? (Pending sales orders)
- Which spares have sat unsold the longest? What is our spares stock worth? (Dead stock, stock valuation)
- Which site visits are still unassigned to an engineer? (Unserved site-visit demands)
- When is my next VAT return due? What VAT did I charge this quarter? (VAT filing calendar, VAT rate summary)
Illustration · sample data
| Contract · machine | Status | Ends | In |
|---|---|---|---|
| AMC-000214 · Hydraulic press, Leeds | Expiring | 21/11/2026 | 38 days |
| AMC-000187 · CNC lathe, Coventry | Active | 14/05/2027 | 212 days |
| AMC-000169 · Compressor, Bristol | Expiring | 26/10/2026 | 12 days |
Numbers that matter
| Number | Report | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts due for renewal and units leaving warranty | AMC contract list | Where recurring revenue is at risk |
| Tickets open past their SLA | Service ticket list | Whether service is keeping its promise to customers |
| Customer balances over 90 days | Customer balances by age | Whether large invoices are being collected |
| Orders booked, not despatched | Pending sales orders | Sales waiting on a lorry |
| Spares stock value and dead spares | Stock valuation, dead stock | Money tied up in parts that do not move |
Applications switched on
| Generic term | In your Kinnow |
|---|---|
| customer equipment | installed base |
| service contract | AMC |
| site visit | work order / visit |
| manufacturer claim | warranty claim |
Questions
Does an equipment sale create the AMC automatically?
Not on its own. When a machine with a serial number is dispatched, each serial number is added to the customer's installed base. You enter the warranty end date, because the dispatch does not carry the commercial terms, and a person creates the AMC from the contract. Once an AMC is active, Kinnow watches the renewal from its end date.
What does the installed base do for a service call?
Every ticket works out what the customer is entitled to: under warranty, under AMC, chargeable, or unknown. Unknown is never billed. If a machine has no warranty date and no contract, Kinnow asks for the date instead of guessing.
Can Kinnow recover warranty costs from manufacturers?
It finds the likely claims and tracks them. A warranty list holds each manufacturer warranty, each claim is followed through to settlement, and the Warranty recovery agent lists breakdowns fixed at your cost on machines a manufacturer still covers. It matches on dates; a person reads the warranty terms before a claim goes out.
Do engineers get a mobile app?
Dispatch, scheduling and visit records run in the browser, and that works in the phone browser. There is no separate app and no offline mode.
Can we bill service work?
When a billable service work order is completed, the amount goes onto the customer's account as service revenue. Service work recorded as non-billable raises a warning, so unbilled work does not quietly eat margin.
Who approves a large order?
Kinnow asks for approval on a sales order, a customer credit limit and a purchase order above values you set with us. Nothing is preset for the United Kingdom; the values are agreed during set-up.
Does Kinnow file my VAT return with HMRC?
No. The groundwork to prepare the nine-box VAT return and a file from your own sales and purchase records is completed before launch, and a person files it through recognised software or HMRC. Kinnow does not submit to HMRC. Your adviser confirms each box before first use.
How long to set up?
About two weeks to first results for one company. Your installed base is imported in the first week so renewals are watched from day one.
Show me Kinnow for capital goods.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.