Warranty claims with serial numbers and photos
How the Manufacturing pack gathers photos, serial numbers and proof of purchase for a claim, and a person decides to repair, replace, credit or reject.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Manufacturing businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
The call usually starts with "it just stopped working". A dealer's customer has a failed pump, a cracked housing or a motor that burnt out, and wants it fixed or replaced under warranty. The dealer wants an answer today. The factory's service manager wants to know when it was bought, whether it is really one of theirs, and whether it failed or was misused. Without those facts, the decision becomes a matter of who argues hardest.
A warranty process exists to replace that argument with evidence. The Manufacturing & distribution pack in Achekam's Industry CRM gathers the evidence first and leaves the decision to a person. This article walks through it.
Warranty claims are their own record
The pack keeps Warranty claims as a record type alongside Dealer accounts and Quote requests, and each claim carries serial numbers. A serial number is what ties a failed unit to a specific product the business made and sold. Without it, the claim is about "a pump"; with it, the claim is about this pump, from this batch, sold on this invoice.
Step one: ask for the evidence
The warranty workflow begins by sending the dealer or end customer a request for three things:
- photographs of the product and the fault;
- the serial numbers of the units concerned; and
- proof of purchase.
When the customer answers, the task moves on. Until they do, the claim does not move forward, so nobody mistakes a claim with missing photographs for one that is ready to decide, and no service manager has to remember whether the photographs ever arrived.
Tell dealers what good evidence looks like. A photograph of the serial plate, a wide shot showing how the unit was installed, and a close-up of the fault answer most questions before anyone has to ask them.
Step two: check the claim against the warranty
Next, the workflow has the claim checked against the warranty. In practice the checker compares the evidence with the terms the product was sold under:
- Is it within the warranty period? Compare the proof of purchase date with the period for that product.
- Is it ours? Confirm the serial number belongs to a unit the business supplied.
- Is the fault covered? Look at the photographs against the warranty's exclusions, such as damage in transit, incorrect installation or use outside the product's rating.
- Was it installed and used as specified? Where the warranty depends on approved installation, check that it was.
The tasks behind each step can be broken down where it helps. Tasks in the Industry CRM can have subtasks up to three levels deep, so a claim covering several units can carry one subtask per serial number.
Step three: a person decides
When the checks are done, a person decides on one of four outcomes. The pack approves no warranty claim automatically.
| Decision | What usually follows |
|---|---|
| Repair | The unit is repaired at the business's cost and returned |
| Replace | A new unit is supplied and the failed one is returned for inspection |
| Credit | A credit note is issued against the original invoice |
| Reject | The dealer receives the reasons in writing, with the evidence relied on |
For a credit, Achekam issues the credit note from the invoice it corrects, in full or for the lines you choose, posts it to the ledger and lets you download or e-mail it as a PDF. Any credit left over is held for the customer. There is no credit note without an invoice, which is another reason proof of purchase matters: it is what points you at the right invoice.
A rejection is where a written reason matters most. "Not covered" invites an argument. "The photographs show impact damage to the housing, which the warranty excludes" ends one. Investopedia's guide to warranties explains express and implied warranties, why claims are denied and how warranty disputes are resolved.
Why the decision stays with a person
Warranty decisions involve judgement that no workflow should take on its own: whether a borderline case deserves goodwill, how valuable the dealer relationship is, whether a pattern of failures points to a manufacturing fault that the business should own rather than argue about. The pack's role is to make sure the person deciding has the evidence in front of them and that the decision is recorded. The pack has no configuration rules, sets no prices and runs no automatic approvals; the people responsible make the calls.
Keeping the claim history with the dealer
Because claims sit alongside the dealer's account, their history becomes useful information:
- Several claims for units from the same production period point to a quality question for the factory, not a dealer problem.
- Repeated claims from one dealer for installation faults suggest that dealer's fitters need training.
- A dealer who never claims may be absorbing small failures; ask them.
Review the claims list with production and sales together every few months. Some problems trace back to how a product was specified at quote stage, so the signed configured lines described in quoting configured products and confirming orders are worth having to hand. And when a repair falls outside warranty, it becomes paid service work, invoiced like any other job.
Before the next claim arrives
Write down your warranty terms per product in plain language, share the evidence checklist with every dealer, and name who decides claims and who may approve goodwill. A claim handled with evidence and a written reason protects the business and, more often than not, keeps the dealer.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
