Stone crusher software: a 12-point checklist before you buy

Every stone crusher software looks good in a demo. The salesperson enters a lorry, prints a slip, raises an invoice — done in two minutes on a quiet laptop. The real test comes at your gate at 7 a.m., with a queue of tippers, a weighbridge operator who has been on shift since 5, and a contractor on the phone asking why yesterday's bill shows the wrong rate.

This checklist is what we ask crusher owners to check before choosing any system — ours or anyone else's. Take it into every demo.

1. Does the weight come straight from the weighbridge?

If the operator types the weight, the software has not removed your biggest leak — it has only digitised it. Ask the vendor to show weight being read directly from an indicator like yours, with gross, tare and net locked to the trip once captured. Confirm they support your indicator model (most electronic indicators with serial or USB output can be connected).

2. Is every load tied to one trip record?

The weighment, the dispatch slip, the transit pass, the invoice and the e-way bill should all be the same record, not five documents that someone reconciles later. When they are one record, a load that was weighed but not billed shows up as an exception instead of disappearing.

3. Does it track transit passes and their balance?

Each load should carry its transit pass or permit number, the remaining balance should be visible live, and there should be a report comparing passes used against tonnage dispatched. Running out of passes mid-day, or dispatching more than the passes cover, are both avoidable.

4. Can it handle all your product sizes and rates?

6 mm, 12 mm, 20 mm and 40 mm jalli, wet mix, dust, M-sand, P-sand — each with its own rate per tonne or per unit, plus customer-specific rates for regular contractors. If the vendor has to customise this, the product was not built for crushers.

5. Does it get GST right — including inter-state sales?

The system should pick CGST and SGST or IGST from the buyer's GSTIN and state, and generate the matching e-way bill. This matters most for plants near state borders that sell to buyers in Kerala, Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh.

6. Will it show yield — boulder in versus product out?

Yield by size against boulder consumed is the number that tells you whether a jaw plate is worn or whether material is leaving without a weighment. Ask to see a yield report, and ask how production entries are made.

7. Does it control credit before loading?

Contractors buying on credit are where crusher cash flow gets stuck. The weighbridge operator should be warned when a customer is over their credit limit or overdue — before the lorry is loaded, not after.

8. Does it work when the internet does not?

Many crushers are outside town with unreliable connectivity. An on-premise installation on a plant PC keeps weighing and billing running offline; e-way bills can be generated when the connection returns. If the system is cloud-only, ask what happens during an outage.

9. Does it separate sales from internal transfers?

If you also run road projects or an RMC plant, material sent to your own sites is not a sale. The software should record transfers separately, so project cost and crusher profit are both accurate.

10. What does the owner see without calling the plant?

A daily summary of tonnage by size, cash, credit, passes used and stock, on mobile. If the owner still has to phone the plant to know the day's numbers, the system is only half done.

11. Who installs it, and in which language?

Your weighbridge operator and accountant need training in the language they work in. Ask who visits the plant, how long training takes, and how data moves from your registers or Tally.

12. What happens after go-live?

A crusher cannot wait two days for a support ticket. Ask about phone and remote support hours, on-site visits, and AMC terms. The best test: ask to speak to the team that will support you, not just the team that sold to you.

How Quarry360 answers this checklist

Quarry360, the TechSlideITS stone crusher and quarry management software, was built around these questions: weights captured from the indicator, one trip record from weighment to e-way bill, live transit pass balance, size-wise stock and yield, credit checks before loading, offline operation on a plant PC, and training in Tamil, English, Hindi, Telugu or Malayalam. See the stone crusher software page for details, or read how it works for plants in Salem, Coimbatore and Bengaluru.

Whatever you choose, take this checklist into the demo and ask the vendor to show — not tell — each point.