Construction & earthmoving
Construction equipment dealer software for sales, hire and service
Sell it or hire it, then keep it running — MDMS manages earthmoving machines and their attachments through sale, wet and dry hire, damage recovery on return and machine-hour servicing.
- Attachments too — Serials tracked and fitted per machine
- On hire return — Damage assessed, priced and invoiced
- By machine hours — Service due the moment a unit clocks over
Who this is for
Earthmoving and construction equipment dealerships selling and hiring plant
Dealers running outright sales alongside a wet and dry hire fleet
Plant workshops servicing excavators, loaders, dozers and telehandlers
Branches tracking attachments and machines through sale, hire and service
Your words, mapped to MDMS
The way this industry talks about the job, and exactly what runs it in MDMS.
| What you call it | What runs it in MDMS | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Machines on the yard for sale | serialised equipment_units + CPQ quotes and sales orders | Each excavator or loader is a serial-tracked unit; a configured quote converts to a sales order and delivery. |
| Buckets, augers and rippers | equipment_attachments register (own serial, fitted or detached) | Attachments carry their own serial and can be fitted to a machine or returned to stock — a register, not a serialised sub-unit tree. |
| Wet hire versus dry hire | rental_contracts on hourly, daily or weekly hire_rates | MDMS manages the machine hire, rates and billing; supplying and rostering the operator for wet hire stays with your team. |
| Service every 500 machine hours | pm_schedules (hour or calendar trigger) + get_pm_due_units | Set the interval per machine type and MDMS lists the units that have clocked over and raises the job. |
| The prestart book | wo_checklist_templates recorded on a work order | You can build a checklist named 'Prestart' and record it on a service job — there is no separate operator daily pre-start log. |
| It came back off hire damaged | the return wizard writing rental_inspections + a damage charge | A guided return captures condition, photos and per-item damage cost, reconciles the deposit and invoices the damage. |
| Machine hours off the clock | equipment_hour_readings → equipment_units.hour_meter (manual) | Hours are entered by hand and drive the service-due calc; readings also come in automatically from a hire return. |
The problems that cost you
A high-value machine is only worth its history
An excavator's resale and warranty position depend on a complete record — serial, configuration, every service, every hour reading. When that history is scattered across job cards, a workshop diary and someone's memory, a trade-in gets under-valued, a warranty gets knocked back, and a buyer walks because you cannot prove how the machine was looked after.
Attachments wander and nobody can find them
Buckets, augers, breakers and rippers move between machines, jobs and hire customers constantly, and each one is an asset worth chasing. Without a register that records which attachment carries which serial and where it is fitted right now, they get lost on sites, billed to no one, and quietly written off as the cost of doing business.
Hire returns come back damaged and you eat it
A machine goes out clean and comes back with a cracked screen, a bent ripper or a blown hose, and unless someone assessed it properly at return with photos and costs, the repair lands on your workshop instead of the customer. Done informally on a clipboard, damage recovery leaks money every time a unit comes off hire.
Service by machine hours slips when work is hot
Plant earns when it is working, so a due service is easy to push — until a skipped interval turns into a failure on a customer's site. Without a system that watches the hour meter on every unit and puts the due and overdue machines in front of a coordinator, the schedule runs on memory and the expensive breakdowns arrive without warning.
How it runs, end to end
- 1
Quote, then sell or hire the machine
Configure and quote a machine for outright sale, or put the same serialised unit out on a wet or dry hire contract with the right rate — the unit record carries both paths without duplicate data.
- 2
Track the attachments with it
Register buckets, augers and rippers with their own serials and record which machine each is fitted to, so an attachment can be moved, hired or serviced without being lost between sites and jobs.
- 3
Bring it back off hire cleanly
The guided return wizard captures return condition, fuel, hours and itemised damage with photos, reconciles the deposit, and raises a damage-charge invoice so recovery stops leaking on every off-hire.
- 4
Service it on machine hours
Preventive-maintenance schedules trigger on machine hours or the calendar and build a due and overdue list, turning any due unit into a work order with its checklist so intervals stop slipping when work is hot.
- 5
Do the workshop job end to end
A work order captures labour, parts issued from the warehouse and the checklist result, then converts to a draft invoice on completion — with the service written straight onto the machine's history.
- 6
Keep the record for the next deal
Every hire, service, damage assessment and hour reading stays on the unit, so the next valuation, warranty claim or used-machine sale starts from a complete and defensible history.
What does the work
Sell and hire the same fleet
Put a serialised machine out on hourly, daily or weekly hire with rate cards and recurring billing, or sell it outright — one unit record, both revenue paths.
Recover damage on every return
A guided off-hire inspection captures condition and itemised damage with photos, reconciles the deposit and raises the damage-charge invoice automatically.
Service on the hour meter
Schedule preventive maintenance by machine hours or calendar per machine type, and let MDMS surface the due and overdue units and raise the jobs.
The modules that matter here
Buy only what you use. These are the MDMS modules this industry leans on most.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best construction equipment dealer software in Australia?
- MDMS runs the full lifecycle for Australian earthmoving and construction equipment dealers: configured sales, wet and dry hire on the same fleet, attachment tracking, machine-hours preventive maintenance, guided off-hire damage recovery, and parts and warranty. Every invoice is a compliant Australian tax invoice and payments sync to Xero.
- Can MDMS handle both machine sales and hire on the same fleet?
- Yes. A serialised machine can be sold outright through a configured quote and sales order, or put out on an hourly, daily or weekly hire contract with rate cards and recurring billing — using the same unit record. A live availability calendar prevents double-booking, so the sales and hire sides of the yard share one source of truth.
- How does MDMS track attachments like buckets and augers?
- Attachments are held in a register where each carries its own serial number, cost and value, and records which machine it is currently fitted to, with a detach-to-stock action when it comes off. It is a practical attachments register rather than a multi-level tree of serialised sub-machines, which covers what a plant business actually needs day to day.
- Does MDMS handle damage recovery on hire returns?
- Yes. The return wizard walks staff through a structured off-hire inspection — return condition, fuel, hour meter, and itemised damage with severity, repair cost and photos — then reconciles the deposit and raises a damage-charge invoice automatically. It also captures the closing hour reading against the machine so its service schedule stays current.
- Does MDMS schedule service by machine hours?
- Yes. Preventive-maintenance schedules trigger on machine hours, on the calendar, or both, per machine type, with an inspection checklist attached. As hour readings come in from services and hire returns, MDMS builds a due and overdue list and turns any due unit into a work order with the checklist pre-loaded, so intervals stop slipping.
- Does MDMS record operator pre-start inspections?
- Partly, and it is worth being precise. You can build a checklist template named 'Prestart' and record it against a service work order, and off-hire returns capture a full condition inspection. MDMS does not provide a separate operator daily pre-start log or an operator sign-off app — inspection records are captured on work orders and on returns by your staff.
Ready to try construction equipment dealer software?
Start a 14-day free trial — no credit card, no implementation fee, no sales call required. Or book a personalised demo with our team to see your workflow in MDMS.
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